Conference napalm::guitar

    
    I thought DS split up.

    Well, even if they did split up - anything he puts out will sound like
    Dire Straits.  He *was* that band ..
    
    Scary (who still get's a rise when he plays "Sultans Of Swing" !

     I think he's playing in a new band now... The Notting Hillbillies.
    
    Steve

    My guess is the Notting Hillbillies are a one-shot deal... just
    something he wanted to do with some friends.
    
    Musician magazine had a brief (one-page) interview with Mr. Knofler a
    few months back, and I seem to recall that he discussed some ideas for
    a new Dire Straits album.  This suprised me, since I too was under the
    impression that D.S. were now defunct.
    
    Jim

    >> Well, even if they did split up - anything he puts out will sound like
    >> Dire Straits.  He *was* that band ..
    
       Yo Scary, listen to the Notting Hillbillies (or however you spell
       it) as mentioned previously. It sounds *nothing* like Dire Straits!
    
    Cheers,
    -Tony

    
    
    
    	Mark does a little guitar work on "Love you to Much" on Jef
    Healey's new album "Hell to Pay"...  I've got to say Knopler's work is
    the high spot of the album for me... I loved Healey's first "See the
    Light" but I'm not crazy about his second... (except Mark's incredible
    tone)... how the hell does he do that?

    
    The tone is "out of phase" middle switch setting on five pos switch. 
    The Notting hillbillies album came about because Mark used to play a
    around the clubs with Steve Phillips(one of the guys on the album)
    He originally was just going to produce the album but ended up
    contributing an original track and playing guitar on other tracks.
    Knophler did say at the Knebworth concert that he definately was going
    to do another album.
      <by the way did any of you guys catch the tour he did with clapton.
    Unfortunately they didn't come to Australia.
    

    
    
    They're still together. I think there album is planned for April of
    1991.
    
    Tom

    As a rat hole, could we run a competition to see who can spell Mark's
    surname correctly.
    
    My contribution - Knopfler.
    
    andy
     

    
    
    
    	I'll go with Knofflower... 

    
    Knobblers.
    
    (The 'n' is silent 8^) ).

    The spelling is knopfler 
    P.K.
    
    

    
    
    	I'd capitalize the "K"...    Z'anyone know what knopfler means in
    Russian??   Same as Kimosabe, I think!

    I'm just call him Mark ...
    
    Scary

    re .7: on a five position switch on a Strat, there's two out of
    phase positions: 2 and 4.  3 is all p/u's on.
    
    As for getting that tone, which one are we talking about?  I think
    of two distintly different tones: the sound he used on the early
    albums e.g 'Sultans' and a more recent crunchy sound e.g that killer
    start to 'Money For Nothing'.  He uses fingers only, no picks. 
    I've seen him use Soldano heads on Marshall cabinets when touring
    recently (last three years)...maybe the crunch is in the amplification?
    
    IMHO, tone's in your fingers.

    The first album was recorded using a three pos switch on a 60's strat.
    The money for nothing riff was played using a Les Paul although live
    he sometimes uses a steinberger headless.  I have the details of 
    what amps ,string gauges , guitars he uses in an interview in
    GP magazine I'll post it if your interested.

	I've never actually seen him live but seen him quite a bit on video 
e.g. the Nelson Mandela birthday concert. I was strcuk by how many different 
guitars he used, it seemed like a different one for almost every song. Maybe 
the tone isn't all in the fingers!

Nigel

    
    
    .15  I'm going to differ with you (in a friendly way)  Standard Strat
    wiring does not include a switch position that turns ALL the pickups
    on, the middle psotion selects the middle pick-up only.  And even
    though positions 2 and 4 are sometimes referred to as being out of
    phase N to S and S to N, they are not.. they get that great sound
    because of the pickups being mixed together... The "K" guy Knopler?? 
    used to get that tone by pushing his 3 position in between so that both
    were selected....  IMHO pickups that are truly out of phase suck...
    tone wise cause all the good stuff cancels out!
    
    Steve
    gray haired old fart

    Yep, Steve's right, including his feeling that out of phase sound sucks
    on strats. I replaced the neck pickup on my strat with a DiMarzio and
    mistakenly wired it so its out of phase with the middle when selected.
    Its a real thin yucky sound. next time I change the strings, I gotta
    open it up and reverse the polarity. Right now, that switch setting is
    unuseable.
    
