Dire straits - live in san remo 1981
posted on 12 Sep 2006 under category Meta
Dire Straits - Live in San Remo 1981
Another of the bootlegs I got off of Dimeadozen, this one from one of Dire Straits’ first times playing live in Italy, somewhat near the end of the Making Movies On Location tour. It’s a crowd recording of the band playing live at the Stadio Communale in San Remo, Italy on June 27, 1981. Given the time period of the band, the very good (for a crowd recording) sound quality, and the tracklisting, this is one of my favorite bootlegs from Dire Straits. Tracklist
Disc One :
Disc Two :
This tour was a big surprise for many of the people who saw it, and went a long way toward cementing the band as one of the best touring bands of the early 80s. With the third album moving from their more sedate, pub-rock roots to big, lavish productions and more elaborate songwriting, the band itself upgraded. Rhythm guitarist David Knopfler left while the album was being recorded, and the band secured Hal Lindes, who I always thought was the best second guitarist the band ever had. The addition of keyboards to the band was one of the biggest changes, but since Roy Bittan (who played in the studio) was just on loan they had to find a more permanent replacement - which was a stroke of luck when they came up with fellow Geordie Alan Clarke. While many people hail the more energetic, upbeat, ‘rocking’ drumming of Terry Williams, who would become the band’s drummer on the next tour, I think Pick Withers’ jazz-influenced drumming is more interesting, and creates a more dynamic contrast in the music on this tour.
To keep up with the evolution of the band’s sound, they revamped and rearranged many of the songs from the first two albums which remained in the setlist. Also, being headliners, they had enough time to play a majority of the new album, include some of their ‘extra’ musical wanderings, and even indulge Mark’s affinity for playing new songs from upcoming albums. The combination of new music, new band members, and new arrangements of old fan favorites mix to make this tour one of the most exciting in the band’s career. Sadly, they never recorded a proper live album from this tour, and only a few handfuls of soudnboards and radio broadcasts were ever recorded, so the bulk of bootlegs of this tour are audience recordings. Still, in a refreshing change from the metal world I’m most used to, the band doesn’t play at overdriving volumes, and so even an audience recording is quite listenable, and it’s pretty easy to make out what’s going on.
This particular recording is the full concert, minus a couple of fades right at the end of songs that don’t affect things. Why this recorder faded in the middle of Sultans is beyond me, since about a minute of the song overlaps between the two parts, and breaking the audio either before or after this song would have worked time-wise. I’ll probably reassemble it myself someday. The sound is pretty balanced, and it’s not difficult at all to pick out what’s going on. Even the rhythm guitar is quite audible, which isn’t always the case with Dire Straits.
As for the music itself and the performances here, everything is top-notch. Having grown up on the Alchemy live album, it’s interesting to hear how differently they pulled off songs on this tour compared to a year later. “Romeo and Juliet” is a great example - while Mark did the solo on the resonator guitar on Alchemy, in this he lets the piano take a short solo while he switches the resonator for his Strat. The intro music the band always played before “Tunnel of Love” is quite a bit different here as well.
For the older songs, “Once Upon a Time…” sticks closer to the reggae-feel roots than on Alchemy, while retaining the same general post-solo structure at the end. After hearing the by-the-book way they did first-album songs on the BBC disc and the Chester boot I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, hearing the complete revampings of “Down to the Waterline” and “Lions” is a real treat. Lions especially really comes into its own - the keyboards take over the rhythm guitar strumming at the intro, making it much more moody. Sultans of Swing, of course, had changed by this time as well - morping pretty much into the version as they did it on Alchemy structure-wise, but with not quite so ‘driving’ a feel to it. Very nice.
All in all, if I’d stop there I’d say it’s a great bootleg, but it’s disc 2 track 5 that makes this one fantastic. Yes, you read that right - “Telegraph Road”, about a year before it’s release on the Love Over Gold album. It’s largely as it would be recorded, with the only major difference being the opening - instead of the long keyboard and resonator intro, it starts with the main verse chord progression being arpeggiated on piano for a few bars, then settles into the ‘main’ keyboard riff with little lead licks and then the first verse. A couple of lyric lines are different, and I think I prefer these renditions of the first main guitar solo and the monster outro solo to what he did on Alchemy. It’s a shame this wasn’t recorded professionally, but as I mentioned before the recording quality is still quite good, and so this song is like an extra-special treat in the middle of a full treat smorgasboard.
Overall, I really can’t praise this bootleg enough. While it’s more ‘arena’ than ‘pub’ in atmosphere, the performances and the wealth of great and rare material make this bootleg one for any fan of this era of Dire Straits to track down. (And if you’re wondering what I mean by ‘pub’ atmosphere, wait for my review of the “Emerald City” bootleg from November 1980, coming soon…)
(Everyone’s got that one band that, no matter what kick they’re on, they can ALWAYS return to, listen to anything they’ve done, and be into it. Is it strange for a metal guy to have Dire Straits be that band? When you listen to the sprawling soundscapes and epic dynamics that Mark Knopfler managed to capture on those first four albums, though, you (I, at least) don’t think it’s strange at all.)