Alan Clark - new interview

[dustyvalentino]

That was just a marketing thing anyway, although we can assume MK didn’t care enough about it to stop it.

We know that he hated it - someone here has described Mark peeling off the sticker of, I think, RPD, when signing it for a fan.

If he hated it he could have stopped it.

[quizzaciously]

That was just a marketing thing anyway, although we can assume MK didn’t care enough about it to stop it.

We know that he hated it - someone here has described Mark peeling off the sticker of, I think, RPD, when signing it for a fan.

If he hated it he could have stopped it.

This is a classic psychological phenomenon when an artist hates the thing that made him famous, not because it made him famous but because he wants people to recognize his other work or associate him with other works. Actor Christopher Plummer hated the movie The Sound Of Music, even though it made him famous and freed him for probably the rest of his long life, which was pretty much 55 years.

In the recent video where Mark asked a kid, what he played on his Les Paul, and the kid said he played Dire Straits stuff, I'm not 100% sure that Mark, who has led a solo career for 31 years now was 100% happy about it and said "nobody's perfect" 100% as a joke. A true artist, like a piper, is a piper to the end and he cares about his stuff, and it's perfectly understandable, no problem here at all.

As for the RPD sticker, the answer is simple too — it helped with the sales. If it didn't, they wouldn't put it in the first place, and since it's long gone now, Mark won.

[quizzaciously]

And I can already foresee I will be bombarded with comments that I dared to doubt Mark's honesty when answering a kid in a cancer trust hospital. Come on, people, it's just an example. Try to put yourself in Mark's shoes and imagine how YOU would feel to see Dire Straits stickers on your solo records and people playing Sultans Of Swing to you (or asking about Trapp Family if you're Plummer).

[Matchstickman]

That was just a marketing thing anyway, although we can assume MK didn’t care enough about it to stop it.

We know that he hated it - someone here has described Mark peeling off the sticker of, I think, RPD, when signing it for a fan.

If he hated it he could have stopped it.

Maybe. My impression is that he did not know about it and was surprised to see it on records in the stores.

[Knut]

>That said, the cover bands get the last laugh. Who's on tour, and who's retired from playing live?

Not sure you have nailed the last laugh definition.
They are only playing live because of MK songs.
People are only interested in them because of MK songs.
They have to pay MK every time they perform.
Even when MK dies they will still have to pay.
I laugh whenever I listen to TOTT because I don't take it seriously.

From my understanding after googling the topic, it's the venue that pays the royalties - not the cover bands.

Also, you missed the point. If someone makes a song mocking cover bands, and the artists is unwilling or unable to perform live and the cover band(s) continue on, that IS the last laugh. Literally. They play, the original composer don't.

But that's the circle of life, eh? When everybody from cover bands stops playing/dies, their descendants will play the music and have the last laugh themselves. By their time it will be classical music. Most importantly, I believe it WILL be played as the music is just so great and in high demand anyway.

And don't forget an original song mocking a cover band is still an original song while they are stuck dancing to somebody else's tune. That's WHY you need to be extra cautious and extra considerate and polite with the source material. As far as I'm concerned, they acted as if it's Dire Straits 2.0, so they got a bite from MK.

Even MK has acted like that. So, he can bite his own tail if he wants to ("the voice and guitar from Dire Straits")

That's very funny until you realise that Mark has more than enough rights to say he's the voice and guitar from Dire Straits, as he IS the voice and guitar from Dire Straits. And songwriter, and producer, and arranger, and talking head in interviews, and talent manager, and... You get the point

Sure, but if he can - surely other can, too. And if it wasn't his choice, then I think we can assume that the branding of DSL/DSE also isn't decided by ex-DS-members alone. There's nothing wrong with important band members profiling themselves as such.

[Knut]

That was just a marketing thing anyway, although we can assume MK didn’t care enough about it to stop it.

We know that he hated it - someone here has described Mark peeling off the sticker of, I think, RPD, when signing it for a fan.

If he hated it he could have stopped it.

