Manu Katche speaks about working with MK

[dustyvalentino]

The End 

The End indeed. 

[quizzaciously]

Thanks Ed for your comments, pleasant or unpleasant. The main reason for your and Chris's confusion about my character, apart from an obvious Grand Canyon of age/culture/language gap, is just the fact I hate text messages. You may have noticed all my posts are as big as Mark’s ego during OES years, and some of my critics may say they are 95% water or whatever, I don't care.

The fact is, it's only 5% of my thought process and what I'm giving out is just the tip of the iceberg and I COULD explain myself better should it be a proper talk and not a back and forth in Morse code or homing pigeons. Forum is built for relatively short and neutral messages and I’m not wired for that, unfortunately, so it seems like every single communication with me falls into an argument.

I love talking to people and not texting, that's why I even had enough balls to ask you for an interview upon your first visit on AMIT. I give one-on-one guitar lessons daily to people all over the world, and I cherish 1.5–3 hours of live talking every day. On the other hand, I feel bad about texting as I find it too sterile, lacking emotion and fun, and not something exciting to return to, and I do feel bad for misguiding people.

I apologise to have caused so much misunderstanding on this forum and for my constant battles with Chris, I truly appreciate inputs from both of you guys, don’t get me wrong. I can be unbearable at times, but I do think somewhere in the middle of the debris field left over from our battles often lies a kernel of fun, truth, and common sense, and I’m thankful for having worthy discoursers like you. Cheers!

[hunter v2.0]

I find it too sterile, lacking emotion and fun, and not something exciting to return to.

Sounds like a show during the OES tour Then again, I wasn't there 

[Pottel]

Your whole point falls apart when it's not about the money.
As professional musicians we earn money from all our work. So you can draw a distinction  between earning $1000 a day with a really nice artist, thoroughly enjoying the process and feeling valued, against earning $1000 and feeling undervalued and criticised.

Decades later why should anyone care? You are 100% right.
Except podcasters want to interview Pick Withers, or Manu Katche and want to know what were the ups and downs in their careers. Again, there is still no need to spend pages arguing about it on a Mark Knopfler fan forum.
The only issue *I* have is when forum members try to rewrite the events, make stuff up to reinforce their fandom.
I'm generally trying to put the facts straight, from the perspective of someone who was in the room.
I didn't post the Manu video. I didn't comment and wasn't planning to comment until someone who wasn't at the session started to make excuses for the bad behaviour by *guessing* that Mark was looking for something from the drumming that he wasn't getting.

Here is the thing....
* I don't come on the forum to 'diss' an artist decades after the fact. I come on the forum to correct misinformation and guess work that often ends up in the subject (Manu in this case) unfairly characterised as not a nice person himself, or not good enough for the job.
I only joined the forum in the first place after I googled the OES tour to try and remember a date on the tour, only to see THIS forum's members debating who was the worst drummer Dire Straits ever had and my name came up.
I was being 'dissed' behind my back.
'Dissing decades after the fact' was something that happened at AMIT before anyone ever replied with some actual facts.

...and then you stayed, lol
Personally very happy to have you on board, as, as you mention, you were there, "in the room" and that is a rare opportunity for us fans.

[quizzaciously]

Your whole point falls apart when it's not about the money.
As professional musicians we earn money from all our work. So you can draw a distinction  between earning $1000 a day with a really nice artist, thoroughly enjoying the process and feeling valued, against earning $1000 and feeling undervalued and criticised.

Decades later why should anyone care? You are 100% right.
Except podcasters want to interview Pick Withers, or Manu Katche and want to know what were the ups and downs in their careers. Again, there is still no need to spend pages arguing about it on a Mark Knopfler fan forum.
The only issue *I* have is when forum members try to rewrite the events, make stuff up to reinforce their fandom.
I'm generally trying to put the facts straight, from the perspective of someone who was in the room.
I didn't post the Manu video. I didn't comment and wasn't planning to comment until someone who wasn't at the session started to make excuses for the bad behaviour by *guessing* that Mark was looking for something from the drumming that he wasn't getting.

Here is the thing....
* I don't come on the forum to 'diss' an artist decades after the fact. I come on the forum to correct misinformation and guess work that often ends up in the subject (Manu in this case) unfairly characterised as not a nice person himself, or not good enough for the job.
I only joined the forum in the first place after I googled the OES tour to try and remember a date on the tour, only to see THIS forum's members debating who was the worst drummer Dire Straits ever had and my name came up.
I was being 'dissed' behind my back.
'Dissing decades after the fact' was something that happened at AMIT before anyone ever replied with some actual facts.

...and then you stayed, lol
Personally very happy to have you on board, as, as you mention, you were there, "in the room" and that is a rare opportunity for us fans.

