new live album about to be released and unveiled why another live album please well what I mean actually when I was you know when we were originally talking about it I suggested to the record companies that put some new things on and said no no no it's everybody wants a souvenir of the tour so I said fine in and and that was the companies all around Europe and apparently that's what people want they want to have a souvenir they want to it's just the same of the film the video of the of the show they just want to have a souvenir reminder of what it was like to be there on the event but shouldn't a live album be like when I think back to the sort of Frampton Comes Alive albums and he and the best of the film or and and like you know things like that and I think that a live album should be an item within itself should be something that even if you weren't there you can still enjoy the atmosphere of the event well I think yeah Minister I still think that I mean it's relevant as a recording just because you know when you once you start going out live you're changing the songs about I mean as soon as you start rehearsing which is my favorite time actually and because you know you're putting new pieces in here knocking things out yeah slicing and cutting and sticking pedal steel solos in and this that and the other and it's just a different thing from the record and you've got different people to you've got different drummers and you've got percussionists and this that and the other so it's it's a different experience altogether so it's worth having just from that point of view I think it's it's it's a different entity from a live record from frustrate from a studio record you know we certainly weren't being slavish about being retentive about album parts necessarily I'm part of the fun is being able to do it in different ways you know they moved to take the songs and change them about and and I mean if you take something like : Elvis it just live it just became something else that's what happens with crowds that's what happens with rehearsals you have to put endings onto things and all the rest of it you're making a show you make it something flow so it becomes the show itself in a way becomes something with its own life made up of different songs and the order that they were on and so on and so forth you eventually call me Elvis now it's been elongated to enormous proportions west about ten minutes something how do you justify that then because surely that could be a collection of long solos and how do you also say to yourself right calling our son any good like this but in rehearsal wouldn't it be nice to do this how do you how do you pick out those songs that you think would suit the extensions that you very often give them life you can't justify it I think you just say it's nothing nothing really short of indulgence and time-wasting and you know you the only excuse that I could possibly make would be that it gets everybody played in at the beginning of the set you can drummers can bash away and percussionists can hit everything that they've got as loud as possible and as so the sound people can get a chance to get the PA sorted out and we get played in I mean that's a way of getting warmed up really well played in and we have had quite a lot of fun with it in rehearsal because I just found myself adding bits and it's just a failing of mine really I think it's just something that happens and I have no excuses really whatsoever apart from the playing in aspect and getting any getting the oil warmed up if you like I was nice to be honesty and a musician it just says well I just having a bit of a go really Charlie galette gave you an opportunity many many years ago and I actually remember the broadcast which is quite an amazing situation to be in um and and there was just such a good feeling about that now he gave you an opportunity do you now have the opportunity to give our younger musicians a chance do you do things for other musicians in the position you're now in you do just by being successful I mean that's that happened that started happening straight away in fact in 77 78 when first of all that the the record company gets to be in a very healthy position cause it's got a number-one album all over the world and that we'll all the kind of signings that they make but apart from that what happens when you go out on tour for example you take people out on support and this and that when you know you've begun by supporting opening for other people and so that the chain goes on down and then you start producing people and you start there's a circulation of music that goes on after a while if you show an interest in any particular musician the fact that you've shown interest generates an interest in turn you know through the game through the music game and that's what happens really it's just a it's a natural impulse I think you certainly don't feel threatened by I certainly never have felt threatened by anybody else coming in the first when you hear something great the the natural inclination is to rejoice because it's such a refreshing thing you're so happy to hear it and you can't ignore that and certainly you you know the idea of the idea of not and not encouraging it was repugnant to me not encouraging somebody or not trying to help somebody along the same thing happens with with the business side of it I mean not me but my management people help young managers a lot demands a lot to be said for that and in fact for years I've been pressing IDI my manager and Porter former managers association so that can help young managers to find their footing I mean when ed started with us he thought that mechanicals were something to do with cars and he would be quite happy to tell you that so you have to knife and fork your way through a lot of these things and if you can put somebody on it on it there ain't millions for instance you might get somebody from America calling up wanting to know which promoter they should deal with which venue should they play so on and so forth and in fact a lot of ends time was spent really it's like you know dr. ed you know helping out people that happens quite a lot and there is a network of like-minded people who because of the problems that they've encountered they become in a way committed to leaving the business in a better state than they found it excellent and the serious thing well the arguments you said that they put some money back into the record company which there means they can develop new acts that's one of the arguments now the record companies are saying for the price of CDs and yet your management and yourself are very much against the costs of CDs at the moment doesn't that isn't that sort of a reverse argument in there somewhere well possibly and just in terms of the amount of money that they say that they've got available for X but in terms of the CD theme and I'm talking I'm talking before CD even this was in 77 or whenever it was that were the first album you know did so well around the world CD thing has been I think as I'd puts it the great North Sea oil of the record companies and anybody who really has studies the figures and has a look well no I mean part of the reason why had got involved in all of this is because of the galling experiences that we've had with compactus you know in terms of new formats coming in the only thing that I could would say really I mean because it's a massive subject but and not nearly as important as Bosnia but it's a small thing in some respects but if you were asked or if you were told by your employers that a new broadcasting format was going to necessitate a 50% cut in your salary for an indeterminate period I should imagine it'd be for some fairly loud squeaking from your direction followed by a search for new employment and you know it's it's a fairly complex business but there seems to be absolutely no question whatsoever that that the figures that the record company they're BPI have been putting out incidentally they haven't put any figures out for the past three years since the consumer Council which magazine or whatever it was got on their backs about it though the figures are questionable to say the least and that what they say that artistic royalties that they said that artists were getting for CDs fictional and even though I'm I know that that Edie has renegotiated our situation to the point where we're probably getting a higher rate than a lot of other artists are for CDs it's still way under what they say all artists are getting and you can bet that that we are getting a heck of a lot more than Bo Diddley or somebody like that only you can I wouldn't mind betting that Bo Diddley with all respect and all love that I do have for his music is getting Diddley and it so in that sense they've they have been cleaning up interesting you mentioned CD it was I remember going to try and get my first CD play and I said well there's only one album you should listen to on CD and the album that sold millions do you think possibly that may have with the great respect to yourself inflated the sales of the album but what it did do was it brought it to the ears of a lot of people who may not have been into the band before that point I really don't know I think it probably has more to do with singles hits that you get off albums and what happened was an American that money for nothing and and walk of life were both top five hits or whatever they were I think I have no idea actually where they got to you'd have to help me on that but that's really what makes the big sales differences is whether you have these kind of singles hits and I've never set out to make a single just do records and I think that's that had a lot to do with it also the fact that it was early in the technology that the record came out early in the technology of of CD it's just luck I don't I don't think it's because it was a particularly outstanding record it's just happened to be in that place at that time and to do with the singles successes that it came off it had pushed up album sales in America I mean obviously did an awful lot better in America and then you know other records that we made that beat simply because of the singles and the radio the radio do you I mean - tracks really have made an art form and a touring and when you spend so long touring and it's it's a natural progression there should be a live album I you know in danger two things one burning yourselves out completely we're spending so much time on the road because it is a pressure thank you to the circular saw okay I danger a burning your cells out and also saturating the market in that there could be too much of dire straits at the moment it's like dire straits tickets are you know one of the most sought-after things people want to try to find out when you're gonna play what you're gonna do but if you keep touring at the level you have been touring those two factors could come into play and that the week too much of a good thing