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All images courtesy of Landmarks Live
Kiss celebrated 2020 in style at Dubai’s Atlantis, The Palm in what turned out to be one of the biggest concerts of the year OVER 12 YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE ATLANTIS, THE Palm hosted a Kylie Minogue concert officially opening the iconic hotel climaxing with a huge pyrotechnic display. It was almost a symbolic finale that the good times were over as the 2008 financial crisis that followed stunted the economy of Dubai for several years afterwards. Since then, increasingly elaborate live events were abruptly halted in March 2020 as the global pandemic rapidly spread throughout the globe. Nine months of stagnation followed before the very same venue ambitiously pulled off the biggest concert of 2020 on New Year’s Eve. In doing so, it has provided the live sound community around the world a much-needed belief that 2021 will see a resumption of major events. Legendary US rock band Kiss were performing a concert in California as part of their Farewell Tour in March 2020 before the pandemic stopped them in their tracks. Little could they imagine at that point that they would be performing their biggest concert to date before the end of the year in a country they had never visited, let alone performed in. Kiss would see off 2020 in style, playing live to guests staying at the resort from the comfort of their own room box suites. Guitarist Paul Stanley donned his trademark eightinch platform boots for the concert, performing alongside Peter Criss (drums), Ace Frehley (lead guitar) and Gene Simmons (bass) on a specially built 25m-high stage located on the Royal Beach. Conceptualised over a six-month period, the first hybrid event of its kind in Dubai took on vertigo-inducing logistics for livestreaming to a huge worldwide audience. Promoted as the season premiere for the Landmarks Live in Concert series, the performance was filmed with more than 50 4K cameras offering 360° views that would capture the largest production in the history of Kiss. It was made possible by a man who knows no limitations in realising ambitions. “I’ve become the go-to guy for hosting utterly ridiculous shows,” laughs City Drive Studios creator, director and executive producer, Daniel E Catullo. “In terms of production scale, it turned out to be the biggest concert
of 2020, anywhere in the world with a little over 1,000 people working over an eight-week period at the height of it.” Prior to the pandemic, City Drive Studios was making a critical impression with the Landmarks Live in Concert series featuring Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon and Alicia Keys playing live in iconic locations such as the Acropolis, Palazzo Vecchio, Grand Central Terminal, Graceland and Statue of Liberty. Standing backstage at a Kiss concert in Oakland on 6 March 2020, Catullo watched in awe as the severity of Covid-19 started to shut down his world. “Back then, the mass cancellations were like watching dominoes falling,” recalls Catullo. “I spent weeks trying to work out how to create live streaming events at a time when living room concerts were being broadcast and Elton John was performing out on his driveway. These little shows were fun, but I was desperately trying to find a way to create a big production again.” Unfortunately, the production schedule of an ambitious second season of Landmarks Live in Concert in China and Brazil was cancelled. Having then investigated and set up 10 Landmarks Live shows in Australia, a full-scale lockdown ceased his ambitions down under. “At that point, I became a research junkie spending the summer working night and day to try to figure out if it was possible to perform large-scale concerts. The overriding concern was keeping crews safe, so I consulted with doctors from the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins and New York’s Columbia Presbyterian.” Following the cancellation of the End of the Road Tour back in March 2020, Catullo was approached by the Kiss management about staging a one-off show in the future. The compass pointed eastwards. “Following the disappointment of the Australian lockdown, a friend of mine suggested that I look at Dubai. I watched a video promoting the Emirate as being open for business and was so impressed that I caught a flight to Dubai in early September to see if we could create the series there. Although Kiss had never performed a show in Dubai, their manager Doc
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