*Special Features*
HAL LINDES: From time to time we get asked what former members of DS are doing. Well, here's an update on what Hal Lindes is up to these days:The Boys Are Back film and soundtrack CD (SilvaScreen) were released in the UK on Jan 22, 2010, and will be out in the rest of Europe from mid February/March, 2010. Hal is very busy with a packed calender scoring for films and some television, and he has various instrumental tracks on physical release and iTunes. Occasionally, he plays a gig or two with Johnny Hallyday and he is currently writing with the Irish artist, Luan Parle. A new Hal Lindes web site is currently being constructed, we'll let you know when it's up and running. (04/02/10)
WARNER BROS DS REISSUES: Warner Brothers is celebrating 30 years of Dire Straits in the US with a vinyl reissue campaign. Each DS album has been lovingly re-mastered from the original analog master tapes at Bernie Grundman Mastering, in Hollywood California and pressed on 180 gram European vinyl, at Furnace MFG, Pallas. More info. (30/01/10)
2010 GET LUCKY TOUR LATEST: Mark will be perfoming at the Arena in Nimes next July. Please note, the presale for this show will be for general admission tickets only.
Go to the tour dates page for full info.
mk.com presales: There is a limit of FOUR (4) tickets per order on all mk.com presales for the Get Lucky tour. In an effort to prevent pre-sale tickets ending up on the secondary market at inflated prices, tickets for all shows will need to be collected at the venue's box office ON THE NIGHT OF THE SHOW ONLY.
Personnel:
Mark
Knopfler - guitar, vocals
Guy Fletcher - keyboards
Danny Cummings
- drums
Richard Bennett - guitar
Glenn Worf - bass
John McCusker* - violin, flute, etc
Matt Rollings - piano
*John
is unavailable for the North America leg of the tour. His place in the line
up will be taken by Tim O'Brien and Michael McGoldrick.
(updated: 27/01/10)
ECHO AWARD NOMINATION: Mark is among the nominees for the German Echo Award 2010 in the Best Rock & Pop Artist category. (26/01/10)
BIA BRIT NOMINATION: Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms is one of ten albums nominated in the 'best album of the last 30 years' category for this year's Brit Awards. (19/01/10)
US LEG SUPPORT ACT: Pieta Brown will be the support act for all of Mark's US dates for the 2010 Get Lucky tour.
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You can listen to Pieta's music and read her biog by visiting her MySpace page.
(12/01/10)
BLUE PLAQUE: Mark and John Illsley attended a short ceremony in Deptford on Thursday 3rd December to unveil a blue plaque on the site of the first Dire Straits performance.
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The award, presented by the PRS for music, is part of a national campaign
to highlight areas where significant musical events have taken place. The
plaque was fixed to Farrer House in Church Street, Deptford.
(updated: 02/12/09)
SECOND GET LUCKY SINGLE: The second single from Mark's Get Lucky album will be Remembrance Day/Piper To The End.
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The single was released on the 9th of November and proceeds go to the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, a U.K. charity providing support to the serving and ex-service community and their dependents. Proceeds from the US release will go to a similar charity in the United States (details to be confirmed). Hostilities during the First World War ceased at the 11th hour of the 11th month of 1918 and this day is designated as Remembrance Day (aka. Armistice Day).
The second track of the new digital single has personal significance for Mark: “Piper To The End is for my Uncle Freddie, Lance Corporal Frederick John Laidler, a piper of the 1st Battalion, Tyneside Scottish, The Black Watch, RHR, who carried his pipes into action and was killed with them at Ficheux, near Arras on the 20th May, 1940, aged 20.”
For the past two years, the Royal British Legion has organised an event called Silence in the Square, which aims to achieve a re-instatement of the traditional two minute silence held at 11 am on the 11th of November in remembrance of the fallen in the two twentieth-century World Wars and other conflicts. Last year the event drew 10,000 participants for a very moving ceremony involving performances, readings and an invitation to the public to scatter poppies on the water of the fountains in central London’s Trafalgar Square.
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Mark, with members of ‘Only Men Aloud’ and the Trevor Roberts School choir, performing Remembrance Day in Trafalgar Square shortly before 11 am, Wednesday, 11th November, 2009. - pic by Mandy Anstey. Watch Mark performing in Trafalgar Square.
(updated: 11/11/09)
TIME IN THE SUN: This extra Get Lucky bonus track is now available on amazon.de. (19/10/09)
GUY 'S NEW EP: Guy Fletcher has a fabulous new eight-track EP available called Stone. All copies ordered via Guy's website will be personally signed by Guy.
