New DS Live Box Set, 3rd November 2023!

[Chris W]

As Dusty says, Mark Knopfler has been selling his live concerts, mixed but more or less quickly as some were available just when you were out of the gig (2010 tour), others the day after (2013) and in others one week or less after the concert.

It would be to drive fans away from unofficial recordings, which he has no control over. It would not touch the sides in terms of his touring expenses or million dollar lifestyle. The fact is, many artists ask fans not to film the shows on cell phones. Back in the day artists tried very hard to block bootleg recording and sales.
Since the internet some artists have just decided - if you can't beat them, join them.

[dustyvalentino]

Of course MK is rich af, and I guess he already was in the early 80's. But he has a superior studio to pay plus all this high level touring with a private jet and an expensive band had to be very tightly calculated.

He doesn't need the studio, the private jet or the band. I am 100% sure when the tour is planned, paying for the hotels, flights and band members is calculated in to the tour costings, not based on selling live show downloads afterwards.

Yes, but you know how these things go, even wealthy people get used to a certain lifestyle which needs to be funded, multiple houses, state of the art recording studio etc. It appears to be the case that since MK apparently retired from touring in 2019 there has been an effort to promote more DS stuff for sale (this box set, other merch on the website, toy guitars etc), maybe all this stuff is for artistic reasons but maybe not.

[Chris W]

Yes, but you know how these things go, even wealthy people get used to a certain lifestyle which needs to be funded, multiple houses, state of the art recording studio etc.

You know if you've spent any time with people in this category. More often than not it's to demonstrate how continuingly successful you are to your peers.
McCartney never needs to tour or release another record. He loves filling huge stadiums however, and he will be absolutely beaming from ear to ear that the new single is number one. It is more about bragging rights than filling the bank balance. How does an 80 year old spend $1.2 billion?
You can bet if he bumps into Paul Simon or Elton John he'll mention the number one single however.
Mark would want to find things for Guy to do. I'm sure John is very happy to top up his bank accounts too, although by normal standards John never needs to work again either.

[Love Expresso]

Mark Knopfler stated more than once that he never did anything for money (which I always doubted). On the other hand he was one of those artists who always was making decisions which could be interpreted as purely money-based. My guess is that he gives a lot on advice from his accountants who tell him what would be the best to do, to keep the whole machinery run. If they convince him, he will agree to these sorts of things plus he feels a lot of responsibilty for the people around him.

I once overhead Paul Crockford before the first RAH Show 2010 saying something like MK would be like an oil tanker, very heavy and slowly to change. That was related to the start of live downloads after the show which began in May 2010.

LE

[dustyvalentino]

Yes, but you know how these things go, even wealthy people get used to a certain lifestyle which needs to be funded, multiple houses, state of the art recording studio etc.

You know if you've spent any time with people in this category. More often than not it's to demonstrate how continuingly successful you are to your peers.
McCartney never needs to tour or release another record. He loves filling huge stadiums however, and he will be absolutely beaming from ear to ear that the new single is number one. It is more about bragging rights than filling the bank balance. How does an 80 year old spend $1.2 billion?
You can bet if he bumps into Paul Simon or Elton John he'll mention the number one single however.
Mark would want to find things for Guy to do. I'm sure John is very happy to top up his bank accounts too, although by normal standards John never needs to work again either.

I think the key phrase here is "by normal standards".

It's a great point though and MK is quite interesting in this sense. He is almost unique in that he walked away from the very vehichle that would have allowed him to maintain the kind of profile you talk about. He quietly walked away from the Dire Straits brand.

[Jules]

As Dusty says, Mark Knopfler has been selling his live concerts, mixed but more or less quickly as some were available just when you were out of the gig (2010 tour), others the day after (2013) and in others one week or less after the concert.

It would be to drive fans away from unofficial recordings, which he has no control over. It would not touch the sides in terms of his touring expenses or million dollar lifestyle. The fact is, many artists ask fans not to film the shows on cell phones. Back in the day artists tried very hard to block bootleg recording and sales.
Since the internet some artists have just decided - if you can't beat them, join them.

And in my opinion, it's the more clever thing you can do it as an artist.

And as a fan, me, and probably most of us would shout "Take my money!"

[Brunno Nunes]

Brunno, and others,

I can't imagine why anyone would add "yeah you alright" from one show to another. My recollection is that Mark shouted something (it varied) during the intro of 'Calling Elvis' many times on the tour.

