Dear everyone,

I know the vast majority of you will be unable to attend, but if you are likely to be in the UK in June, here's some good news forum you: Dire Straits have decided to play two concerts at Hammersmith Odeon, London, just before the big Nelson Mandela concert at Wembley Stadi!

These two extra shows will be on Wednesday 8th June and Thursday 9th June, and we have decided that tickets for these should be available to members of Dire Straits Information Service ONLY!! You will find enclosed with this newsletter two ticket booking forms (one for each night). You can, of course, attend either night, or both nights, and order as many tickets as you like for yourself and for friends. As these shows are very soon, you may prefer to order your tickets by telephone, then I will keep them here for you and you can collect them when you arrive in London. If you want to do this, please telephone LONDON (01) 723 5640 and just ask for Liz.

Tickets are just 10.00 pounds each inclusive of tax, and the money will go towards the costs of putting on the Wembley show, so we can give more money to the charities (see list in my March newsletter).

At Hammersmith, the band will play virtually the same set as at Wembley Stadium i.e. not their usual 2 ½ hour set. They will probably be on stage for between one hour and on and a quarter hours. There will be one or possibly two support-acts at Hammersmith: Brendan Crocker & The 5 o'clock Shadows, and maybe Paul Brady. (Brendan, you may recall, is Mark´s mate, with whom Mark appeared last autumn at a small club in London).

At this stage we're not quite sure what time the shows at Hammersmith will start, but I would think doors will open at about 6.00 pm.

If you DO want to attend, please phone me as soon as you get this letter. If you have friends in England and think they would like to attend, they should contact me direct. (Dire Straits Information Service members in the UK already know about these shows).

Some points to note about the concerts:

1. Cameras: regardless of what "usual concert policy" may be, Dire Straits and Damage Management have NO OBJECTION WHATSOEVER to people bringing cameras, and you are welcome to take may photos as you like. We will be instructing the security staff at the hall accordingly.
2. Whereas Dire Straits and Damage Management don't mind whether you stay by you seat or get up and dance about at the front, it is not actually up to us, but to security staff at Hammersmith. We´re hoping they will be fairly relaxed about it!
3. We will be doing a special T-shirt which will be on sale both nights ­proceeds from sales will also be going to charity. I think the price will be ABOUT 10.00 pounds per shirt, and any that are left over, I will sell by mail-order from here to Info. Service members who were not able to be at the concerts. Therefore, all overseas fans will have first choice. I will put details in the next newsletter...

NEWS ABOUT THE NELSON MANDELA CONCERT -WEMBLEY STADIUM, LONDON- JUNE 11TH
At time of typing, it looks like the following acts will be on:

Dire Straits, Simple Minds, George Michael, Whitney Houston, The Eurythmics, UB40 with Chrissie Hynde, Hugh Masakela and Miriam Makeba, a soul band consisting of Freddie Jackson/Natalie Cole/ Roberta Flack/ The Pointer Sisters/ Sade, Sly and Robbie, Maxi Priest, Derek B, Paul Young, Midge Ure and Phil Collins plus guests. This list may change slightly between now and the date of the concert though! Apparently, the BeeGees are doing backing vocals for someone, but nobody seems to know who yet...

In between the acts, there will be various guest-presenters including Michael Caine, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Connolly (who will introduce Dire Straits). Opera singer Jessye Norman will sing the finale (about five minutes long), and Dire Straits are on just before that. They will probably go on stage at about 8.00 - 8:30pm. If you ordered tickets for this show, you should be getting them this week (some of you will already have received them).

At present, I don't have a full list of countries where the show is being screened on TV -the following one is the most recent list I have been able to get, but more countries are being added every day. South Africa, needless to say, is NOT showing the concert on television!!!

UK: screening all 10 hours live on BBC2 (simulcast with Radio 1)

Germany:	10 hours live
France:	10 hours live
Spain:	10 hours live
Switzerland:	10 hours live
Italy:	10 hours live on "Video Music" and 1 ½ hours live on RAI
Holland:	6 - 10 hours live
Sweden:	4 hours live
Canada:	10 hours live
USA	6 hours live (FOX)
Australia:	10 hours live (I presume in the middle of the night for those of you down under, unless they put a "delay" on it!!!)

