Mark Knopfler, Dublin 15.5.15

Every couple of years I look forward to going along to a concert by, who in my opinion, is one of the musical greats. Ex-Dire Straits front-man, Mark Knopfler is on tour again, and just for a change this year, we opted to see him at the 3 Arena in Dublin. There are those who, with just the mention of his name give a snigger and say 'I don't like Dire Straits'. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but to those I say, move on, take a listen to his music today. Whilst he still plays some of the greats from the DS days, he proves his status as a multi-talented musician with his latest music - a fantastic mix of rock blended with very traditional beautiful instrumental sounds and melodies, all expertly woven together with the life-observational lyrics of his songs.

Fiddles and flutes, uilleann pipes and double bass, keyboards and guitars, all have a place on the Mark Knopfler stage. This man knows his music, and has written for films and other iconic singers, including Tina Turner.

There are many guitars putting in an appearance over the course of the night including one which has become the most recognised of all, the Resonator style O, (shown above) and as seen on the Brothers in Arms album cover, released 30 years ago, almost to the day on 13th May 1985.

This is a man with his musicians, who together,  put on a performance that oozes passion for music. No need for a warm-up support act, they just come on stage and play and play, and for over two and a half hours non-stop. Fabulous!

This time, as my 'off-duty' camera, I was putting an Olympus OM-D E-M10 + 14-42mm kit lens through its paces, apart from the shot below which was on my old-going-into-retirement G12.

National Style O Resonator Guitars were made between 1930 and 1941. Nickel plated onto a brass base, Hawaiian-style scenes were sand blasted onto the polished body. It is understood that Marks particular guitar dates from 1937.

...but turn off your Flash

Those were the words uttered to us by the usher as we were shown to our seats at the Royal Albert Hall last night. We were there to see Mark Knopfler on his current Privateering Tour, and as we have seen Mark on pretty much all of his tours in recent years, we were familiar with his policy on photography. In fact, in previous years, the rule was a categorical 'no photography' policy. Clearly exceptionally hard to police and with the dramatic changes in photographic devices over the years, it seemed that on this tour, it had influenced a change in policy to:

"Please note that Mark Knopfler has no objection to fans bringing into the show cameras and personal recording equipment to record the show, providing such photographs/recordings are for private use only and these activities do not interfere with the enjoyment of other fans.
CAMERAS, including digital cameras, can be used by fans to take photos of the show, provided it is for personal use and non-professional purposes. Any camera with removable lenses are not permitted."

We were going to this event on a purely 'to enjoy' basis and I, and no doubt many other gig-goers were delighted to see a relaxation in the photography policy although I still had that gut niggle about one thing.

FLASH!

Yes, it is the age-old problem of people:
1. Not understanding the request of 'no flash'
2. Not knowing the principles of photography ie flash is only of use in the right circumstances (and this isn't it!)
3. Not simply knowing HOW to turn a flash OFF.

As you probably already know, I prefer not to use flash as a rule anyway and in this type of music / theatre photography, just never. Apart from it being ineffective from such a distance, it is also highly distracting to the performers and irritating to both the performers and other members of the audience. (For that matter, the little focusing beams are irritating too)

And so it was, all evening, those little tell-tale statements of
"Look at me! I'm taking another photograph and... *flash* oops!
from various corners of the hall.

I suppose, just as people forget to turn off their mobile rings, the flash syndrome will never go away completely either.

So, rant over, how was the evening?

Brilliant as always! He is a true musician and performer, plays with passion and he and the whole band always show how much they are enjoying themselves. Many's the time I have been to a gig and have been lucky to have about an hour of the headline act after one or two mediocre support acts. Not with Mark Knopfler. In fact it is only the past two tours that he has had a support act at all, normally choosing to be the only act of the evening. This time though, he had a young Canadian, Ruth Moody as his support. A good choice for two reasons, one, she was good - none of the 'when will this finish' feeling, two, she actually performed on some of the tracks from the Privateering album.

Following the support, Mark came on stage at around 8.30 and the last applause from the standing ovation was heard at 11pm. Two-and-a-half hours of pure music, both new, past, and from the Dire Straits days.

 

Guitar changes were frequent with all of the iconic instruments taking a turn on stage, and boy, can the man play?!!!

Sadly, the evening was gone in a flash, and so until the next tour...

Oh, and the camera? My little G12 of course.