oh yeah I mean I wouldn't do it to the same extent as we have done anymore now I mean it just seemed like the best way of doing it at the time and playing lies a very important part of being being a musician I think I mean other people can think what they like there's nothing like being there playing to a crowd and it's a very important part of what it is it's what you dreamed about when you were kid it's a and fans around the world let you know how happy they are that you've bothered to turn up that's oh that's really all I would say about it I mean I don't I never think about saturation or anything else like it I mean you know just you just plan a tour and go off and do it and if you're gonna do it you might as well do it properly you have got an obligation to people but when you see it when you actually go to France and see it or go to Germany and see him you realize what it what it what it means to people so there's a relationship that's set up if you like that you have to put a value on you know do you think when you see these holes full of people and you think that I mean there's a tremendous responsibility there that yeah these people have welcomed to see and you've got to play well that night it's it's got to be a good night you've got to do your job does that give you a pressure or just being happy being a musician does that come across on stage do you see what I'm getting at yeah I used to feel pressed for a lot more than I do now and I think that just comes from time spent in the driving seat really that the more you do it the more you can pay attention to other things that are going on and you can't you're not just caught up in in the performance itself or in what you're up to yourself and that's just that that sort of thing comes with time spent doing it but it's an interesting thing pressure people always ask me about that and when I was a kid I used to get to me a lot more when I was 15 and I went to see Chuck Berry at City Hall in Newcastle I thought that I thought the City Hall was was the biggest place I'd ever seen it seemed like a cathedral to me yeah a few years later you know you go back and look at it and it's it's like it's just like a little it seems like a small room to you so you grow into the big places without without realizing it is just time spent you grow into and you got to be able to do to handle bigger crowds without going over the top and or changing anything too much and altering what you would do too much just to still make it somehow intimate at times without without it not that too much of the expense of the of the of the show you know the performance have you had anything on to this because it must be very tempting if you're listening to a live hour think I was just a dreadful no that was awful if you docked it I'll play with it at all or is it as it happened oh no you have to know I mean with but I think that one of the problems apart from anything else is that when you're recording a band that is a little as loud as that one was on this last or they get leakage coming in and all sorts of problems coming in from monitoring and certain the other and you do end up with live albums I mean all live albums have have to be repaired here in there and and you can do that the the important thing is to try to preserve as much of the of what really happened and mistakes you know after a while mistake start sounding right like chat cans I was once doing a an interview with Chet and we would we were talking to the interviewer together and I'd said something about how on the every street album I tried to get the whole band to play together and if and if I had a cold or something it didn't you just had to learn to live with it or there was leakage a lot of leakage from because I was playing a guitar and singing into the same mic I into in same booth and you know one was leaking onto the other which can be an engineer's nightmare I like leakage and I like mistakes on recordings and something comes to the air when you're all playing together which is I think it's worth having on records if you can get it and so and I've made all my mistakes in public you know before that we'll the separation and everything else and so mr. mistakes if you have a mistake that doesn't really matter too much then just just leave it in and it's like Chet says for a while then mistake they start sounding right I'm interested to you did you ever get to produce a never leave others album good today because the writ this is really strange connection now is that Albert Lee plays guitar with Everly Brothers and he played setting me up on a live Clapton album so there's a real weird because I think Albert Lee is just one of the great musicians and that he now plays with the ever least did you get to do the Everly's album no I haven't managed to get that up laughs talked to the ABS about doing a record at some point and I'm making a little list of possible things that we can do and I don't know when it could could possibly be actually I'd I'd love to get stuck in it something like that I mean the Everly's was so important to me you know I mean when I started playing I had a little friend Vince and he was he was done and I was filled I suppose or the other way around I think he got higher than I could and it was so it's a it's all very but I didn't know then that Chet had made those records and it was wonderful arrangements on those records but it's it is important to me and we have talked about about it and I would love to that you know they would like permitted to get something going I think their management recently wanted them to rerecord some of their old hits which i think is a big mistake and I hope I hope fervently that they don't that they don't go that route I think they should be doing new things which still have that very special color and that that only they can get you varied country music and you talk about country music and yeah I I just think that a lot of your arrangements a lot of your songs could be countrified if you will you could actually but a country arrangement that waka lie for example could have a country rose it is getting there have you ever thought you know you might like to do just a country album or doing it with very strong country feel to it well I mean if we've just been talking about the Everly Brothers I mean they that's country music really in a way it just becomes something else here and there and you have R&B elements and the Blues is really is how I came up with as well so a lot of my songs have been recorded by people in Nashville and but when you hear them sometimes there's a lack of attitude I mean if you hear a country version of the buck or something they've taken the R&B out if you hear a country version of walk of life they've taken the R&B out and things can flatten out quite a bit I mean my only criticism of a lot of the current Nashville music is is in fact that that kind of digging in and R&B attitude is missing but there you know then again some things that get recorded there are recorded there are absolutely great still and on and on it goes I mean a lot of a lot of country so-called country artists are making records now that are very bluesy and rock influenced if you like so this is if it's all a bit of a jumble really you know just listening to the new wynonna judd record the other night and you know you can hear all these influences coming in there's getting to be a lot more R&B influence to say and it's great you know that so that's somebody like Bonnie Raitt is influencing somebody like why no never it's a it's a wonderful thing it's a beauty to be happening so I don't really know how to and listening to John Anderson's new record that well you know John recorded one of in Nashville John recorded know one of the songs from every street record listening to his new stuff as well you can hear them more and more R&B creeping into so-called country music a lot of country artists have got to be quite careful over there because country radio which is probably where they get a lot of their bread and butter from is quite a conservative setup and they they can't really you know they'd get people saying things like you know where's a pedal steel guitar you know ain't no fiddle in that song so you've got to be quite careful how they approach things I mean there are people who really come from more of a rockabilly background like mark calling and people like that but then they're in some ways that maybe being forced into a more well behaved area just in order to get played on the country radio stations there are so many of them around the country and that doesn't happen to rock and roll acts and I certainly never happened to me you can please yourself really the way that should go again you know if you're doing something in a country ish kind of vein I can put a big heavy distorted guitar over it and that so that wouldn't really wash with country radio which was why you know they wouldn't my version wouldn't really be played over there and they would want something a little more well behaved you say these people are adhering to the country format and the country formula that you have been accused on various occasions of playing safe of sticking with a tried and tested Mark Knopfler formula now do you feel that valid criticism or not absolutely no I mean nobody's ever I've never done anything you know for the radio in fact I mean one you know all of my songs usually far too long or don't you know fall into that radio ability at all and in fact I remember one time and being told that you know I think we can get this they can get this song down to so-and-so so-and-so minutes and it works because because they've done it you know and you just have to say no one I mean I wrote it that way and I don't want to edit edit ate or shortened to the regulation length I mean there are all kinds of horror stories and you can go over there and hear your record being played faster to get it into timeframes and all the rest of it no I don't think I mean I don't think that rock and roll has been subject to to let anything like as much as country artists have that kind of control I mean there are lots of drawbacks to to entering into this particular arena you know you find that radio is because of these radio consultancies so-called over in America and playlist that DJ's have now become just puppets who who play what they're told to play they have a playlist and so on and so forth but now I got used to that fairly quickly in a way and I remember when they wouldn't play something to swing in England for for ages it was it was a hit all over the world but it was the last place it was a hit was in England because there was a committee then with a woman called Doris or something at the head of it who said it had too many words which is properly write it properly does but it was just the way that it was it was then and I think it only really became a hit in England after Paul Gambaccini was playing it as part of his an American