Order now directly from Guy's wesbite. (16/10/09)
GET LUCKY TAB BOOK: The TAB book for the Get Lucky album is now available. All the songs from the album arranged for Guitar tab, complete with full lyrics and melody line. click here to order your copy. (05/10/09)
GET LUCKY CHART ENTRIES:
UK
- #9
Norway - #2
France - #10
Germany - #2
Italy - #2
Denmark - #2
Sweden - #6
Spain - #4
Switzerland - #5
Portugal - #9
US - #17
Netherlands - #3
New Zealand - #5
Finland - #17
(28/09/09)
GET LUCKY: Released worldwide on or around the 14th of September 2009, Mark's new solo album, is titled Get Lucky.
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Track
list:
Border Reiver
Hard Shoulder
You Can’t Beat The House
Before Gas & TV
Monteleone
Cleaning My Gun
The Car Was The One
Remembrance Day
Get Lucky
So Far From The Clyde
Piper To The End
And before you ask, a 'reiver' was someone who carried out raids over the northern English/Scottish border to plunder and steal cattle, i.e. a border raider.
A bonus track not on the CD, Early Bird, can be downloaded from iTunes. Early Bird and another non-album track, Time In The Sun, can be downloaded from amazon.com These tracks are available in the US only at the monent but they will be made available outside of the US within the next few weeks.
Lots more Get Lucky info on releases page.....
(updated: 17/09/09)
GET LUCKY POLL: Use the link above to take part in the MKNews Get Lucky poll. And don't forget you can vote for yopur all-time favourite live and studio MK song using the vote link in the top menu bar. (12/09/09)
RE-RELEASE OF ILLSLEY ALBUMS: In the 1980s John Illsley released two solo albums: Glass and Never Told A Soul. Consisting of all original Illsley compositions, the albums featured some eminent guest performers. Mark played guitar on much of both records, as did Jerry Donahue. Both Guy Fletcher and Alan Clark lent their hands to the keyboard parts and Chris White guested on sax.
The two CDs are being re-issued on with the original artwork on the Creek Records label on September 7th. Comprising 16 tracks between them, the full track listing for both CDs is as follows:
Glass: High Stakes, I Want To See The Moon, Papermen, All I Want Is You , The World Is Made Of Glass, Red Turns To Blue, Let’s Dance, She Wants Everything, Star For Now.
Never Told A Soul: Boy With Chinese Eyes, The Night Café, Never Told A Soul, Jimmy On The Central Line, Northern Land, Another Alibi, Let The River Flow.
Material for a new album is currently being worked on and gig dates are planned for the near future across Europe and the USA.
(01/09/09)
US
SINGLE:
The first US single from Mark's new album, Get Lucky, is Border
Reiver with Cleaning My Gun as a bonus track. The digital single
is available for download now from iTunes US.
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(28/08/09)
ALCHEMY
5.1 DVD:
Chuck Ainlay recently remixed the original tapes which formed the Alchemy
album. The film is currently being digitally enhanced and a 5.1 and blue-ray
version of the concert will be released next year. The approximate release
date would be in April 2010 but this is not confirmed and retail will not
be aware of this release as yet. More details will be released as they become
available via markknopfler.com and here on MKNews. (04/08/09)
MARK
PRESENTS AWARD: Mark has presented British guitar legend Joe
Brown with the MOJO Outstanding Contribution To Music award at the 2009 MOJO
Honours List ceremony. To watch the presentation click
here and keep watching for the bonus footage of Mark and Joe at the end.
(17/06/09)
FALSE WEBSITE: There is a website in which the author has been posting blogs about his "herbal" drug use and making it seem as if Mark was writing the posts. Please be aware that this site is neither written by, affiliated with nor sanctioned by Mark Knopfler, PCM, MarkKnopfler.com or MKNews. (30/01/09)
DS
LIVE IN GERMANY: Statements on various internet sales sites
and elswhere claiming that an official double live Dire Straits CD and DVD
called, Sultans of Swing Live in Germany, have been released are
false. Any such releases are illegal factory pressed bootlegs and MKNews
recommends fans boycott such material. (05/01/09)
ACCURATE
SET LISTS:
If you have accurate set lists for any of the following KTGC shows
please mail to MKNews:
Portland/Woodinville/Vancouver/Calgary/Edmonton/Saskatoon/Regina/ Winnipeg/Vienna(USA)/Atlanta/Clearwater
(05/08/08)
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS: Fans in the UK and Canada can now obtain digital downloads of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits albums directly from the markknopfler.com store. The downloads are in 256kbps MP3 format. (02/07/08)