Manu Katch

[basilbunting1108]

Thanks guys, I enjoyed that. So... Chris was third choice for the tour?!

Phil second choice also.

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Maybe Chris was even fourth or fifth choice, we don't know if the tried to get someone else before.



OES tour would had been far better with Porcaro or Katché on drums. Whitten drumming was in my opinion, terrible and ruined most of the DS songs to me.

Phil at least played in the OES record and played with DS at Knebworth, and with Alan Clark (then DS musical director) while they were at Clapton's band.

I wouldn't say his drumming was terrible, but certainly not at the level of the other drummers in Dire Straits.

[holaknopfler]

Thanks guys, I enjoyed that. So... Chris was third choice for the tour?!

Phil second choice also.

Sent from my Tab2A7-20F using Tapatalk

Maybe Chris was even fourth or fifth choice, we don't know if the tried to get someone else before.



OES tour would had been far better with Porcaro or Katché on drums. Whitten drumming was in my opinion, terrible and ruined most of the DS songs to me.

Phil at least played in the OES record and played with DS at Knebworth, and with Alan Clark (then DS musical director) while they were at Clapton's band.

I wouldn't say his drumming was terrible, but certainly not at the level of the other drummers in Dire Straits.

I actually have to say I like his drumming on Heavy Fuel, e.g. the Woburn Abbey version. Sounds great to me. He ain’t a bad drummer for sure. But I think he misses that groovy thing a drummer like Chad or Pick have. It suits MK’s playing more. It wraps around the guitar not the other way around.

[quizzaciously]

I actually have to say I like his drumming on Heavy Fuel, e.g. the Woburn Abbey version. Sounds great to me. He ain’t a bad drummer for sure. But I think he misses that groovy thing a drummer like Chad or Pick have. It suits MK’s playing more. It wraps around the guitar not the other way around.

I love this forum, because people always tell things better than me. Drumming wrapping around the guitar is an insane thought, hola!

[Jules]

All the drummers that played live with DS and MK they all had their own style but all of them did things that fit very well with the songs, except Chris Whitten, in my opinion, of course.

Everything Whitten does in any song, including Heavy Fuel, which is one of the only ones he does quite well, are fulls of strange fillings, crash, hihats, tombs etc that sound in strange places, where nobody except he played them. Sultans Of Swing, for example, it's a total disaster to my ears, what he does doesn´t fill well with the song nor with anything that previous drummers had played, and think that Terry Williams played a quite fast and killer Sultans, but in the end everything he did filled well with the song.

I don't know why but, the more I listen to OES tour recordings, the more I dislike them because of Chris Whitten drumming.

All the rest, Pick Withers was very rythmic and subtle, Terry Williams very rocker and dynamic, Chad Cromwell a mix between them, Danny Cummings a great feeling playing along the song and Ian Thomas, very sensitive and very fitting with anything he does, but... Whitten... I cannot find anything good to say about his drumming, and I´m very sorry, as he's a good drummer, but with DS, anything he did sounded inappropiate to me.

Please, take note of the use of "to me" in anything I wrote.

Manu Katche would had been just perfect, and Jeff Porcaro, a dream...

[quizzaciously]

All the drummers that played live with DS and MK they all had their own style but all of them did things that fit very well with the songs, except Chris Whitten, in my opinion, of course.

Everything Whitten does in any song, including Heavy Fuel, which is one of the only ones he does quite well, are fulls of strange fillings, crash, hihats, tombs etc that sound in strange places, where nobody except he played them. Sultans Of Swing, for example, it's a total disaster to my ears, what he does doesn´t fill well with the song nor with anything that previous drummers had played, and think that Terry Williams played a quite fast and killer Sultans, but in the end everything he did filled well with the song.

I don't know why but, the more I listen to OES tour recordings, the more I dislike them because of Chris Whitten drumming.

