Joop De Korte interview

[K-alberto]

Thank God, Joop was not obsessed with the 1992 tour, the planning mistakes and the grumpy atmosphere
That might be one of the reasons why his interview is so delighting.
It recalls the joy Dire Straits have always brought to people, from the very first to the very last day.

[straitsway75]

...it's true that they let too much time pass, 6 years, before starting the car again, but as a mitigating factor Mark had the fact of having to recover from the divorce, the real for that long break

That's is factually incorrect. Mark's divorce didn't happen until quite a bit after the end of the OES tour.

.but I remember interviews with John and also Mark, who explained well how tiring the Brothers in Arms tour had been and how much family relationships would have suffered. The end of Mark's marriage is not post On Every Street, but before and during. Songs like When it comes to you, Fade to black and You and your friend are the result...

[Chris W]

You made the best of it, but so did he, in my opinion.

But you weren't there and I was.
Remember he walked on stage to a 60,000 capacity standing ovation every night and the money was creaming in. Both Mark and John walked away from the tour as multi-millionaires. They just needed a bit more appreciation for the 'workers' who slaved their guts out for over a year to make it all possible.

[Chris W]

The end of Mark's marriage is not post On Every Street, but before and during. Songs like When it comes to you, Fade to black and You and your friend are the result...

He may have been unhappy in his marriage, but it was all under wraps during the tour. The divorce happened AFTER the tour. That is just a fact.

[Chris W]

.but I remember interviews with John and also Mark, who explained well how tiring the Brothers in Arms tour had been and how much family relationships would have suffered.

Don't agree to yet another extremely long tour then (based on how much money it will make you), then take out your frustrations on everyone else involved.
It's pretty basic humanity.
Again, it amazes me that on this forum every wrong Mark or John have performed over the years is exonerated and in fact blamed on the victims.
Classic was Manu Katche saying in an interview that he didn't enjoy his OES album session because Mark was very difficult. To which someone claimed it was because Manu wasn't a good enough drummer. Sigh.

[rmarques821]

.but I remember interviews with John and also Mark, who explained well how tiring the Brothers in Arms tour had been and how much family relationships would have suffered.

Again, it amazes me that on this forum every wrong Mark or John have performed over the years is exonerated and in fact blamed on the victims.

I have no idea what kind of threads you've been reading, but that's absolutely not true. There is plenty of criticism here about everything. Yes, there are one or two purists out there who think that everything MK does or creates is gold and he can do no wrong, but it's not representative of the whole forum.

[hunter v2.0]

Chris, so why didn't you pull out when you had such an awful time? Were there prohibitive contracutal/legal ramifications? Were you afraid quitting would have hurt your professional reputation? Or were you worried about financial insecurity as a freelancer?

[Chris W]

I answered this somewhere before.
Sometimes artists are difficult in rehearsals and at the first couple of shows, then their nerves settle down, they chill out and the tour becomes a pleasure.
Also, I was their third option (after Jeff and Manu), where are you going to find a decent drummer at very short notice. You have to think about the other band members, the crew, the management. You don't want to drop everyone in it.
I agreed to do the tour and I honoured that agreement. In fact I worked very hard every show (like the rest of the band).