On The Night - Ridiculously Bad???

[Chris W]

Edited or not, isn't this "yeah alright" thing and MK salute the smallest detail of all microscopic details ? That's how almost every show started, I really couldn't care less where it has been edited from.

^^ I agree ^^

Once you know two venues were filmed and recorded, with a possible third venue recorded, you KNOW they are going to listen back at the end of the tour and choose a greatest hits of moments from the recordings. I think that's what most people do. As I said, every singe show and sound check was recorded on the McCartney tour.
You can edit bits in most of the DS songs as there were distinct sections in things like R&J, Telegraph, Tunnel, Sultans etc.., with different tempos built in.
So they are going to find the best intro, the best guitar solo etc then glue them together.
When people start insinuating 'cheating', artists being 'ashamed' etc I just point to Basel. How much worse was the performance of the musicians at Basel show?
That's why I get frustrated at these conversations. Creative people will be creative because they can. The technology allows you to edit performances together, redo guitar solos in the mix studio etc...so people will, even if it doesn't really need it.

[benducret]

That said,

I would never say that OTN is "ridiculously bad". It is not the kind of music nor my dire straits (to each his own ) but it's not bad and certainly not ridiculous.

[benducret]

Edited or not, isn't this "yeah alright" thing and MK salute the smallest detail of all microscopic details ? That's how almost every show started, I really couldn't care less where it has been edited from.

^^ I agree ^^

Once you know two venues were filmed and recorded, with a possible third venue recorded, you KNOW they are going to listen back at the end of the tour and choose a greatest hits of moments from the recordings. I think that's what most people do. As I said, every singe show and sound check was recorded on the McCartney tour.
You can edit bits in most of the DS songs as there were distinct sections in things like R&J, Telegraph, Tunnel, Sultans etc.., with different tempos built in.
So they are going to find the best intro, the best guitar solo etc then glue them together.
When people start insinuating 'cheating', artists being 'ashamed' etc I just point to Basel. How much worse was the performance of the musicians at Basel show?
That's why I get frustrated at these conversations. Creative people will be creative because they can. The technology allows you to edit performances together, redo guitar solos in the mix studio etc...so people will, even if it doesn't really need it.

I totally agree. It's all artistic décisions. Even the decision not to release live albums, or raw live albums, or polished or edited, or whatever, are décisions which are créative choices.

Nothing can be like the real live expérience, even in a non edited small jazz club recording. So there are créative choices on how you want it to sound like. No matter how you make it.

[iorch82]

Chris, I am very curious. What made the US leg that unprofitable? Were you playing at half-full venues? There're almost no pics from any of these shows on the internet.

Yes, the tour was over scheduled. I think we were there nearly three months. In the bigger markets we played to sold out shows, but there were other shows with more vacant seats. We played places I'd never played before on a major tour, like Saskatchewan, a casino in Vegas for one night, a University sports arena. So it just seemed badly scheduled from my point of view, and the vibe had gone from the Money For Nothing era. Grunge was king.

Grunge was the ultimate anti-DireStraits thing. I must say that I turned away from dire straits in the mid-eighties, and got into the indie scene, hard core, or alt pop. Dire Straits became the epitome of commercial FM rock, if rock at all, and in the USA they never were as big as in Europe, or for a much shorter period.

When OES was released, I was waiting for it due to my past history with their music as a young teenager in the early 80s. But I just couldn't listen to it. I didn't see them live on that tour. When OES was announced the first thing I thought was "I'm gonna see them live ! Dream come true !".
In the end I saw many bands in arenas and small clubs but never even thought about buying a ticket for DS.

I agree. I never quite liked the turn to the "commercial" of BIA, and to a lesser extent the singles on OES - eg "Heavy Fuel" - btw why was HF played in all songs? such a boring tune IMO. - What really made me obsessed with this band are these long >7 8 minutes pieces full of dynamics and incredibly orchestrated sections with mesmerizing MK solos.

[superval99]

Oh, my goodness!  Why can't people just sit back and enjoy this box set without all of the nit-picking.   I am loving listening to all of it from the rawness of Rainbow to the "perfection" of OTN.   Yes, I wasn't too enamoured by TOL and TR when I first heard them, but now I am enjoying those too, even though they are arranged slightly differently to the Alchemy versions.    Just sit back and wallow in great music.

[dustyvalentino]

Oh, my goodness!  Why can't people just sit back and enjoy this box set without all of the nit-picking.   I am loving listening to all of it from the rawness of Rainbow to the "perfection" of OTN.   Yes, I wasn't too enamoured by TOL and TR when I first heard them, but now I am enjoying those too, even though they are arranged slightly differently to the Alchemy versions.    Just sit back and wallow in great music.

Discussion is good Val!

[dustyvalentino]

Chris, I am very curious. What made the US leg that unprofitable? Were you playing at half-full venues? There're almost no pics from any of these shows on the internet.

Yes, the tour was over scheduled. I think we were there nearly three months. In the bigger markets we played to sold out shows, but there were other shows with more vacant seats. We played places I'd never played before on a major tour, like Saskatchewan, a casino in Vegas for one night, a University sports arena. So it just seemed badly scheduled from my point of view, and the vibe had gone from the Money For Nothing era. Grunge was king.