All the rest, Pick Withers was very rythmic and subtle, Terry Williams very rocker and dynamic, Chad Cromwell a mix between them, Danny Cummings a great feeling playing along the song and Ian Thomas, very sensitive and very fitting with anything he does, but... Whitten... I cannot find anything good to say about his drumming, and I´m very sorry, as he's a good drummer, but with DS, anything he did sounded inappropiate to me.

Please, take note of the use of "to me" in anything I wrote.

Manu Katche would had been just perfect, and Jeff Porcaro, a dream...

I remember reading an interview maybe even here on AMIT, about a band musician from DS in the late years, he said something like "if you would accidentally play the wrong note, you would instantly see this angry stare from Mark" or something. I mean, drummer can't literally play "whatever he wants", it all must go through MK's filter before going on stage back then. So I highly doubt that after 3 months of rehearsal Chris Whitten really would play something that wasn't approved by Mr. Sausage

[Jules]

That makes it even more misterious to me

[ds1984]

I remember reading an interview maybe even here on AMIT, about a band musician from DS in the late years, he said something like "if you would accidentally play the wrong note, you would instantly see this angry stare from Mark" or something. I mean, drummer can't literally play "whatever he wants", it all must go through MK's filter before going on stage back then. So I highly doubt that after 3 months of rehearsal Chris Whitten really would play something that wasn't approved by Mr. Sausage

You can't sum up the definition of good or bad to play wrong note or note.
You also have to take in account that Mark has to face refusal from others drummer and find someone that fit the wage he was offering. Dire Straits is known as being not the best paying band and at that time Mark with John and Ed were the financial bosses.

[basilbunting1108]

All the drummers that played live with DS and MK they all had their own style but all of them did things that fit very well with the songs, except Chris Whitten, in my opinion, of course.

Everything Whitten does in any song, including Heavy Fuel, which is one of the only ones he does quite well, are fulls of strange fillings, crash, hihats, tombs etc that sound in strange places, where nobody except he played them. Sultans Of Swing, for example, it's a total disaster to my ears, what he does doesn´t fill well with the song nor with anything that previous drummers had played, and think that Terry Williams played a quite fast and killer Sultans, but in the end everything he did filled well with the song.

I don't know why but, the more I listen to OES tour recordings, the more I dislike them because of Chris Whitten drumming.

All the rest, Pick Withers was very rythmic and subtle, Terry Williams very rocker and dynamic, Chad Cromwell a mix between them, Danny Cummings a great feeling playing along the song and Ian Thomas, very sensitive and very fitting with anything he does, but... Whitten... I cannot find anything good to say about his drumming, and I´m very sorry, as he's a good drummer, but with DS, anything he did sounded inappropiate to me.

Please, take note of the use of "to me" in anything I wrote.

Manu Katche would had been just perfect, and Jeff Porcaro, a dream...

I remember reading an interview maybe even here on AMIT, about a band musician from DS in the late years, he said something like "if you would accidentally play the wrong note, you would instantly see this angry stare from Mark" or something. I mean, drummer can't literally play "whatever he wants", it all must go through MK's filter before going on stage back then. So I highly doubt that after 3 months of rehearsal Chris Whitten really would play something that wasn't approved by Mr. Sausage

Certainly. Absolutely everything was very tightly rehearsed on that tour. There wasn't a note out of place. It made for arguably the tightest arena show I've ever heard; and the sound was sublime. However, it didn't have that spontaneous,'organic' feel that so many great rock shows have.

[basilbunting1108]

I remember reading an interview maybe even here on AMIT, about a band musician from DS in the late years, he said something like "if you would accidentally play the wrong note, you would instantly see this angry stare from Mark" or something. I mean, drummer can't literally play "whatever he wants", it all must go through MK's filter before going on stage back then. So I highly doubt that after 3 months of rehearsal Chris Whitten really would play something that wasn't approved by Mr. Sausage

You can't sum up the definition of good or bad to play wrong note or note.
You also have to take in account that Mark has to face refusal from others drummer and find someone that fit the wage he was offering. Dire Straits is known as being not the best paying band and at that time Mark with John and Ed were the financial bosses.