This is a classic psychological phenomenon when an artist hates the thing that made him famous, not because it made him famous but because he wants people to recognize his other work or associate him with other works. Actor Christopher Plummer hated the movie The Sound Of Music, even though it made him famous and freed him for probably the rest of his long life, which was pretty much 55 years.

In the recent video where Mark asked a kid, what he played on his Les Paul, and the kid said he played Dire Straits stuff, I'm not 100% sure that Mark, who has led a solo career for 31 years now was 100% happy about it and said "nobody's perfect" 100% as a joke. A true artist, like a piper, is a piper to the end and he cares about his stuff, and it's perfectly understandable, no problem here at all.

As for the RPD sticker, the answer is simple too — it helped with the sales. If it didn't, they wouldn't put it in the first place, and since it's long gone now, Mark won.

This is true in general - people very often dislike being "one trick ponies" to everyone else. Like, the best compliment a pretty woman can get is that she's intelligent (or something else, like that), as "you look beautiful" is something she would have heard a billion times before and being a "prettyface" isn't all that exciting anymore. Like, I was praised for my math skills in school (among other things), and as an adult I want to show that I can do more than that. A compliment has it's most value when the receiver isn't aware of his og hers skill (or whatever) beforehand. I think praising John's bass playing has more value than praising Mark for his guitar abilities, for instance, if John is being judged as someone "less talented" than the rest (and he felt that way - which I don't know if he did).

[dustyvalentino]

I don't have any skills.

Praise is overrated.

[mariosboss]

What a strange bunch of people a lot of you are.
Naive to think Mark Knopfler is this wonderful generous, friendly human being.
I absolutely love Mark's guitar playing especially on the Love Over Gold Album. Fantastic. When I was 6 I would often play air guitar to that album, along with Making Movies and even the slightly cheesy Brothers In Arms. In terms of my favourite album you can't beat the production of making movies. Pick's drums sound exceptional.

But some of you are almost brainwashed.
Even when Chris Whitten gives quality answers, some of you have the audacity to actually question him. 

Knopfler isn't this warm friendly person you all make out he is. Of course i'm sure it's not a thing he does on purpose, he is just like that. People
are different. Some people are warm, others aren't.

What I find fascinating, and maybe it's because you are all more Knopfler solo fans than Dire straits is...
- What happened to Hal Lindes? Why did he leave the band? Was he sacked? I think it wasn't straightforward at all... I think there's a dark story behind it...
- Poor Jack Sonni, the chap is no longer with us but hardly anyone is interested. Deary deary me...
- Why did Knopfler fail to contact Sonni or Terry Williams when the band reunited? I'm sure a fanboy will reply "well it's a new era... mark must have felt he needed a fresh start but with his sidekick Guy" HAHAHA. Well it would have been nice to inform Jack / Terry etc.
- I could go on and on...

Best wishes everyone.

[Love Expresso]

I read all your posts and you are right: People are ..."different". You are the best example for it.

LE

[quizzaciously]

I read all your posts and you are right: People are ..."different". You are the best example for it.

LE

LE, you're such a diplomat I'd say it's another example of a harshly written post that can trigger a lot of people and could've been worded better. I'd suggest going back to Ed Bicknell's brilliant messages provided by Chris Whitten, this is an example of how to conduct the discussion (which he isn't even participating in person). He can get away with things like saying Neil Dorfsman is 100% deaf, call dustyvalentino Dusty Springfield and everybody will laugh and ask for more. No wonder he's a great artist manager!

I remember reading a book of old Arabian stories and there was a whole story on how the same things can be expressed in a lot of different ways. Like, instead of saying "All in your family has died" you can say "You outlived all your relatives". The same message is spelt differently, with different psychological impacts.

I can write a detailed answer to every one of mariosboss's statements, though just like arguing with Chris, it's missing a point a little bit. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to teach anyone how to live, I just analyse each message and reaction independently. And yes, a lot of times, I feel like demonizing Mark goes over the top. The guy had his reasons for his decisions, we just don't know them. And judging by where he's now, turns out Mark had a lot of right decisions to make, and right doesn't mean good.

