I want to start this message saying this is absolutely awesome and it's something we all been dreaming about and even more!
And now, the picky fan inside me, wants to write the following :
I assume that it was Guy the one in charge as he said something about this in his forum long ago.
- ALCHEMY
We don't have information about what date they choose the songs, if it's the 23rd of July in its entirity, a mix with the 22nd, or the 22nd in their entirity.
Why this doubt? We know Guy had the tapes of the 22nd available as he used them to extract "Portobello" for the new MFN compilation, so if he had them, he might had used them.
If he used the 22nd in its entirity, think about it, we will have another new Alchemy! but we won't have the old one in full...
- ON THE NIGHT
We don't know which date they used for each song, and we don't know also if Guy picked new sources for all the OTN existing songs or used the previous ones, so if it's the first case, we would have a totally new and different OTN than the one released in 1993, which would be cool!
Also if he used the previous ones, he might mixed them again so maybe they are more real and with better sound?
I miss that they included PLANET that live was a killing song. The text said they used some Paris recordings and they played that song in Paris at least twice but hey, they included WHEN IT COMES TO YOU and I THINK I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH! That's so awesome!
- LIVE AT THE BBC
I hope this time they used the correct TUNNEL from Old Grey Whistle Test and not the one from Werchert, or was it Dortmund?
- RAINBOW 79
For me this is the real GEMM of the pack as it is something totally unreleased and it has two unique moments in the DS history, it is the last concert/s of the original band (last gigs with David) and the awesome colaboration with the mighty Phil Lynnot!!!!!
Again, we don't know if they used the two nights at the Rainbow or just one of them, and according to setlist.fm, they played the nights before in Lewisham "Making Movies" live, so I always guessed they also played it at the Rainbow, as they were rehearsing the song in those days.
- VIDEO
We know that all the ALCHEMY, OTN and RAINBOW gigs were recorded in video so, can we expect them to be released as well in the future? I HOPE SO.
After years and years of complaing about re-releasing again and again the same stuff, finally someone listened to us, and whoever he/she is THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!
-Newly remastered versions of Alchemy and On The Night, both of which are currently unavailable on vinyl (Alchemy was last pressed in the mid-eighties, On The Night was last pressed for the original release in 1993).
-An expanded version of the original 2LP of Alchemy to include the existing digital/CD tracklist which includes ‘Love Over Gold’ and the extended versions of ‘Telegraph Road’, ‘Solid Rock’ and ‘Going Home’, with the addition of ‘Portobello Belle’ (released on the Money For Nothing compilation in 1998) as well as the unreleased songs from the performance – ‘Industrial Disease’ and ‘Twisting By The Pool’.
An expanded version of the original 2LP of On The Night to include tracks performed during the tour which have never been released, taken from multitrack recordings of shows in Nimes, Rotterdam and Paris: ‘Tunnel Of Love, ‘Telegraph Road’, ‘Sultans Of Swing’, ‘Two Young Lovers’, ‘When it Comes To You’, ‘I Think I Love You Too Much’.
-Encores on black vinyl (remastered for Black Friday 2021)
-Licenced 1995 collection Live At The BBC
-The unreleased Dire Straits Live from the Rainbow Theatre show, 1979 – mixed by Guy Fletcher