I'm sorry I'm writing again, but I just remembered the dissing of Chris he was talking about, and I remember actually defending his drumming and going against people who criticised his playing. So much for irony I remember I was surprised that his playing was disliked so badly (especially on Sultans if I remember correctly), that I went on and defended the guy. So I'm not only Devil's advocate, but apparently Chris's too. Checkmate!

[Chris W]

Again....and again....and again.
It's not a personal battle. It is ONLY about correcting misinformation, untruths and guess work.
That's it. End of story.
I honestly don't care wether someone I don't know and will never meet thinks I'm the 'worst drummer Dire Straits ever had'. I called out someone on the forum for personal comments about my mental state etc, etc...
It's ok for someone to not enjoy a musician's work. It isn't to speculate about their mental state or personality....while that is on a public forum that the person being talked about can read.

[dustyvalentino]

It doesn't matter how technically proficient they are, a session musician isn't going to keep getting hired if they are a pain in the arse.

[Eddie Fox]

Hang on a minute… Dusty is actually Ed Bicknell? WTF lol

What am I missing here?!

[Eddie Fox]

Again....and again....and again.
It's not a personal battle. It is ONLY about correcting misinformation, untruths and guess work.
That's it. End of story.
I honestly don't care wether someone I don't know and will never meet thinks I'm the 'worst drummer Dire Straits ever had'. I called out someone on the forum for personal comments about my mental state etc, etc...
It's ok for someone to not enjoy a musician's work. It isn't to speculate about their mental state or personality....while that is on a public forum that the person being talked about can read.

I read this entire thread and it’s exhausting… everyone wants to be right when it’s mostly opinions (fellow forum members) on facts (musician and manager). I have no problem accepting that Mark wasn’t exactly friendly and gentle as well as I understand it’s not right to judge without knowing what might have triggered it. The only thing I can’t help commenting on is Chris softly blaming Mark for taking a ten year break from drumming. Come on, mate. Really? Apart from that it’s kind of surreal interacting with someone I watched playing over a thousand times on that VHS.

[Chris W]

The only thing I can’t help commenting on is Chris softly blaming Mark for taking a ten year break from drumming. Come on, mate. Really? Apart from that it’s kind of surreal interacting with someone I watched playing over a thousand times on that VHS.

I'm not 'softly' blaming Mark, I'm saying it out loud.
The whole DS experience was pretty miserable, not just because of Mark, but one or two other things that went down.
Half the band wouldn't talk to me at rehearsals, apparently because their favourite choice of new drummer wasn't me.
Early in rehearsals we started learning 'Walk Of Life' and about a verse and chorus in Mark kept stopping us and would turn to me and say rather angrily "you're slowing down". I've never been a slowing down drummer. As a professional I try to keep a steady tempo, but if anything I had a tendency to slightly speed up. After a` day of this I was in despair and it was actually good old Danny Cummings who saved the day. he said, why don't you bring in a drum machine tomorrow, play along with that and we'll get to the bottom if this.
So yeah, we did that, we all agreed a tempo, we started to play 'Walk Of Life' and Mark and several others were like greyhounds chasing a rabbit.
Case closed.
Both Pick and Terry were speeding up drummers and because I was a steady drummer it was assumed I was slowing down.
Anyway, if you are locked in an unpleasant situation for more than a year, almost every day of every week, sure.... I lost my love of drumming, I lost my confidence, I started to dislike guitar based rock.
You can think what you like, but the reality is I put my drums in a storage facility and rarely played through most of the 1990's and most of the 2000's, really only going back to drumming around 2016 when I hooked up with Chris White and DSE.

[peterromer]

The only thing I can’t help commenting on is Chris softly blaming Mark for taking a ten year break from drumming. Come on, mate. Really? Apart from that it’s kind of surreal interacting with someone I watched playing over a thousand times on that VHS.

I'm not 'softly' blaming Mark, I'm saying it out loud.
The whole DS experience was pretty miserable, not just because of Mark, but one or two other things that went down.
Half the band wouldn't talk to me at rehearsals, apparently because their favourite choice of new drummer wasn't me.
Early in rehearsals we started learning 'Walk Of Life' and about a verse and chorus in Mark kept stopping us and would turn to me and say rather angrily "you're slowing down". I've never been a slowing down drummer. As a professional I try to keep a steady tempo, but if anything I had a tendency to slightly speed up. After a` day of this I was in despair and it was actually good old Danny Cummings who saved the day. he said, why don't you bring in a drum machine tomorrow, play along with that and we'll get to the bottom if this.
So yeah, we did that, we all agreed a tempo, we started to play 'Walk Of Life' and Mark and several others were like greyhounds chasing a rabbit.
Case closed.
Both Pick and Terry were speeding up drummers and because I was a steady drummer it was assumed I was slowing down.
Anyway, if you are locked in an unpleasant situation for more than a year, almost every day of every week, sure.... I lost my love of drumming, I lost my confidence, I started to dislike guitar based rock.
You can think what you like, but the reality is I put my drums in a storage facility and rarely played through most of the 1990's and most of the 2000's, really only going back to drumming around 2016 when I hooked up with Chris White and DSE.