so people heard it and realized eventually that it was a British you know effort and it sort of took off in England but it took off in England miles behind the rest of the world do you find a lot of these situations that you build up okay make you quite rebellious people might think you were quite arrogant because you do stand up for your music like you just said it's a speeded-up artists bit to cut out of thing and people might get the wrong attitude about a guy who just believes that without sorry but that was the way it was recorded and that was the way it should be her no I mean you can't be too you can't be too pleased with yourself about any of that but the only reason I think that I've been allowed to meander about relatively unscathed is the fact that we were successful from the beginning I think for acts who who have a more of a borderline thing happening for them at the beginning can be subject to a lot more bullying from record companies people who don't really know what they're talking about and that's when you get damaged when when when I think when people are telling them what to do instead they can't just necessarily follow their heart so at that point I think when that starts to happen you lose sight of the truth and what actually moves people ultimately is some kind of truth isn't it it's something that reverberates through the artist in to them and they don't necessarily sit around and analyze it they just like it there's some kind of recognition of something and the more you start messing about with that and trying to push it into some formula for radio or for whatever you can run into you can run into problems but I do think that one of the diseases that there's been allowed to happen is energy I mean it probably would apply to me now if I was starting off now is that a lot of artists encouraged to write everything themselves you know this doesn't happen in Nashville and so that you get probably more good tunes on a record and then you get with a lot of rock and roll records I think a lot of kids are being encouraged to write everything themselves now whether it's its financial it's partly that they can get publishing money to bolster their recording money in order to stay alive that can be part of it that the publishing advances can look quite attractive to them or it's the idea of being an artist you know I'm an artist I do all my own writing and I think some people you can see that some people have actually suffered for for that whereas there's a far less pretentious atmosphere that goes on in in somewhere like Nashville where people just take songs and that they don't really care who's written them so when they die strikes last record somebody else's song well I know I mean it should've actually I think you're quite right I mean I think I think I could have made better records half the time by by sticking in songs by other people for that to be quite honest with you I'm interested too about the track listing you said that you know it's all stuff on there and who do you think a bit more upset if and walk of life and brothers-in-arms were not on this live album you the fans or the record company well I wouldn't mind bob was on it or you know or not on it really I mean I don't I don't know what the record company would say because I don't I'm just informed occasionally of what they think through management company it's it's kind of a fan thing really I mean I had a couple of little kids in I went him see a couple of little kids in the office management office the other week got cancer and stuff and and and anyway I'm showing them some of the some of the video that we've done and showed him a list of songs I said well would you like to would you like to see and they both said at the same time money for nothing now I mean I for me too I'm you know I don't really have much of a an emotional attachment to that particular song it's so but there's a sense when you see that you know there's a sense in which you think well it's they wanted they wanted that amount of it bless them it's that I miss the only thing you think yeah I really wish that was because you obviously had to listen to hours and hours of tapes for this thing you must have done with all the showers and things is there anything you thought well you know I really would have liked to put that on there but maybe it's a little bit off the wall well there was a couple overcome the things I mean I would have liked to have had a sultans on there but I never played one that I thought was any good and that was my I was just down to me I mean I just didn't think I played one that was worth particularly that people would particularly want to have and also we did this little thing where we made it a four piece for quite a lot of this song and we're little drum kit that came came down onto the floor behind so it was a bit like playing in the original club band but the sound off that kid was so bad he we couldn't actually was a big too big a problem to record it that way it was good fun playing it live but we couldn't really get anything that would I decided I just thought I never played one that was any good so so that's that's and also you know people have got live recordings of it anyway so I thought maybe not that and so that's why that's not on there but that's all and you can't listen to all I mean I I literally would couldn't face listening to all the recordings so we're about ten of them ten different nights and I just couldn't so i i i i slid out of it and sneaked it off and got guy from the band and and the endorsement to do a lot of listening to to that sort of thing i mean in the end i mean i I suppose I had to listen to a fair bit of it but I'm not very good at I mean if you've saw it so in other words I haven't really been involved in this album anything like as much mean I know it really to two guy and Neil and more than anything else I haven't actually put much time in on it I've been nipping off really and riding my motorbike I haven't been a very good boy on it come in you know late and even see is everything going alright cross my fingers and hope that nothing was too far gone but I can't actually bring myself even back with alchemy I couldn't listen to the tape in 84 I think it was I couldn't listen to the tapes I started doing it and after 10 minutes as I can't listen to 10 nights of this arena so I said wow what was the good my Saturday night seemed a pretty good night I was in the hammersmith odeon and we'll just do that just take it from that but and it was literally just laziness and if I'd been really retentive about it I would have probably waded through a conscientious I would have probably created through it all but I just couldn't face it did you get easily poured these days for things do you find that you you really would love to be out like so producing an Evaline album or or you know just it it's a bit too much of a drag sometimes yep yep I know actually I'm sure that my attention span as has gone off as certainly as far as my own stuff is concerned it certainly has and I don't what to do about that I really don't know I mean I I just like to have a sofa in an acoustic guitar and please myself not playing a bit of mandolin at the moment I can't get that excited about about what I've done already in a way and I mean it's the same it's the same with rehearsing really is the most exciting time for me writing is very it's exciting when you've got something and then it's exciting rehearsing it and it's exciting recording and you've got to really want to do it obviously I mean you wouldn't be able to take these tours on a few unless you loved it and you really wanted to do it I suppose I'm lucky in a sense that I like of all the bits of the cycle if you like but I'm always looking ahead to the new thing really that's what turns me on is then is the the thing that you want to record and the other thing that's coming up or yes I mean a a Nashville session or a blue session a Buddy Guy thing or something like that it's great just to go off and and just do a one-off like that I'm you know the things coming up I'm going to play with the Chieftains so or maybe get stuck into another film or thinking about everything from uilleann pipes to fiddles is is exciting to me talking to somebody about a theatre production it's exciting to me because it's different I think when you come off these long tours that you need a variety to keep you alive to it or you know to keep you excited about it all and it's I've got some good friends around the place and I'm one pal of mine in Nashville them sends me these he's got a huge record collection and he's a songwriter over there and he sends me these little care packages of cassettes with them with music on from it's got and he has these lovely titles and more cool stuff or all sorts and this and that and there's Appalachian music mixed up with obscure hillbilly rockers jukebox hits blues R&B thinks Cajun music French stuff anything you name it just things that turn him on and that's what keeps me alive that kind of spread and that kind of involvement were the roots of music as well as I mean as well as it as well as new stuff so it's a good time as well when you're away from the tour to get back and enjoy music in that direct way and it reminds you to that it reminds me certainly that a lot of my favorite music really it comes from however complicated you might end up getting that my favorite stuff is really very simple music so after 16 years then is it's time to say well it's been all very nice and very good but you know now I think I'd like to do something else for example work a lot more with Brendan Croker I'm not quitting I mean I'm gonna make records and just play with yeah different outfits and and go on with it all it's a it's an endless thing and I I love it and a very lucky boy to be able to do it and that's all I can tell you I'm still just as in love with whole thing as always was I wouldn't I wouldn't tour again or anything like the same length and I mean that's not going to help me anymore but you just get to a stage when you know that that's your last shot around the world in a way at that level that kind of intensity so you might as well go and do it properly but that's not going to be happening now there are too many other exciting things to do do you think if you weren't in the band you just be if we go back many many years we used to be a strolling minstrel just going around and playing a guitar or mandolin or whatever and that would give you similar rewards to what you're getting now oh yes absolutely I'm better in some ways I think yes I think that's exactly what the deal would have been that's exactly what would have happened and in a way that's what you still are and it's a lot of the things that that you end up doing it's you're just going off to play the blues it's basically what you're doing and a lot of the rest of it is nonsense and outside people's perceptions things that become confused with