A MUSICAL duo from Okehampton are about to embark on their seventh contract to entertain tourists and locals in the Middle East.
Jacqui Bourne and Andy Marshall who make up ?Diamond Life? are setting off for Seeb near Muscat at the beginning of December to perform at the Novotel Hotel for six months.
Despite the threat of war in the Middle East, the couple have no fears about returning to the place where they describe the people as ?generous and hospitable.?
Andy and Jackie, who once played in front of 8,000 Indians at an Indian Quiz Show and entertained American troops in the middle of the dessert during a military operation in 2000, said the local population got a very bad press but the reality was completely different from that.
?It is a shame they get tainted by the extremists because they are in fact very very nice people,? said Andy. ?Jackie feels very safe walking around on her own much more than she would in London.?
The couple?s only worry at the moment is that if war becomes imminent, they will not be able to go at all.
Since starting up as a singing duo five years ago, Andy and Jackie have been performing in all manner of countries including South America and they have spent a lot of time on cruise ships.
Their act includes everything from ballroom and cocktail to disco and rock, covering every decade.
Their claim to fame is that they were the first to perform in the Hilton Hotel in Salalah before former spice girl Gerry Halliwell stayed there whilst entertaining the troops in Oman.
?We got in the swimming pool before Gerry did,? added Andy, whose jetsetting days began when ?Diamond Life? responded to an ad for performers in The Stage magazine.
Diamond Life will be performing locally in the Plymouth Inn in Okehampton and Copper Key in North Tawton before they leave the country in December.