This sounds eerily reminiscent of Spinal Tap. Did you guys ever play an air force base? 

[superval99]

Oh, my goodness!  Why can't people just sit back and enjoy this box set without all of the nit-picking.   I am loving listening to all of it from the rawness of Rainbow to the "perfection" of OTN.   Yes, I wasn't too enamoured by TOL and TR when I first heard them, but now I am enjoying those too, even though they are arranged slightly differently to the Alchemy versions.    Just sit back and wallow in great music.

Discussion is good Val!

Yes, I know!   

[rmarques821]

Oh, my goodness!  Why can't people just sit back and enjoy this box set without all of the nit-picking.   I am loving listening to all of it from the rawness of Rainbow to the "perfection" of OTN.   Yes, I wasn't too enamoured by TOL and TR when I first heard them, but now I am enjoying those too, even though they are arranged slightly differently to the Alchemy versions.    Just sit back and wallow in great music.

This topic is full-on comedy. Dozens of posts discussing whether MK said "AYEAHRIGHT" at the beginning of a show. Got to love this forum 

[dmg]

Oh, my goodness!  Why can't people just sit back and enjoy this box set without all of the nit-picking.   I am loving listening to all of it from the rawness of Rainbow to the "perfection" of OTN.   Yes, I wasn't too enamoured by TOL and TR when I first heard them, but now I am enjoying those too, even though they are arranged slightly differently to the Alchemy versions.    Just sit back and wallow in great music.

This topic is full-on comedy. Dozens of posts discussing whether MK said "AYEAHRIGHT" at the beginning of a show. Got to love this forum 

 

Got to agree with Val (and others) on this and I'm as much a DS nerd as the next guy!  If it was about the music then maybe, but a call to the audience before the show even starts then I'm not interested.

[dustyvalentino]

I don’t think Brunno ever intended this to be a big deal, it was simply one part of his extensive (private) investigations to demonstrate that CE was a composite of different nights.

[Brunno Nunes]

I didn't want to take this subject any further, the greeting present in CE on OTN is just another montage made for this song, just as Mark's guitar licks are a mix of different dates and places, anyway, just a detail that I had noticed when I was scrutinizing this song, if one day the recording of the two dates that we don't have in Rotterdam appears, it will be possible to understand more clearly where the greeting came from, so far it is clear to me that it didn't come from Nimes and Rotterdam, I they look like they were taken from one of the 6 or 7 nights in Paris 92, but what does that matter? For me, this version is analogous to a film production where the director chooses the scenes that he will use for a part of the film, in the end the creativity is there, it is art, I value that.
I definitively close this subject, the recordings are there for anyone who wants to check out what I mentioned and draw their own conclusions, I emphasize that I didn't mean to say that Mark didn't greet the audience at outdoor shows, I mentioned that not in the same way as at OTN , subtleties are things that can easily go unnoticed, I know what I noticed, I'm sure other people also noticed what I noticed.


So that's it, let's all be happy because we love Dire Straits' musical work and we are privileged to have Chris W participate in this forum, with precious anecdotes!

[Brunno Nunes]

I don’t think Brunno ever intended this to be a big deal, it was simply one part of his extensive (private) investigations to demonstrate that CE was a composite of different nights.

Perfectly, my dear!

[iorch82]

Chris, I am very curious. What made the US leg that unprofitable? Were you playing at half-full venues? There're almost no pics from any of these shows on the internet.

Yes, the tour was over scheduled. I think we were there nearly three months. In the bigger markets we played to sold out shows, but there were other shows with more vacant seats. We played places I'd never played before on a major tour, like Saskatchewan, a casino in Vegas for one night, a University sports arena. So it just seemed badly scheduled from my point of view, and the vibe had gone from the Money For Nothing era. Grunge was king.

Wow, a myth have fallen. I cannot imagine 92 DS playing in a half filled venue. We are accustomed to these super full stadiums images (eg Rotterdam, Basel) from the summer leg. I guess that impacted in the band's morale.

Thanks again for sharing your memories of these incredible years with us, Chris. It means a lot!

[dustyvalentino]

Chris, I am very curious. What made the US leg that unprofitable? Were you playing at half-full venues? There're almost no pics from any of these shows on the internet.

Yes, the tour was over scheduled. I think we were there nearly three months. In the bigger markets we played to sold out shows, but there were other shows with more vacant seats. We played places I'd never played before on a major tour, like Saskatchewan, a casino in Vegas for one night, a University sports arena. So it just seemed badly scheduled from my point of view, and the vibe had gone from the Money For Nothing era. Grunge was king.

Wow, a myth have fallen. I cannot imagine 92 DS playing in a half filled venue. We are accustomed to these super full stadiums images (eg Rotterdam, Basel) from the summer leg. I guess that impacted in the band's morale.

Thanks again for sharing your memories of these incredible years with us, Chris. It means a lot!

Other than the first burst after Sultans and the freak event that was BiA, DS were never as big in the US as they were in Europe.