Looks like Richard is about to launch a missile with that Bazouki. here's a shot sent in of me and Richard during 'done with Bonaparte'.



We had a great get-together in MK's room tonight after the show.

Mark asked me to thank everyone who's e-mailed me with concerns and best wishes regarding the condition of his throat. He is getting better now and shows improvement each day. Also, the song 'Our Shangri-La' has been temporarily dropped because it's very high for Mark to sing and in his present condition, he can't quite make it. It will be back soon.



Here's a cool shot of the caped crusader. I've never seen this cape effect, well not from my camera anyhow. It's kinda cool don't you think?



All these shots were taken during soundcheck. Here's Chad doing some stuff on his Mac on the back of his drum riser.



Tim and Richard, contemplating the position of the chair in relation to the pedalboard.

Me, I'm just an observer.





Adelaide stirrs up fond memories of when Alan Clark. and myself went windsurfing at west beach back in 1991. We used to try and windsurf wherever possible. We contacted a local windsurfing shop and in exchange for some tix etc and blagged a couple of boards. we set off with a couple of locals, little did we know........

there was a shark watch on!! (a 30 footer!!, with a 5ft. mouthspan) Wondered why no-one was on the water. Apparently this monster had already taken a few innocent folk. We were only informed of this whilst we were out there!. Soiled wetsuits all round.

However, on this trip there is no time to contemplate any such excitement or adventure.







Now this is more interesting. As we pulled up at the venue, Glenn was outside delicately applying some kind of gloop to the bridge of Mark's signature Strat. It kind of reminded me of when we were in Amsterdam on the last tour and he dripped Tippex onto the neck of a Strat so Mark could see where he was on the guitar neck in Local Hero.

Of course I didn't get a close-up but he said he was sick and tired of having to adjust the bridge height every night, so he developed a solution. Told you....genius!

Check out those chairs



Mark Knopfler Concert – Adelaide 8:00pm 13th March 2005-03-14
Well – My first attempt at a Gig review ever – "so be gentle with me". - quote "MK"
It has been 13 years since I last had the pleasure of seeing this master singer-songwriter-Guitarist perform. Back then it was Dire Straits and I had seen the huge progression in that band’s musical talents during 3 of their 4 trips to Adelaide. So what could we expect since the 1992 OES tour?
Answer:- A tight/consummate group of professionals deliver 2-1/2 hours of absolute magic which had the crowd (est.7,000) in awe of their combined and individual musical talents and genius.
I doubt wether the Entertainment Centre has ever seen such a polished performance.
Except for a minor glitch when Richard’s guitar hadn’t been reconnected, coming back to a 5 piece out of the 3 piece for "Song for Sonny Liston" the remaining 2 hours 29mins and 30 seconds was Spell Binding.
I won’t go into detail about which instruments the band used (except to say -Glen’s new Bass sounded just fine!), that was covered very well by Ken Ironside in MK News Forum Gig Reviews at:-
http://p199.ezboard.com/fmknewsforumfrm6.showMessage?topicID=6.topic
The acoustics here aren’t what you would call brilliant (a fair bit of re-verb from the back of the hall), but they took it in their stride and still came up trumps.
Mark’s talking voice was a bit croaky during the first 7 songs, but as a testament to his utter professionalism he pulled this first set off Brilliantly!
When they started the set using the "Small Kit", Mark sat on a chair right on the front edge of the stage, and one of the crew brought out a cup of something for Mark to drink. "There’s no Scotch in it" he told the audience!!, but it must have had something good, as from that point onwards his talking voice was back to normal and he belted out the rest of the set with ease.
The breakdown set were great :- Done with Bonaparte as a 4 piece – Song for Sonny Liston (3 piece), back to a 5 piece with Guy and Richard joining (except for 1st 30 secs.) and then Ruidiger and All that matters.
I have several Bootlegs from 2001 concerts, and Speedway at Nazareth was one of my favourites then, but tonight it was huge – really Roaring!!!!!! The keyboard intro to this song, set the hair on my neck straight!
Next a great version of Telegraph road with a slightly more melodic feel to the early part of the final solo.
They did 3 encores, which included Brothers in arms – Money for nothing – So Far away – Mist covered mountains and - Wild theme (with just the Mark and Guy) – what a neat way to end a Stellar performance.
Anyone out there who hasn’t got tickets for this tour! BEG – BORROW – OR STEAL but don’t miss it for the World!!!!!!.
IAN