Legacy, Experience, Brothers in Band, Dire Wherever...
Let these guys earns their money.
It's a job.
ps. Chris comments are just perfect.
It's funny that some points of view seem to be full of spite. You're absolutely right, Rolo. I'll add one more thing: Mark Knopfler only has something to gain from tribute bands like DSE or DSL. As far as I know, they have to pay a fee, a percentage of each ticket that goes into MK's account. I don't know if the same thing happens with Spanish bands like Oscar's band, Alchemy Project or Brothers In Band, but for MK, there are only advantages. He makes money while sleeping, brushing his teeth... while cover and tribute bands provide entertainment for those who want to pay for it. I have no doubt that there is a lot of effort and dedication in each of these projects to bring something that matches the quality attributed to a Dire Straits show. It's never the same, but they fulfill the role of any quality cover or tribute band. If there are people who think they are paying to watch a Dire Straits show, without a doubt it is someone who only knows a couple of songs that they are able to recognize by name, SOS, SFA, MFN or WOL at most, so it is not the bands' problem, it is their problem that they do not inform themselves in the information age.
In addition to spreading the songs written by Mark Knopfler, making them travel around the world, entering people's daily lives, that is, they promote them, make these songs live, because they are invoked and in essence are presented by fans to fans, this is keeping the flame of the band's memory alive, since we will no longer have the opportunity in this existence to see Dire Straits again, Mark Knopfler nullified all possibilities. When they reversed the time machine and I was able to travel back in time to watch the performance at Rockpalast 79, Alchemy... in person, the tribute bands or covers won't make as much sense to me. 😅
Dear friend Brunno, people like you, the moderators of this forum, the Spanish group who film the concerts, who have the Tracker, the Dutch guys including the legend Jeroen, Pavel Fomenkov, etc. All of you are the ones keeping the flame of the band's memory alive.
Not Alan Clark or Phil Palmer or any other. They couldn't give a hot shit about Dire Straits. They will go silent the moment people stop buying tickets, as they were before DSL, DSE, DSZ or DSY, because it's obvious that for them it's just a money machine.
Dear marques821, we have a different perspective on this topic. It seems to me that you think it is immoral or lacking in creativity, inability to create original material... Well, how are they going to create original material with the proposal of a tribute band or cover?
Do you really think it is lacking in creativity to have a cover band or do a tribute? Do you have any idea what it is like to recreate arrangements, solos, that is, to reproduce Mark Knopfler's parts as frontman, sing and play at the same time (take into account the effort that often English is not the person's language), and here, I speak from my own experience, it is not easy, even for great musicians, but it is not impossible. So, look at the roles of the musicians to interpret the level of Alan Clark, Terry Williams, Pick Withers, Chris White...have you thought about the effort involved in this?
I appreciate the recognition in mentioning me as someone who keeps the band's flame alive, probably because of my contributions shared here, on the blog Universo Dire Straits, on Instagram or in groups on Facebook, but, just like me, Pavel and everyone you mentioned, when I look at a guy like Óscar Rosende, a big fan, a guy who has a vast knowledge of MK equipment, technical sound aspects of the DS, the same goes for the great tribute bands in Spain (they are the greatest, in my opinion), they all keep the flame of Dire Straits alive when they are playing with their projects, because at the front of each one of them, there is a big fan who dreamed of learning to play these songs with a band and play for audiences, but, to materialize this, they became professionals to deliver a quality product, (isn't that exactly what DS did?). I'm a guy who still dreams about this, everything I've done and do in this regard is on a micro level, just a few sporadic performances with a band among friends in my city, where we play classic rock, my own music, and of course, Dire Straits. I'm sure many here dream, or have dreamed of playing Dire Straits songs in a band, especially if you're a guitarist. I have a red Fender, when I play Sultans of Swing, Down to The Waterline, Lady Writer... I use this guitar and it's like a ritual, if there's a Dire Straits fan present, he'll connect immediately, if I respect the arrangement with my band, he'll be enchanted, I've seen it with my own eyes, the same happens when I see Óscar using a replica of the Schecter Sunbuster for Tunnel Of Love, or the Pensa for Calling Elvis, Ramon using a Les Paul for MFN, or the rhythm guitarist of Brothers In Band using a Steinberg for MFN, like Jack Sonni used to do in 85/86. This applies to DSE, Terrence also respects this aspect. The role of these bands is not to equal Dire Straits, but to try to bring the spirit of a band that no longer exists. They respect the arrangement, there is a demand, there are people wanting this experience. Each project has its own way of bringing this experience, whether it is reproducing Alchemy or On The Night. They respect the work. There is nothing that makes them an immoral or false act in what they are doing. It depends on the eyes of the beholder. Or if they were selling themselves as the return of the legendary band Dire Straits that ended its activities in the early 90s, which has not happened so far and if it does, it will be disapproved by all of us. (I doubt that will happen.)
Sorry for the long text, but it is an attempt to show a little more of my perspective on this. I do not want to convince you, but dialectics is always a way to break some paradigms.
