#22 DTRW TOUR - May 28 2019 - The O2 Arena, London, UK #SPOILER#

[MagicElliott]

Just a few thoughts on last night.

Before I begin I'd like to add a caveat that having seen numerous bands at the O2 since its conversion from Tony Blair faux pas to soulless cave/music venue/shopping centre, I utterly hate it as a live music venue. However....

Last night was probably one of the best Knopfler gigs I've seen in 35 plus years of attending concerts.

The sound -  Wow, well dare I say, it was better than the RAH, I was say about 8 rows back on the right of the arena, and you could literally locate every instrument within the mix of any song I'd say probably 90% of the time, my test of this is to listen out for the citterns at the end of speedway, and they were there, clearly audible at probably the loudest point of the gig.

The cameras - Not usually a big fan as they can cause a distraction and I'm still not sure of the morality of paying large amounts of good money to watch a concert on a giant tv, however they did add to the atmosphere and it was nice to see up close some of the dexterity of the other guys, especially Jim Cox and The drummer boys. The return of the 'neck cam' for MFN raised a smile although I can just imagine MKs response to strapping that to the headstock of 6 grands worth of Les Paul!

MK - Guitar wise, probably the best I've seen him play in some time, very few errors if any, lots of shaking fingers (as many have commented on before) but a real return of an aura of confidence about his playing, to see him like this brought a tear to my eye.

I also have to mention Marks vocals because I don't remember quite such an authoritative performance as last night, his lovely baritone rasp held up for most of the gig, something which I don't think I've seen across an entire concert from him since the 80s. He usually ends up croaking at some point before the end of the set. Ok so HFOH is still a bit of a struggle and BIA suffers as he's struggling to concentrate on both the guitar line and the vocal but aside from those minor gripes his voice was as good as I've heard.

At one point I did wonder if they would use some of the camera footage for a mythical long awaited live release as it looked so good but ultimately unfortunately for us I cant see it. There would also need to be a little 'cheating' due to the lighting error at the beginning of CBC already mentioned by others, Marks usual response to being filmed during R&J, and the crackling at the end of the R&J solo.

Overall Mark seemed to be in a lovely mood and the interaction with the crowd was great, also loved the subtle humour following the lighting issue.

For those with concerts to come, you really are in for a treat and are witnessing Marks songs at their live Zenith.

Still hate the O2 though   

Who plays cittern in Speedway? John is on violin/mandolin and Mike is on flute. Or am I missing something?

[Mossguitar]

Richard plays bouzouki, doesn’t he?

[Love Expresso]

Yes, Richard on Bouzouki until he changes for the Gibson. Mike on Flute throughout the complete song.
John starts on Fiddle and changes to Mandolin I guess it is, too small for a Cittern?

LE

[dvschend]

Last tour he doesn't 't play Seattle in Seattle. This he doesn't play Silvertown in Silvertown...

He got balls!

Yes, but he doesn't even play Speedway at Nazareth either so.... 

But he will play Ticket to Heaven when he gets there!

He took me there a few times playing Telegraph Road though 

[MagicElliott]

Yes, Richard on Bouzouki until he changes for the Gibson. Mike on Flute throughout the complete song.
John starts on Fiddle and changes to Mandolin I guess it is, too small for a Cittern?

LE

Yup, defo a mandolin.
To be honest, I’d forgotten about Richard. Because both of the folkies play cittern, my mind went there immediately. Wonder how close a cittern is to a bouzouki to play.

[2manyguitars]

Yes, Richard on Bouzouki until he changes for the Gibson. Mike on Flute throughout the complete song.
John starts on Fiddle and changes to Mandolin I guess it is, too small for a Cittern?

LE

Yup, defo a mandolin.
To be honest, I’d forgotten about Richard. Because both of the folkies play cittern, my mind went there immediately. Wonder how close a cittern is to a bouzouki to play.

Virtually identical with an extra course of strings on the cittern (10 strings vs 8 on a zouk) its why I mixed them up....

Ashamed music teacher hangs his head....my bad...

[Jules]

After watching the CBS short report, with images from this concert, I asked Guy in his forum and he says that they have the footage recorded at this concert, I wonder why...

Guy had answered with evasive to questions regarding a future dvd/BR release of this tour. Would this mean, together with the fact they have the O2 footage, that they might be thinking in doing something with it?

I know there are many shelved video recordings from previous tours but, who knows?

[dmg]

After watching the CBS short report, with images from this concert, I asked Guy in his forum and he says that they have the footage recorded at this concert, I wonder why...

Guy had answered with evasive to questions regarding a future dvd/BR release of this tour. Would this mean, together with the fact they have the O2 footage, that they might be thinking in doing something with it?

I know there are many shelved video recordings from previous tours but, who knows?

Decent show but compared to the stuff he's been playing recently it's night and day.  I wonder if any recent show has been recorded.

[the visitor]

Is it really night and day though ? I haven't bought X 000 recordings off this tour to compare deviations in the same well rehearsed and repeated setlist but having been at the 0² and listened to many, many performances from over the years to me, I was happy.  If this was released it would be a good thing.