    "sakman"  

     re: .18, .19;
    out of phase pickups don't always necessarily suck;
    the secret to getting a good sound (and this is true                   
    of any pickup combo whether in/out of phase or whatever): 
    the pickup's position in relation to the bridge along
    with the scale length determines the harmonic content
    that the pickup will produce. So although the out of 
    phase sound on a stratocaster between pickups 1-2 or
    2-3 may not sound good to your ear; if your guitar had
    the physical position of the pickups slightly different,
    the result would be drastically different. Unfortunately
    you're locked into one place on a store bought guitar
    unless you're not afraid of altering the stock setup.
    -Bill
    

    I had a guitar once that had a switch that I was told put the two
    pickups in or out of phase with each other.  I never liked the out of
    phase setting.  Like someone described, real thin and whiney, just a
    sick kind of sound.
    
    Greg

    The only positions I use on my Standard is the "out-of-phase" sounding
    2 and 4 positions ... just my preference I guess ...
    
    Scary

    
    
    
    
    	Yeah, I like to chunk along in the middle then streak (ummmmm, well
    at least, plod quickly) into my solo between the bridge and middle
    marvelous sound...  how would you guys describe it in words.. Anyone
    who can do it without using the words MELLOW, FULL or the cliche' OUT
    OF PHASE wins a free GreveMasters CD!
    
    .20 Oh yeah it sounds great if youetest bass and treble tones!!!  P
    Middle tones are a curse!!!!   My humble and friendly opinion...
    
    
    	DO THIS!		DO NOT DO THIS!
    	] ] ]			] ] [
    
    [;^Q
    
    	Of course.. with a Q
    

    Anyone heard anything about the new Dire Straits record coming out.
    They are doing a world tour to support it starting in Ireland in 
    July.  They are going to play Australia in Sep.  Last time they
    played here they did 13 nights in my town and 21 nights in Sydney!!!
    
    P.K

The new Dire Straits album is scheduled to be release worldwide this 
September. I don't know the exact date.

BTW, the sponsor for the Dire Straits world tour is Phillips/Magnavox, and
they are going to use it promote DCCs (Digital Compact Cassettes). Should
be interesting - it looks like the standard cassette format will soon
be outta here, the same way records were converted over to CDs.....

alan

    Re:  .25  DCC  Digital Compact Cassette
    
    I know this deserves its own note if it goes any further, but I didn't
    recall one in this conference...
    when records were replaced by CD, there was no upward compatibility.
    DAT offers none either.  The nice thing about DCC is that, in addition
    to being a digital technology (with all of those benefits), it is
    designed to play your existing Compact Cassette format analog tapes.
    Thus, DCC may abort the success of DAT for the home consumer market.
    \Gary
    PS - we should really start a new note if there's any further interest

    	Well driving to work this morning ended a six year wait.
    The dude says on the radio "coming up after 8 o'clock the new song
    for Dire Straits.  I nearly crashed the car.
    
    	The album is called "on every street" and the single is ........
    .......  Calling Elvis????????????.  I listened to it and though I 
    have only heard it once I am very dissapointed.  I am a die hard
    straits fan and I didn't care much for it.  I hope the rest of the
    album is better.
    
    	The guy on the radio said they sold out their European tour in
    4hrs!!!!! that's incredible.  Have any of you dudes in Europe seen
    any of the shows or heard the album.
    
    		P.K.
    

    Last night, Channel 4 TV had a 15 slot where they proclaimed the
    first full showing on British TV of the video for 'Calling Elvis'. They
    also had some interviews with Mark and others involved in making this
    epic.
    
    As another long time Straits fan ( "bought the first album before they
    were famous" ) I agree that the song is a change of direction. I found
    it more in common with the Nottinghillbilly style than the great
    Straits songs of past years. Sounded ok at the start, but I found the
    music very repetative after a couple of minutes. Sort of 'Top 40'
    style.
    
    Let's hope the rest of the album has something more to offer.
    
    Al

    The new DS Album 'On Every Street' was released on Monday 9th Sept. I
    got my copy through the post yesterday morning as a birthday present
    from my brother-in-law. I have played the cassette through twice and I
    like it. There is nothing that sticks out like "Money For Nothing' or
    'Walk of Life' yet though I think that it is one of those albums that
    will grow on you. There is a lot of subtle interplay of instruments,
    MKs own guitar backed by pedal steel guitar, keyboards and sax. The
    material is quite varied, ranging frome the heavy rock 'Heavy Fuel' to
    some slow country style stuff reminisent of the Chet Atkins 'Neck and
    Neck' LP. I like 'Calling Elvis' after hearing it a few times and I
    also like 'Planet of New Orleans' which has some great haunting sax
    work on it.
    
    Re; The Tour.
    