that I mean that there for example a success yes I love I'd recommend it to anybody but Fame which is a is a completely different thing from success has nothing to recommend it whatsoever I mean fact in fact if there isn't an equation you could say that Fame is the price that you pay for says Fame itself doesn't have anything particularly to nothing in fact I can't see anything personally I can't see anything that's that great about that but success or love I mean success is great because it's I've been able to meet so many fabulous people through it and to share their music and to you know to have their friendship so and that's that's what's important to to you I mean that's one of the success and you know being able to move around the world in that way has been able to and to be able to buy a tape machine that you need or something like that as is what and to or to work with a Paul Franklin for example or something like that is this is never-ending source of joy to me you know but but but ultimately there's there's no difference now you know what we're feeling now is when I'm sitting in like I was last week with Steve from the the hillbillies and were just sitting playing to an audience of one or an audience of two in our case and laughing and drinking and playing I mean that is there's not enough of that when you're out on the road on tour and that's what you hunger to get back to and that never goes away never will go away in strength and there's one interesting M edit possibly on the album that heavy fuel and to Romeo and Juliet sort of goes boom and then it comes and I think I wonder if that was the same night it just it doesn't seem to work so well well it was just one of those tough corners that you have to negotiate and we did that it did go that way in fact that's how it went on on the stage yet and in fact I think it might well have been from the same night and if it sounds like a mistake I'm sorry that's I mean we why isn't it a mark knopfler solo album when you've done the sound tracks you've produced why isn't the now Sullivan do you need that band we all the songs are written by you and so we read anyway the credits are always you so why not a solo album why do you have to have that band I don't actually I'm gonna do one that's good question no I mean you know I love bands because it grew up wanting to be in a band and I mean to make a solo album I'll have to get a band together to make it so you're doing the same thing really it's just a name and that's all it is and I like the idea of hiding in a band in a way you you just it's a way that it's a childhood schoolboy thing you love bands and you wanted to be in a band you wanted to have a band and but I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do a record just the same the nice thing about I think about you know probably being able to go into your own record to xik and you can play about with the personnel a lot for different songs and that's really what I want to be able to do would you also play about with the songs would you do other people's material because that would give you the opportunity to do that wouldn't it yeah it would be able to do that too or that I'd actually actually some point I'd really love to do a record of entirely if but you know other people's things and it's a I'm forever - I mean that's what I what I do when I'm at home I was just playing other music so I eventually I'll get something like that together you know like it covers kind of a kind of thing or aversions I swing at an attempt be great actually when you went if you went to this that's all it is so it would be fun you know if you go at the theater and you're seeing Macbeth would be great if somebody came came out and said no good evening ladies and gentlemen we're about to have a swing at Macbeth you know we're taking a stab at King Lear or something that's all it is it's just when you record anything or attempt to play anything that it's only there's no such thing as a definitive just it's just an attempt on the on the day Charlie glass sell on the sleeve notes to the honky-tonk demos which has got the original thing he he made a little comment about the band where he said he felt a sense of responsibility when you said you'd given up your previous careers and would commit yourself to music and these note was especially with the name like dire straits I mean do you feel it's been worth it oh yeah of course and I was and the music was pushing so hard you know for me to do it I was I was in I had to do it there and I couldn't go back to anything else it's it's a wonderful thing to be doing the thing that you like to do more than anything else it's what I would say to any child or to any kid is is matter I know because I spent a lot of years doing the opposite is you you know to play safe is it's not the way I think you have to find what it is that you like doing more than anything else and then try to do it as well as possible and if you can make a living at that that's that's great the thing about music is you don't have to be a professional musician I mean you it looked at the thing about music and or the guitar or something it is that it will be a friend to you all your life and when other things can let you down or other people might even let you down it will be there for you it's a great source of comfort to you and the other thing is of course that you never get to the bottom of it that you realize that you've only just tickled it really that there's a a universe of of of material earth of information there that you you never really will be be part of it it's an endless thing you said you the Urim and about on you are at motorbike it doesn't want it privilege to know what type of motorbike this is without making a wild stab it's a triumph Trident so it's not the holiday recently brilliant I keep my enough well thank you very much your new thank you
[00:00.20]new live album about to be released and [00:03.39]unveiled why another live album please [00:07.29]well what I mean actually when I was you [00:13.88]know when we were originally talking [00:15.98]about it I suggested to the record [00:16.10]companies that put some new things on [00:18.90]and said no no no it's everybody wants a [00:20.78]souvenir of the tour so I said fine in [00:24.39]and and that was the companies all [00:28.99]around Europe and apparently that's what [00:33.80]people want they want to have a souvenir [00:37.90]they want to it's just the same of the [00:39.50]film the video of the of the show they [00:42.40]just want to have a souvenir reminder of [00:46.79]what it was like to be there on the [00:47.39]event but shouldn't a live album be like [00:51.79]when I think back to the sort of [00:52.50]Frampton Comes Alive albums and he and [00:54.38]the best of the film or and and like you [00:56.09]know things like that and I think that a [00:59.00]live album should be an item within [01:00.80]itself should be something that even if [01:03.10]you weren't there you can still enjoy [01:04.69]the atmosphere of the event well I think [01:06.68]yeah Minister I still think that I mean [01:09.89]it's relevant as a recording just [01:12.09]because you know when you once you start [01:14.49]going out live you're changing the songs [01:17.88]about I mean as soon as you start [01:18.00]rehearsing which is my favorite time [01:21.00]actually and because you know you're [01:23.50]putting new pieces in here knocking [01:25.20]things out yeah slicing and cutting and [01:29.50]sticking pedal steel solos in and this [01:33.40]that and the other and it's just a [01:35.88]different thing from the record and [01:36.88]you've got different people to you've [01:37.20]got different drummers and you've got [01:41.69]percussionists and this that and the [01:44.10]other so it's it's a different [01:45.29]experience altogether so it's worth [01:47.89]having just from that point of view I [01:48.59]think it's it's it's a different entity [01:51.19]from a live record from frustrate from a [01:54.80]studio record you know we certainly [01:57.88]weren't being slavish about being [02:00.59]retentive about album parts necessarily [02:05.09]I'm part of the fun is being able to do [02:09.50]it in different ways you know they moved [02:11.40]to take the songs and [02:13.50]change them about and and I mean if you [02:16.48]take something like : Elvis it just live [02:18.70]it just became something else that's [02:23.39]what happens with crowds that's what [02:25.99]happens with rehearsals you have to put [02:27.50]endings onto things and all the rest of [02:28.00]it you're making a show you make it [02:30.10]something flow so it becomes the show [02:34.90]itself in a way becomes something with [02:37.18]its own life made up of different songs [02:40.09]and the order that they were on and so [02:43.90]on and so forth you eventually call me [02:45.09]Elvis now it's been elongated to [02:47.09]enormous proportions west about ten [02:49.19]minutes something how do you justify [02:52.90]that then because surely that could be a [02:54.00]collection of long solos and how do you [02:56.39]also say to yourself right calling our [02:58.39]son any good like this but in rehearsal [03:00.20]wouldn't it be nice to do this how do [03:02.00]you how do you pick out those songs that [03:03.89]you think would suit the extensions that [03:05.78]you very often give them life you can't [03:07.89]justify it I think you just say it's [03:09.19]nothing nothing really short of [03:13.39]indulgence and time-wasting and you know [03:18.89]you the only excuse that I could [03:21.99]possibly make would be that it gets [03:23.29]everybody played in at the beginning of [03:24.70]the set you can drummers can bash away [03:29.80]and percussionists can hit everything [03:31.39]that they've got as loud as possible and [03:34.79]as so the sound people can get a chance [03:38.80]to get the PA sorted out and we get [03:41.50]played in I mean that's a way of getting [03:42.40]warmed up really well played in and we [03:46.79]have had quite a lot of fun with it in [03:48.30]rehearsal because I just found myself [03:50.09]adding bits and it's just a failing of [03:53.70]mine really I think it's just something [03:54.80]that happens and I have no excuses [03:56.39]really whatsoever apart from the playing [03:58.00]in aspect and getting any getting the [04:00.89]oil warmed up if you like I was nice to [04:04.69]be honesty and a musician it just says [04:06.59]well I just having a bit of a go really [04:07.80]Charlie galette gave you an opportunity [04:10.39]many many years ago and I actually [04:13.69]remember the broadcast which is quite an [04:15.79]amazing situation to be in um and and [04:18.39]there was just such a good feeling about [04:20.80]that now he gave you an opportunity do [04:22.49]you now have the opportunity to give [04:25.29]our younger musicians a chance do you do [04:27.29]things for other musicians in the [04:29.80]position you're now in you do just by [04:31.28]being