Just bumped into this from Tommy's Facebook page:
Brunno, a new friend here, asked me about the making of Alchemy with Dire Straits, and about the experience in general. Here's what I replied to him:
Hi Brunno! I learned so much in Dire Straits, about dynamics and subtle playing. That was the first time, also, that I was lucky enough to go to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. (Since then, I've been there many times, but not lately!)
John Ilsley was a great gentleman, very tall, and always concerned that the quality of Dire Straits be protected, and that everyone was happy and able to do their best job. As the bassist and 2nd singer, he was the only other original member of the Straits that was still in the group with Mark.
Terry Williams was the new drummer: we were the new guys, and we spent a lot of time together. His father had a band that Bonnie Tyler used to sing for, in the old days, in Wales! He loved to play simple "Rockpile" style drums, and was amazing whatever he played, but for this tour, Mark wanted him to play in a style that was more dramatic. He did it! He was a great guy too.
Hal Lindes had been an American before moving to England and joining the group two or three years before I did. When I joined with the group, Hal was married to Mary, a lovely lady, who used to be married to Peter Frampton. All the girls loved Hal, because he was so young and cute. He played very very well too, of course! Some years later, he called and we met up in NYC and did some music there.
Everyone could play great, but my favorite musician in the group would have to be Alan Clark, the keyboard player who had put so many parts on the Love Over Gold CD, that they needed a 2nd guy in the band, to make sure that all, or most of the parts could be played live, and that was ME! Alan has a really great touch on the piano, and the organ, and the synthesizer, everything he touches, actually. He's played with Eric Clapton too. He came to see our show when Bryan Adams played his hometown, Newcastle On Tyne, and it was great to see him. He was always superfriendly, in a big brotherly way to me, and I was happy to take directions from him, because, well he was so talented, and also so nice. Funny too. He was kind of like James Bond, but not quite as tall or dark. He was saving up for an Audi during that tour, and I know he got it afterwards, because DS was pretty generous.
Mel Collins played the sax on that tour, and he'd played with Tears for Fears, and had some good stories to tell about them. He's a really good sax player. He had to give Mark Knopfler sax lessons after soundchecks, because Mark really liked the saxophone - he thought it was such an expressive instrument.
Joop de Korte, another cool dude, played percussion. I ran into him in NYC a few years back. He's from Holland, but lives in the States now, I think.
Peter Granger, the front-of-house sound mixer, was an English gentleman, he almost sounded like a professor when he talked. He tragically passed away in a heart-breaking way. His tiny daughter strayed out into the street, and he dove after her, and pushed her back to safety, but he wasn't as lucky, and the car ended his life. He and his American born wife, Nancy made me a lovely dinner in November, when we were doing the many rehearsals in Greenwich, London, which were necessary to put such a large show together.
Pete Brewis was Mark's roadie. He had the saddest grey eyes, but he sure knew his guitars!
Steve Flood was the boffin - he knew all about the electrical magic that powered our instruments and lights. He always had a smile on his face, like he knew something that you didn't. Which was probably true!
Charles Herrington was the cool lighting designer (the lights were very important to Mark Knopfler that tour, probably always...but the atmosphere they created was a big part of that show, with long songs such as Telegraph Road, and mysterious ones like Private Investigation.) I think Charles moved to Hoboken, NJ, USA a while back.
Ron Eves was my keyboard tech (and Alan Clark's too) - he's a rocket scientist that pretended to be a comedian. Or maybe a comedian who was also a rocket scientist as a hobby. He had so much to do, with the Synclavier, 2 Prophets, a Yamaha GS-1, a Hammond B3 organ, a Korg CX3 clonewheel organ, and somehow, it always worked!
Paul Cummings was the Road Manager, or Tour Manager, I forget exactly what his title was, but he was friendly, civilized, efficient, effective and I liked him a lot!
We stayed at fine hotels, drank good wine, saw lovely and sometimes exotic sights, and played some pretty good music. I got to meet Lady Di and Prince Charles. I'll tell you about that some other time, but it was fun. Duran Duran was there that night, but I'm not a huge DD fan. Except the rhythm guitarist could really move cool while he played! AndyTaylor, i think he was.
The manager, Ed Bicknell, was super funny too. He started out drumming in Mark Knopfler's band before Dire Straits! One of the Promoter's Agents, Paul Crockford, later on, got me backstage at a Roger Waters show in NYC, and I got to meet Eric Clapton again there. Thanks, Paul!
Mick Jones, from Foreigner, not my friend of the same name from Clash, has a brother Kevin, who went on to be the main Synthesizer Programmer for Nile Rogers. When we toured and recorded Alchemy, Kevin had some hard chores to do, but he always got em done, and never once blew his cool.
We had to stick to our parts - there wasn't one note that was spontaneous. That's what I kind of didn't understand about that group, but with 7 musicians, and really classy music to recreate, I guess that was Mark Knopfler's decision. As necessary as that must have been, it took some of the fun out of what was still, pretty much, a dream come true. But you know, when you're having the dream, when you're IN it, you don't always know it's a dream.
Hope this answers some of your questions, Brunno, take care, and thanks for stopping by! -