A video cassette of edited highlights from the show will be available worldwide at a later date.

NOW FOR THE BAND NEWS: Because Jack Sonni and his new wife Maria are expecting their twins to arrive very shortly after the concerts, unfortunately Jack feels he cannot come over to London -he feels he must stay with his wife in Los Angeles in case the babies arrive early!

AND NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS: this means that Dire Straits will be using a guest guitar at all three concerts (with whom they will be rehearsing in London for a week at the end of May/beginning of June). This guest guitarist will be well-known to all of you. It´s Eric Clapton!!!

On 5th and 6th June, Mark and Alan will be leaving rehearsals early to play as part of Eric's band at this year´s Princes Trust concerts at London´s Royal Albert Hall, but we are not selling tickets for those shows from here (I've had enough of tickets for a while!). other acts on at the Princes Trust shows are: T'Pau, Wet Wet Wet, The Four Tops, Phil Collins and Midge Ure, and Rick Astley (who John has been very rude about in his questionnaire -see later in this letter...)

OTHER NEWS
John Illsley's solo album "Glass" is now out (release in practically all countries between 9th and 16th May). A single was released in most places on the same date, and the 7th version is "I want to see the moon! b/w a non-album track called "Words". The 12th version has an additional track "The World is made of glass", and the cd single, which is only available in certain countries, has a fourth track "Papermen". John is currently doing a short promotional tour of the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland, s oif you live on one of those countries, you may be hearing him on the radio or reading about him in the papers. After this, he returns to London for rehearsals and the shows, and after June 11th, he will be doing more promotion in Spain and Portugal. We're trying to slot Scandinavia, Germany and Greece in somewhere too... Chris White may be accompanying John to countries which have a TV show planned (don't know which ones they are yet) as there is quite a lot of sax featured on the single.

Chris himself has recently returned from Italy, where he was touring with Pino Danelli (you may remember he did this last year too). He has also been writing some songs, and immediately after the Wembley concert, he is intending to make a demo tape and try and get a record deal, and then take the band on the road to do a few small concerts. I'll let you know how it is progressing.

Mark and Guy have just finished working on the Randy Newman album in Los Angeles. Originally, they were only going to do four of the tracks, but in the end, they stayed on and did about seven. The album has no title as yet and no release date scheduled. I haven't heard any of the tracks myself -all I know is what Mark has said on the phone, which is "they sound great"!. Other tracks on the album are being produced by Jeff Lynne (ex-ELO) and Tommy Lipuma. Apart from Mark and Guy, the other musicians are Lee Sklaar on bass and Carlos Vego on drums (both from James Taylor's band), and -of course -Randy Newman on piano.

Terry tells me he has just bought a new drumkit (which hopefully he will be able to play by the time of the June shows!!!). he was supposed to be making a video documentary about himself, but that still hasn´t got started.

As you probably know if you watched the American Academy Awards on TV (Boring, wasn´t it?!), Willy deVille's theme song to "The Princess Bride" didn't win one; not only that, but most countries showed "edited highlights" only, and the nomination for that particular category wasn't shown at all, nor were any of the performances. However, the OSCARS were shown in their entirety in the USA (and I think a couple of other countries) and according to my spies, Willy was very nervous, but sang ok...

T-shirts: we now only have small and medium sizes remaining (no large and no extra-large). If you do want one, please send before the end of July as after that I will be giving the few remaining ones to charities.

The next newsletter will be at the end of August (quite a long gap, but that's because it's summer holidays and i'm going to take a bit of a break after the shows, because i'm working seven days a week at present! In the August newsletter, I will answer lots of the questions you have been sending in, plus there will be a new photo offer. I've been going through the huge pile of photos we have here, to select the best ones. There will also be a competitions (an easy one) in that newsletter with lots of great prices. It probably seems to you that UK fans are getting all the best news right now, and there's not much for fans overseas to look forward to, so I'll be doing a special "overseas fans only" competition, so lots of you will have the chance of getting a prize...