I could assume that as it is not an experience of a particular show in its entirety but rather a compilation of different shows, then the very nature of OTN's proposal leaves room for them to put together the show with the intention of bringing a somewhat "cinematic" product, in the sense that a lot of production was done, so it's likely that those involved in the production had the idea of giving this "face" to the show, creating layers like that greeting in CE's introduction that doesn't match any of the shows in Nimes and Rotterdam that were used for OTN. It is clear to me that the song CE on OTN was built in the studio, they used parts from at least 3 shows and built what we can see and hear in this version on OTN, this does not give the listener a real experience, in a certain sense it is a fiction , does it have artistic value? Certainly, but I would give it a greater historical value if it were a version of a single show, a more honest, less "Hollywood" experience.

[Chris W]

I think the key phrase here is "by normal standards".

I was talking about you....me....the man and woman in the street. The amount of money people can expect to earn in a lifetime. Mark probably earns that in a calendar year sitting at home, just from his hit songs.
Not saying he doesn't deserve it. I'm just disagreeing that he needs downloads of live shows to keep his finances ticking over.

[dustyvalentino]

I think the key phrase here is "by normal standards".

I was talking about you....me....the man and woman in the street. The amount of money people can expect to earn in a lifetime. Mark probably earns that in a calendar year sitting at home, just from his hit songs.
Not saying he doesn't deserve it. I'm just disagreeing that he needs downloads of live shows to keep his finances ticking over.

Yes, I get what you were meaning.

At least MK actually wrote the songs, there are plenty of people living off copyrights who only have spurious connections to the original authors.

In any case, as a professional musician it makes sense to maximise all potential revenue streams unless there are negatives that outweigh the benefits.

[Chris W]

BTW, I just randomly clicked on the first live bootleg audio from the OES tour that came up on my Youtube (San Diego) and Mark asks the crowd  "You alright" during the 'Elvis' intro. From my memory he probably shouted that at most shows.

[Jules]

BTW, I just randomly clicked on the first live bootleg audio from the OES tour that came up on my Youtube (San Diego) and Mark asks the crowd  "You alright" during the 'Elvis' intro. From my memory he probably shouted that at most shows.

Also in many recordings, specially in Europe, you can hear MK telling the audience "please don't push" during Walk of life.

[Marnix]

BTW, I just randomly clicked on the first live bootleg audio from the OES tour that came up on my Youtube (San Diego) and Mark asks the crowd  "You alright" during the 'Elvis' intro. From my memory he probably shouted that at most shows.

Also in many recordings, specially in Europe, you can hear MK telling the audience "please don't push" during Walk of life.

The “please don’t push” quote was because some people in crowd were pushing in the front of stage and some people get stuck and almost fainted

[Matchstickman]

BTW, I just randomly clicked on the first live bootleg audio from the OES tour that came up on my Youtube (San Diego) and Mark asks the crowd  "You alright" during the 'Elvis' intro. From my memory he probably shouted that at most shows.

Brunno claims that Mark did not say this in Rotterdam or Nimes when they shot On the Night. If so, the line must be from another night (Paris seems likely). Note that we cannot see Mark in the OTN video when he says this. It must have been a nightmare to edit the Calling Elvis video.

[Matchstickman]

Brunno, and others,

I can't imagine why anyone would add "yeah you alright" from one show to another. My recollection is that Mark shouted something (it varied) during the intro of 'Calling Elvis' many times on the tour.

I could assume that as it is not an experience of a particular show in its entirety but rather a compilation of different shows, then the very nature of OTN's proposal leaves room for them to put together the show with the intention of bringing a somewhat "cinematic" product, in the sense that a lot of production was done, so it's likely that those involved in the production had the idea of giving this "face" to the show, creating layers like that greeting in CE's introduction that doesn't match any of the shows in Nimes and Rotterdam that were used for OTN. It is clear to me that the song CE on OTN was built in the studio, they used parts from at least 3 shows and built what we can see and hear in this version on OTN, this does not give the listener a real experience, in a certain sense it is a fiction , does it have artistic value? Certainly, but I would give it a greater historical value if it were a version of a single show, a more honest, less "Hollywood" experience.

You pose interesting questions. The concept of CE as a montage was made possible by the click track, as Mark could pick and choose licks from various nights. But this means that the "OTN version of CE" is not a live performance in the normal sense. And for the video, they must have made sure to edit around this.

[Brunno Nunes]

BTW, I just randomly clicked on the first live bootleg audio from the OES tour that came up on my Youtube (San Diego) and Mark asks the crowd  "You alright" during the 'Elvis' intro. From my memory he probably shouted that at most shows.

Brunno claims that Mark did not say this in Rotterdam or Nimes when they shot On the Night. If so, the line must be from another night (Paris seems likely). Note that we cannot see Mark in the OTN video when he says this. It must have been a nightmare to edit the Calling Elvis video.

Exactly that, thank you for bringing more light to the aspect I'm trying to show, it's a subtlety, but it makes all the difference to show that there is a lot of CE editing in OTN.