Dire Straits are being celebrated with “Live 1978-1992”, a box set of concert recordings to coincide with the 40th anniversary of their 1983 show at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, immortalized in the live album “Alchemy”. The collection, on 8-CDs or 12-LPs, offers many other previously unreleased concert performances. It arrives in the U.K. on November 3rd, 2023, via Universal’s Mercury label and in the U.S. on January 19th, 2024, on Rhino.
From the announcement: The set features newly remastered versions of “Alchemy” and “On the Night”, plus an expanded version of Alchemy that includes the unreleased songs from the performance, “Industrial Disease” and “Twisting By the Pool,” as well as an expanded version of “On the Night” including tracks performed during the tour which have never been released. These multitrack recordings of Dire Straits shows in Nimes, Rotterdam and Paris include “Tunnel of Love,” “Telegraph Road,” “Sultans of Swing,” and more. Also included are the EP “Encores” (remastered for Black Friday 2021); a 1995 collection “Live at the BBC“; an unreleased Live from the Rainbow Theatre show from 1979, mixed by Guy Fletcher, and featuring guest performances from Phil Lynott and Tony de Meur.
The set includes a booklet featuring a new essay by journalist Paul Sexton titled Making Milestones: The Momentous Road Years of Dire Straits.
As Mark Knopfler told him, “I enjoyed writing the songs, I enjoyed recording them, so I’m going to enjoy playing them. I don’t play anything I don’t want to play, so if I get up there and play ‘Romeo And Juliet’ or ‘Brothers In Arms,’ it’s because I want to play them. It’s important to me that it’s important to people, that you’ve created milestones in people’s lives.”
The Fat Angel Sings 