New DS Live Box Set, 3rd November 2023!

[Matchstickman]

The mic on the stand is for any acoustic guitar. I have no idea if it was only used at some shows. It is 100% likely that it was employed by the recording team and had nothing to do with the band or the audience PA.
There is absolutely no way they studio overdubbed Mark shouting 'alright'. From my memory he shouted from time to time at the beginning of Elvis.

Mark did indeed say/shout "All right!" at certain shows. People have mentioned Basel 1992 in this thread, but personally I prefer the Nimes TV broadcast (from later that year). As an evening show, it feels more atmospheric, and in my view, Mark's playing is better in Calling Elvis and in the intro to Heavy Fuel. Before CE starts, he shouts "All right!", so the similar line in On the Night may be from a different night.

[dustyvalentino]

Just reporting, I just realized that MFN present in On The Night was always the version on 05/31/92 Rotterdam,and Wild Theme on OTN is precisely in Feyenoord, Rotterdam HOL 30.05.92. I just compared it, I will do this little by little with the other songs!

Ok. Do you find time to just listen and enjoy it occasionally?

LE

Let's say that the curiosity to understand what is happening moves me!

The amount of work you put into these investigations seems immense! Very good effort and fans and fanbase in the future will be thankful. So kudos to you!

LE

Thank you very much for the recognition, my dear, my academic background is a degree in History, so, in this case, I combine my passion for the band and the commitment to preserving the historical value of Dire Straits' work, for the benefit of the band's memory, I do it for love, from fan to fan like many here do.

With your love of DS I assumed your background was in palaeontology.

[Matchstickman]

Heavy Fuel, Romeo and Juliet, The Bug and Private Investigations, are without a doubt from 20/05/92, Nimes, equal solos, vocal interpretation equal to what is contained in OTN.

Your Latest Trick on the recording of 05/20/92 Nimes
It has different details from the OTN version right in the introduction of Danny's percussion, at 00:11 seconds of this track, the way the drums appear in the middle of the percussion is different from the OTN.
  Another point, the way Mark sings "yeah my heart that got broken", is different from the OTN version, also in the phrase "standing outside of this wonderland" or the way he sings "is hand it to you" for the last time is different from the OTN version. Ultimately, there are subtleties and details that help to make things identical.

Like so many others, I find this very interesting to know, thanks a bunch! 

[Matchstickman]

As regarding Mark's voice on On the Night: whatever they did on the original release, they managed to move his voice up front in a way that it is often not on the newly mixed tracks, where his voice is sometimes buried in the mix and almost inaudible. What he is singing in the "new" bridge on I Think I Love You Too Much, well don't ask me 

[Chris W]

Basel and Nimes were both evening shows, similar start time. Being earlier in the summer, the Basel show had sunlight until later in the evening, that is all. Basel had fine weather. It rained at the Nimes show, which probably means light was reduced by cloud cover and storms brought an even darker atmosphere.

[Robson]

Basel and Nimes were both evening shows, similar start time. Being earlier in the summer, the Basel show had sunlight until later in the evening, that is all. Basel had fine weather. It rained at the Nimes show, which probably means light was reduced by cloud cover and storms brought an even darker atmosphere.

That's true. Sunday, 8 p.m., June 28, was beautiful weather not only in Switzerland, but also in Poland Dire Straits never reached my country, but that day we were all at the concert 

[Matchstickman]

Basel and Nimes were both evening shows, similar start time. Being earlier in the summer, the Basel show had sunlight until later in the evening, that is all. Basel had fine weather. It rained at the Nimes show, which probably means light was reduced by cloud cover and storms brought an even darker atmosphere.

Aha, never thought of that! Despite the weather, I have never seen Mark smile as much as in that video 

Chris, do you recall why the original MFN intro was never used on the OES tour? It was such a famous part of the song and yet it was ditched after only one tour.

[Chris W]

I guess its was seen as too long, also it had been done on the BIA tour. Lots of things changed between the BIA tour and the OES tour.

[Matchstickman]

I guess its was seen as too long, also it had been done on the BIA tour. Lots of things changed between the BIA tour and the OES tour.

