Again with my lovely wife, on to Molson Amphitheatre Toronto. What a great noisy crowd. Outdoor venue with seating of near 9,000 not including lawns which were closed and the show was near sold out (thanks Toronto). We sat next to the lighting and sound boards in the 200 section dead centre and really probably the best place for sound. See my pic of Simon the lighting guy on Guy's Tour diary web page on the Toronto link. I had 2 discs for the MD so was able to record in pcm linear (no compression at all) and I must say, what an awesome sound we had. Of course, with large crowds, there is more chatter and noise but that's the beauty sound of live shows! There was an opening act, he was Jackie Greene from Sacramento California, a very talented guitar and harmonica player as well as keys on one tune. Played for about 30 minutes I think (had started before we arrived). The crowd was loud and gave the band a lot of energy and IMHO, made it a much better show as the band was feeling us and giving it back tenfold. They were very tight and lively and really did not show their fatigue on this warm summer eve. The day off did them well. Richard Bennett's guitar playing was truly virtuous beside MK's. During R & J a couple stood up and waltzed. This was by far the best of the 3 shows and the sound (noise and all) was so awesome I was practically levitating!! Most of the encores we were on our feet but it seemed not many were allowed to the front of the stage area. Unlike the show in our capital city, the curfew times here are later so we were pleasantly surprised to have an extra encore at the end. Every song was done to perfection. Was nice to have one more song "Donegan" from the latest effort but still a little disappointment, no Our Shangri-la. We left this concert feeling fulfilled the most. Even though my recording level was a little hot for this one as it was the first uncompressed I tried with manually set record level, distortion was minimal and I feel I captured most of the essence of the show in its rawest form and listening to it now is sending shivers down my spine. All in all a really great show from start to finish. MK and the band were awesome. Toronto Set list: WAM, WOL, W-it-is, STP, R & J, SoS, DwB, SfS, Donegan, BLT, SaN, TR, BiA, MfN, SFA, The Mist Covered Mountains and finally Going Home for our send off home. Great time by all!! Dan Lapierre - Toronto

Wow... First got introduced to DS in december 1997, and by january 1998... was in love their music and instantly became my fav rock group. Never thought id see the day that MK would tour my home town of Dubai, and i freaked out when he announced the tour, cause i live in Canada now. My parents went for the concert and loved it, got my all excited and jealous, until July 5th.. Awesome concert.. Sucks that Trawlerman's song and Our Shangri la were not played.. was looking forward to them a lot. If anyone reads this, i was the lil guy in the red shirt screamin after every song, in the right stands (300) section. Gotta say, i wish i was in the left stands, they seemed more enthusiastic. Overall though, great concert... no better feeling that hearin Sultans and Money being played by the Man himself... Killer show... I was actually plannin on headin to London, ON for that show too, but i dint wanna ruin the charm of the TO show... Next time ur in Canada, MK, the lil guy in the red shirt will be there again.. screamin and singin along... i'll try and get a seat in the left stands next time :) :P Rock On..!!