Everybody on this forum loves Jack Sonni and Terry Williams and discussed their legacy a lot of times, they are examples of people who generate the least amount of controversy. Matter of fact, Jack even wrote things to this forum and was funny and open just like he was on stage. And everybody loves Chris Whitten, he's just tough to argue with and a bit harsh too sometimes, which can trigger people. But there are always more layers to the story. ALWAYS. Yes, even with Alan Clark. And generally speaking, humour saves the day, don't take this forum too seriously.

[Knut]

From my understanding, Jack was already retired when the OES tour happened, so why ask him at all?

[Matchstickman]

The Hal Lindes situation is dealt with in John Illsley's book. In short, there was disagreement between Mark and John, and Hal, over how to deal with Hal's girlfriend / relationship in Montserrat. Jack was the replacement. Buy John's book!

[mariosboss]

The Hal Lindes situation is dealt with in John Illsley's book. In short, there was disagreement between Mark and John, and Hal, over how to deal with Hal's girlfriend / relationship in Montserrat. Jack was the replacement. Buy John's book!

Terry Williams was interviewed a few years ago on a podcast, and when the Hal Lindes situation came up he became quite emotional... the interview was then edited / cut suddenly just after Terry said something along the lines of "ohh i'm not sure If I should continue..."
It was obviously quite a serious situation for it to have been left out of the podcast. Lindes was a superb addition to the band. But suddenly he was banished.

Since then though Hal has acted impecably. Really positive to his previous band and obviously forging a career in film music etc.

[mariosboss]

I read all your posts and you are right: People are ..."different". You are the best example for it.

LE

LE, you're such a diplomat I'd say it's another example of a harshly written post that can trigger a lot of people and could've been worded better. I'd suggest going back to Ed Bicknell's brilliant messages provided by Chris Whitten, this is an example of how to conduct the discussion (which he isn't even participating in person). He can get away with things like saying Neil Dorfsman is 100% deaf, call dustyvalentino Dusty Springfield and everybody will laugh and ask for more. No wonder he's a great artist manager!

I remember reading a book of old Arabian stories and there was a whole story on how the same things can be expressed in a lot of different ways. Like, instead of saying "All in your family has died" you can say "You outlived all your relatives". The same message is spelt differently, with different psychological impacts.

I can write a detailed answer to every one of mariosboss's statements, though just like arguing with Chris, it's missing a point a little bit. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to teach anyone how to live, I just analyse each message and reaction independently. And yes, a lot of times, I feel like demonizing Mark goes over the top. The guy had his reasons for his decisions, we just don't know them. And judging by where he's now, turns out Mark had a lot of right decisions to make, and right doesn't mean good.

Everybody on this forum loves Jack Sonni and Terry Williams and discussed their legacy a lot of times, they are examples of people who generate the least amount of controversy. Matter of fact, Jack even wrote things to this forum and was funny and open just like he was on stage. And everybody loves Chris Whitten, he's just tough to argue with and a bit harsh too sometimes, which can trigger people. But there are always more layers to the story. ALWAYS. Yes, even with Alan Clark. And generally speaking, humour saves the day, don't take this forum too seriously.

My statements? I doubt it. Feel free to. As for Chris Whitton, well he's been slightly harsh on me at times, but I totally accept it. He was actually involved in a really important period of Dire Straits and has first hand information. Both you and I never were. So we don't really have a leg to stand on.

[quizzaciously]

Both you and I never were. So we don't really have a leg to stand on.

I was born in the Soviet Union and was 1 year old when On Every Street happened, so I think it's quite obvious that I "wasn't there" even if I wanted to. I can't agree with this position that if you weren't there, you can't talk about it. All current Titanic historians weren't there, and so what? They can't discuss it?

We have a lot of evidence though. Interviews, books, facts, Mark said a lot of things about the tour and album through the years, now Chris came and essentially proved a lot of our theories and disproved some, so I just don't understand this radical position "You weren't there — you're wrong".

I know you mean "If you weren't were, don't discuss it as if you were", but nobody here actually does it.