OK, yes, thanks, but then he spent five minutes staring at the audience instead 

[Robson]

I remember in Basel, Chris White asking the cameraman to show MK and not him and band 

[superval99]

I have only just received my copy of the box set and I was listening to OTN today and noticed that "Heavy Fuel" ended very abruptly.   This may have been mentioned already on this thread, but it is too long to read everything again!   On the video it did go immediately into the next song, so obviously that is the reason. 

[GuitarChris]

It is so great to have you here Chris! Thank you so much for these fantastic insights!

Do you know why Mark unfortunately stopped playing the end solo of Romeo and Juliet and therefore this is not in the record of "On the night"?

It was played in the 1991 shows I have listened to.

Thank you!

[Ingo]

My 2ct on the box set:

Rainbow
I love the Rainbow CDs, what a surprise to see a complete early concert appear after so many years (except from the few tracks that were included in the BBC Arenea documentary).
And great sound with much of the original dynamics preserved.

Live at the BBC
And I love to hear the new version of 'Live at the BBC 1978', as the CD we had before came out at the peak of the 'loudness war' in the 90ies,  it was compressed so much
This one is much better

Alchemy
Great to have the missing songs. What a pity that the 2nd half of Portobelle Belle is missing, I always loved that part.
Strange that it is not version that was remastered by Chuck Ainlay for the BluRay a few years ago (it does not include the sax lick in the intro of Solid Rock...)

On the Night
Love all the 'new' tracks

Also the Live At The BBC show is not a valuable addition, the Mono/Stereo argument for Tunnel of Love is not enough, as that track always felt not right on that album anyway which was called Live At The BBC and not Live in whatever. I never understood why they attached it to the show.

I couldn't agree more about the inclusion of Tunnel of Love on Live At The BBC, I have never understood why it was on that release. I like the rest of that album a lot but I only ever play it up to What's The Matter Baby because the last song feel so tacked on. I love the song and there's nothing wrong with the performance as such, but it represents a different era musically and is jarringly out of place with the other songs, which capture the essence of the 'stripped back four piece' band from the first few years.

I think it is strange that this is the Tunnel of Love from Dortmund, RockPop TV, December 1980, and not the version from BBC Whistle test, as stated. The BBC version was a few weeks before the Dortmund version. And I think it is weird to include a mono   recording to an official CD release.

I think nobody mentioned something discovered to me by Bruno Nunes.

After "Lions" in the new "Live at the BBC" there is something new that wasn't in the original release, the BBC Radio Dj introducing the band and when he mentions David Knopfler he says "on guitar and keyboards, David Knopfler".

Keyboards!

I think in summer 1978 David played his Wurlitzer piano on stage, on Portobelle Belle (listen to the Barbarellas recording from the same month). Not sure if there were more songs played on that Live at the BBC gig, or even the full concert, and only a few songs were broadcasted?

[Brunno Nunes]

Just reporting, I just realized that MFN present in On The Night was always the version on 05/31/92 Rotterdam,and Wild Theme on OTN is precisely in Feyenoord, Rotterdam HOL 30.05.92. I just compared it, I will do this little by little with the other songs!

Ok. Do you find time to just listen and enjoy it occasionally?

LE

Let's say that the curiosity to understand what is happening moves me!

The amount of work you put into these investigations seems immense! Very good effort and fans and fanbase in the future will be thankful. So kudos to you!

LE

Yes, it is something that requires a certain amount of attention and sensitivity, even memory, as you can imagine, I believe that I am able to handle these things channeling them in Dire Straits' work. I know that many people don't care about dates and places, just about music, I grew up seeing the inserts of vinyl records from my father's collection, so I always had the habit of seeing the inserts, technical details, where it was recorded , musicians, dates... I know that like me, there are people who care about this type of information, so it's for them in particular.

I can only thank you for the recognition, coming from a big Dire Straits fan, it's an honor. Gratitude! 

[Brunno Nunes]

Do these deep analyzes also apply to MK? I'm very impressed.

Yes, one thing naturally leads me to another, I follow MK's solo career and as an observer and detail-oriented, nothing escapes me in the master's work, whether with DS or solo. I'm glad you liked it, thank you!