Hi, A short review of the Munich-Gig (unfortunately no time for working it out properly - and excuse my probably evil English). Sold out indeed! But lots of "Oldies". Indeed. My expectations, or better, my fanatism was not that big this time. Not that enthusiastic about his last studio-works, getting older etc.. From the mp3s and stuff I heard so far I meant his guitar-playing wasn´t that good anymore. Mitnichten! By no means! Au contraire! Already the start was definitely one highlight: First only that drumming - blew me away! In fact I thought it was not yet the band, but a technolike "Intro" from tape. ;-) Looking forward to Frankfurt only because of that 1st few seconds. WAM - great opener, great live ! About the classics: R&J brought me to tears! All said, considering that R&J is not one of my favourite classics. And that LEGENDARY Sultans-lick!!! The "acoustic"-set was ok too. Here a few comments about some other musicians: Imho Danny Cummings is great! Rocky! Matt Rollins and his accordion: Great too! In BIA or The Mistcovered Mountains. Some people complained about the "Fletcher-Synth" in some songs. I agree to that. Back to the songs. BLT: Like WAM superb live-enhancements. Speedway (yes!): Rock down the house Old Guy! :-) TR: No words needed. What an abrupt BIA-begin (as alrea dysaidgreataccordion!.Andalike abrupt the MFN-riff. No long intro. No intro at all. And only ONE guitar!! Enough when played by Knopfler to fill the big hall. I have no more tears for GH (see above). Disregarding other things one might critize: What a (surprisingly) great performance! Mark Knopfler still is THE Man! German newspaper men found a new word (cause of the glasses of course): "Gitarrenprofessor". Very good! :-) (by the way: another "new term" is "Gitarrenbeamte" - not that clever!) Finally I would say: A more than dignified performance! Hopefully not for a long time yet the last one! Regards, March