That's all for now

WAS THE BASS THE FIRST INSTRUMENT YOU LEARNED TO PLAY, AND DO YOU PLAY ANY OTHER INSTRUMENTS? No, the guitar was the first but in order to join my first band, I had to take the two top strings off and play the guitar like a bass!! I play the guitar and piano. HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED PLAYING, AND DID YOU DECIDE THEN THAT YOU WANTED TO MAKE MUSIC YOUR CAREER, OR DID YOU DECIDE THAT AT A LATER DATE? To play the instruments I play much better and to write a song people will still sing in 30 or 40 years time. I was 14 when I first started –it wasn’t until I was 23 that I felt I could make music my career. WHAT DID YOU DO BETWEEN THE TIME YOU LEFT SCHOOL AND THE TIME DIRE STRAITS STARTED? I was a student for 3 years at London University and I also worked in a ----------- for three years. I opened a record shop in Kentish town “Honkey Tonk Records” –Total disaster! IS THERE ANYTHING SPECIAL YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ARCHIEVES, BUT HAVEN'T YET? To play the instruments I play much better and to write a song people will still sing in 30 or 40 years time. WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN MUSICAL INFLUENCES AND WHAT AERIST DO YOU LISTEN To WHEN YOU'RE AT HOME? Rock and Blues music, good songwriters, some classical but not too high………. I listen to a wide range of music but a tendency towards singer/songwriter and guitar players. DO YOU EVER GET A CHANCE To See NEW GROUPS PLAY LIVE, AND IF SO, IS THERE ANYONE YOU’VE SEEN RECENTLY WHO HAS REALLY IMPRESSED YOU? Sometimes, * Obviously nobody impressed John that much as he didn't finish filling this bit in! - Liz WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF THE GENERAL STATE OF THE BRITISH CHARTS AT PRESENT? Pretty dreadful, precious little feeling in the music and very limited radio play. IS THERE ANY CHANCE OF YOU DOING SOLO SHOWS IN THE FUTURE, PLAYING MATERIAL OFF YOUR TWO SOLO ALBUMS? Depends on time and whether the Straits are going to be busy this year –but you never know. WHAT GIG THAT DIRE STRAITS HAVE DONE MOST STICKS IN YOUR MIND, AND FOR WHAT REASON? Live Aid –not from a musical point of view, but it was just such an event in musical muscle. DO YOU STILL KEEP IN TOUCH WITH –AND SEE –OLD FRIENDS WHO KNEW YOU BEFORE YOU WERE FAMOUS, AND DO YOU EVER FEEL PEOPLE ARE JEALOUS OF YOU? Yes, I keep in touch with old friends. My friends are not jealous of me; if they were, they wouldn't be friends. DO YOU THINK BEING SUCCESSFUL AND HAVING MONEY HAS CHANGED YOU, ANS IF SO, How? Give you the freedom to express yourself in your own way and to pretty much do what you want in life. NOW YOUR MARRIAGE HAS BROKEN UP, DO YOU STILL SEE YOUR SON REGULARLEY? IF HE SAID HE WANTED TO Be A MUSICIAN, WOULD YOu ENCOURAGE OR DISCOURAGE HIM? Yes, I see my son regularly, I would encourage him to do what he wants with reason, so guess music is ok. WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES? IF YOU HADN´T DONE YOUR SOLO ALBUM IN THE LAST TEN MONTHS WHILE MARK HAS BEEN BUSY, HOW WOULD YOU HAVE SPENT THAT SPARE TIME? Gosh! Reading, writing; I never seam to have spare time! Whether Mark is busy or not!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WILL BE DOING IN TEN YEARS FROM NOW? Probably flying to Australia in under 3 hours!! WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER To BE THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THE WORLD TODAY? Rick Astley!! No, seriously –probably too many things to mention –but greed hast got to be pretty high on the list. Drug abuse a close second.