Great concert, met all my expectations, the setlist was 1. Why Aye Man 2. Walk Of Life 3. What It Is 4. Sailing To Philadelphia 5. Romeo & Juliet 6. Sultans Of Swing 7. Done With Bonaparte 8. Song For Sonny Liston 9. Donegan's Gone 10. Boom, Like That 11. Speedway At Nazareth 12. Telegraph Road 13. Brothers In Arms 14. Money For Nothing 15. So Far Away 16. Band Instrumental (someone provide the name!) 17. Goin Home (Local Hero) Mark and Guy only. Great night on the water after a rainy day, opening act was Jackie Green. He played a good electric guitar and harmonica for most of the set (some piano) very laid back and at ease in attitude, musically he had a Bob Dylan Highway 61 feel, very well received. Mark on promptly at 8:50, Looked and sounded great (I wasn't ready for the spectacles!). As always he defines what a guitar player should be.....we argued with our waiter at dinner about best guitarists.....he missed the point that feel is as important as speed.....my comment on the whole night was...."oh yeah, the boy can play"....no one makes the guitar sing like Mark and no one understands the importance of dynamics and silence like he does!. I digress.....my personal highlites were What it is, R and J, Telegraph, Boom and Speedway. I wonder what the band's faves were?.... but there seemed to be extra smiles on Speedway (the Toronto reference was caught by most) and RJ.....I did miss the echo effect and the finger snaps..... Boom Like That was great too. Light show was the usual MK/Straits tasteful production but only really became visible late in the show. Would still like to see more unusual early Straits songs but no complaints, he has quite a catalogue to cover (come back soon!). Interesting to see how Guy has become leader (last live shows I saw he was the rookie!), he does a good job too! as well as playing some tasty organ. The band did a huddle after the first two encores (they seemed to really be discussing something but maybe that's standard) then came back with So Far Away and then a band instrumental (whose name I should know but don't and Local Hero with only Mark and Guy....very appropriate....took me back to when the roadies started to tear down the stage during the song! Tried for a setlist (after the show) but roadies claimed there were none......doesn't match Guy's earlier posts....oh well.....still the highlite of the summer so far! Thanks Mark and Guy and all! A Longtime fan!

I can still remember my excitement that day over 25 years ago when I first heard 'Sultans of Swing', and that summer 20 years ago when we played 'Brothers in Arms' everywhere we went in the car. England is far behind me now and for my birthday treat my son took me to see Mark and the band at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto. What can I say? 57 years old and jumping up and down like a lunatic, clapping and cheering and wishing it would go on all night.A memorable and emotional night - my thanks to all responsible and I can only hope that I will one day again get to appreciate this man's musical genius. Rock on!

FANTASTIC SHOW!!! Having purchased tickets for the concert two years ago, my girlfriend and I were eagerly anticipating this show and were not disappointed. We were hoping to hear more from the Shangri-La C.D but none the less was happy with the play list. SOS was blistering as was TR. The band was excellent and it was a great night for TO. Oh, Mark you are truly a Guitar God.

The show. Hmmm, well reading the previous review you'd think it was the best show ever. My impressions were somewhat different. We had really decent seats - on the floor area about 10 metres from the stage. Great seats. And the show itself was wonderful. The sound from where we were sitting wasn't fantastic but that could be just a seating position issue - perhaps a little too close. No, my big disappointment with the show was the setlist. 3 songs from the new CD? 1 song from the previous CD? 7 DS songs? I love Telegraph Road and Romeo & Juliet and Sultans of Swing as much as any other DS fan but with 4 solo works I had hoped (against hope, given the previous shows) that maybe we'd see him focus on the work he's done since DS broke up. No Our Shangri-la? The title track of the CD he's supposed to be touring for? Please, please Mark when you tour again for your next CD please play some of it.

Unbelievable concert! So much power and energy. Couple of tunes blew me away, like Donegan which I would never expect. I was not expecting such rhytm and power. The song rocked. Of course, my wife and I could not be still in our seats when the band played Straits tunes so we were looking around at the beginning of the concert for some place where we could stand and dance. Unfortunately, the venue filled almost every inch of the front section with seats so it was hard (but eventually not impossible) to come up to the stage. And what a feeling!!!!! When you can actually stand and dance and enjoy the concert as it was meant to be enjoyed without feeling guilty for obstructing the view of many "fans" that would not give up sitting for the enjoyment. I cannot describe the feeling when we heard Sultans's first tunes. At that time we were still in our seats and we just wanted to jump out of our skins. At that moment it did not matter whether there was someone behind us sitting. We normally thought if they were real fans, this is when the whole audience would have to stand up and rock with the band. There was no song that did not sound amazing. For my wife and me, specially touching (in a rocking sense) were Sultans, Telegraf Rd., Romeo & J., and of course Speedway - what a POWER!!!!! Audience, even though pretty still for the most part, were also pretty loud, which helped create a rock concert atmosphere. I could probably go on for hours, but the final conclusion is FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!