New DS Live Box Set, 3rd November 2023!

[cannibals]

Some live performing on the bbc.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001b9yc

.

[Robson]

Chris I hope my question won't be too personal. How did you spend your free time before the evening concerts? Have you, Mark and the band tried to get to know each other better and become friends?

[Chris W]

Eating, maybe walking arounds the venues with my camera. I mostly hung out with Chris White and Paul Franklin, from beginning to end of the tour.
I liked Guy and Danny, but they had their own posse with Alan, and sometimes Phil.
John was OK too, but one has not much in common with 1) your employer and 2) millionaire rock stars.

[Robson]

Eating, maybe walking arounds the venues with my camera. I mostly hung out with Chris White and Paul Franklin, from beginning to end of the tour.
I liked Guy and Danny, but they had their own posse with Alan, and sometimes Phil.
John was OK too, but one has not much in common with 1) your employer and 2) millionaire rock stars.

Thank you for your answer.

Do you remember why Dire Straits didn't come to Poland? Has anyone mentioned this? What were the reasons?

[Matchstickman]

Bringing Paul Franklin along for the tour, as good a player as he is, has always been somewhat puzzling. He did not seem a logical choice for DS. It seemed that Mark wanted to listen to his pedal steel, and perhaps jam a bit with him, but that country vibe felt a bit off.

This also created the issue of having (too?) many players on stage, all of whom needing something to do (a sax player playing tambourine, etc.). Listening to Telegraph Road, one is struck by the number of different instruments used for soloing, and it's hard not to think that "that used to be a distorted guitar".

[Marnix]

@Chris Witten

Did you guys also recorded some of the rehearsals or soundchecks for improvement or changes in the arrangements of the songs during the tour ?

[Chris W]

@Chris Witten

Did you guys also recorded some of the rehearsals or soundchecks for improvement or changes in the arrangements of the songs during the tour ?

Nope. We rarely sound checked. Sound checks, which were also a bit of a rehearsal, were usually the day before the first show of each leg - so before Australia, before North America, before Europe at Easter 1992.

[Chris W]

Bringing Paul Franklin along for the tour, as good a player as he is, has always been somewhat puzzling. He did not seem a logical choice for DS. It seemed that Mark wanted to listen to his pedal steel, and perhaps jam a bit with him, but that country vibe felt a bit off.

This also created the issue of having (too?) many players on stage, all of whom needing something to do (a sax player playing tambourine, etc.). Listening to Telegraph Road, one is struck by the number of different instruments used for soloing, and it's hard not to think that "that used to be a distorted guitar".

I agree and disagree.
Paul was one of the best things about the show (for me). He wasn't 'country', he could solo in any genre as well as anyone on stage, he could play Be-Bop jazz on pedal steel. I think Mark had him there because he was an outstanding musician he respected, also because it would be hard to play some of the OES tracks without him (You and Your Friend). Paul's solo on Walk Of Life was always a highlight for me.
I don't think Phil brought anything other than solid rhythm guitar.
Much as I loved Danny - nice guy, amazing player - I don't think you needed percussion on every song, nor someone doubling up on cymbal crashes, tom fills etc.
I totally agree with you though, it would have been amazing to have the smallest unit playing on some songs, and only add players where they were needed. Instead, it WAS a wall of sound, with all nine people playing on every song (except the first half of Sultans).

[Marnix]

@Chris Witten

Did you guys also recorded some of the rehearsals or soundchecks for improvement or changes in the arrangements of the songs during the tour ?

Nope. We rarely sound checked. Sound checks, which were also a bit of a rehearsal, were usually the day before the first show of each leg - so before Australia, before North America, before Europe at Easter 1992.

Thnx for your reply. I was curious because some artists or bands also record their soundcheck of rehearsal.

[hunter v2.0]

@Chris Witten

Did you guys also recorded some of the rehearsals or soundchecks for improvement or changes in the arrangements of the songs during the tour ?

Nope. We rarely sound checked. Sound checks, which were also a bit of a rehearsal, were usually the day before the first show of each leg - so before Australia, before North America, before Europe at Easter 1992.

Wow, that's surprising given that you did play a great variety of venues. And back then you used wedges, not in-ears like today, so setting the monitor levels would have been a lot more venue dependent as well. So did the sound guys have some baseline presets from the rehearsals and then adjusted the sound to the venue during the first songs of the set?

