Mark Knopfler & Band @ Glasgow SECC, 17 May 2013

We took our seats in the large hall in the SECC in the front, 'ground floor' section and could see the stage off in the distance and I thought 'what a crap, unforgiving, tin shed this is for a concert'. Roll on the opening of the Hydro!

Mark Knopfler

At 19:30 Mark Knopfler and the band took to the stage and at a quick count I could see eight of them including Mr Knopfler. They were to be joined during a few numbers by a ninth member to add saxophone as required. Initially, the sound lived up to my expectations i.e. it was dull, distant and leaden, however, as the night progressed I got used to it and whilst it could have been louder, as was shouted out often by one particularly disgruntled patron, it wasn't as bad as it can be at this venue.

Ian Thomas

The band kicked off with a number of songs from the latest album Privateering and one of my favourites Corned Beef City came up early and it started off with that trade mark Knopfler guitar sound. Talking of guitar sounds, there were at times four or five band members playing guitar so it was a fantastic 'guitar fest' for those of us who like that kind of thing. In addition to guitar there was piano, organ, accordion, drums, bass (electric and double), fiddle, clarinet, bouzouki, flute, whistles and uilleann pipes from what I can recall! Oh, I almost forgot, the saxophone! 

There were some fantastic extended musical workouts scattered throughout the show and I particularly enjoyed Telegraph Road from the Dire Straits 1982 album Love Over Gold, this was a good ten minutes long and allowed space for everyone to work their musical magic. Sublime!

In addition to Telegraph Road we were treated to Romeo & Juliet from Making Movies (1980) and So Far Away from Brothers in Arms (1985)

and the final song from the one encore was the fabulous Going Home from the film Local Hero (1983). By that time we had been treated to about two hours and fifteen minutes of Knopfler's back catalogue, only a dip in the ocean given that he has released some 22 or                        so albums to date! 

So on stage along with Mark Freuder Knopfler (63' born in Glasgow to an English mother and Hungarian father) were Ian Thomas (drums), Richard Bennett (guitars, bouzouki and tiple), Guy Fletcher (keyboards), John McCusker (fiddle, guitar and cittern), Mike McGoldrick (whistles, flute, clarinet and uilleann pipes), Jim Cox (piano and organ), Glenn Worf (upright and electric bass) and Nigel Hitchcock (saxophone). The one thing about seeing a well known, established artist is that you know that they will have a bunch of talented, professional musicians and this lot were up there with the best. It was also a help in that most, if not all these guys, performed on the Privateering album so they knew the songs!

At the end, when the band lined up to take their final bow, they seemed genuinely pleased and were back slapping, hand shaking and generally congratulating each other on a good nights work. I have to say that their reaction was well merited as I was thoroughly entertained, these larger concerts (possibly 10,000 folk there on the night although I don't think it was a sell out) can be very impersonal, sterile, disassociated and remote but I was able to really get into the 'groove' and enjoy the wonderful performance, both the sight and sound were mesmerising. The unique Knopfler guitar sound will remain with me for a long while..........!