Jack Sonni passed away

[ds1984]

My opinion is Mark did the right tribute to him.

I'd wished that their post BIA relationship would had gone a better way.

[MagicElliott]

What is also sad is just how often Mark is writing about people who have passed away!! We seem to be loosing more and more great musicians as they all get older. Isn't Jack the first member of the Dire Straits "family" to have died?

I guess drastically, the older MK gets, the more of his “peers” he’ll have to write about.

[dustyvalentino]

What is also sad is just how often Mark is writing about people who have passed away!! We seem to be loosing more and more great musicians as they all get older. Isn't Jack the first member of the Dire Straits "family" to have died?

I guess drastically, the older MK gets, the more of his “peers” he’ll have to write about.

Or maybe they’ll be writing about him.

[herlock]

A more positive way to look at it is that Mark offered an obscure employee the opportunity of a lifetime, which resulted in fame, prestige, and so on. Jack could have capitalized a lot on that. If he didn't, that's not Mark's fault...

But what is uncool is making plenty of empty promise to Jack for the future.. Must have been hard to swallow...

[quizzaciously]

A more positive way to look at it is that Mark offered an obscure employee the opportunity of a lifetime, which resulted in fame, prestige, and so on. Jack could have capitalized a lot on that. If he didn't, that's not Mark's fault...

But what is uncool is making plenty of empty promise to Jack for the future.. Must have been hard to swallow...

Great point! Mark is also a human being and clearly worked hard to decide what to do next, so some promises or plans were bound to be empty.

As a man in dire straits from being away from home for almost a year, I can imagine the toll this tour had on everybody. They had more fun tho

I also agree with capitalising, it's important to treasure and use what you have. But it's easy to make it obvious so you can be accused of capitalising.

Anyway, human relationships are the weirdest, strangest, most unpredictable thing in the world. Nothing will surprise me after 30 years on this planet.

[the visitor]

Some memories on the forum from Jack. Maybe not everyone read then.

https://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php?topic=1574.0

Lol! Crazy thread.

Is it me or does Jack's post now seem to be edited on page 2 of the thread so we can't read it? 

[Robson]

A more positive way to look at it is that Mark offered an obscure employee the opportunity of a lifetime, which resulted in fame, prestige, and so on. Jack could have capitalized a lot on that. If he didn't, that's not Mark's fault...

But what is uncool is making plenty of empty promise to Jack for the future.. Must have been hard to swallow...

Great point! Mark is also a human being and clearly worked hard to decide what to do next, so some promises or plans were bound to be empty.

As a man in dire straits from being away from home for almost a year, I can imagine the toll this tour had on everybody. They had more fun tho

I also agree with capitalising, it's important to treasure and use what you have. But it's easy to make it obvious so you can be accused of capitalising.

Anyway, human relationships are the weirdest, strangest, most unpredictable thing in the world. Nothing will surprise me after 30 years on this planet.

And we always only know one side. Mark never said anything about past years.

[Banjo99uk]

Watch some interviews on youtube he did in recent years, he admits he didn’t like DS and thought they were boring. He tried to make them sound like another American soft rock band in my opinion. He’s always been my least favourite 2nd guitarist in DS in terms of sound. No doubt he was a lovely bloke, but I think he wasn’t a good fit in DS. He would have been better in Guns N Roses.

[herlock]

I think he said something like "let's face it, we butchered the songs during the BIA tour". I love the BIA tour, but it was pretty extreme in stretching the songs: expanded to death, breaks, synth and sax all over the place, 100 chords when the studio version had one... Ok that's why live is for, having fun with the songs, but this was a bit over the top. Jack fitted this mindset of the time, he had fun playing with the songs to the extreme, like his controversial solo on Wild west end, some love it, some hate it...
So yes, he is not my favorite 2nd guitarist either, even though he was lovely and great fun. David had a unique groove, Hal was competent, Phil was ok, Richard is by far the very best, and Jack... well, was over the top. That was 1985, he was great for the period. But I can understand that Mark wanted a change...

[2manyguitars]

Maybe Jack was simply to 'Rock and Roll' for MK both on and off stage. We've all been in situations with friends doing things we're not really comfortable with. Its not easy and often you find yourself saying things that in your own mind you know will never come to fruition.

I would also offer the following. Jack really was the epitome of DS at its polished, commercial zenith. If you read and listen to his commentary on this its obvious that he was totally addicted to 'being a rock star. Don't get me wrong, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and its lovely to hear the emotion in his voice when he describes his experiences. However I think deep down this was the antithesis of where MK was heading. Mark was really beginning his attempt to put the monster he helped create back in its cage....

