Interview in German magazine "Eclipsed"

[Love Expresso]

Apparently, he feels too "rusty" to even play some gigs in London, and it would be just as much hassle as a whole tour.

I disagree with this. Obviously it is his option and there is nothing else to do that respect and swallow it, but I disagree it would be as much hassle as a whole tour, specially linked with everything he says about he wants to be at home with his family and not to travel. Let's say he does a week of playing live in London, he could be at home for the whole thing, for the rehearsals and for the shows, he would be taken from home to the rehearsals room and to the venue and brought to home after, so apart of obviously having to play, spent the X hours per day when rehearsing, and the X hours per day arriving, playing and leaving the venue, what's the hassle, further than his difficulties to play (that probably are the hassle itself)?

Again, I totally respect his choices and would take any new record as a gift, as we can't do anything else than take it and be grateful.

I think the hassle refers to him being rusty and unable to play, not the whole circus. I guess he never had a problem with touring and his family life over the last two decades. He once said they planned the tours around school holidays. But maybe none of the kids live at home anymore, which may be different from the 2019 tour, and he just wants to be with Kitty

Yes. I don't have the interview at hand but he clearly stated that he is aware of not having too many years left and made a conscious decision to spend the years left with Kitty. He was away from home too often, and he not only meant touring but also times in studios abroad. He enjoys immensly that his studio enables him to work in London but stay at home. Again, he is 74. Why still work anyway? It's all a bonus for us. That's how I see it.

LE

[Jules]

Apparently, he feels too "rusty" to even play some gigs in London, and it would be just as much hassle as a whole tour.

I disagree with this. Obviously it is his option and there is nothing else to do that respect and swallow it, but I disagree it would be as much hassle as a whole tour, specially linked with everything he says about he wants to be at home with his family and not to travel. Let's say he does a week of playing live in London, he could be at home for the whole thing, for the rehearsals and for the shows, he would be taken from home to the rehearsals room and to the venue and brought to home after, so apart of obviously having to play, spent the X hours per day when rehearsing, and the X hours per day arriving, playing and leaving the venue, what's the hassle, further than his difficulties to play (that probably are the hassle itself)?

Again, I totally respect his choices and would take any new record as a gift, as we can't do anything else than take it and be grateful.

I think the hassle refers to him being rusty and unable to play, not the whole circus. I guess he never had a problem with touring and his family life over the last two decades. He once said they planned the tours around school holidays. But maybe none of the kids live at home anymore, which may be different from the 2019 tour, and he just wants to be with Kitty

Yes. I don't have the interview at hand but he clearly stated that he is aware of not having too many years left and made a conscious decision to spend the years left with Kitty. He was away from home too often, and he not only meant touring but also times in studios abroad. He enjoys immensly that his studio enables him to work in London but stay at home. Again, he is 74. Why still work anyway? It's all a bonus for us. That's how I see it.

LE

Yes, that's the only way to see it, of course, as that's his decision.

[qjamesfloyd]

Exactly, I have accepted Mark is in a new phase of his life and career, and that phase does not include live performance anymore. It enables him to write more and more songs, which is great, he may have so many songs that he can give them to other artists to record, which is great to. I expect he is already thinking about the next album.

[dustyvalentino]

I don't think I'll ever forgive Mark for not doing more intimate gigs in pubs or clubs rather than sticking to ~100 identical stadiums/arena shows all the time, in the best-case scenario theatre if you're lucky. For the man who said a million times he loves small gigs he surely played a lot of big arenas. Why not play Ronnie Scott's type gig for a change, I would travel to Europe for that (when I was able to do it myself).

I saw him round about 20 times, the biggest venue would have been the Hydro in Glasgow and even then I was usually in the front row.

Guess I got lucky.

[rmarques821]

Apparently, he feels too "rusty" to even play some gigs in London, and it would be just as much hassle as a whole tour.

I disagree with this. Obviously it is his option and there is nothing else to do that respect and swallow it, but I disagree it would be as much hassle as a whole tour, specially linked with everything he says about he wants to be at home with his family and not to travel. Let's say he does a week of playing live in London, he could be at home for the whole thing, for the rehearsals and for the shows, he would be taken from home to the rehearsals room and to the venue and brought to home after, so apart of obviously having to play, spent the X hours per day when rehearsing, and the X hours per day arriving, playing and leaving the venue, what's the hassle, further than his difficulties to play (that probably are the hassle itself)?

Again, I totally respect his choices and would take any new record as a gift, as we can't do anything else than take it and be grateful.

He's just being diplomatic. He doesn't do a few gigs at RAH for one simple reason: he physically can't anymore. Can't stand upright for long, can't properly hold a guitar or play bar chords. No chance.

The only way I see him playing live ever again is if there's some kind of charity or special performance and he just comes in for 5 minutes and plays Romeo and Juliet and leaves.
But considering what he said in recent interviews and how simplified his guitar playing is on ODR, I don't think we'll even see that.

[Silvertown]

I think Mark might be a guest on some performance strumming acoustic or something like that.

It is good to know your limits and enjoy the life.

[Jules]

I think Mark might be a guest on some performance strumming acoustic or something like that.

It is good to know your limits and enjoy the life.

I thought that might happen during the Transatlantic Sessions concert in London last February. It was the perfect scenario for that. His own city, a band in which one of the musical directors is his friend Phil Cunningham, a band that has two of his band members, John McCusker and Mike MCGoldrick, and having announced his new record, the perfect chance to make a guest appearence to sing one or two new songs, as Clapton did last year. I bought tickets for that gig just in case, as I've seen one Transatlanctic show and enjoyed it a lot, so it was a bet that if would had went well, it would had been excellent, if not, I would had enjoyed a top quality show, which I did. Obviously he didn't appeared at the show despite all the positive factors for it, and in a way it was a slap of reality, that day I knew I would never seen again MK live again.

So MK talking openly or diplomaticly, about it, is just make peace with that slap on the face and settle the reality for once and all.

I just wish MK to live happily and quiet, as he has earned.

[Silvertown]

I just wish MK to live happily and quiet, as he has earned.

Very well said!