Dire Straits - When It Comes To You (Live in Nîmes, France / 1992 / Visualiser)

[Marnix]

Regarding unreleased classics - I'm sure Sultans Of Swing from the '92 tour sounded pretty terrible.
The drum sound isn't great on the Basel video. And yes it's a thrash fest. Something I regret but also a product of circumstances.
We had a B kit, which probably didn't sound as nice as my main kit. I was also set up right in front of Mark's very loud guitar speakers. I couldn't really hear anything but guitar, which made me thrash the kit and over play. Mark's guitar would have been loud in all the drum mics too.
With modern digital technology you could probably rescue it - which is I'm sure why Guy started to work on all those old recordings for the box set.

For me the OES tour was the only Dire Straits tour I saw live. And I pretty happy that I saw that tour and in my opinion it was a great experience to hear those songs live and was blown away. If I read al the “behind the scenes stories” I can imagine for the musicians it was different and difficult to work with Knopfler. But as music-lover I had a great time at the shows I have visited.
And I am also really happy with the Live box with the extra tracks the only thing in my opinion what could have been better was if they put “The Bug” on the spot after “Romeo & Juliet” like on the original video and “Solid Rock” and “local Hero “ after BiA then you had the perfect 2cd of the OTN expanded and than they didn’t had to add the Encores single as bonus disc.
But in the end i am happy we got after all these years these extra live tracks!!

[vape68]

It would be a significant expense to go back to the film and edit new songs from the raw footage, also the audio has to match the video, so the audio would also have to be remixed. Cost versus benefit? How many people would want to buy a second (expanded) version of the On The Night DVD?

MK can sell thousands of those 100 euros special boxes for new albums.

Imho an On The Night box would very easily outsell.

[Chris W]

I don't think so.

[quizzaciously]

It would be a significant expense to go back to the film and edit new songs from the raw footage, also the audio has to match the video, so the audio would also have to be remixed. Cost versus benefit? How many people would want to buy a second (expanded) version of the On The Night DVD?

MK can sell thousands of those 100 euros special boxes for new albums.

Imho an On The Night box would very easily outsell.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but was On The Night shot digitally? If so, it'll never be updated. Also, I remember Guy said the multitracks for it are either hard to find, or even worse, it only exists in the stereo mixdown form. So if it's all true, technically speaking, you can barely find things to improve in this DVD and it exists in its final form already.

The new 2023 mix sounds exactly like the original anyway. And the picture... It's still in glorious 1x1 pixels high definition to this day.

The expanded and remastered version sure could be successful as it's 1) desirable, 2) coming from dIRE sTRAITS (not every day you see something new from this band) and not solo Knopfler, 3) would neatly fall into the nostalgia wave for many people who saw the band live 30 years ago. Releasing it 10 years ago would be even better though

But overall, honestly, as someone who dreamed of a proper remaster of On The Night for over a decade, I can say forget about it.

[quizzaciously]

The treatment given to Dire Straits releases is historically modest, often bordering on mediocrity, and lately with the presence of "nickel hunting", the tenth edition of the album BIA, look at the way MK's solo albums have been released since 2009, you have to be willing to spend a lot of money to get what the record company imposes, this latest release is... discouraging, the marketing team is a disaster, oddly enough, it shows amateurism, look at the photos and information recently posted on the official channels, even the date of the videos...

And yet you are a hardcore fan?? ??
Being a smash hit artist, multi-millionaire and powerful entity almost as the sole controller of Dire Straits and his solo career, you can't blame a record company for the last 20 years of releases. mark has signed off on everything, from solo albums, to re-issues to photo sessions.

Yes, like everything in life there are two sides, this is the side that for me leaves something to be desired, that fails when it comes to DS and MK and I'm not just blaming the record company, it's clear that for decades MK has had control over what he wants to do with his work, for me it's clear that all of this is the consequence of a set of decisions that go through the Marketing team, record company, producer and of course, the greatest weight of the decision is MK's. And yet, I am a hardcore fan, because when I weigh it up, the songs he made with Dire Straits are greater than these modest release choice policies that I highlighted, the albums are incredible, the songs are wonderful, I love every tour the band did during their time of activity and I am deeply connected to their entire work like nothing else in this world, simply like that, and yet, this does not make me a blind and alienated fan, incapable of self-criticism of the band and artists that I admire the most, far from it, the fact of knowing my research object naturally leads me to realize where the gaps are, at least from my point of view. If everyone involved in the production of the DS release had a bolder and less modest outlook, we would have at some point had videos of these songs that were left out of Alchemy and On The Night. The Live 78/92 box set was a very positive sign, hopefully it sold well to encourage them to produce more material like this instead of releasing yet another version of the BIA album that would be more of the same.

Totally agree about two sides... Being a fan of MK is definitely a love–hate relationship, that's why you see so much of "hate" on this forum. A lot of love too. But it's not hate really, it's simply the annoyance from observing things that could be done vs. what was done. You don't even need to be a hardcore fan, a child can sometimes find how to improve things.

And remember we don't live in the vacuum and everybody can see how the legacy can be treated, how many bonus tracks, unreleased materials and remastered versions can see the light of day, crazy ideas from live multi-angle features from 2003 to instrumental versions of songs, updated visuals, demos, interviews, you name it. We're lucky to get at least something.

[dustyvalentino]

And you could finish an unfinished Picasso at the same time. Really, I've seen some crazy stuff on this forum and this line of argument takes the biscuit.

The comparison of a lost Picasso and the On The Night album makes me chuckle, bwah ha ha ha!