Interesting that Whitten had just finished a highly successful world tour with Paul McCartney who was known for paying his touring musicians the bare minimum required by the union.

[nando_5994]

About Whitten , i read a similar interview here in Portugal. I still have the magazine. He said that Mark told him "he was the only drummer who didn`t have ruined Sultans,all the others did it. And also that when Mark plays a note in the guitar he must play the right note on the drums at the same time. When fans go see and listen Sultans it´s like people when they go to see Shakespeare, you got to do it right, it´s not maybe or not maybe, it´s to be our not to be, it´s Sultans.

[ds1984]

Certainly. Absolutely everything was very tightly rehearsed on that tour. There wasn't a note out of place. It made for arguably the tightest arena show I've ever heard; and the sound was sublime. However, it didn't have that spontaneous,'organic' feel that so many great rock shows have.

Got that same feeling.

It was the very first time that I was attending Dire Straits.
It was somewhat surreal at first, I had listened to them so many times and at last I was in same room with my guitar hero.
But toward Romeo or Heavy Fuel I was thinking "well they are doing the usual job".

I saw them one more time a month later in Belgium and it sounded a bit more lively, I remember a fab Sultan.

[JF]

Certainly. Absolutely everything was very tightly rehearsed on that tour. There wasn't a note out of place. It made for arguably the tightest arena show I've ever heard; and the sound was sublime. However, it didn't have that spontaneous,'organic' feel that so many great rock shows have.

Got that same feeling.

It was the very first time that I was attending Dire Straits.
It was somewhat surreal at first, I had listened to them so many times and at last I was in same room with my guitar hero.
But toward Romeo or Heavy Fuel I was thinking "well they are doing the usual job".

I saw them one more time a month later in Belgium and it sounded a bit more lively, I remember a fab Sultan.

excatly the same for me, but saw them only once

[Pottel]

Certainly. Absolutely everything was very tightly rehearsed on that tour. There wasn't a note out of place. It made for arguably the tightest arena show I've ever heard; and the sound was sublime. However, it didn't have that spontaneous,'organic' feel that so many great rock shows have.

Got that same feeling.

It was the very first time that I was attending Dire Straits.
It was somewhat surreal at first, I had listened to them so many times and at last I was in same room with my guitar hero.
But toward Romeo or Heavy Fuel I was thinking "well they are doing the usual job".

I saw them one more time a month later in Belgium and it sounded a bit more lively, I remember a fab Sultan.

you were also on the holy grounds in Werchter on 1992.05.27?

[ds1984]

Certainly. Absolutely everything was very tightly rehearsed on that tour. There wasn't a note out of place. It made for arguably the tightest arena show I've ever heard; and the sound was sublime. However, it didn't have that spontaneous,'organic' feel that so many great rock shows have.

Got that same feeling.

It was the very first time that I was attending Dire Straits.
It was somewhat surreal at first, I had listened to them so many times and at last I was in same room with my guitar hero.
But toward Romeo or Heavy Fuel I was thinking "well they are doing the usual job".

I saw them one more time a month later in Belgium and it sounded a bit more lively, I remember a fab Sultan.

you were also on the holy grounds in Werchter on 1992.05.27?

Second row in front of John.

[dmg]

Certainly. Absolutely everything was very tightly rehearsed on that tour. There wasn't a note out of place. It made for arguably the tightest arena show I've ever heard; and the sound was sublime. However, it didn't have that spontaneous,'organic' feel that so many great rock shows have.

Got that same feeling.

It was the very first time that I was attending Dire Straits.
It was somewhat surreal at first, I had listened to them so many times and at last I was in same room with my guitar hero.
But toward Romeo or Heavy Fuel I was thinking "well they are doing the usual job".

I saw them one more time a month later in Belgium and it sounded a bit more lively, I remember a fab Sultan.

you were also on the holy grounds in Werchter on 1992.05.27?

Second row in front of John.

John only managed to get himself a third row seat?