24h with dire straits in Paris

[Rollergirl]

have you seen those?

 

just watched the 6 parts this afternonn. The bit just before the band take to the stage, when they film the audience took me back 20 years.... I was there, not that day (I checked my photos and compared the colourful jackets and trousers) but one or 2 days  later.

Very interesting documentary.

Now of course we have Guy Fletcher to take us backstage but in those days, we had to rely on French TV.

Enjoy!  

[shangri la 1]

Yes a great insight into the behind the scenes just before a concert.
It is part of Fran's (miss him like a few other long time DS/MK regulars) brilliant TV collection Once upon a time in the TV:-
OUATITTV
DVD 4: The OES Years vol 1

http://proyectos.spanishcity.net/onceuponatime/dvd4.html

[Jackal]

Thanks for sharing. You really get to see what Mark means when he says in interviews that DS got too big.

But what an awkward moment at the end part 6 when the TV crew follows Mark down the hallway at the hotel?

[the visitor]

Thanks for sharing, I watched this last night. I had seen clips of this before, but never the whole documentary, and whilst my French is poor I really enjoyed the film.

What strikes me in the footage is how lonely MK appears to be in almost every aspect of the film, which is sad to see:   

- You see him called in to view footage of the Philips DCC add by himself which he obviously doesn't really care for, but feels obliged to do it for the cameras (and the tours financial backers)
- When the band are sound checking, he's almost divorced from the rest of the band and only perks up to tell Paul F to crank up his volume
- When he walk down to go on stage with the rest of the band, he's there in close physical proximity but clearly in a zone of his own mentally
- At the end of the night when he obviously just wants to go to bed, he's followed down the corridor and asked a series of questions no-one would want to answer about whether he's lonely or not.

I am unashamedly a supporter of a reformed Dire Straits, but I totally agree, you can see how the machine got so big that it just ended up not being fun any more.  I'm not as familiar with MKs work of recent years, but from what I do see from Guy's diaries etc is that MK is much more comfortable in his current position. It's almost as if because he is the main act as a solo performer, it appears as though that makes it clearer where everyone stands in his current outfit and that makes for a happier time.  The OES tour however, was arguably a very grey period where Dire Straits were a band in only name, with MK at the helm in what appears to be quite a solitary position.

 

[superval99]

From what I have read from the OES liner notes, it was a very dark part of his life and I think OES was, in some respects, a pretty dark album.

[Love Expresso]

From what I have read from the OES liner notes, it was a very dark part of his life and I think OES was, in some respects, a pretty dark album.

Hey, Val, I never knew there were liner notes on OES? Did I miss something? Could you elaborate more? 

LE

[superval99]

Hi LE!    My first copy of OES was on cassette and there were no liner notes, but later on I updated to a remastered CD and the liner notes were written by Phil Sutcliffe.

Here is just a small part of the liner notes:

"On Every Street" is full of mood and sound swings;  Dire Straits were never ones for histrionics, but it's a dark and subtle ride from the moment the ambiguous country rock shuffle of Calling Elvis drops into the melancholy title track.

On the face of it, The Bug is one of the cheeriest pieces they ever recorded and yet it celebrates uncertainty - bug, windshield, bat, ball, who knows from one day to the next?  My Parties and Heavy Fuel are in-character pieces and full of gags, but, notably, their pain-in-the-arse heroes never get their come-uppance: these fools are winners.  Always tough-minded, Knopfler's underlying preoccupation at the time was what he described as "the essential loneliness of a lot of life experience".  That's what lurks beneath the still surfaces of On Every Street, Fade to Black and You and Your Friend, with their veiled hints and insinuations.

[Jackal]

LE, maybe from the re-mastered version?

I totally agree with the comments about Mark in those videos. It's so obvious that he is not at peace with himself. Kind of painful to watch. I always had the impression that the album reflected things in his own personal life, e.g. his deteriorating marriage, and that You and Your Friend was seen from the perspective of a man who needs to make some final arrangements with his (ex-)wife and her friend before he can move on. That might not be the case, but whenever I hear that song, I feel this heaviness, this break-up sadness.

[superval99]

I remember a Swedish interview, a year or so ago, when he said that at that time he was running away - from his marriage, etc.