    By a great stroke of luck I was able to see DS play at the NEC Arena in
    Birmingham (England) last Thursday (Sept 5th). I knew it was a sell out
    but the venue has a new policy of keeping some tickets back to sell on
    the day as a means of discouraging the touts. Anyway I got in on the
    back row of the first block i.e. about 25 yards from the front of the
    stage. The show started at 8:00pm with 'Calling Elvis'. this lasted
    about 10 mins with lots of extended soloing from MK and the other
    guitarists (The band has 9, MK, rythem guitar, bass, two keyboard
    players, pedal steel guitar,sax and 2 drummers.) They then went into
    'So Far Away' followed by 'Walk of Life'which really got the place
    jumpin. I can't remember all the tracks but most of the big numbers
    were there, 'Telegraph Road', 'Private Investigations','Sultans of
    Swing', 'Romeo and Juliet' and others. They played two pieces from the
    new album 'On Every Street' and 'Planet of New Orleans'. They did two
    encores including 'Money for Nothing' and finished up at 10:20 with
    'Solid Rock'. There was no support and no interval just solid Dire
    Straits. They're back and how!!! This tour takes in the whole world so
    everyone should find them playing somewhere near sometime.
    
    Richard Bell 

    I heard Calling Elvis an the radio a few days ago. I like it. I'll buy
    it.

    I keep hearing this song on the radio that smacks of Knophler.  It's a
    real bluesy number that talks about the "...road to hell...".  Is this
    him, and if so, what album is it on?
    
    Thanks,
    Mike

RE: .31

>    I keep hearing this song on the radio that smacks of Knophler.  It's a
>    real bluesy number that talks about the "...road to hell...".  Is this
>    him, and if so, what album is it on?
    
It's Chris Rhea (sp?).

    I got a copy of "on every street" and I was stoked.  They have done
    what they did with the last album.  The rest of the album is quite
    strong.  Moving between Jazz to Rock.  As always the production is
    stunning and whats interesting is George Martin wrote and arranged
    the strings.
    
    	Knophler has certainly stayed in the "neck to neck" vain.
    
    Re: The fella who saw the concert:
    
    Did they do anything off Communique?

    I don't know what's on Communique so I can't say if they did it. There
    were 3 or 4 numbers that I didn't recognise, the only albums I have are
    'Dire Straits', 'Love over Gold' & 'Money for Nothing'. There was a
    track with a very strong sax riff that was familiar but I couldn't put
    a title to it.
    
    Richard Bell 

> There was a track with a very strong sax riff that was familiar but I 
> couldn't put a title to it.

If this was an instrumental, its probably "Going Home" from the 'Local Hero'
soundtrack. Its what the band traditionally uses as its closing theme....

alan

    Yeah that could have been it.
    
    Richard

Richard,

What did you think of the sound?  Saw the Straits at Sheffield 
and thought the sound was pretty bad, but may have been the 
venue.

They did not play 'Going Home' at Sheffield but according to an 
interview Mark gave on Radio 1, they intended to vary the set 
from gig to gig anyway.

Can't remember them playing anything from Communique though!

Apart from the sound, which was over loud and 'boomy', the band 
played exceptionally well.  Particularly liked the sax work of 
Chris White ( but then that's my fave instrument after guitar ).  
Got the feeling that it was Mark + backing musicians at times 
though.

Like the new album, still growing on me.

Nick

    The sound at the NEC Arena was fine. I was about 25yds from the stage
    in a direct line so I was in an excellent position. It was loud of
    course but not uncomfortable. I saw Clapton in the same venue 2 years
    ago and the sound was excellent then even though I was up at the side.
    Maybe Sheffield need to do some work on the acoustics.
    
    Richard 

The Noteworthy Catalog mentiones a CD by Mark Knopfler and Dave Edmunds called
'The Booze Brothers : Brewers Droop'.

I have never seen this album or read anything about it.

Can anyone tell me what it's like?

Thanks

- Minne

Crossposted in CD and MUSIC

    Dont know about the CD
    
    But Brewers Droop was  a band Knophler played with in the early 70's
    who were supposed to be big on the English club circuit.
    
    P.K.

    
    Got a copy of 'The Booze Brothers' a couple of years back.  I guess it
    was someone's idea to cash in on Mark's success.  The front cover is
    like Brothers In Arms, but with a droopy guitar........
    
    Mark only plays on 3 or 4 numbers, and Dave Edmunds plays on a couple
    more.  It is not really a collaboration, more that both Dave and Mark
    happened to be heavily involved in the London pub rock scene in the
    early/mid 70's.
    
    Neither the songs nor playing is memorable, though it is interesting
    that you can just detect Mark's style developing......
    
    I don't think Mark enjoyed playing in that band, he has said as much in
    recent interviews.
    
    Worth it is you are an out and out Knofler follower, but otherwise
    forget it.
    
    If you want more info I can get it off the record cover.
    
    Nick.