Holy crap. If half the band would not talk to you because of such a thing they should at least respect that the decision to hire you was MK and get the best out of it. Even ignore who hired you and simply get the best thing going, since everybody was going to work together for so long.
Anyway for whats it worth, when we saw you and DS in Denmark in 1992, we were blown away. The unpleasant situation was very well hidden I must say. I guess many of us had the opposite experience seen from the fan side.   
 

[Eddie Fox]

The only thing I can’t help commenting on is Chris softly blaming Mark for taking a ten year break from drumming. Come on, mate. Really? Apart from that it’s kind of surreal interacting with someone I watched playing over a thousand times on that VHS.

I'm not 'softly' blaming Mark, I'm saying it out loud.
The whole DS experience was pretty miserable, not just because of Mark, but one or two other things that went down.
Half the band wouldn't talk to me at rehearsals, apparently because their favourite choice of new drummer wasn't me.
Early in rehearsals we started learning 'Walk Of Life' and about a verse and chorus in Mark kept stopping us and would turn to me and say rather angrily "you're slowing down". I've never been a slowing down drummer. As a professional I try to keep a steady tempo, but if anything I had a tendency to slightly speed up. After a` day of this I was in despair and it was actually good old Danny Cummings who saved the day. he said, why don't you bring in a drum machine tomorrow, play along with that and we'll get to the bottom if this.
So yeah, we did that, we all agreed a tempo, we started to play 'Walk Of Life' and Mark and several others were like greyhounds chasing a rabbit.
Case closed.
Both Pick and Terry were speeding up drummers and because I was a steady drummer it was assumed I was slowing down.
Anyway, if you are locked in an unpleasant situation for more than a year, almost every day of every week, sure.... I lost my love of drumming, I lost my confidence, I started to dislike guitar based rock.
You can think what you like, but the reality is I put my drums in a storage facility and rarely played through most of the 1990's and most of the 2000's, really only going back to drumming around 2016 when I hooked up with Chris White and DSE.

I gotta be honest, I don’t think your style matched the DS vibe, but it doesn’t make a lesser drummer of you. You played with Paul McCartney, for God’s sake. Of course you were young and all that but Mark hired you for a reason, he must’ve seen you play hundreds of times before approaching you, that’s all you needed to know to ease your mind. If he was unhappy with Manu, Jeff and you the problem was obviously him, not the drummers.

I must say that after listening to the Dublin bootleg from that tour your playing with DS grew on me, felt like you’d been unleashed, the arrangements weren’t so tight like on the official recordings.

All that being said, as a Christian (no pun intended) I think it’s time to make peace with rough times and perhaps reach out to the man himself and have a good talk. He seems different now.

[Chris W]

All that being said, as a Christian (no pun intended) I think it’s time to make peace with rough times and perhaps reach out to the man himself and have a good talk. He seems different now.

I honestly have no need. Of course he could have reached out to me and apologised (for the blatant bullying) at any point over the last 30+ years. It's not up to ME.
I did a tour playing drums last year and it couldn't have been more different. The artist praised my playing every single night. The crew would often compliment me. After the last show the whole band thanked me and said what a fantastic job I'd done.

[Chris W]

I gotta be honest, I don’t think your style matched the DS vibe, but it doesn’t make a lesser drummer of you.

I never wanted to play or sound like Pick or Terry. I was very much of the Omar Hakim, Jeff Porcaro school and held them up as idols I would like to emulate, as much as I could. They were mostly responsible for the BIA drumming and OES. So I eventually accepted the gig thinking it would be fun to play songs that had been recorded by Hakim and Porcaro. But it didn't quite work out like that.
I knew it was a very long tour and I knew about Mark's 'difficult' reputation, so I turned down the tour a few times before eventually agreeing.

[Eddie Fox]

I gotta be honest, I don’t think your style matched the DS vibe, but it doesn’t make a lesser drummer of you.

I never wanted to play or sound like Pick or Terry. I was very much of the Omar Hakim, Jeff Porcaro school and held them up as idols I would like to emulate, as much as I could. They were mostly responsible for the BIA drumming and OES. So I eventually accepted the gig thinking it would be fun to play songs that had been recorded by Hakim and Porcaro. But it didn't quite work out like that.
I knew it was a very long tour and I knew about Mark's 'difficult' reputation, so I turned down the tour a few times before eventually agreeing.

Honest question. What if you had stood up or even walked away? Did the contract prevented you from doing that? I’m a very cold and practical person so I’d probably focus on the paycheck and carry on but if it got to the point I couldn’t handle it without going off I like to think I’d give them the middle finger and dart out. I’m not judging your approach, just to make it clear, I obviously don’t know what had been signed and especially the financial context.