Mark Knopfler & Friends - 25 July 2002: London, England

Artwork

Disc 1

  1. Calling Elvis
  2. Run Me Down (Trad.)
  3. Your Own Sweet Way
  4. Railroad Worksong (Trad.)
  5. Are We In Trouble Now
  6. Hobo's Lullaby (Reeves)
  7. I Can't Be Satisfied (Trad.)
  8. Feel Like Going Home (Rich)
  9. Setting Me Up

Disc 2

  1. Walk Of Life
  2. What It Is
  3. Romeo And Juliet
  4. Sultans Of Swing
  1. Olé, Olé, Olé (Trad.)
  2. Baloney Again
  3. Why Aye Man *
  4. Money For Nothing
  1. Brothers In Arms
  2. So Far Away
  3. Going Home - Theme From 'Local Hero'
*
w/ Jimmy Nail

Recorded live at Shepherds Bush Empire in London, England on July 25, 2002.

The sound quality isn't especially high on this one, but the gig itself is something quite special. The first half features The Notting Hillbillies (with Mark Knopfler, Brendan Croker and Steve Phillips on guitar, Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Marcus Cliffe on bass, Danny Cummings on drums, Bobby Valentino on guitar, mandolin and violin and Chris White on saxophone).

The second half is as close to a Dire Straits reunion as we are likely to get, with Mark Knopfler and Robbie McIntosh on guitar, Guy Fletcher and Geraint Watkins on keyboards, John Illsley on bass, Danny Cummings on drums, Bobby Valentino on guitar, mandolin and violin, and Chris White on saxophone).

I'm wondering if there's a better source of this around - I've seen the sound quality rated as 9.5 or so on some trade lists, and with the first set including Quality Shoe in addition to the tracks found here. I received this copy from the original taper, who added:

"It [Quality Shoe] was sung on the night but the ****!! next to me sang, shouted and swore to his friends making the recording unusable. I moved the mic too so apart from the blasphemy there are grab sounds etc. That recording of Quality Shoe is on the bonus CD which came out with the last album. So it may be missing from that recording but is available and excellent, too.

It was recorded on minidisc from the front row of the balcony. As far as I am aware there are no sound desk recordings available for the whole of that night."