Hi Everybody,
Thanks for discussing me. I'm not Joop, so I think it's best that I answer the question.
Yes, I played in Dire Straits - the Love Over Gold tour, which resulted in the Alchemy release.
The great Alan Clark was my 'supervisor' - he played the bulk of the keyboard parts, on Piano, Hammond B3 organ, Prophet 5 and Yamaha GS-1 synths.
I was hired by Mark to be Alan's '3rd and 4th hands' - every note I played, and many of the sounds, were worked out by Mark or Alan.
I mistakenly thought I was musically to be an equal member. To be fair, it WAS explained to me. I guess I hoped I could sell them on my creativity too.
Of course, playing with Terry, Mark, Alan, John, Hal, (and at times, Mel Collins and, yes, Joop on percussion) was a fabulous experience!
We travelled the world, my first time to the Far East, and I learned a lot of musical style and control. Maybe not quite enough control, but I did my best to play the parts and make the band even greater than before. The hard bits were the volume swells on the synths, bringing in Strings with just the right onset. That's done with ones ankle btw.
Anyway, it was weird being "in" a band, but being told every note to play, even by a genius like Mark. I think I didn't accept his total authority quite enough. So the next tour, he went with Guy, who he had maybe asked before me anyway, but was busy on another tour, or so I heard later on.
I went on to play more with Bryan Adams, John Waite, Clash, B-52's, Cyndi, Tina, Chrissie, BonJovi, Richie Sambora, and have fine memories of my Dire Straits days.
In fact, Alan's and Guy's visit to Wembley when we played the stadium (it's on DVD) with Bryan A was one of my finest memories, seeing them and being proud.
I too wondered why my name was left off the video. And why the camera cut away to artistic film of punters outside the venue during my only solo - the Romeo and Juliet string orchestration that I composed, instead of showing me or my hands. If it were one or the other, I'd say 'coincidence.' But the two together? Could Mark have done that on purpose? I haven't really talked to him since, so I'll probably never know!
Nonetheless, I love John, Terry, Hal, Joop, Mel and Alan (the latter two whom I toured with last summer in Dire Straits Legacy doing the old tunes, but differently, with Trevor Horn on bass and Phil Palmer on guitar. It made me appreciate once again how good Mark's music is, 40 years down the road.)
Mark and I shared a few cool jams during soundchecks. We were born the same year, so we grew up with similar musical influences, which somehow surprised him. It's too bad we couldn't have ended up friends. I'm friends with all my other famous former bosses, like Bryan Adams, and John Waite, David Johansen, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson (before he tragically died 30 years ago) -- but life goes on, I've been lucky to play with a lot of gifted guitar players Mick Ronson, Keith Scott, Richie Sambora, Earl Slick, Bo Diddley, Steve Love (Stories) & David Spinozza. Their playing touched me even deeper than Mark's, as respected as he is. Music is great, and thank Heaven for Everything!
You can check out my work at
https://tommymandel.wordpress.com
