Hi all,
I was reading the comments on French sites about the 2023 CD release of Rockpalast (named: German broadcast 1979 - Dire Straits Cologne), to check what the source was (bootleg or official). This release sounds rather clean on YouTube music, although the intro of Down to the Waterline is missing! To fit on one CD?
An italian guy commented that the audio source was Youtube, not the very best one, and that the concert was officially available on WDR site.
I was puzzled to realize that this is actually true! Indeed, the WDR web site has been offering the concert, in video, in very good quality, with a very nice interface to jump from song to sing, since 2021!
https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/rockpalast/video-dire-straits---studio-l-koeln--100.htmlWe discussed here the possibility of such an offical release here, back in 2017, only to complain that we were not aware of any plan for WDR to release this. How come?! This is great news!
There is one problem with this release though, the second version of Sultans ("redux") is not included! This is strange, we said here that the original TV broadcast included only the second version. Here we only have the first one, so this must be the rebroadcast years later, and I wonder why on earth the redux is not there?!
Nonetheless, this is very pleasing to have at last an official release of this legendary concert. I wonder whether the official DS site, now that it is done with Rockpop Dortmund 80, will publish Rockpalast as well. Actually, since we already have it officially on WDR Web site, I would rather they go for Wembley 85 instead - maybe the British TV channel 4 can become as open as the German WDR and ZDF channels? Would be great! Come on, Brits!
What do you guys think?
Cheers
