Dear everyone,

Sorry this newsletter s a month or so late, but i was trying to get the bulk of the UK tickets done first, plus sort out the American guest-lists for each night!

There are two main bits of news: first of all, we have added another UK date, at Ipswich Football Ground on June 18th and there´s a booking forma at the back of this newsletter for anyone wanting tickets. Overseas fans who require tickets for Ipswich should send a self-addressed envelope for details.

Secondly, we have confirmed some of the dates for late summer/autumn 1992. These are as follows:

Sept 3	Municipal Stadium Bordeaux France outdoor
Sept 5	Stade L´Ouest Nice France outdoor
Sept 7/8/9	Forum Milan Italy indoor
Sept 11/12	Roman Arena Verona Italy outdoor
Sept 14	Baseball Stadium Florence Italy outdoor
Sept 16/17	Paleur Rome Italy indoor
Sept 19	Cava dei Terreni Naples Italy outdoor

I know all our Italian D.S.I.S. members will be especially pleased about this, since we missed Italy out on the “Brothers in Arms” tour having not been able to find a half-decent promoter.

The Italian shows are due to go on sale to the general public on or about April 25th, and the French shows on or about May 2nd. D.S.I.S. members in those countries will be able to order their priority tickets before that –please see booking information later on in this newsletter.

We have also lined up tentative dates in Southern Spain at the end of August, two more Italian cities in September, plus some in Southern France and Spain for October. It is possible that we will also add dates in the Eastern Bloc. But details of all these are very vague at present so I will notify fans living in the countries concerned once we have confirmed dates. If you do not hear from me, you should assume that we have not added concerts in your country.

EARLS COURT CONCERTS, SUMMER 92

We now have confirmed timings for these shows, and they are as follows:

Doors open: 5:30pm
Was (not Was) on stage: 6:50pm
Dire Straits on stage: 8:15/8:30 pm
Concert ends: 10 :30 (latest 10 :45pm)

LIVE ALBUM

I´m being inundated with questions about whether there will be a live album released from this tour: the answer is yes, we are planning one for release in Spring 1993. Certain European dates are being recorded (don´t know which ones yet) –I will be able to give you much fuller information in the May newsletter.

FREE PHOTOS IN SOME NEWSLETTER

We have just had a bit of a clear–out at the office, and I managed to collect together a large selection of photos past and present –unfortunately not enough to give one to each D.S.I.S. member, so I have put one in various envelopes at random. There are some very early shots, some taken at Live Aid or the Nelson Mandela show, some Hillbillies ones, and some form the most recent set of dates, as well as shots taken in Montserrat, studio shots, and odd signed photos of current or past band members. Some are good, some not so good, some a bit tatty some you will have seen and some you won´t…

TEST PRESSING/ WHITE LABEL COPIES

The other thing I have unearthed is a pile of old test pressings/ white label copies of albums. There are about 30 of them, and I really don´t have time to play them all to see what they are, or indeed whether they are playable at all. So, who wants them? If you are interested, send me a postcard marked “white label” and with your name and address on it. All cards will go into a box, and the first 30 drawn out of the box on May 3rd will get the records.

GRAMMY/BRIT. AWARDS NOMINATIONS

The band did receive one Grammy award nomination, in the “Best short-form music video” category –for the “Calling Elvis” video. Unfortunately, they didn´t win –R.E.M. won, but I can´t remember what video it was for! In the Brit. Awards, they were nominated as “Best British Band”, and Mark was nominated for “Best British Producer” –again they did not win either award!

USA/CANADA

Lots of you have asked for a list of U.S. and Canadian cities played, since we have never listed them in a newsletter (only the letter that went to fans in those countries), so here they are: Jan 30 –Sacramento Arco Arena, 31 –Reno Lawlor Events Centre, Feb 1-2 -San Francisco Oakland Coliseum, 4 –Fresno Selland Arena, 5 –San Diego Sports Arena, 6 –Las Vegas Bally´s, 7-8 –Los Angeles Forum, 10 –Phoenix Memorial Coliseum, 13 –Houston Summit, 14 –Dallas Reunion Arena, 16 –Kansas City Kemper Arena, 17 –Champaign Illinois University, 18 –Chicago Rosemont Horizon, 19 –Detroit Palace of Auburn Hills, 20 –Cleveland Richfield Coliseum, 21 –Dayton University, 23 –New Jersey Meadowlands Arena, 24 –Washington Capital Centre, 25 –Binghampton Broome County Coliseum, 26 –New York Madison Square Garden, 28 –Long Island Nassau Coliseum, 29 –Albany Knickerbocker Arena, March 1 –Providence Civic Centre, 2 –Philadelphia Spectrum, 4 –Syracuse War Memorial, 6 –Hartford Civic Centre, 7 –Worcester Centrum, 9-10 –Halifax Metro Centre, 11 –Moncton Coliseum, 13 –Montreal Forum, 14-16 –Ottawa Civic Arena, 17 –Hamilton Copps Coliseum, 19-20 –Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens, 21 –Sudbury Arena, 24 –Winnipeg Arena, 26 –Regina Agridome, 27 –Saskatoon Saskatchewan Place, 28 –Edmonton Northlands Coliseum, 29 –Calgary Saddledome, 31-April 1 –Vancouver PNE, 3 –Spokane Coliseum, 4 –Seattle Coliseum, 6 –Portland Coliseum

As you can see, they are nearing the end of this section now, and they have just over a week off before starting the European tour (first show: Metz, France, April 18th) which goes on for the rest of the summer –so there will be a lot of weary people around here by autumn!! The best show on the tour so far has been Madison Square Garden, where the audience was fantastic, and the band got a standing ovation for several minutes.

DIRE STRAITS DESK DIARIES

You will see that some people won Dire Straits Phonogram desk diaries in the Terrence Higgins Trust charity draw –Phonogram have just a few of these left, and have said I can offer them to D.S.I.S members. I know a quarter of 1992 has already gone, but since they are real collectors’ items, I´m sure some of you will want them. They are 26 cm x 21 cm hardbacks, in gold embossed marron leather, and contain colour pictures of the band, biography, discography, “OES” song lyrics, maps, etc If you would like one, there´s an order form later in this letter. If we get too many orders, we will return payments for those who were unlucky. You will see that for overseas fans, the price is rather high, but this is because of the extortionate postage costs –the diaries are quite heavy, and cost a fortune to send!

REVIEWS/NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS

We´ve been getting lots of letters asking for more press cuttings and reviews etc. to be printed in the newsletter, so I have dug out one amusing little article I saw for this letter (see later). If a newspaper or magazine in your country carries an interesting or unusual DS story o review, feel free to send it in to me for inclusion in future newsletters so fans in other countries can also read it. Please don´t deluge me with “standard” type stories! You will also find in this newsletter a cartoon of me sent in by Swiss D.S.I.S member Marco Corda, which I thought it was brilliant. He obviously has a good idea of what it is like running the box office!!! Thanks Marco, see you in France!

T-SHIRTS/PHOTOS

Some of you have asked if we have any more t-shirts or photo-sets left: we have completely run out of t-shirts Design 2 and 3. we do have a few of Design 1 remaining –if you want one, send off a.s.a.p. using the order form from the last newsletter. If you have already used your form, or lost it, and want a shirt, just send your order in a letter (to remind you, they are 10.00 pounds for fans in UK/Europe, 15 pounds outside Europe (sterling cash only). Re photos: we have only about 15 sets left, so it´s first come first served -10 pounds a set

That´s about it for now
Next letter due at the end of May!

Best wishes