Don't give a damn 'bout any trumpet playing man

Around the time I was doing my A levels, I always made an effort to listen to the Annie Nightingale Request Show which was on Sunday night after the charts (yes, the charts came out on a Sunday, kids – back when you had to actually BUY records).  As well as being a good background noise to scramble around doing my last remaining homework to, she played a good combination of music I knew and liked, stuff I didn’t know and grew to like, stuff I will NEVER, EVER get into and stuff that just defies description (Fish Heads or Lamb Kebab, anyone?).  The variety of music I heard taught me that music doesn’t have to come neatly packaged in 3 minute verse/chorus packages – there’s room out there for everyone.  She certainly wasn’t averse to playing longer tracks – which meant that it was one of the few places on the radio where you could hear some Dire Straits (before all that unpleasant Brothers In Arms business, anyway!).  And what could possibly be better than a long Dire Straits track? – a specially extended live version, of course!

Alchemy just sounds like a load of talented musicians having a lot of fun – the skill involved is undeniable and the joy that comes through is infectious (particularly at high volumes).  “Telegraph Road”, “Once upon a Time in the West” and “Sultans of Swing” are the high points for me, with the first two each weighing in at over 13 minutes.  And yes, I appreciate it’s not for everyone (I played Emily the solo from Telegraph Road once and her comment was “Does it never end, Daddy?!?”) but it’s most definitely for me!  A wander through YouTube looking at some of the Mark Knopfler stuff on there is always time well spent – the man has skills.


Just to prove that I don’t only like my live albums to be overly long and unnecessarily pompous, my other favourite live album is “Under a Blood Red Sky” – which is unduly short whilst still being unnecessarily pompous.  “There’s been a lot of talk about this next song, maybe too much talk” – the clues were there as to the path Bono would take in the very early days…




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