On Sunday, two members of the iconic British rock band “Dire Straits,” along with other musicians, will perform here and enthral the audience with their renditions of songs that most of the city’s rock music lovers will remember growing up to.
The Dire Straits Experience, which includes original band members Chris White (sax) and Chris Whitten (drums) along with Terence Reis (lead vocals), Tim Walters, Simon Carter, Danny Schogger and Paul Geary, will be performing at the “Seagrams 100 Pipers Play for a Cause” concert at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre here.
For a city that has been starved of rock music concerts of late, this comes as a welcome relief. And the band promises not to disappoint.
“A lot of people often ask us if rock and roll music is dead. I would say it is not. In fact, it is not even taking a nap,” said Chris White, at a media interaction here on Saturday.
Talking about what fans could expect on Sunday, Mr. White said that all the band’s greatest hits would be played. However, they would not be exact reproductions of the studio versions, something that the band has never done during live concerts. “We don’t play every note exactly as it was recorded. That is why the band has survived so long. Dire Straits is the vision of one man, Mark Knopfler, and we try to capture the spirit of it without copying it,” he said.
Terence Reis, who has the unenviable job of filling in for Mr. Knopfler, said that the experience was an overwhelming one at first. “I don’t know Mark and have not met him despite what many stories say. However, I just trust my instincts and play the music,” he said. Responding to several hardcore Mark Knopfler fans, who didn’t believe the band could be the same without him, was the toughest part.
“The best job I can do is when people leave the concert not simmering that Mark wasn’t there,” he quipped. However, Mr. White said that the negative feedback that the band received in the beginning was slowly turning around. “Because our music is not a clone of the original tracks,” he said. However, both band members laid any rumours of a reunion performance to rest. “As a band, I don’t think there is going to be another recording. After Dire Straits disbanded, I didn't think it would be possible to put a band together ... Mark didn’t want to play,” he said.
Also, 2017 is the year which marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic line “You get a shiver in the dark” from the band’s “Sultans of Swing” and the band promises an experience that the city will not forget easily.