[Chris W]

We were either in arenas or outdoor venues. It was our own stage, our own PA and monitors. So the band set up was identical from show to show, the only thing that changed was the room size, which can impact the onstage sound I agree.
We probably did more soundchecks on the first UK/Europe leg. Most other shows we were flying in during the afternoon, so no one wanted to fly earlier to do a soundcheck then hang around an empty venue for three hours before the show.
From memory we barely did a soundcheck once we transitioned to the open air stadiums (European spring and summer), with the exception of Paris, Nimes and Rotterdam where we sound checked extensively for the benefit of the live album and film sound crew.

[hunter v2.0]

Yeah, and of course with open air shows there's a lot less to struggle with in terms of bass build-up and reflections.

[Matchstickman]

I agree and disagree.
Paul was one of the best things about the show (for me). He wasn't 'country', he could solo in any genre as well as anyone on stage, he could play Be-Bop jazz on pedal steel. I think Mark had him there because he was an outstanding musician he respected, also because it would be hard to play some of the OES tracks without him (You and Your Friend). Paul's solo on Walk Of Life was always a highlight for me.
I don't think Phil brought anything other than solid rhythm guitar.
Much as I loved Danny - nice guy, amazing player - I don't think you needed percussion on every song, nor someone doubling up on cymbal crashes, tom fills etc.
I totally agree with you though, it would have been amazing to have the smallest unit playing on some songs, and only add players where they were needed. Instead, it WAS a wall of sound, with all nine people playing on every song (except the first half of Sultans).

Yes, it would probably have benefitted some songs to have a smaller line-up. The pedal steel solo on BIA, the flute intro on Private Investigations, etc., seemed somewhat unnecessary and distracting, though technically played well. These additions also made so many songs 8+ minutes.

You are right that Paul could solo in a variety of genres (Fade to Black, etc.), but the overall feel of the pedal steel would lean in a certain direction. Compare Clapton's solo in Walk of Life (Mandela gig) to Paul's, for instance. Eric's was more rock 'n' roll, which is probably what most DS fans would prefer. But to each their own.

[Matchstickman]

We were either in arenas or outdoor venues. It was our own stage, our own PA and monitors. So the band set up was identical from show to show, the only thing that changed was the room size, which can impact the onstage sound I agree.
We probably did more soundchecks on the first UK/Europe leg. Most other shows we were flying in during the afternoon, so no one wanted to fly earlier to do a soundcheck then hang around an empty venue for three hours before the show.
From memory we barely did a soundcheck once we transitioned to the open air stadiums (European spring and summer), with the exception of Paris, Nimes and Rotterdam where we sound checked extensively for the benefit of the live album and film sound crew.

Again, thanks for all this info Chris. I'm sure all of the long-time fans appreciate this greatly. 

[Love Expresso]

I also got the box for Christmas and I’m working my way through it.

I’ve got Rainbow on now. It’s worth the price of admission alone.

I got the CDs and they sound beautiful. I’ve read reports about issues with the Alchemy vinyl quality.

I could have bet that you would have chosen the vinyl edition. Could you tell me more about the quality issue with the alchemy records? Praises are pretty high over all about the vinyl quality.

LE

I was put off by some noisy vinyl on the solo box to be honest.

Multiple complaints in the Discogs comments

https://www.discogs.com/master/3295336-Dire-Straits-Live-1978-1992


And some people reporting the same thing on Hoffman

New Dire Straits Live Box Set, 3rd November 2023

I do love records but ultimately it doesn’t make sense to me to pay £200 for a potentially flawed product when I can get perfection for a quarter of the price.

Thanks for directing me to these reports. Interesting that they are so different as some people totally praise the quality as our member Darling Pretty did. I will have to sleep over the decision.

LE

Seems there is some inconsistency. I guess if you buy from Amazon it your can replace without much hassle but the CDs sound perfect to me so I’m happy with them.

So this morning the Vinyl Live Box arrived. Thanks to Dusty for the links so I was able to collect all the different complaints and flaws about the pressing. It went from hiss and distortion throughout OTN over non-fills in Private Investigatons and Solid Rock to a damaged Lions from BBC and other things people found, including a vocal sound from MK as if the stylus was full of dust... Well, I checked all albums now since the afternoon and really had a great time. I am happy to report that all 12 records from my Box sound flawless and perfectly well. They play without any noise or scratches and are an absolute joy to listen to.

So maybe I am just glad or some people should check their systems and clean the records first. It IS an expensive Set but it is worth every penny.

Sorry to bring it up again but as I had started with questions about it I felt I had to close the case of flawed records. At least there seems to be a big chance to get lucky and fetch a flawless Box.

About the music itself I only might make a remark about that I agree that Industrial Disease sounds pretty awful and maybe that was the reason to leave it off the album from the beginning.

LE