It’s a beautiful Monday night in Munich. The Olympic Halle is inside the Olympic complex built for the 1972 Olympic Games and is alongside the main sports arena which is mainly used these days by Bayern Munich and also the German National football teams. In fact the following night there is a champion’s league quarter final match between Bayern & Chelsea the English champions elect. I’m thinking I should have planned my trip better. Knopfler live on the Monday and the Champions League on the Tuesday, but alas not to be so I concentrate on Mark Knopfler. The Hall’s not open yet so my colleague & I have some food and chemical free German Beer in the beer garden that’s situated between the indoor arena and the outdoor sports arena. I’m really looking forward to this one as I’ve not been to a Knopfler concert since the RAH in 1996. I can’t believe it’s been that long. I’ve collected many concerts on CD from my friends here on this list but the real live stuff is what it’s all about. We’re in the hall and have a walk round to soak up the pre-concert atmosphere. It’s an unusual venue being that it’s actually an indoor sports arena, maybe even a velodrome with cycle tracks being disguised at both ends. Seating on the main sports floor. Our seats are up on the right hand side of the stage. We’re actually side on but a great view of the stage and will have some excellent views of Mark and the guys in the band. 8pm comes and then a few minutes later the lights go down, the cheers come up and the band wander on stage followed by Mark and it’s immediately into the opener Why Aye Man. Now I have to say I expected the local audience to get right into this one especially with the lyrics, German beer is chemical free and Germany’s aright with me but nothing, not a whimper. The song's delivered very well and is a nice concert opener. Then its right into Walk of Life and now the audience comes alive. This one gets them in the mood and of course with Mark asking if everyone’s alright as is his standard opening for this one that also helps bring the audience to life. The photographers are having a field day. With the floor being very open plan they run down to the front, kneel so as to not annoy anyone and snap away. There must be some great shots from this concert to be shared over the weeks ahead. Now it’s onto a personal favourite of mine, What it is. Great song about Edinburgh and this is the first time I've heard it really live and Mark plays it brilliantly. The Loch Lomond tweaks in the solo near the end just raise this great song to levels you can’t find words for. Great stuff. I hope the Edinburgh audience react to this one on May 22nd. Now it’s into Sailing to Philadelphia. I just wish one of the band members could sing the James Taylor lines to give this song the real feel that we’ve come to enjoy. I’m sure William Topley will do this on the American concerts that he is supporting and maybe Mark will have a guest at the RAH when he gets to London but for all the other concerts it would be great if Guy or Richard could step up to the plate. Great song though. The opening to Romeo & Juliet is disguised and very good. Mark walks to the back of the stage as he knows as soon as we see the shining metal guitar then we know Romeo is going to be looking for Juliet. This song just does not age and the fans are loving it, Then its into Sultans, this is my all time personal favourite I've written on this list many times how I think this is the greatest song every played live. Tonight I’m not disappointed other than it’s a shorter version than usual and it’s played as a 4 piece band. No keyboards at all. In fact just like it was on the original Dire Straits. Brilliant absolutely brilliant. One fan strides down to the front and kneels down, no camera, he just studying Mark’s guitar playing. The security guy tries to move him back but after some short exchange he’s allowed to stay. He was so focused on how Mark was playing he must have learned a lot. Good luck sir whoever you are you had the best view in the house for that moment. The ovation that follows this song lasts for several minutes and gives the roadies time to re-arrange the stage for the acoustic set to follow. Mark has a few words for the audience at this point. Guy’s back and now on Guitar, Wolf is now on Double Bass and we have the keyboard player playing the accordion. Drummer is now front of stage on the right of Mark on a separate set of drums. Marks commenting that all these guy’s are multi talented musicians and all he can play is the guitar. Its gets a laugh from the audience. Then he wishes the guys all the best as they attempt to follow Mark & Richard’s lead as they break into Done with Bonaparte. This is followed by Sonny Liston where we just have Mark, Glenn Worf and Danny Cummings. Very well delivered and the guitar playing is great, some slight variances from the album version. Now the rest of the guys come back for Donegan´s gone. Richard brings some tea for himself and Mark which Mark shows to the audience and makes great play in drinking. Next up is Rudiger, a great song which becomes excellent when played live. This ends the acoustic set as the band move into full throttle with Boom Like That, This song will become a Knopfler classic in concerts to some. I’m sure it’ll survive to future tours. Next up is Speedway at Nazareth. This one takes the roof off, Mark cranks this one up slowly but surely to a level that’s close to bursting ear drums, Again my first experience of this being played live and its great. The steel guitar comes out again for the opening bars of Telegraph Road and then Mark switches back to electric, Sorry guys I'm not up to the actual names of these guitars. It’s played so strongly, so powerfully that it’s the first time that I can honestly say that I've enjoyed a song better than Sultans during a Knopfler live concert. It’s brilliantly delivered and it brings the audience to a crescendo. No wonder he needs a few minutes rest as the band walk off stage to tumultuous applause, foot stamping the whole gambit. After a few minutes Mark and the guy’s gather back on stage, meantime the crowd on the floor have mobbed the front of the stage. They’re leaning on it and with the floor layout as it is there’s plenty of room. The security guy’s are fine with it. The fans are good natured and just enjoying the whole show. There’s no chance of anything untoward happening, what a view they’re now getting of Mark’s guitar playing. Brothers in Arms is first up and gets a great reception. Guy comes over to Marks right hand side of the stage to play keyboards as Matt Rollings is playing accordion on this one. Next its Money for Nothing however sitting as I was, side on I spotted Danny Cummings almost walking away from the drums just as Mark strikes the first chord. He must have thought they’d be having another break. He dashes back to the drums and catches up quick. I’m certain he missed a few bars but he’s banging away big style and quickly. The stage hand had to quickly plug in his mikes again. Richard’s playing percussion on MFN. How strange is that? How do you think a tambourine will sound against the hit pitched guitars on this one? Hey it’s different. As the applause dies Mark and the crew appear to hold a meeting on stage to decide what to play next and off course it’s So Far Away. All the big songs from Brothers in Arms being played on this tour. Could it be to mark the 20th anniversary of the great Album? Also it’s worth noting that the Munich crowd react better to the Dire Straits songs than the Solo songs. Finally the night comes to a close with The Mist Covered Mountains with Matt again on accordion and The Mark & Guy playing out in traditional style with Going Home from Local Hero. Great Night. The man has not lost any of his style. The guitar playing is top drawer as usually and the fans go home happy with a show lasting over 2 hours. For me I just need to wait till Edinburgh and I get the chance to experience it all over again.

Hi Guys, been to the show yesterday and I was totally blown away... sound was good (olympiahalle is terrible for acoustics and they managed really good), band great and MK himself fantastic as ever. I cant really relate to the other review, but one simply cant argue about taste. I really enjoyed it (and so did everyone around me). the only sad thing was that the audience was a bit ... calm ;) but I'm used to that here in Munich ;( so many great songs and solos i couldnt name any favourites. Cya Guys and a big THANK YOU to Mark and the guys. Bruno PS ich hoffe es stört niemanden dass ich mein bescheidenes englisch rausgekramt habe, aber ich denke hier schauen ne menge leute vorbei die eher englisch als deutsch können. servus

well, just a short review from last night ... setlist - not the worts one, but could be improved easily (maybe calling elvis?!) bonaparte was dispensable, sonny liston and donegan was terrific. encores .. well, nice to hear and somehow necessary, but played very uninspired und somehow in a short version (esp. brothers) band - not that bad as reported from other concerts, cumming didn't make any noticable mistakes. other pretty much average efforts, nothing outstanding mark - very short in talking, his "singing" was really worse. most of the times the did some mumbeling, clear voice was almost impossible to hear. wrong (or at least irreproducible) emphases in his voice were really disturbing sometimes sound/audience - sound was okay, audience was very laidback and more of a listening kind, but that's all right and nothing unusual in Munich. conclusion - standard concert, for high ticket price one could expect a little more