successful I mean that's that [04:32.19]happened that started happening straight [04:34.28]away in fact in 77 78 when first of all [04:40.29]that the the record company gets to be [04:44.59]in a very healthy position cause it's [04:45.98]got a number-one album all over the [04:47.89]world and that we'll all the kind of [04:51.90]signings that they make but apart from [04:53.79]that what happens when you go out on [04:55.39]tour for example you take people out on [04:57.09]support and this and that when you know [04:59.88]you've begun by supporting opening for [05:02.99]other people and so that the chain goes [05:04.49]on down and then you start producing [05:06.40]people and you start there's a [05:09.39]circulation of music that goes on after [05:12.79]a while if you show an interest in any [05:15.49]particular musician the fact that you've [05:17.88]shown interest generates an interest in [05:22.80]turn you know through the game through [05:25.08]the music game and that's what happens [05:27.89]really it's just a it's a natural [05:31.10]impulse I think you certainly don't feel [05:34.68]threatened by I certainly never have [05:37.60]felt threatened by anybody else coming [05:40.40]in the first when you hear something [05:42.80]great the the natural inclination is to [05:48.38]rejoice because it's such a refreshing [05:51.08]thing you're so happy to hear it [05:54.38]and you can't ignore that and certainly [05:56.10]you you know the idea of the idea of not [06:00.10]and not encouraging it was repugnant to [06:03.00]me not encouraging somebody or not [06:04.69]trying to help somebody along the same [06:06.99]thing happens with with the business [06:09.80]side of it I mean not me but my [06:10.40]management people help young managers a [06:14.29]lot demands a lot to be said for that [06:16.59]and in fact for years I've been pressing [06:18.99]IDI [06:19.60]my manager and Porter former managers [06:21.78]association so that can help young [06:24.80]managers to find their footing I mean [06:26.78]when ed started with us he thought that [06:27.78]mechanicals were something to do with [06:29.80]cars and he would be quite happy to tell [06:31.28]you that so you have to knife and fork [06:33.38]your way through a lot of these things [06:35.10]and if you can [06:38.69]put somebody on it on it there ain't [06:40.79]millions for instance you might get [06:41.90]somebody from America calling up wanting [06:44.30]to know which promoter they should deal [06:46.59]with which venue should they play so on [06:48.00]and so forth and in fact a lot of ends [06:50.29]time was spent really it's like you know [06:53.99]dr. ed you know helping out people that [06:56.39]happens quite a lot and there is a [06:58.50]network of like-minded people who [07:03.80]because of the problems that they've [07:05.18]encountered they become in a way [07:09.70]committed to leaving the business in a [07:11.79]better state than they found it [07:13.58]excellent and the serious thing well the [07:16.70]arguments you said that they put some [07:18.00]money back into the record company which [07:19.30]there means they can develop new acts [07:20.89]that's one of the arguments now the [07:22.59]record companies are saying for the [07:23.79]price of CDs and yet your management and [07:26.49]yourself are very much against the costs [07:29.29]of CDs at the moment doesn't that isn't [07:32.18]that sort of a reverse argument in there [07:33.49]somewhere [07:34.79]well possibly and just in terms of the [07:36.60]amount of money that they say that [07:38.90]they've got available for X but in terms [07:41.90]of the CD theme and I'm talking I'm [07:43.90]talking before CD even this was in 77 or [07:46.59]whenever it was that were the first [07:48.10]album you know did so well around the [07:51.49]world CD thing has been I think as I'd [07:56.29]puts it the great North Sea oil of the [07:58.70]record companies and anybody who really [08:05.00]has studies the figures and has a look [08:09.70]well no I mean part of the reason why [08:13.49]had got involved in all of this is [08:15.49]because of the galling experiences that [08:17.18]we've had with compactus you know in [08:20.49]terms of new formats coming in the only [08:23.59]thing that I could would say really I [08:27.89]mean because it's a massive subject but [08:30.29]and not nearly as important as Bosnia [08:32.18]but it's a small thing in some respects [08:36.79]but if you were asked or if you were [08:40.00]told by your employers that a new [08:42.90]broadcasting format was going to [08:46.69]necessitate a 50% cut in your salary [08:50.00]for an indeterminate period I should [08:54.40]imagine it'd be for some fairly loud [08:55.99]squeaking from your direction followed [08:58.30]by a search for new employment and you [09:03.70]know it's it's a fairly complex business [09:07.10]but there seems to be absolutely no [09:08.10]question whatsoever that that the [09:11.78]figures that the record company they're [09:12.58]BPI have been putting out incidentally [09:15.80]they haven't put any figures out for the [09:17.39]past three years since the consumer [09:19.89]Council which magazine or whatever it [09:21.40]was got on their backs about it though [09:23.90]the figures are questionable to say the [09:25.99]least [09:26.19]and that what they say that artistic [09:30.09]royalties that they said that artists [09:32.39]were getting for CDs fictional and even [09:39.70]though I'm I know that that Edie has [09:42.69]renegotiated our situation to the point [09:46.10]where we're probably getting a higher [09:50.69]rate than a lot of other artists are for [09:52.60]CDs it's still way under what they say [09:55.30]all artists are getting and you can bet [09:57.00]that that we are getting a heck of a lot [10:01.90]more than Bo Diddley or somebody like [10:04.28]that only you can I wouldn't mind [10:06.19]betting that Bo Diddley with all respect [10:07.50]and all love that I do have for his [10:09.90]music is getting Diddley and it so in [10:17.90]that sense they've they have been [10:18.29]cleaning up interesting you mentioned CD [10:21.50]it was I remember going to try and get [10:23.00]my first CD play and I said well there's [10:25.39]only one album you should listen to on [10:27.60]CD and the album that sold millions do [10:31.20]you think possibly that may have with [10:33.50]the great respect to yourself inflated [10:35.19]the sales of the album but what it did [10:37.20]do was it brought it to the ears of a [10:39.90]lot of people who may not have been into [10:41.70]the band before that point I really [10:43.60]don't know I think it probably has more [10:45.40]to do with singles hits that you get off [10:47.90]albums and what happened was an American [10:51.20]that money for nothing and and walk of [10:55.80]life were both top five hits or whatever [10:58.60]they were [10:59.30]I think I have no idea actually where [11:02.60]they got to you'd have to help me on [11:04.40]that but that's really what makes the [11:07.39]big sales differences is whether you [11:09.50]have these kind of singles hits and I've [11:12.70]never set out to make a single just do [11:15.20]records and I think that's that had a [11:20.80]lot to do with it also the fact that it [11:22.90]was early in the technology that the [11:24.69]record came out early in the technology [11:26.00]of of CD it's just luck I don't I don't [11:36.30]think it's because it was a particularly [11:38.40]outstanding record it's just happened to [11:40.60]be in that place at that time and to do [11:44.90]with the singles successes that it came [11:46.50]off it had pushed up album sales in [11:49.90]America I mean obviously did an awful [11:52.59]lot better in America and then you know [11:55.79]other records that we made that beat [11:57.00]simply because of the singles and the [11:58.29]radio the radio do you I mean - tracks [12:05.69]really have made an art form and a [12:06.29]touring and when you spend so long [12:08.00]touring and it's it's a natural [12:09.29]progression there should be a live album [12:10.29]I you know in danger [12:12.99]two things one burning yourselves out [12:15.00]completely we're spending so much time [12:16.09]on the road because it is a pressure [12:18.29]thank you to the circular saw okay I [12:24.00]danger a burning your cells out and also [12:26.79]saturating the market in that there [12:28.20]could be too much of dire straits at the [12:30.80]moment it's like dire straits tickets [12:32.89]are you know one of the most [12:34.19]sought-after things people want to try [12:36.70]to find out when you're gonna play what [12:37.29]you're gonna do but if you keep touring [12:39.50]at the level you have been touring those [12:41.19]two factors could come into play and [12:43.39]that the week too much of a good thing [12:44.99]oh yeah I mean I wouldn't do it to the [12:48.40]same extent as we have done anymore now [12:51.20]I mean it just seemed like the best way [12:54.30]of doing it at the time and playing lies [12:57.30]a very important part of being being a [12:59.69]musician I think I mean other people can [13:01.50]think what they like there's nothing [13:03.40]like being there playing to a crowd [13:09.20]and it's a very important part of what [13:11.40]it is it's what you dreamed about when [13:13.00]you were kid it's a and fans around the [13:16.20]world let you know how happy they are [13:18.00]that you've bothered to turn up that's [13:23.10]oh that's really all I would say about [13:26.00]it I mean I don't I never think about [13:28.29]saturation or anything else like it I [13:30.40]mean you know just you just plan a tour [13:33.29]and go off and do it and if you're gonna [13:34.90]do it you might as well do it properly [13:37.89]you have got an obligation to people but [13:42.80]when you see it when you actually go to [13:45.50]France and see it or go to Germany and [13:47.19]see him you realize what it what it what [13:51.20]it means to people so there's a [13:54.49]relationship that's set up if you like [13:56.89]that you have to put a value on you know [14:00.10]do you think when you see these holes [14:02.20]full of people and you think that I mean [14:04.20]there's a tremendous responsibility [14:05.60]there that yeah these people have [14:08.39]welcomed to see and you've got to play [14:09.50]well that night it's it's got to be a [14:11.59]good night you've got to do your job [14:12.90]does that give you a pressure or just [14:15.19]being happy being a musician does that [14:18.29]come across on stage do you see what I'm [14:20.39]getting at yeah I used to feel pressed [14:22.69]for a lot more than I do now and I think [14:24.20]that just comes from time spent in the [14:26.10]driving seat really that the more you do [14:30.00]it the more you can pay attention to [14:32.10]other things that are going on and you [14:35.70]can't you're not just caught up in in [14:38.40]the performance itself or in what you're [14:40.09]up to yourself and that's just that that [14:44.00]sort of thing comes with time spent [14:45.49]doing it but it's an interesting thing [14:47.70]pressure people always ask me about that [14:49.60]and when I was a kid I used to get to me [14:55.09]a lot more when I was 15 and I went to [14:59.00]see Chuck Berry at City Hall in [15:00.39]Newcastle I thought that I thought the [15:02.89]City Hall was was the biggest place I'd [15:05.00]ever seen it seemed like a cathedral to [15:07.40]me yeah a few years later you know you [15:10.90]go back and look at it and it's it's [15:12.29]like it's just like a little it seems [15:17.89]like a small room to you so you grow [15:19.39]into the big places without [15:23.20]without realizing it is just time spent [15:26.00]you grow into and you got to be able to [15:28.50]do to handle bigger crowds without going [15:34.80]over the top and or changing anything [15:36.79]too much and altering what you would do [15:38.30]too much just to still make it somehow [15:41.20]intimate at times without without it not [15:46.00]that too much of the expense of the of [15:49.09]the of the show you know the performance [15:53.29]have you had anything on to this because [15:55.50]it must be very tempting if you're [15:57.40]listening to a live hour think I was [15:58.40]just a dreadful no that was awful [16:01.90]if you docked it I'll play with it at [16:02.99]all or is it as it happened oh no you [16:05.79]have to know I mean with but I think [16:07.50]that one of the problems apart from [16:09.59]anything else is that when you're [16:11.99]recording a band that is a little as [16:13.79]loud as that one was on this last or [16:16.90]they get leakage coming in and all sorts [16:18.80]of problems coming in from monitoring [16:20.10]and certain the other and you do end up [16:23.00]with live albums I mean all live albums [16:25.89]have have to be repaired here in there [16:27.50]and and you can do that the the [16:31.90]important thing is to try to preserve as [16:33.79]much of the of what really happened and [16:36.60]mistakes you know after a while mistake [16:39.99]start sounding right like chat cans [16:42.90]I was once doing a an interview with [16:44.50]Chet and we would we were talking to the [16:47.50]interviewer together and I'd said [16:48.00]something about how on the every street [16:51.80]album I tried to get the whole band to [16:52.90]play together and if and if I had a cold [16:56.90]or something [16:58.20]it didn't you just had to learn to live [17:00.80]with it or there was leakage a lot of [17:02.00]leakage from because I was playing a [17:04.30]guitar and singing into the same mic I [17:07.80]into in same booth and you know one was [17:09.49]leaking onto the other which can be an [17:11.40]engineer's nightmare [17:12.79]I like leakage and I like mistakes on [17:15.20]recordings and something comes to the [17:18.90]air when you're all playing together [17:19.99]which is I think it's worth having on [17:23.40]records if you can get it and so and [17:27.30]I've made all my mistakes in public you [17:28.30]know before that we'll the separation [17:30.79]and everything else and [17:34.99]so mr. mistakes if you have a mistake [17:37.79]that doesn't really matter too much then [17:39.80]just just leave it in and it's like Chet [17:42.90]says for a while then mistake they start [17:44.09]sounding right I'm interested to you did [17:48.40]you ever get to produce a never leave [17:49.80]others album good today [17:51.10]because the writ this is really strange [17:52.30]connection now is that Albert Lee plays [17:54.50]guitar with Everly Brothers and he [17:56.69]played setting me up on a live Clapton [17:58.49]album so there's a real weird because I [18:01.20]think Albert Lee is just one of the [18:02.80]great musicians and that he now plays [18:04.60]with the ever least did you get to do [18:05.39]the Everly's album no I haven't managed [18:08.90]to get that up laughs talked to the ABS [18:10.30]about doing a record at some point and [18:14.39]I'm making a little list of possible [18:16.90]things that we can do and I don't know [18:19.40]when it could could possibly be actually [18:21.29]I'd I'd love to get stuck in it [18:24.90]something like that I mean the Everly's [18:25.60]was so important to me you know I mean [18:31.60]when I started playing I had a little [18:33.59]friend Vince and he was he was done and [18:36.50]I was filled I suppose or the other way [18:38.69]around I think he got higher than I [18:40.09]could and it was so it's a it's all very [18:46.49]but I didn't know then that Chet had [18:47.30]made those records and it was wonderful [18:52.79]arrangements on those records but it's [18:56.90]it is important to me and we have talked [18:58.59]about about it and I would love to that [19:01.00]you know they would like permitted to [19:04.20]get something going I think their [19:07.19]management recently wanted them to [19:09.90]rerecord some of their old hits which i [19:11.90]think is a big mistake and I hope I hope [19:14.90]fervently that they don't that they [19:18.90]don't go that route I think they should [19:21.70]be doing new things which still have [19:28.90]that very special color and that that [19:34.20]only they can get you varied country [19:37.30]music and you talk about country music [19:39.90]and yeah I I just think that a lot of [19:42.70]your arrangements a lot of your songs [19:43.60]could be countrified if you will [19:45.40]you could actually [19:47.90]but a country arrangement that waka lie [19:49.50]for example could have a country rose it [19:50.60]is getting there [19:52.00]have you ever thought you know you might [19:53.28]like to do just a country album or doing [19:55.08]it with very strong country feel to it [19:57.09]well I mean if we've just been talking [20:00.89]about the Everly Brothers I mean they [20:01.30]that's country music really in a way it [20:04.90]just becomes something else here and [20:05.69]there and you have R&B elements and the [20:10.19]Blues is really is how I came up with as [20:13.78]well so a lot of my songs have been [20:18.58]recorded by people in Nashville and but [20:22.28]when you hear them sometimes there's a [20:24.90]lack of attitude I mean if you hear a [20:26.39]country version of the buck or something [20:28.09]they've taken the R&B out if you hear a [20:31.00]country version of walk of life they've [20:34.09]taken the R&B out and things can flatten [20:38.50]out quite a bit I mean my only criticism [20:41.19]of a lot of the current Nashville music [20:44.50]is is in fact that that kind of digging [20:52.29]in and R&B attitude is missing but there [20:57.19]you know then again some things that get [20:59.60]recorded there are recorded there are [21:01.38]absolutely great still and on and on it [21:04.80]goes I mean a lot of a lot of country [21:06.88]so-called country artists are making [21:10.08]records now that are very bluesy and [21:12.19]rock influenced if you like so this is [21:16.90]if it's all a bit of a jumble really you [21:18.28]know just listening to the new wynonna [21:22.59]judd record the other night and you know [21:26.80]you can hear all these influences coming [21:28.60]in there's getting to be a lot more R&B [21:30.48]influence to say and it's great you know [21:34.39]that so that's somebody like Bonnie [21:35.19]Raitt is influencing somebody like why [21:38.38]no never it's a it's a wonderful thing [21:40.09]it's a beauty to be happening so I don't [21:43.28]really know how to and listening to John [21:46.80]Anderson's new record that well you know [21:47.39]John recorded one of in Nashville John [21:51.58]recorded know one of the songs from [21:53.48]every street record listening to his new [21:57.88]stuff as well you can hear them more and [21:58.70]more R&B [22:00.90]creeping into so-called country music a [22:05.30]lot of country artists have got to be [22:06.70]quite careful over there because country [22:08.80]radio which is probably where they get a [22:10.39]lot of their bread and butter from is [22:12.30]quite a conservative setup and they they [22:15.89]can't really you know they'd get people [22:17.29]saying things like you know where's a [22:23.69]pedal steel guitar you know ain't no [22:25.39]fiddle in that song so you've got to be [22:27.70]quite careful how they approach things I [22:30.69]mean there are people who really come [22:32.90]from more of a rockabilly background [22:35.90]like mark calling and people like that [22:36.50]but then they're in some ways that maybe [22:39.30]being forced into a more well behaved [22:44.19]area just in order to get played on the [22:46.69]country radio stations there are so many [22:49.10]of them around the country and that [22:51.40]doesn't happen to rock and roll acts and [22:53.59]I certainly never happened to me you can [22:55.90]please yourself really the way that [22:57.60]should go again you know if you're doing [23:00.79]something in a country ish kind of vein [23:02.10]I can put a big heavy distorted guitar [23:04.09]over it and that so that wouldn't really [23:07.30]wash with country radio which was why [23:11.19]you know they wouldn't my version [23:12.70]wouldn't really be played over there and [23:17.59]they would want something a little more [23:19.20]well behaved you say these people are [23:22.09]adhering to the country format and the [23:24.40]country formula that you have been [23:25.60]accused on various occasions of playing [23:29.90]safe of sticking with a tried and tested [23:31.79]Mark Knopfler formula now do you feel [23:35.99]that valid criticism or not absolutely [23:38.40]no I mean nobody's ever I've never done [23:41.19]anything you know for the radio in fact [23:44.40]I mean one you know all of my songs [23:47.29]usually far too long or don't you know [23:52.80]fall into that radio ability at all and [23:57.29]in fact I remember one time and being [24:02.00]told that you know I think we can get [24:04.90]this they can get this song down to [24:05.69]so-and-so so-and-so minutes [24:08.90]and it works because because they've [24:11.50]done it you know and you just have to [24:16.20]say no one I mean I wrote it that way [24:18.79]and I don't want to edit edit ate or [24:22.69]shortened to the regulation length I [24:25.60]mean there are all kinds of horror [24:27.20]stories and you can go over there and [24:29.00]hear your record being played faster to [24:33.60]get it into timeframes and all the rest [24:37.50]of it no I don't think I mean I don't [24:40.98]think that rock and roll has been [24:42.69]subject to to let anything like as much [24:49.80]as country artists have that kind of [24:52.90]control I mean there are lots of [24:55.80]drawbacks to to entering into this [24:59.00]particular arena you know you find that [25:02.90]radio is because of these radio [25:06.69]consultancies so-called over in America [25:08.19]and playlist that DJ's have now become [25:10.60]just puppets who who play what they're [25:14.90]told to play they have a playlist and so [25:15.10]on and so