New DS Live Box Set, 3rd November 2023!

[dustyvalentino]

Chris, could you tell me about working with Johnny Cash please?

[Chris W]

It was 'just another day' in Paul McCartney's studio.
Paul came in and said we have a guest today. A short while later Johnny and June Carter Cash walked in.
I tended to speak when I was spoken to and generally keep a low profile. So they had this song they had written they wanted to record. It wasn't one of Johnny's greatest songs.
I just got on with the job. This was before multi-channel tv (in the UK) and pre-internet. In the last ten years I've watched a bunch of Johnny Cash documentaries and live concert films. Had I known more about him I would have been in more awe. Of course I knew he was legendary and a huge star, especially in America, but I guess if you were too star struck you couldn't do your job.

[hunter v2.0]

Chris, have you and Mark crossed paths since the OES tour?

[dustyvalentino]

It was 'just another day' in Paul McCartney's studio.
Paul came in and said we have a guest today. A short while later Johnny and June Carter Cash walked in.
I tended to speak when I was spoken to and generally keep a low profile. So they had this song they had written they wanted to record. It wasn't one of Johnny's greatest songs.
I just got on with the job. This was before multi-channel tv (in the UK) and pre-internet. In the last ten years I've watched a bunch of Johnny Cash documentaries and live concert films. Had I known more about him I would have been in more awe. Of course I knew he was legendary and a huge star, especially in America, but I guess if you were too star struck you couldn't do your job.

Thank you

[Chris W]

Chris, have you and Mark crossed paths since the OES tour?

No.
I've been at his studio (British Grove) a few times, but he wasn't there.

[jbaent]

Chris, have you and Mark crossed paths since the OES tour?

No.
I've been at his studio (British Grove) a few times, but he wasn't there.

Did he.knew you were there? I also read from Phil Palmer that he recorded there but didn't get to see him, also Hal Lindes recorded there but he didn't mention seeing MK either.

I think that after so many years, see your old band mates would have been nice even just to say Hi...

[TheTimeWasWrong]

Chris, have you and Mark crossed paths since the OES tour?

No.
I've been at his studio (British Grove) a few times, but he wasn't there.

Did he.knew you were there? I also read from Phil Palmer that he recorded there but didn't get to see him, also Hal Lindes recorded there but he didn't mention seeing MK either.

I think that after so many years, see your old band mates would have been nice even just to say Hi...

We know Hal and Mark were both at John’s book party and he was backstage at the 2019 tour.

[Chris W]

Did he.knew you were there?

Probably not.
Mark has every opportunity to reach out to me. His current (sort of business) manager used to be my manager when I played with DS.
I don't think we have anything to say to each other. Sometimes people are hired as employees, to get the job done. Not everyone on tour is going to end up firm friends.

[jbaent]

Did he.knew you were there?

Probably not.
Mark has every opportunity to reach out to me. His current (sort of business) manager used to be my manager when I played with DS.
I don't think we have anything to say to each other. Sometimes people are hired as employees, to get the job done. Not everyone on tour is going to end up firm friends.

There is no need to be firm friends, you've been coleagues for a long tour, if he knows you are recording at his studio, a quick "Hi, how are you doing" is courtesy with an old work coleague.

[Chris W]

Oh well, he wasn't in those days.

[Knut]

The man deserves praise more than he deserves criticism, and small things like the proverbial sausage story or the absence of a tour party are just not registering on my radar of appreciation. Try to do what he did, and 99.99999999% of people would fail without even starting. End of rant.

Most of what you post is guess work.
In the end I don't really care about a tour party, I just brought it up as an indication of how dysfunctional Mark was during the tour.
Whatever mood you are in, it is just common politeness to thank the 150 or so people who just helped you sell out huge outdoor stadiums, making large amounts of money for your future lifestyle.

agree.

I also agree.  I've said before that I don't think I'd like Mark as a person, certainly not in the DS days anyway.  It doesn't stop me liking his music though.

He never had a party after the BIA tour either.  You can even see him after the show running off stage, jumping into a Porsche and driving away during the broadcast.  The difference there was they had played 20 nights at the same venue in Sydney and according to Jack Sonni they had a good time windsurfing every day!

