FACE

Tour de Force - Middle East 1

December 22, 2003 to January 4, 2004

The first Tour de Force to the Middle East Area of Operations (TDF MEAO 1) was the first FACE had conducted into a war zone since Vietnam, and who better to fly the banner to our forces than the Aussie icon Angry Anderson, ably assisted by Canberra rock band Kintama and members of the Royal Australian Navy Band all supported by a technical crew from ACT company, Nova Multimedia. The tour itself was conducted over the 2003 Christmas/New Year period, gave 10 performances in 7 locations including Baghdad and HAMS Melbourne.

Having never toured to the Middle East before and with just four weeks from reconnaissance to first performance, the management team did a quite remarkable job. So did Kintama, who in three weeks learned 10 Rose Tattoo songs to accompany Angry. As this was all done from listening to a CD, and with only one rehearsal with Angry, these young players deserve a special mention.

We all experienced a very special Christmas lunch in one of the great halls in a Palace in Baghdad, with General Peter Cosgrove presenting certificates to all the civilian artists. The Christmas night, like the night before, was extremely cold and so there was much dancing and prancing at the outside concerts held on both these nights in Camp Victory.

The concert for the Australian security section on 23 December was also a cool affair as the high rise building where the section was housed (and where the concert was held) had no windows or doors. However, the efforts of Angry and the Kintama boys were particularly well appreciated. Angry’s only complaint the next day was that he had been kept awake all night by the constant firing that could be heard from all over Baghdad.

The concert by Kintama and Angry on the flight deck of HMAS Melbourne was another highlight and the near beer (non-alcoholic beer) drunk at the jazz concert on New Years Eve in our final location was certainly very special.

Performers