MK may be reluctant to revisit these times for other reasons but at the end of the day this will come down to cold hard cash. There might have been a window where it was financially viable to pay someone to edit this footage together when DVDs were still selling but that ship sailed a long time ago.

[ds1984]

Well the way the Dire Straits legacy is managed remains mysterious for me.

That Dire Straits live boxset was a complete surprise.

I dreamed of but was not too optimistic.

Why this boxset, why now ?

I would like to know what made it possible.

Did it sold well enough?

Is there another things to come or it is just a one off as Live At The BBC was one in 1995.

[dustyvalentino]

The CD version of the live box appears to be sold out on Amazon UK, so using that non scientific benchmark it appears to have sold well.

[Rolo]

Pavel brought a good discussion point.

Chris, I don't wanna be disrespectful in any way. However, the way that people consumes music is way different than 20 years ago. So, the music (as a product) that we know, are dead.

Long story short, Youtube is a free world where anyone can put anything. Just because are such horrible cover songs played there, you cannot put everyone on the same level. There are plenty of amazing digital artists, designers, developers and, yes, musicians delivering top notch material.

Pavel spoke about game developers and he is right. There are a bunch of modded video-games there are way better than the original. These guys don't need to work for Electronic Arts to be sucessfull anymore as a independent or consulting developers.

There are also amazing movies made using cellphones and digital art. There is a brazilian Netflix show called 3%. The original one was a short-movie that was avaliable on YT. The original was way better than the released streamed show.

The HBO series Westworld launched a score competition and the winner would be part of the show composers. The producers saw people adding their own sondtracks on scenes from the series and, some of them was pretty awasome.

Mark Knopfler launched a campaign for the video-clip of one of his songs and the winner was a small artist.

There are very, very competent people doing their jobs online.
As music, Internet is a free territory. Full of crap and also very good stuff.
Shit happens on corporative world. ( A LOT)
You told about fill uncompleted art, however, the almighty Guy Fletcher added fake drums on Fade To Black (from the live compilation) ruining the song mood. Would better to leave it out in my opinion.

There are major bands delivering 'almost raw' material as official release. Stones, Pink Floyd, Dylan... even DS has some 'almost official' releases on Youtube Music.
Mahavishnu Orchestra, witch I love, released a lot of 'almost raw' material with, also, incomplete songs.
Museums all aroud the world puts temporary exibitions of unfinished jobs from famous artists.

Of course that are cons about it (I doubt if Picasso would authorize people to see his unfinished paintings). Artists need to have control of their art to not be associated with some trash or something.

The world have changed and musicians are, unfortunately, struggling for their rights looking for a prism that has long gone. (this is other subject that I would like to talk)

MK concerts had decreasing his audience thru the last years.
Almost no publicity. MK Management thinks that, his audience is made of very rich people that buys Aston Martins, Expensive Gins and """"audiophiles"""" that spents tons of money on headphones.

How they "know" that?
Because MK sells a good amount of vinyls on Sweden, Austria and Luxembourg. This is insane.

There is no fanbase recycling.
The new generation doesn't speak the same language as MK Management.

There are fans and fans.
I agree that MK have a good amount fans that are stunning professionals that absolutely could deliver a fantastic job with his material.


Sorry the long post.

[ds1984]

The CD version of the live box appears to be sold out on Amazon UK, so using that non scientific benchmark it appears to have sold well.

I had a quick look and it is sold out on several platforms.

[Chris W]

The CD version of the live box appears to be sold out on Amazon UK, so using that non scientific benchmark it appears to have sold well.

It was a limited edition?
Also, extremely expensive.

[Chris W]

There are fans and fans.
I agree that MK have a good amount fans that are stunning professionals that absolutely could deliver a fantastic job with his material.

Professionals want to be paid right?

What the free access to Spotify and YouTube has resulted in is a mountain of mediocre content. It's not me saying it....it's a very common comment by a lot of 'fans'. Why is there no good music any more? There is, it's just hidden behind a tsunami of crap.
I now record drums for people remotely. I've made my own EP records in the past and videos. Yeah, it's cheap and easy to do something basic to a minimum level. It is very hard to do something excellent, even harder to do something that would have stood up 25 years ago.
Even colour grading video to look good is an actual professional career in itself, requiring hours of training and years of experience.
In the On The Night era you had multiple people with vast experience all doing separate jobs - mixing the audio, colour grading the video, editing the video, mixing the video with the audio. To expect one 'fan' to do all that now is......dreaming.

[Marnix]

The CD version of the live box appears to be sold out on Amazon UK, so using that non scientific benchmark it appears to have sold well.

It was a limited edition?
Also, extremely expensive.

Extremely expensive? I paid 45 euro’s for 8 cd’s. Its not quite expensive in my opinion.

[Chris W]

I paid £50. The vinyl was a lot more expensive....£150+?
I'm not talking about 'expensive' for fans or per CD, I'm just saying paying £50 is not an instant purchase for many people in a cost of living crisis. At the time a lot of people were struggling to heat their homes, or put food on the table.
I couldn't justify purchasing The Waterboys 'This Is The Sea' box set, I think it was £80?

[dustyvalentino]

I thought the CD box set was good value and while I am by no means wealthy I am fortunate enough to be able to make a discretionary purchase of £50 without it making a massive impact. Also, it was a good birthday present for my wife to get me

Would have been nice to get the vinyl set but I am done with MK and DS vinyl until they stop using the GZ plant which is a total lottery quality wise.

Overall DS/MK aren't the worst offenders in this area.