The Straits to record their own material

[Jules]

http://www.dare2mag.com/interview/2011/alan-clark-of-the-straits/#.TmihjbYbJjk.twitter

Alan Clark:

After our hugely successful Albert Hall gig we realised we couldn

[ds1984]

Regardless of the band name I think this is a good direction but they will need to have a good writer and a great melodist.

[superval99]

I think this is a step too far - playing their own songs under The Straits name!    I did see it coming, though, because obviously they would have run out of material eventually!  Is there a decent songwriter amongst them, I wonder?   Alan Clark, maybe?  

[Jules]

I would like that they decide to release material that was left from Dire Straits album, if they can, so the real spirit of putting together this band would have sense, but write new material and release it as "The Straits", nonsense.

[dustyvalentino]

Well this will settle once and for all just how much influence Alan Clark had on all those classic Dire Straits records. Can't wait to hear.

[Kay Edvin]

Hmhh....

Please dont use the name "The Straits" then...Come up with something else...

[dmg]

People only go to see them to hear the oldies.  If they stop playing them and start playing their own then they'll be playing to empty halls!

Name change needed too;  no longer a tribute band.

[vgonis]

May I suggest a name: "The dire" . It is a completely different name and can't spoil the surprise for the already numerous fans.
But yes it is a good thing to record your own material. And in case MK decides to guest appear, we will have an informal reunion. And the sales to go with it... 

[Jackal]

I'm of course not wild about the concept behind The Straits. I don't think they are evil exploiters, but there's just this gut feeling that something is entirely right.

That aside, I must say that what I like about the whole enterprise is that they are trying really hard to interact or being present, as it were, by using YouTube, giving interviews, etc. That's of course done to generate interest, but that's fine by me. How I'd wish Mark and his management would take a bit more interest in communicating with his fans!

 

[Love Expresso]

Oh boy, they are looking older than MK ever did... I was watching this clip and thought, hey, if they had come together to found a totally new band, with own stuff, with some of the old Dire Straits members, but under a totally own sign, an own NAME, they would have had my fullest respect. Mark maybe even had paid them a visit or had invited them to record in his studio. This seems so much like "I need money and I don't know what else I should do so let's plunder this band where I was a member from... who cares about what the fans of DS/MK and MK himself think about it..."

Sorry, I better bring not up this complex again, but that was just what I felt seeing this clip.

LE

[BigWheelTurning]

This strikes me as similar to when members of the ELO decided to carry on without Jeff Lynne and very (un)imaginatively called themselves ELO part 2- I think they released a couple of albums that didn't make a huge impression and some ex-members of ELO continue to tour as a sort of tribute band. All a bit sad really.

[vgonis]

It is my opinion that ELO was a band much like DS in the respect that it was mainly driven by one man the talented Jeff Lynne. But it would be a shame to put everybody in the same basket. I mean some times this talent overshadows all the other members' talents. Deep Purple has managed to work without Blackmore or Gillan, Pink Floyd without Syd or later Waters, Queen without Mercury and Doors without Morrison (do not laugh), even Monty Pythons without Cleese, Velvet underground without John Cale , Janis and the holding co, even without Janis

[Pottel]

pink floyd without waters or barrett is no comparison to those other bands. David Gilmour was as much the soul of pink Floyd, (especially musically) as those two.

[vgonis]

Maestro, I beg to differ. As much as I love Gilmour I find all the post Wall work rather inferior. But I have to note that even the solo Waters albums were inferior, and I preferred the Rogerless Floyd. I guess it was the special Alchemy and creative struggles between the talented members that brought us their best work. Because Floyd without Gilmour's vocals and guitars are not that Pink. But Waters' composition gave them the extra edge, the extra layers needed to go back again and again for more.
And of course without Syd, and with the addition of Gilmour it was a different band altogether. But it is such a long talk... 

[arabia]

WOW. this is S-A-D.

It's a free country and all but hearing these guys without Mark is just bizarre.
More squeezing some cash out of a product than art...