The weather has been so favourable, it's hard to resist another city shot, this time of downtown Toronto after take-off. As I said to Danny and Mark in the car, when you've worked on a movie which is set in a specific place you've never been, somehow when you do visit, it all feels familiar and even though I don't recognize any of the places we're driving through, my time spent scoring 'Niagara Motel' has somehow bought me closer to this area. Nostalgic rubbish of course and we never got closer than 20 miles from Niagara Falls but we had a great view of this wonder from the plane. (it's that little blob of spray in the middle...honest)



The journey from Toronto to Buffalo really is a 'hop' and the on-board air map confirmed the distance was 89 miles with a grueling flight time of 18 minutes. Potentially challenging for Dianne to serve up the lunch but of course, with a little help from Pete, the task was completed...fuss-free. When we arrived at the quite rural Buffalo airfield, there were a few fans waiting at the gates for autographs, Mark very kindly obliged and even allowed a few pics as there was a family there with a sweet little boy named Gunner.



A short ride to the Centre for the Arts which is situated in the University of Buffalo and in complete contrast to yesterday's venue at Ann Arbor, here we have a new building (possibly 3 years old) plenty of space and very clean. When the crew first arrived, they jokingly started loading the cases into the catering area as it's actually sited in one of the  buildings' performance halls.





The real hall is a very well designed 1700 seat wooden theatre with potentially great acoustics. We had an elongated sound check as we ran a few things that needed attention, sorted some more lighting issues and generally fiddled in the luxury of good sonics. After sound check I had the opportunity to plug the new Reverend Buckshot. This guitar sounds as good as it looks and the combination of pickups is a real treat. I think it's gonna be very versatile in the studio. I particularly like the bass contour control, very handy. I talked Glenn into showing off his new Gretch 6120 this afternoon. He says he's always wanted one and decided to go for it. It's a lovely guitar!



As predicted, the sound on stage during the show was fabulous and the band really does excel in these situations. We all had a great gig and could really immerse in the wonderful dynamics of the songs. Mark definitely plays differently when he's seated and he's quite enjoying the experience. I suggested he incorporates the stool more into the set once he's sorted his leg problem. He's comfortable and enjoying the shows just as much and dealing with any pain admirably. Mark is a trooper.



Another wonderful, appreciative, attentive, noisy audience. BTW. I'm sorry to the guy at the front who kept shouting at me for autographs but as a rule, we don't do that as it can cause problems. I heard him shout something at me which I didn't quite get as we walked off for the final time, he sounded a bit miffed though.

Back on board the plane for another 18 minutes and into Toronto for tomorrow's show at the Massey Hall, a venue I remember well as the last time we were there, the show went live on-air to radio.



Mark recently gave an interesting interview for Mark Dilonno at NJ.com about the song 'The Car was the One' which was inspired by a passage in American racing legend Mark Donohue's autobiography 'The Unfair Advantage' where he chronicled his entire racing career starting with his first races to his final full season of racing the year before he was killed in 1975.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2010/04/post.html

(I've copied the piece as these links often disappear after a while)

As a boy, Mark Knopfler spent class time at Gosforth Grammar School in Newcastle, England, drawing race cars, motorcycles and guitars, and dreaming.
At about the same time, Mark Donohue was at Brown University, where his car drawings were more elaborate. He was an engineer, and his dream was to make race cars go infinitely faster, with his foot on the pedal and hands on the wheel.
Mark Donohue died 35 years ago at the height of his career, a few years before Mark Knopfler became a success. The two men never met, but share much. Artistic drive. Technical perfection. All the things that boost talent into the highest strata of accomplishment. A new song by Knopfler captures the essence of Donohue’s life in a way described as "amazingly intuitive" by one of Donohue’s sons.
PRNewsFotoRacecar driver Mark Donohue."The Car was The One" is the seventh track on Knopfler’s latest release, an album titled "Get Lucky."
"For my father, the car was the one," said David Donohue, a race car driver whose Brumos Porsche team won the "24 Hours at Daytona" last year, 40 years after his father won on the same track. "The car was the one, racing was the one, winning meant everything. And that came with a price. In the end, a tragic price. I think an artist like Mark Knopfler must understand that kind of singular focus, and probably has paid some prices of his own."
Mark Knopfler’s guitar drawings came to life with his dreams. Whatever he drew, he mastered. The iconic photographs of Knopfler, show him slinging any number of Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters, or Gibson Les Pauls. Posed or playing, the guitar is always there. When he was leading Dire Straits, when he went "Neck and Neck" with Chet Atkins, and still today as he builds his legend as a songsmith and storyteller, with new releases every bit as good as the last.
The iconic photographs of Mark Donohue show him with winner’s wreaths round his neck and sterling trophies in his hands. At Indianapolis and Daytona, and Watkins-Glen and Talladega and Riverside, and any number of places in between. Whatever he drove, he made faster. The No. 66 Indy Car. The AMC Matador stock car. The Porche 917-30, unbeatable on the Can-Am circuit. On that one, he helped engineer a booster which jumped horsepower from 1,100 to 1,580 instantly.
The song, however, is about none of those images. It is about a young racer trying to get a break, on the outside looking in, his dreams out of reach. It was inspired by a short piece in Donohue’s autobiography "Unfair Advantage."
"That passage jumped out at me, really, because of the frustration he felt," Knopfler said this week before a show in Denver, heading east to our area for a handful of dates in early May.
"He was young and trying to get noticed as a driver, and was so frustrated. And I related it to when I was young, and desperate to play music. And how do I get my hands on a good guitar? And the proper amps? And get a band together? You’re dying to get going, but you just can’t."
The loneliness of such dreams is reflected in the opening notes of "The Car was The One," played on a 1954 Stratocaster. They are powerful and isolated, like a muscle car on a desert highway; hot, stark, and uniquely American.
"The twang’s the thang," Knopfler said referring to a 1959 Duane Eddy record.
They bring an image of a crew-cut Mark Donohue leaning on a Cobra in a fireproof suit splashed with logos.
"Mark Donohue was the catalyst for all that we have achieved at Penske Racing," Roger Penske said "It was Mark who set the standard."

By Mark DiIonno