[mariosboss]

I think he said something like "let's face it, we butchered the songs during the BIA tour". I love the BIA tour, but it was pretty extreme in stretching the songs: expanded to death, breaks, synth and sax all over the place, 100 chords when the studio version had one... Ok that's why live is for, having fun with the songs, but this was a bit over the top. Jack fitted this mindset of the time, he had fun playing with the songs to the extreme, like his controversial solo on Wild west end, some love it, some hate it...
So yes, he is not my favorite 2nd guitarist either, even though he was lovely and great fun. David had a unique groove, Hal was competent, Phil was ok, Richard is by far the very best, and Jack... well, was over the top. That was 1985, he was great for the period. But I can understand that Mark wanted a change...

Richard? From Mark's solo stuff? Irrelevant. Totally different beast. IF Mark started out with his solo stuff before Dire Straits I wouldn't have been interested in the first place. 

Hal was much more than competent. Probably the best Rhythm guitarist along with Jack. Be interesting to hear what parts Hal played exactly on the Love Over Gold album but that guy was so underrated and of course it's proven as he is now a formidable writer in his own right where he's involved in Film and TV. Terry Williams did an interview on a podcast a few years back and he was about to reveal why Hal left the band in '84 (or sacked not sure exactly) Terry seemed very sad about it "oh poor Hal..." But then the podcast cut the answer out. Probably because Terry or the Podcast producer didn't want to get into trouble. If anyone has any answers to that..  Anyway im digressing...

To be honest as a youngster who followed Dire Straits Jack brought some life into the band. Yes he only played a few bits on BIA and that was mostly on the rather excellent The Man's Too Strong, but he was formidable live in that 2 year period from 85-86 which included the famous Live Aid performance. Stunning guitarist in his own right, this is an extremely sad time, and I wish his family well.

[MaxG]

RIP Jack.

I don't think its fair to speculate on their friendship/working relationship, none of us will ever have all the facts. I therefore prefer to take a more neutral view.

If you take a look at the musicians that have stayed the length with MK - Richard and Guy, they are excellent musicians, in demand in their own right and were not dependent on MK to make their musical career happen. I also get the impression from interviews they wouldn't get in the way of any direction that MK wanted to go outside the studio . i.e. they would accept the recording process how it usually works  - that MK would announce he has some new songs, they would go into recording them with him and putting their creative input in, but wouldn't meddle in anything else.

When MK met Jack he was working in a guitar shop and not a well known session guitarist like Richard for example. I think the zero to hero can be difficult to deal with for anyone and its probably natural that after the BIA tour Jack wanted some more with the band/MK but that was already the first hiatus of the Straits and MK was already moving in his own new musical direction. Maybe if Jack had played at Mandela and his wife had not had twins he would have been on OES recording and tour but its all speculation.

As Pavel said, I would look at in a positive way that life and natural forces brought them together at a special time, gave Jack a great experience in a very successful tour but after that, circumstances/fate/life made them drift apart. It happens in any friendships and relationships, no fault or blame to be apportioned.

[Jules]

Some memories on the forum from Jack. Maybe not everyone read then.

https://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php?topic=1574.0

Lol! Crazy thread.

Is it me or does Jack's post now seem to be edited on page 2 of the thread so we can't read it?

Amit forum suffered some problems in the past and here and there some threads lost part of the posts. In that thread for example there are a lot of cut posts

[dmg]

A more positive way to look at it is that Mark offered an obscure employee the opportunity of a lifetime, which resulted in fame, prestige, and so on. Jack could have capitalized a lot on that. If he didn't, that's not Mark's fault...

But what is uncool is making plenty of empty promise to Jack for the future.. Must have been hard to swallow...

Great point! Mark is also a human being and clearly worked hard to decide what to do next, so some promises or plans were bound to be empty.

As a man in dire straits from being away from home for almost a year, I can imagine the toll this tour had on everybody. They had more fun tho

I also agree with capitalising, it's important to treasure and use what you have. But it's easy to make it obvious so you can be accused of capitalising.

Anyway, human relationships are the weirdest, strangest, most unpredictable thing in the world. Nothing will surprise me after 30 years on this planet.

And we always only know one side. Mark never said anything about past years.

I wonder why.   

Open your eyes for once.  You don't have to love him to love his music.  He has form on this, even with his own brother so I certainly don't believe Jack is making this up for one second. 

When someone dies it should be a time for reflection on their life and I have been thinking about him since I heard the news.  I have come to some conclusions.

[herlock]

Well, since we don't have both sides of all these stories, maybe we should just look at the statistics.
From the DS days, Mark has kept a good relationship for sure only with John, Guy, Danny, and Paul.
With David, Pick, Terry, Alan, Jack, Chris (White), Chris (Withen),Phil, and Ed, the relationship went sour or at least non existent, with some bad rumours.
Not counting Chad and Matt from the solo days...
Maybe Hal is an exception, since he came in 2019 to some concerts, they might have kept a relationship.
Anyway, the statistics are not in favour of Mark.. Must be a difficult fellow to work with. Like most geniuses... "My way of the highway"!