Dear everyone,

First off, a big thank you to everyone who bid for items in the Charity Sale. We have already received £4,250.00 and there's still quite a bit to come in, so we should end up with about £5,000.00 which will be going to The Elton John Aids Foundation and The Terrence Higgins Trust. More details about who got what later on in this letter.

I have to be honest and say there isn't a great deal of news about at the moment, so this letter will be fairly short. However, as you will by now have discovered it does contain a free gift which I hope you like. Yes, EVERYONE gets a souvenir pass from the "On Every Street" tour! Last week, when one of the crew was going through a flight case from the tour, he found a box full of passes for various venues, and upon counting them, we found we had just enough for every DSIS member to have one. There are various different ones, some of you will have a Photographer pass, some a Local Crew pass, some a Support Guest Pass, some a Backstage pass, and some an After Show pass, and they are from many different cities.

Now this seemed a little unfair on those who had bid for them in the Sale (before the discovery of the box). So, for those people who made successful bids for an "OES" tour pass, I have managed to get hold of a few special laminated passes from the Brothers In Arms tour (Access All Areas) and from the On Every Street tour (VIP). I'll be sending them off in a week or so.

On to the news:

LIVE ALBUM

This is now scheduled for release on cd/cassette on May 10th in all territories (except the USA where it will be May 12th) and will be called "On The Night", although please don't broadcast the fact as we're trying to keep the title a secret for now. Having gone through the footage from every gig that was recorded on the tour, the final selection is being taken from just two of them Nîmes and Rotterdam. The track listing for the album will be as follows: Calling Elvis / Walk Of Life / Heavy Fuel / Romeo And Juliet / Private Investigations / Your Latest Trick / On Every Street / You And Your Friend / Money For Nothing / Brothers In Arms. That makes up one cd. The idea is to release simultaneously a CD single with Your Latest Trick and three extra songs The Bug / Solid Rock / Local Hero.

The reason for doing it this way is because of technology - I won't go into all the complications, but the maximum running time on a CD is 76.15. There are of course CDs which are slightly longer, but some CD players (especially the earlier models) won't play them, because the mechanism fails to recognise the length and won't pick up on the CD at all. Shops report that many people return CDs that have very long playing times because their particular CD player will not play them, so to make sure everyone with a player can listen to this one, we're sticking to the official maximum length. That means we can't quite fit it all on one CD, hence the extra "single", the proposed title of which is "Encores".

The album and single are being produced by Guy, Neil Dorfsman and Mark, and mixed by Neil. The tentative sleeve is pretty weird it's a bold orange and blue picture of some satellites, representing the fact that it's "live", "worldwide" and so on. Hard to describe - you really have to see it for yourself!

In some territories the album will be released in vinyl format too it will be a double LP sold at single LP price.

CONCERT VIDEO

This will come out the same day as the album and will have the same title. Track listing: Calling Elvis / Walk Of Life / Heavy Fuel / Romeo And Juliet / The Bug / Private Investigations / Your Latest Trick / On Every Street / You And Your Friend / Money For Nothing / Brothers In Arms / Solid Rock / Local Hero . Running time approx. 90 minutes.

CHRIS WHITE BECOMES A DAD!

Yes, Chris and Eve are now the proud parents of Alexander, born on 23rd January. Chris was too superstitious for me to put anything in a newsletter until the baby had been born, so that's why I never mentioned it before! Alexander has already visited the office but fell asleep as soon as he arrived (obviously not impressed by our normally riveting personalities).

CHRIS WHITE SHADOWDANCE CD

Sorry but we are now completely sold out! (The first thirty or so people who sent in for one will have noticed that they received a signed copy).

CALENDARS/PRESS CUTTINGS

We are also completely sold out of the calendars, and the press cuttings offer is now closed (photocopier had a nervous breakdown), so please don't send in any more orders...

SULTANS OF WHAT?

There's a new band called The Sultans Of Ping FC currently touring the UK. If you don't believe me, here's a copy of a single review that appeared in a recent edition of Music Week...I have had lots of phone calls over the past few weeks asking if it is really Dire Straits playing under an assumed name and the answer is an emphatic no. So go and see them by all means (I've no idea what they are like) but please don't expect MK & Co. to be there!

DS MANAGER FAMOUS AT LAST

Ed Bicknell, the group's manager, was voted Music Week Personality Of 1992 see cutting below.