forth but now I got used to [25:18.00]that fairly quickly in a way and I [25:20.69]remember when they wouldn't play [25:21.60]something to swing in England for for [25:24.90]ages it was it was a hit all over the [25:26.90]world but it was the last place it was a [25:28.00]hit was in England because there was a [25:29.58]committee then with a woman called Doris [25:32.00]or something at the head of it who said [25:33.90]it had too many words which is properly [25:37.79]write it properly does but it was just [25:39.89]the way that it was it was then and I [25:43.89]think it only really became a hit in [25:45.00]England after Paul Gambaccini was [25:47.80]playing it as part of his an American so [25:50.19]people heard it and realized eventually [25:52.50]that it was a British you know effort [25:55.00]and it sort of took off in England but [25:59.90]it took off in England miles behind the [26:01.99]rest of the world do you find a lot of [26:03.10]these situations that you build up okay [26:05.00]make you quite rebellious people might [26:07.90]think you were quite arrogant because [26:09.09]you do stand up for your music like you [26:11.80]just said it's a speeded-up artists bit [26:13.50]to cut out of thing and people might get [26:15.79]the wrong attitude about a guy who just [26:17.80]believes that without sorry but that was [26:19.69]the way it was recorded and that was the [26:21.00]way it should be her [26:22.29]no I mean you can't be too you can't be [26:24.80]too pleased with yourself about any of [26:26.29]that but the only reason I think that [26:28.29]I've been allowed to meander about [26:31.90]relatively unscathed is the fact that we [26:34.49]were successful from the beginning I [26:35.19]think for acts who who have a more of a [26:42.69]borderline thing happening for them at [26:44.60]the beginning can be subject to a lot [26:47.80]more bullying from record companies [26:49.99]people who don't really know what [26:51.48]they're talking about and that's when [26:55.90]you get damaged when when when I think [26:58.68]when people are telling them what to do [27:01.20]instead they can't just necessarily [27:02.90]follow their heart so at that point I [27:07.90]think when that starts to happen you [27:08.59]lose sight of the truth and what [27:10.48]actually moves people ultimately is some [27:13.79]kind of truth isn't it it's something [27:15.28]that reverberates through the artist in [27:18.80]to them and they don't necessarily sit [27:24.38]around and analyze it they just like it [27:25.70]there's some kind of recognition of [27:29.90]something and the more you start messing [27:32.50]about with that and trying to push it [27:36.89]into some formula for radio or for [27:40.28]whatever you can run into you can run [27:44.48]into problems but I do think that one of [27:47.90]the diseases that there's been allowed [27:49.78]to happen is energy I mean it probably [27:50.90]would apply to me now if I was starting [27:52.78]off now is that a lot of artists [27:58.80]encouraged to write everything [28:00.78]themselves you know this doesn't happen [28:04.09]in Nashville and so that you get [28:06.29]probably more good tunes on a record and [28:09.90]then you get with a lot of rock and roll [28:11.38]records I think a lot of kids are being [28:15.48]encouraged to write everything [28:16.49]themselves now whether it's its [28:18.09]financial it's partly that they can get [28:21.29]publishing money to bolster their [28:23.68]recording money in order to stay alive [28:25.68]that can be part of it that the [28:28.78]publishing advances can look quite [28:30.00]attractive to them or it's the idea of [28:34.09]being an artist you know [28:35.40]I'm an artist I do all my own writing [28:37.19]and I think some people you can see that [28:40.90]some people have actually suffered for [28:41.69]for that whereas there's a far less [28:44.19]pretentious atmosphere that goes on in [28:47.59]in somewhere like Nashville where people [28:50.79]just take songs and that they don't [28:52.00]really care who's written them so when [28:54.88]they die strikes last record somebody [28:55.80]else's song well I know I mean it [28:57.39]should've actually I think you're quite [28:59.69]right I mean I think I think I could [29:05.78]have made better records half the time [29:08.80]by by sticking in songs by other people [29:10.70]for that to be quite honest with you I'm [29:14.90]interested too about the track listing [29:15.90]you said that you know it's all stuff on [29:17.19]there and who do you think a bit more [29:19.69]upset if and walk of life and [29:22.09]brothers-in-arms were not on this live [29:24.20]album you the fans or the record company [29:28.78]well I wouldn't mind bob was on it [29:35.59]or you know or not on it really I mean I [29:38.79]don't I don't know what the record [29:41.00]company would say because I don't I'm [29:44.00]just informed occasionally of what they [29:45.69]think through management company it's [29:50.79]it's kind of a fan thing really I mean I [29:55.40]had a couple of little kids in I went [29:58.49]him see a couple of little kids in the [30:01.59]office management office the other week [30:05.19]got cancer and stuff and and and anyway [30:09.90]I'm showing them some of the some of the [30:12.29]video that we've done and showed him a [30:15.48]list of songs I said well would you like [30:16.78]to would you like to see and they both [30:18.09]said at the same time money for nothing [30:21.50]now I mean I for me too [30:26.78]I'm you know I don't really have much of [30:30.40]a an emotional attachment to that [30:32.90]particular song it's so but there's a [30:37.98]sense when you see that you know there's [30:40.38]a sense in which you think well it's [30:41.69]they wanted they wanted that amount of [30:44.30]it [30:46.50]bless them it's that I miss the only [30:48.79]thing you think yeah I really wish that [30:50.49]was because you obviously had to listen [30:51.20]to hours and hours of tapes for this [30:53.20]thing you must have done with all the [30:54.69]showers and things is there anything you [30:55.20]thought well you know I really would [30:57.69]have liked to put that on there but [30:58.19]maybe it's a little bit off the wall [31:00.39]well there was a couple overcome the [31:02.40]things I mean I would have liked to have [31:03.90]had a sultans on there but I never [31:05.90]played one that I thought was any good [31:07.59]and that was my I was just down to me I [31:09.20]mean I just didn't think I played one [31:11.39]that was worth particularly that people [31:15.00]would particularly want to have and also [31:19.10]we did this little thing where we made [31:21.80]it a four piece for quite a lot of this [31:24.10]song and we're little drum kit that came [31:26.00]came down onto the floor behind so it [31:29.79]was a bit like playing in the original [31:30.39]club band but the sound off that kid was [31:34.70]so bad he we couldn't actually was a big [31:36.60]too big a problem to record it that way [31:40.00]it was good fun playing it live but we [31:42.90]couldn't really get anything that would [31:44.00]I decided I just thought I never played [31:46.99]one that was any good so so that's [31:51.90]that's and also you know people have got [31:53.69]live recordings of it anyway so I [31:56.90]thought maybe not that and so that's why [31:58.40]that's not on there but that's all and [32:02.00]you can't listen to all I mean I I [32:04.29]literally would couldn't face listening [32:07.50]to all the recordings so we're about ten [32:10.80]of them ten different nights and I just [32:13.19]couldn't so i i i i slid out of it and [32:20.79]sneaked it off and got guy from the band [32:24.30]and and the endorsement to do a lot of [32:27.90]listening to to that sort of thing i [32:29.30]mean in the end i mean i I suppose I had [32:32.00]to listen to a fair bit of it but I'm [32:34.20]not very good at I mean if you've saw it [32:37.50]so in other words I haven't really been [32:39.90]involved in this album anything like as [32:41.90]much mean I know it really to two guy [32:43.40]and Neil and more than anything else I [32:48.50]haven't actually put much time in on it [32:49.80]I've been nipping off really and riding [32:55.89]my motorbike I haven't been a very good [32:57.90]boy on it [32:59.00]come in you know late and even see is [33:02.60]everything going alright cross my [33:03.30]fingers and hope that nothing was too [33:06.39]far gone but I can't actually bring [33:09.20]myself even back with alchemy I couldn't [33:11.79]listen to the tape in 84 I think it was [33:13.70]I couldn't listen to the tapes I started [33:16.90]doing it and after 10 minutes as I can't [33:19.90]listen to 10 nights of this arena so I [33:21.80]said wow what was the good my Saturday [33:24.00]night seemed a pretty good night I was [33:26.00]in the hammersmith odeon and we'll just [33:29.90]do that just take it from that but and [33:32.49]it was literally just laziness and if [33:34.40]I'd been really retentive about it I [33:37.89]would have probably waded through a [33:39.69]conscientious I would have probably [33:40.40]created through it all but I just [33:42.69]couldn't face it did you get easily [33:45.50]poured these days for things do you find [33:47.40]that you you really would love to be out [33:51.69]like so producing an Evaline album or or [33:53.60]you know just it it's a bit too much of [33:56.80]a drag sometimes yep yep I know actually [34:01.49]I'm sure that my attention span as has [34:05.00]gone off as certainly as far as my own [34:07.49]stuff is concerned it certainly has and [34:11.39]I don't what to do about that I really [34:13.30]don't know I mean I I just like to have [34:16.18]a sofa in an acoustic guitar and please [34:19.48]myself not playing a bit of mandolin at [34:21.70]the moment I can't get that excited [34:24.29]about about what I've done already in a [34:31.49]way and I mean it's the same it's the [34:34.19]same with rehearsing really is the most [34:38.99]exciting time for me writing is very [34:40.10]it's exciting when you've got something [34:42.39]and then it's exciting rehearsing it and [34:43.49]it's exciting recording and you've got [34:45.19]to really want to do it obviously I mean [34:47.99]you wouldn't be able to take these tours [34:49.00]on a few unless you loved it and you [34:51.39]really wanted to do it I suppose I'm [34:53.19]lucky in a sense that I like of all the [34:56.20]bits of the cycle if you like but I'm [35:02.00]always looking ahead to the new thing [35:03.60]really that's what turns me on is then [35:06.70]is the the thing that you want to record [35:09.70]and the other thing that's coming up or [35:12.00]yes I mean a a Nashville session or a [35:17.69]blue session a Buddy Guy thing or [35:20.10]something like that it's great just to [35:22.49]go off and and just do a one-off like [35:26.40]that I'm you know the things coming up [35:28.29]I'm going to play with the Chieftains so [35:33.49]or