[Jackal]

You're thinking of the one with Kenny, at British Grove? Mark mentioned that DS were touring heavily and that that took its toll on a lot of things. No wonder, really.

[superval99]

You're thinking of the one with Kenny, at British Grove? Mark mentioned that DS were touring heavily and that that took its toll on a lot of things. No wonder, really.

Yes, that's the one.

[Love Expresso]

Thanks!

When I think about it now I had the same impressions about that album all the years... How Long seemed to be the last try to make it sound a little bit...
friendlier, and even those lyrics have some frustation in it... I like that OES very much, although sometimes underrated (we had threads about it), it contains some very nice songs, some of them it seems I understand better now that I am 40, better however than at that year 1991 when I was 20...

LE

[the visitor]

Thanks for the info guys. Val, I have never read the OES liner notes, so thanks for posting. My cd degraded after a few years and too many plays so I should really buy a new one.

The whole set really does feel bittersweet and tinged with darkness, antipating or even mourning the end of something.  I suppose in some ways this is a reflection on the demise of the band and MKs marriage. As you point out, thinking about it there are some really dark, tremendous tunes on that album like fade to black, you and your friend, when it comes to you and how long.

For me though the feeling I got from the first few plays of the album was hard to get over - it was akin to the feeling you get when you revisit an amazing restaurant only to find out the chef has changed and you realise time moved on. There are some great tracks on the album but as a package it feels unhappy. It's funny the way a feeling finds its way on to a record - you can almost feel the heat and excitement of montserrat on BIA and the infectious energy of alchemy. By comparison OES and On the Night feel sterile. The flame was fading.

[vgonis]

OES was the only DS studio album that I actually bought and listened at the time of release. I thought and still think that it is great but could be better with two simple changes. Firstly getting rid of 2-3 songs and secondly having  a better sequencing. I never liked Calling Elvis or Heavy fuel, and even though I can understand their purpose as "shouters" they don't have the strength to lift the spirits and balance the rest of the album. Even "the bug" sounds a bit too much and I wouldn't include it either. On their place I would put "I think I love you too much" or even the beautiful "Your own sweet way" and I might even reconsider "Millionaire blues" because it is in the same pace with "my parties" (which is sarcastic as heavy fuel, but HF tries too much for a memorable riff like MFN) . Of course these three songs (CE, HF, The Bug) could have been fine b-sides,  or put together in the beginning or the end of the CD, in order to be easier to skip or (for those who like them) not to mess with the bleaker tone of the album. ( Come to think of it all of DS albums are mostly bleak with 2-3 songs as up-lifters and that's only when the songs are more than 5!  )
The album itself, is way too long, over 60 minutes, by far the longest DS album! You can say the same for BiA, but until I bought it on CD in 1994, BiA was around 45 minutes for me, the LP vinyl version. I really believe that the extra music on the BiA CD didn't add anything at all. (But I like SFA so much, I can't say no to the added minutes on that) . Anyway,  this is not the same case, because we have more compositions and no longer -different versions.  The sequencing of OES is wrong too.  (It reminds me of the sequencing and diversity of J.J. Cale's "Troubadour" but there, somehow it works)  It follows the pattern of vinyl, placing the two first singles as starters of the two sides. But even if we let that go, "the bug" seems totally thrown at random and "when it comes to you" with the unbearable synths all over (otherwise a fine song) feels very out of place because the end of "On every street" is structured in such a way that you need a longer pause before the next song. It would have been a great closing of the album, or in the vinyl logic, of either side.   With a different ending, maybe a longer fade out in the "TR" vein, it could even be the kick off song.
When you add all these things up, you get to the point where you realize that the album would have been a critical triumph and ideal for fans, but it wouldn't attract the necessary attention after 6 years of absence. The sequencing must have been a nightmare and they must have ended up at this with compromises rather than decisions. So many songs, ideas, different sounds and mood.  Only the two songs that close the two sides sound like being at the appropriate place.   

[Fletch]

^i can relate to that bit about the LP version of BIA. I was shocked when I first heard the CD ten years after listening to the LP. With the exception of Your Latest Trick, most of the songs suffer from long outros and my main gripe is the intro mix on MFN is MUCH better on the LP! Better drums, nicer rise in sound level.