Heavy metal icons to play in Dubai

Motorhead, a popular heavy-metal band, are to play their first concert in the Middle East as part of the Desert Rock Festival in Dubai. The two-day festival will begin on March 6 at Dubai Festival City. Motorhead, a British band formed in 1975, are expected to play a 90-minute set. "We don't have any other details about their performance. They've never been here before and they were really curious and they wanted to see the place," said Mathilde Monte, a spokeswoman for Center Stage Management.

"Desert Rock is getting a lot of attention outside the country and they heard about it and wanted to perform, so it turned out to be a great match." Lexter Chu, 30, a sound technician for the RockSpiders, a cover band based in Dubai, said Motorhead made "great music" and "inspire good emotions". "I have been listening to them for at least five years now after I found their music on the internet at home."

Other bands announced as part of the line-up include local acts, such as Nervecell, and international groups including Opeth, Chimaira, Arch Enemy and August Burns Red. It will also include two bands chosen from a competition called United We Rock. The Desert Rock Festival began in 2004 and was expanded last year to two days. sbhattacharya@thenational.ae