Brash? Loudmouthed? Egotistical? Often offensive?

Yes, we in the office would all agree with that!!!

A few other adjectives also spring to mind, but I'd better not put them in here...

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT EVERYONE IS UP TO

I've been trying to find out what each member of the band is doing at present, so here's a quick run down: Mark and Guy: Busy overseeing all the work on the live album and video. Mark is being sent loads of film scripts from people who want him to compose scores, but as yet he hasn't decided on any of them. John: Tells me he is painting a couple of masterpieces for the National Gallery... Chris White: Still working on his home studio with a view to doing second solo album, and the rest of the time he's changing nappies. Alan: Has completed a home studio (in his garden!) and is writing his own material. Chris Whitten: Has been working as a session musician, also intending to build a home studio. Phil Palmer: Starting work on the project I mentioned in the last newsletter (an album with Steve Ferrone, Tony Levin, Paul Carrack and Rupert Hine). Paul Franklin: Has secured a US deal to record a solo album more details as I find them out. I've no idea what Danny is up to (up to no good I should think... ).

TOUR DATE INFO

A few of you have written in to ask how many dates the band played on the "On Every Street" tour in the end, and I know a couple of you have placed bets with each other on the answer so: The total was 211 shows. This compares with 23l on the "Live In 85/6" tour; however, because the venues were bigger, the band actually played to MORE people on the "OES" tour than the previous one.

NOVEMBER CHARITY SALE WINNERS/INFORMATION

Below you will find a list of who got what! Many of the fans who bid for the more expensive items didn't want the amount of their bid publicised, so I haven't listed the exact prices paid. However, to give you a rough idea, Mark's pink stage jacket, his cowboy shirt and his 3 headbands fetched well over £1,000 between them. Also very popular was the silver disc with several bids in the hundreds, Chris White's pink stage suit, and the black satin tour jacket. The band photos signed by all nine band members fetched up to £110, so on behalf of everyone here, the band, the Terrence Higgins Trust and The Elton John Aids Foundation, a big Thaaaank Yoouu to you all for helping us raise this money.

...

Some people still have not sent in their money, so could I ask you PLEASE send it in as soon as possible so I can send the final amounts across to the charities.

We may well do a similar auction later on this year (if I can bear the thought of doing something so time-consuming and complicated all over again!!!), so if you didn't get anything this time you'll have another chance.

BROTHERS IN ARMS LIMITED EDITION GUITAR PRINT - FREE PRIZE DRAW

We have discovered some rather beautiful limited edition prints of the guitar painting which appeared on the back of the "Brothers In Arms" album, which were originally done for promotional purposes. They are full colour, printed on quality card, and would look fantastic if framed. Size: approx. 12' x 9'. Below is a reduced-size photocopy of one of them, but it really doesn't do it justice!...

BACKSTAGE SECURITY SIGNS

When clearing out all our stuff at the end of the tour, we also came across some of the official Backstage Security signs. These were made up to help the security staff at each venue differentiate between the various types of passes, and we thought they would make nice collectors' items for DSIS members. (...) On the next page is a reduced-size photocopy of one of the signs - the actual size is about 18' x 12' and they're printed on card. There are five signs to each set (one in each pass colour) and each set comes with a free addtional notice saying one fo the following: 'Dire Straits - Dressing Room', 'Dire Straits - Tune-Up Room' or 'Dire Straits - Production Office'.

OK, that's it for now folks! The next newsletter is officially due at the end of May, but I'm going to be on holiday then (at last! hooray!) so I will be doing it during the first half of June instead. By that time, hopefully you will all have got the live album/video and will be able to let me know what you think of them!

PS. I never usually plug other bands in this newsletter but today I'm making an exception. Went to see a young band last week called TRF (The Royal Family) who do an entire set of Queen covers. I went with all the usual reservations you know the sort of thing: Nobody else can do justice to the songs, must be cashing in, etc. , but I have to say they were brilliant. If you liked Queen (and I know a lot of you did) and miss their live shows, or if you never saw them yet, like the music, you should try and catch this band. They really do it to perfection (quite uncanny) and done with the greatest respect for the original group. As I say, copyacts are not the sort of thing I would normally consider going to, and I'm sure a lot of you would say the same, but if you can get over that prejudice, this lot were simply too good at what they did to be faulted.

Enclosure