Knopfler This year Live!!

[xxFordiexx]

As normal, I've been checking out as much Knopfler stuff on youtube recently, I still feel quite blown away just how amazing His performances Live this year have been. Such energy. Jesus, he's 62 and blowing the competition out of the water. Songs like Speedway and Cleaning my gun were so well played. Lets not forget how great BIA has been too.

Just felt like saying lol 

[tunnel85]

I've spent all my evening yesterday watching Speedway. And then watch again and again. I have to say it's the the first year I really like it. You're right xxFordiexx, the 2011 performances are great.
I'm sure many people laugh when Guy says every year the band is the best ever.
Indeed he may be right. For sure Mark was amazing. 

Tonight I've decided to watch Marbletown and tomorrow Cleaning my gun. 

YT is great but it's a pity it's only partial. 

That said, when I see the kind of vids they can have (some are very good) I seriously think of a different  recording strategy for next tour.   
 


 

[Love Expresso]

That said, when I see the kind of vids they can have (some are very good) I seriously think of a different  recording strategy for next tour.  
 

So what do you have in the pipeline for us fans?  

LE

[tunnel85]

That said, when I see the kind of vids they can have (some are very good) I seriously think of a different  recording strategy for next tour.   
 

So what do you have in the pipeline for us fans? 

LE

Just read between the lines and follow the white rabbit 

[dmg]

Yes, quite simply I think it was the best tour since 2005.  That's what makes it so annoying that it was only half a set and we didn't get a better (in my opinion) set list.  One wonders why he wasn't playing like that on the last couple of tours though...

[superval99]

One wonders why he wasn't playing like that on the last couple of tours though...

He was!   I loved the shows I saw in 2010 and I am still enjoying those concerts via the Simfy recordings!   

[Love Expresso]

Superval is right (as always  ). One should see it a little bit differentiated: Although Sonny Liston is really better than 2005/2008, and although the new songs are all very nice and well played (and very beautiful melodic), I would think that Hill Farmer's Blues and also Marbletown sounded much better on the last tour. Marbletown is a little ... "thinner" than last time, of course only my opinion. The same with Sailing To Philadelphia: Jim messed this one up, and I truly think that it cannot be better played than in the last weeks of the GL show, together with Matt, who really gave the track a new dimension. Also Mark's soloing was much more inspired on the last tour me thinks. But he plays great indeed, he has more power so to say, the sound itself is better, more electric, steamy, whatever. Speedway was also better with Danny. I can't fully agree with Guy Fletcher, too, when he says that this line-up is the best one. Well he said it, didn't he? Or was that last year? Or the year before?? 

I remember of course that it was Jim everytime on all the records (STP, RPD, Shangri-La) who played the parts - but it is just that he seems not right onto track anymore. All he does is doing the famous "Jim Cox can play everything but does plinky-plinky all the time so that'll be enough thank you".


Get Lucky is not only a great record, it is one of Mark's greatest because of Matt, who really gave something to every single track. Let alone Monteleone or Get Lucky itself, pure gems and so subtle and genious... it seems he has a direct connection with Mark, which can only be explained be heavy touring-together (2005, 2006, 2008, 2010...)  But I get drifted away...

I loved this tour, but I still adore the last one - still can't get enough from my favourite shows... Locarno 2010 forever! And Bilbao! And... and...

Rant over! 

LE

[superval99]

    LE - You're making me laugh out loud!  

I feel much the same as you, especially STP which seems to be a mere shadow of what it was in 2010.   I really miss Matt on piano having all those conversations with Mark on the outro, now there seem to be some, almost awkward, silences where nothing seems to be happening, except for a distant tinkling of Jim on piano and almost nothing else, as though Mark is waiting for something to happen.  I find it all a bit unsettling and I'm sorry to say, I find STP difficult to listen to from this tour.

I also have similar feelings about Speedway.   Yes it is played much more powerfully this time and the crashing guitar of Richard is great to hear, but once more, I'm afraid it is Jim's organ on the outro which I find very intrusive and quite spoils what could have been one of the best Speedways yet.

I really hope Matt returns next tour, because I think his piano style suits the band much more than Jim's style.

I know what you mean about Marbletown, because when I listen to some of the 2010 recordings, they have so much more substance and seem more poetic somehow -  Bonaparte seems a lot weaker this time too.

I think MK plays much more powerfully and energetically on this tour, but his fingers don't seem to be quite so accurate.

Anyway, I am really enjoying the new songs, especially Privateering and Haul Away from this tour, meantime I am still loving my Simfys from 2010.    

[Love Expresso]

I was just coming home two hours ago from work, had to go by train, left the bookstore where I work which is in the middle of a German Christmas Market at the moment, which is absolutey pandemonium in this German area: Thousands of drunken people, it is much more like a donnybrook with too much booze than anything else. Overcrowded, late, superheated train, full of cullet and the smell of beer and booze, and the level of hue was totally out of any line. BUT: I was able to listen to the HANNOVER HAUL AWAY recording, and it was a little oasis of bliss for a few minutes, I closed my eyes, beamed my mind back to Hannover on that evening, and I repeated the track three or four times... Mark sings so great on this one... So yes, the new stuff is really awesome for every possible situation! 

LE

[Banjo99uk]

i hate to disagree with LE and superval, but for me the band can be as good as it wants, but if MK is not on form then it is irrelavent. I really found MKs playing the best he's done for years, so for me the piano player or drummer make no difference. 

[dmg]

i hate to disagree with LE and superval, but for me the band can be as good as it wants, but if MK is not on form then it is irrelavent. I really found MKs playing the best he's done for years, so for me the piano player or drummer make no difference. 

I pretty much agree; It's Mark I go to see.

Before this tour I was Cox's biggest critic but now I'm finding him to be a real player rather than someone who just does a job (Matt).  I think the silences described in STP were not Jims fault but technical problems because John McC had a similar problem.  I do agree that Jim needs to pull in the reigns during Speedway though; he doesn't seem to know when to let Mark come back in.

[ingridswing]

I agree with Val. Timing of Matt is better, which makes a real conversation on STP.
And also agree with you on Speedway, I love the guitarplaying of both MK and Richard this time, but when Matt would have done the organ and Danny drums it would have been the best ever I am sure.

[Love Expresso]

dmg, interesting, my opinion is the opposite, but hey!  I think only it is fair to say that BOTH of them are real players, and that BOTH of them are doing it for job reasons, because both of them have to do it for a living of course, I think the only one on board of the tour who hasn't to do it for money is MK!

I find it strange that Matt's quality as a Musician never was discussed before he made an appearance at "American Idol" or what's it called... That was obviously the cause of dismissal...

But let's not turn this into a Matt or Jim thread, it was indeed MK who was touring with (just another) band...

LE

[vgonis]

I disagree with all of you. Since Greece is not a destination for Mark, I think that his performances are a bit distant for me.   

Joke aside, I find that in many performances Mark's voice was a bit shaky.

[DIFFICULTTOBELIEVE]

My opinion. I think we saw Mark energised and enthusiastic this tour, and the 2 shows I caught at Hammersmith were definately the best I have ever seen him play. As for Jim, I think he will be in the band ad infinitum. I suspect Mark thinks of him like he does of Richard and Glenn. No more Matt I suspect.