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The sweet smell of an approaching winter hangs heavy in the night air, crowds fill the open-air auditorium at Dubai Festival City and spotlights glow large and orange at a stage big enough to play a tennis match on.
But instead of a match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the audience will be treated to two Rogers — one drummer and a lead singer: as in the legendary rockers Queen + Paul Rogers. The collaboration of that band and the former singer-songwriter for the bands Free and Bad Company, holds the promise of a quintessential evening of classic rock music.
Queen was formed in the seventies by the irrepressible Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991, and guitarist Brian May, and the band went on to record some of the era's most bombastically catchy hit songs.
Technically, Mercury has not been replaced by Rogers, but the English singer has teamed up with May and drummer Roger Taylor to put together two albums and launch an exhaustive European tour, which also took in Dubai.
It's just after 9.30pm on Friday when the show stars with an announcement forewarning people not to smoke during the performance.
The stage explodes with sounds and images of thunderstorms, rain and meteors and the shouts of excitement from the audience.
Within moments, the stage is transformed into a glow of dazzling light as Rogers, May and Taylor hit the stage and launch into Hammer Will Fall. The bass and Taylor's drums thud through thousands of chests as Rogers belts out Fat Bottomed Girls, Another One Bites The Dust, I Want It All and I Want to Break Free.
A bouncing rock pit takes shape as May cranks up the chords for Surf's Up… School's Out!, taken from their new album The Cosmos Rocks.
Rogers, whose career now spans four decades as a vocalist, guitarist and songwriter, is best know for his expressive vocals on songs that have become rock 'n' roll staples.
These include like All Right Now, Feel Like Makin' Love and Can't Get Enough. He is a revelation as a frontman: ageless and physically absorbed in his own singing which ranges from silky crooning all the way up to the sustained falsettos that are the hallmark of great rock singers like Robert Plant, Ian Gillian and Ronnie James Dio.
Quite apart from excelling as a vocalist, Rogers was clearly born to sing songs like It's a Kind of Magic, Under Pressure and Radio Gaga, which Dubai's adoring audience laps up.
As images of the late, great Mercury are projected on the big screen, Rogers asks if "everything is all alright?", before he does a wonderful acoustic version of Seagull from Bad Company's 1974 debut album of the same name.
Most of the songs that follow are taken from the new Cosmos Rocks album which, unfortunately, do not go down well with the audience who have come to listen to the classics.
And they are not disappointed.
The tributes to Freddie Mercury, Love of My Life and the outrageously melodramatic Bohemian Rhapsody, are terrific and exquisite.
Bohemian Rhapsody, taken from Queen's landmark album A Night at the Opera, is a lush yet riotous song in about six parts during which Rogers does his best to impersonate Mercury. May lends a helping hand. It's stupendous.
Video clips of Mercury are broadcast on the giant screen, and realisation dawns that this gig is vindication of the great musical legacy that singer left behind.
The band then link arms and bow extravagantly.
"More, more, more," screams the audience, and moments later Rogers, May and Taylor return for an encore that includes We Will Rock You and an infectiously enthusiastic version of We Are The Champions.
That, and the thought of winter approaching, hangs heavily in the air as satisfied fans make their way home.
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