There's also the difference between having someone as a friend and as a boss. I don't think being friends with the guy would be a bad thing, but those of us who like to voice our opinions regardless of stars and stripes on someone's shoulder wouldn't feel welcome in a place where someone is treated like some god-like figure and you just have to accept being yelled at over literally nothing.

I've also been a boss, and I like to give my employees freedom to solve their exercises the way they want to, and then they can ask for advice if needed.

[Knut]

The point is that you can just as easily flip these things around. You claim he did everything right. Maybe he did everything wrong? As you said, it's all guesswork, and there's no reason why the guesses should be in one direction or the other. GIven what we know, I think it's pretty safe to say that there were plenty of mistakes made. It might not have been a good idea to tour at all, in the long run. But, it would be weird if they didn't make any good moves, either.

I should also add that the OES tour wasn't all that long compared to what many other artists do. Proof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours - so no need to exaggerate the fact that it was 14 months long (+ prep). It's actually quite common.

Maybe you live in a different country,  but around here, we have many people leave their families for a few weeks at the time to go work offshore. I have yet to hear of this being an issue, simply because everything is carefully planned and the whole concept and it's potential issues (i.e. related to personal relations) are reasonably well understood. Just as you would imagine MK & crew would plan the OES tour properly, and be well aware of their own experience from the BIA tour and also the tours done by other artists (pretty sure MK is friends with some of those and would have been able to ask for advice if needed). If this indeed took it's toll on some personal relations, then that's because of bad decisions being made (at least in hindsight).

"...and things snowballed out of control." - Well, who's in charge of that, if it's true? MK, no?

That's a good question. I guess you can control a snowball, but you can't be in charge of an avalanche when it happens. You just accept it and prevent it from happening again if you get lucky enough to survive. I mean a man like MK can potentially have control over many things, but there are also financial, contractual, and psychological obligations, physical limitations, build-up of obligations, emotions, fatigue, problems with private life, family, and a million different factors.

That's why I'm trying to say MK is a human after all, and yes, mistakes are what make us humans, but it's how you react to mistakes and deal with them later on that matters. Judging by the fact we haven't heard anything from Dire Straits from 1993 (live at the BBC album released to please the contract doesn't count), and the fact the titular hero of this forum barely returns to this band in any shape or form, and that everyone agrees it's likely gone for good, he doesn't want this avalanche to repeat.

As for long tours, I still don't think it's a good idea to tour for so long. Why not do fewer shows or tours, and just spread it across a longer period? Like Bob Dylan, like Van Morrison. Mark got stuck in the album-tour formula and it's one of the major reasons he stopped touring now I think, apart from health and other concerns. Because if he releases an album, he needs to tour with as many shows as possible, it's what he has been doing for all his artistic life. Album, tour, album, tour, album, tour. And the tour has to be big because kids these days can't do it, but Mark sure can.

Sting expressed similar feelings towards large-scale tours of The Police. Marriages breaking down, tension building and spilling over the top, and band members barely surviving the experience themselves. It's all a build-up of a lot of things, I don't think anyone has ever dreamed about doing 365 shows a year. Music is not a sport, but damn, it feels like it sometimes is a sport with all this "who's bigger" attitude and measurements of revenue figures, managers and hunger for money.

This I can agree to. I wish they had more rest days so they could enjoy the cities they visit.

[Chris W]

I've also been a boss, and I like to give my employees freedom to solve their exercises the way they want to, and then they can ask for advice if needed.

That was a bit like how McCartney worked. I can't remembering him telling me what to play during the tour rehearsals.
It's an ideal, but quite rare in music. Most band leaders are dictators.

[ds1984]

When you are a creator is it understandable that you want your creation reflect what you have in mind?
So perhaps being a sort of dictator is the natural way when others have to built what you want.

Beware of what the word "dictator" means to you.
In my mind it means that you don't have freedom to express your own creativity but to execute what someone else want.
That does apply to human behaving.

[Chris W]

Beware of what the word "dictator" means to you.
In my mind it means that you don't have freedom to express your own creativity but to execute what someone else want.

Yes, that's often how life is with band leaders, especially the more successful ones. That's fine, it goes with the territory.