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91

Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: No Tour with the new album.

« Last post by goon525 on January 24, 2023, 02:42:41 am »

I remember the two 2019 concerts I attended as absolutely stunning. We got tracks not played live for many years, and even though he was not playing as 5 or 10 years ago, it was still fantastic. If those were the last times I saw the man then it is what it is.   

No, I’m afraid he didn’t play What It Is.

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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: No Tour with the new album.

« Last post by rmarques821 on January 24, 2023, 02:35:43 am »

Given no tour what will be interesting to see is the standard of guitar on the new record.

I often wonder if Mark stayed away from guitar complexity because of the pressure to recreate it live coupled with fading ability. Obviously in the studio, stuff can be far more worked on.

So here's the hypothesis. No live work = More adventurous guitar playing.

Thoughts?

That's a very interesting point, but I don't think it will happen. Because what we've seen since Shangri-La is a gradual process of song simplification where the guitar no longer plays a major role, with a few exceptions of course. He himself said: "I've become so obsessed with writing songs that my guitar playing as suffered as a consequence."
On Tracker there's not much going on as far as guitar playing is concerned, and even less in DTRW with the advent of the sax and trumpet.

Now, we know this next album could be more guitar infused with the involvement of Greg Leisz and his pedal steel guitar. It's a possibility. But it's also a possibility he will be using it to further disguise his guitar playing.
It's going to be very interesting to see that in the future.

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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: No Tour with the new album.

« Last post by Stiglar on January 24, 2023, 12:28:43 am »

I absolutely adored the show I went to in 2019 in Verona, it's a potentially unpopular opinion but I've kinda liked that since 2010 or so he has gradually steered towards songwriting over guitar playing and I think the show did a great job at playing great music and not leaning as heavy on the guitar playing it was so much more balanced. I feel it was a far better way to go about it than 2015 when he was trying to play to his 2010-2013 standard and struggled a lot on some shows.

I feel as though if he had played shows like in 96-2001 which featured him much more as a guitar player it would've gotten more stale and it didn't seem to be what he found interesting anymore. I love that MK has snapshots of time that he doesn't try to recreate. Alchemy is Alchemy for instance and i'm glad he didn't try to recreate it later.

I could tell it would be the last tour and I'm happy that he's walking away from it whilst still putting on (in my opinion) great shows. A few RAH gigs would be great after an album but who knows? I'm overjoyed there will be another album coming!

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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: No Tour with the new album.

« Last post by 2manyguitars on January 24, 2023, 12:09:57 am »

Given no tour what will be interesting to see is the standard of guitar on the new record.

I often wonder if Mark stayed away from guitar complexity because of the pressure to recreate it live coupled with fading ability. Obviously in the studio, stuff can be far more worked on.

So here's the hypothesis. No live work = More adventurous guitar playing.

Thoughts?

95

Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: No Tour with the new album.

« Last post by Robson on January 23, 2023, 09:26:22 pm »

There will be no official statement. Mark said this in 2018 when asked if 2019 would be his last tour.

 “It might very well be. It will be funny to say goodbye to it, because it’s always been the end of the cycle. But I won’t think about it. I’ll just make a record like I’ve always made, and then when it comes to talking about the tour, I just won’t talk about it.”

Thank you for this quote and reminder:)

I just won’t talk about it

Just like with DS.

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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: No Tour with the new album.

« Last post by rmarques821 on January 23, 2023, 08:35:32 pm »

There will be no official statement. Mark said this in 2018 when asked if 2019 would be his last tour.

 “It might very well be. It will be funny to say goodbye to it, because it’s always been the end of the cycle. But I won’t think about it. I’ll just make a record like I’ve always made, and then when it comes to talking about the tour, I just won’t talk about it.”

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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: No Tour with the new album.

« Last post by quizzaciously on January 23, 2023, 07:00:05 pm »

There is no official confirmation yet at the website.

What kind of confirmation do you expect? A statement telling he would tour no more? I don't think he would do such a thing.

Maybe, when there is a release date for the new record, a small line telling there won't be any tour dates announced or something like that, but IO guess that Mk being MK, they are not even say that.

For me the official confirmation is in the promotional interviews from DTRW where MK started saying that touring will be the first thing to end, and when on tour, he confirmed that playing live, so, thats for me official confirmation, from MK himself.

Yes, any "confirmation" might be in the form of the Hansen film and interviews. I can't imagine MK releasing a statement like Paul Simon did about his retirement from live performances. By the way, since then Paul Simon played live multiple times, so it's not the end of the world. As long as Mark is alive and healthy, I think he'll keep playing live in some shape or form, just no big tours, which became a little stale anyway. Copy and paste, copy and paste... With different names.

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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: Expanded version of Alchemy

« Last post by the visitor on January 23, 2023, 01:04:03 pm »

After writing this thread I was struggling to think what an updated Alchemy might include.

I think they got the song selection right on the original release. I don't really like Industrial Disease or Twisting by the Pool as songs really.

What would be more interesting would be an alternative mix.  Telegraph Road on MFN which was remixed is now.my go to version of this song, the mix having much more impact than on the Alchemy version.

If they were to do anything, adding the show from the day before would be of real interest.

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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: Expanded version of Alchemy

« Last post by jbaent on January 23, 2023, 12:08:13 pm »

Any expanded version of Alchemy for me would be just adding Industrial disease, twisting by the pool and portobello belle, without touching anything else.

The perfect one for me would be that Guy remix everything together, but considering last mix was made by Chuck Ainlay, i don't think he would dare to do all again. Maybe they could add the day before (they have the tapes as they used the portobello belle from that day in the the new MFN compilation) and mix that himself but, my guess is this, as usual, is not happening at all.

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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: No Tour with the new album.

« Last post by jbaent on January 23, 2023, 12:04:47 pm »

There is no official confirmation yet at the website.

What kind of confirmation do you expect? A statement telling he would tour no more? I don't think he would do such a thing.

Maybe, when there is a release date for the new record, a small line telling there won't be any tour dates announced or something like that, but IO guess that Mk being MK, they are not even say that.

For me the official confirmation is in the promotional interviews from DTRW where MK started saying that touring will be the first thing to end, and when on tour, he confirmed that playing live, so, thats for me official confirmation, from MK himself.