maybe get stuck into another film or [35:37.50]thinking about everything from uilleann [35:42.90]pipes to fiddles is is exciting to me [35:47.29]talking to somebody about a theatre [35:49.90]production it's exciting to me because [35:51.89]it's different I think when you come off [35:53.30]these long tours that you need a variety [35:54.69]to keep you alive to it or you know to [35:58.69]keep you excited about it all and it's [36:02.39]I've got some good friends around the [36:04.50]place and I'm one pal of mine in [36:06.40]Nashville them sends me these he's got a [36:09.19]huge record collection and he's a [36:11.00]songwriter over there and he sends me [36:12.70]these little care packages of cassettes [36:14.69]with them with music on from it's got [36:18.10]and he has these lovely titles and more [36:21.39]cool stuff or all sorts and this and [36:27.59]that and there's Appalachian music mixed [36:34.59]up with obscure hillbilly rockers [36:38.30]jukebox hits blues R&B thinks Cajun [36:45.30]music French stuff anything you name it [36:48.49]just things that turn him on and that's [36:50.09]what keeps me alive that kind of spread [36:52.59]and that kind of involvement were the [36:54.70]roots of music as well as I mean as well [36:56.89]as it as well as new stuff so it's a [36:59.89]good time as well when you're away from [37:01.70]the tour to get back and enjoy music in [37:06.50]that direct way and it reminds you to [37:09.49]that it reminds me certainly that a lot [37:12.00]of my favorite music really it comes [37:14.90]from however complicated you might end [37:17.80]up getting that my favorite stuff is [37:20.10]really very simple music so after 16 [37:25.90]years then is [37:26.00]it's time to say well it's been all very [37:28.60]nice and very good but you know now I [37:30.19]think I'd like to do something else for [37:31.69]example work a lot more with Brendan [37:33.80]Croker I'm not quitting I mean I'm gonna [37:41.00]make records and just play with yeah [37:43.90]different outfits and and go on with it [37:47.50]all it's a it's an endless thing and I I [37:50.19]love it and a very lucky boy to be able [37:53.69]to do it and that's all I can tell you [37:57.80]I'm still just as in love with whole [37:59.99]thing as always was I wouldn't I [38:04.90]wouldn't tour again or anything like the [38:06.29]same length and I mean that's not going [38:08.00]to help me anymore but you just get to a [38:11.70]stage when you know that that's your [38:13.00]last shot around the world in a way at [38:14.10]that level that kind of intensity so you [38:17.20]might as well go and do it properly but [38:19.20]that's not going to be happening now [38:21.00]there are too many other exciting things [38:24.00]to do do you think if you weren't in the [38:27.00]band you just be if we go back many many [38:30.60]years we used to be a strolling minstrel [38:31.80]just going around and playing a guitar [38:33.09]or mandolin or whatever and that would [38:36.69]give you similar rewards to what you're [38:38.39]getting now oh yes absolutely I'm better [38:42.10]in some ways I think yes I think that's [38:46.60]exactly what the deal would have been [38:51.20]that's exactly what would have happened [38:53.89]and in a way that's what you still are [38:56.19]and it's a lot of the things that that [39:00.60]you end up doing it's you're just going [39:03.80]off to play the blues it's basically [39:04.20]what you're doing and a lot of the rest [39:10.49]of it is nonsense and outside people's [39:12.69]perceptions things that become confused [39:17.30]with that I mean that there for example [39:20.90]a success yes I love I'd recommend it to [39:23.19]anybody but Fame which is a is a [39:27.99]completely different thing from success [39:29.89]has nothing to recommend it whatsoever I [39:31.30]mean fact in fact if there isn't an [39:34.80]equation you could say that Fame is the [39:38.19]price that you pay for [39:39.39]says Fame itself doesn't have anything [39:42.40]particularly to nothing in fact I can't [39:45.00]see anything personally I can't see [39:47.40]anything [39:47.89]that's that great about that but success [39:50.90]or love I mean success is great because [39:52.00]it's I've been able to meet so many [39:55.80]fabulous people through it and to share [39:59.50]their music and to you know to have [40:02.90]their friendship so and that's that's [40:07.59]what's important to to you I mean that's [40:11.59]one of the success and you know being [40:14.69]able to move around the world in that [40:16.69]way has been able to and to be able to [40:18.29]buy a tape machine that you need or [40:21.50]something like that as is what and to or [40:26.29]to work with a Paul Franklin for example [40:28.59]or something like that is this is [40:32.30]never-ending source of joy to me you [40:34.39]know but but but ultimately there's [40:37.69]there's no difference now you know what [40:41.00]we're feeling now is when I'm sitting in [40:44.00]like I was last week with Steve from the [40:46.90]the hillbillies and were just sitting [40:49.49]playing to an audience of one or an [40:53.30]audience of two in our case and laughing [40:57.00]and drinking and playing I mean that is [40:59.00]there's not enough of that [41:01.90]when you're out on the road on tour and [41:03.49]that's what you hunger to get back to [41:05.49]and that never goes away never will go [41:08.19]away in strength and there's one [41:11.69]interesting M edit possibly on the album [41:13.50]that heavy fuel and to Romeo and Juliet [41:15.49]sort of goes boom and then it comes and [41:17.30]I think I wonder if that was the same [41:19.80]night it just it doesn't seem to work so [41:21.09]well well it was just one of those tough [41:24.69]corners that you have to negotiate and [41:26.40]we did that it did go that way in fact [41:28.79]that's how it went on on the stage yet [41:31.59]and in fact I think it might well have [41:34.00]been from the same night and if it [41:39.00]sounds like a mistake I'm sorry that's I [41:45.60]mean we why isn't it a mark knopfler [41:47.70]solo album when you've done the sound [41:49.60]tracks you've produced why isn't the now [41:51.00]Sullivan do you need that band we [41:53.80]all the songs are written by you and so [41:55.90]we read anyway the credits are always [41:56.60]you so why not a solo album why do you [41:59.10]have to have that band I don't actually [42:01.69]I'm gonna do one that's good question no [42:05.30]I mean you know I love bands because it [42:07.90]grew up wanting to be in a band and I [42:10.20]mean to make a solo album I'll have to [42:13.50]get a band together to make it so you're [42:16.60]doing the same thing really it's just a [42:18.00]name and that's all it is and I like the [42:22.20]idea of hiding in a band in a way you [42:28.00]you just it's a way that it's a [42:31.39]childhood schoolboy thing you love bands [42:34.10]and you wanted to be in a band you [42:36.00]wanted to have a band and but I'm gonna [42:43.49]do what I'm gonna do a record just the [42:46.70]same the nice thing about I think about [42:51.00]you know probably being able to go into [42:53.20]your own record to xik and you can play [42:56.09]about with the personnel a lot for [42:59.60]different songs and that's really what I [43:01.09]want to be able to do [43:02.29]would you also play about with the songs [43:04.20]would you do other people's material [43:05.69]because that would give you the [43:06.49]opportunity to do that wouldn't it yeah [43:08.40]it would be able to do that too or that [43:10.20]I'd actually actually some point I'd [43:12.90]really love to do a record of entirely [43:14.00]if but you know other people's things [43:17.10]and it's a I'm forever - I mean that's [43:20.40]what I what I do when I'm at home I was [43:22.69]just playing other music so I eventually [43:27.39]I'll get something like that together [43:29.90]you know like it covers kind of a kind [43:33.29]of thing or aversions I swing at an [43:37.70]attempt be great actually when you went [43:41.19]if you went to this that's all it is [43:42.69]so it would be fun you know if you go at [43:44.19]the theater and you're seeing Macbeth [43:45.40]would be great if somebody came came out [43:48.10]and said no good evening ladies and [43:52.80]gentlemen we're about to have a swing at [43:54.69]Macbeth you know we're taking a stab at [43:57.20]King Lear or something that's all it is [43:59.09]it's just when you record anything or [44:02.19]attempt to play anything that it's only [44:04.30]there's no such thing as a definitive [44:06.60]just it's just an attempt on the on the [44:10.69]day Charlie glass sell on the sleeve [44:14.30]notes to the honky-tonk demos which has [44:16.90]got the original thing he he made a [44:18.60]little comment about the band where he [44:20.09]said he felt a sense of responsibility [44:22.10]when you said you'd given up your [44:24.40]previous careers and would commit [44:26.49]yourself to music and these note was [44:29.90]especially with the name like dire [44:30.50]straits I mean do you feel it's been [44:33.39]worth it oh yeah of course and I was and [44:38.89]the music was pushing so hard you know [44:40.80]for me to do it I was I was in I had to [44:44.40]do it there and I couldn't go back to [44:47.89]anything else it's it's a wonderful [44:53.99]thing to be doing the thing that you [44:55.70]like to do more than anything else it's [44:57.39]what I would say to any child or to any [45:00.30]kid is is matter I know because I spent [45:06.50]a lot of years doing the opposite is you [45:11.19]you know to play safe is it's not the [45:13.50]way I think you have to find what it is [45:17.30]that you like doing more than anything [45:18.90]else and then try to do it as well as [45:20.10]possible and if you can make a living at [45:25.49]that that's that's great the thing about [45:27.99]music is you don't have to be a [45:29.00]professional musician I mean you it [45:31.30]looked at the thing about music and or [45:33.50]the guitar or something it is that it [45:35.99]will be a friend to you all your life [45:37.80]and when other things can let you down [45:40.60]or other people might even let you down [45:45.20]it will be there for you [45:48.79]it's a great source of comfort to you [45:53.00]and the other thing is of course that [45:56.00]you never get to the bottom of it that [45:59.10]you realize that you've only just [46:05.90]tickled it really that there's a a [46:07.39]universe of of of material earth of [46:13.50]information there that you you never [46:15.10]really will be be part of it it's an [46:18.69]endless thing [46:19.69]you said you the Urim and about on you [46:22.70]are at motorbike it doesn't want it [46:25.89]privilege to know what type of motorbike [46:27.39]this is without making a wild stab it's [46:30.10]a triumph Trident so it's not the [46:35.70]holiday recently brilliant I keep my [46:40.40]enough well thank you very much your new [46:41.69]thank you
