Dire Straits’ The Studio Albums 1978-1991, which came out around the beginning of 2021, is excellent, but if your wallet can accommodate only one box from the group, the one to buy is the new Live 1978-1992.
In fact, if your budget can’t handle this one, you might want to consider applying for a loan because this is not an anthology that any respectable popular music collection should be without. The eight-CD (or 12-LP) set, which comes with a 16-page booklet, is a treasure trove of great rock performances.
For starters, the collection, released in the U.S. on January 19, 2024, features a newly remastered copy of Alchemy: Dire Straits Live, the band’s stupendous 1984 album and one of the best and bestselling live LPs of the rock era, which was last mastered in the mid-1980s. This upgraded version includes all the songs that appeared on the first CD edition, which expanded on the original two-LP set, plus three additional numbers: “Portobello Road” as well as previously unreleased readings of “Industrial Disease” and “Twisting by the Pool.”
Alchemy, which collects material from 1983 shows at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, captures the band at a peak. Electrifying standouts like “Once Upon a Time in the West,” “Sultans of Swing,” “Telegraph Road” and “Tunnel of Love,” which each clock in at more than 10 minutes, leave no doubt that Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler ranks among rock’s most accomplished and elegant guitarists. Other highlights include “Romeo and Juliet” and “Going Home,” a gorgeous instrumental that served as the theme from the film Local Hero.
Next comes a 17-track, newly remastered version of 1993’s On the Night, which includes six previously unreleased performances. This tour document embraces some of the same songs as Alchemy but adds other key tracks, among them “Brothers in Arms,” “Calling Elvis” and “Walk of Life.” A four-song EP called Encores, which also first appeared in 1993, actually adds just three numbers because it inexplicably incorporates the same version of “Your Latest Trick” that’s in On the Night.
Also featured is a remaster of the misleadingly titled Live at the BBC, a 1995 CD whose material aired on but was not recorded at the BBC. The band performed this disc’s “Tunnel of Love” for a 1981 broadcast of TV’s The Old Grey Whistle Test, and the other seven tracks date from a July 1978 appearance at London’s Paris Theatre. This was shortly after the release of the group’s debut LP, so the disc gives a sense of how Dire Straits sounded in its earliest days—already pretty great.
Perhaps the biggest thrill in the box, though, is the 21-track Live at the Rainbow Theatre, whose previously unreleased contents were recorded in December 1979. The band is on fire throughout this show, which opens with a beautifully executed “Down to the Waterline” and maintains a high level of musicianship throughout its 100 minutes.
A special treat is a concert-ending set of oldies covers (Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “That’s Alright Mama,” Chuck Berry’s “Nadine” and Little Richard’s “Keep on Knocking”), all of which feature guest appearances by British musicians Tony De Meur (aka Ronnie Golden) and Phil Lynott, the Thin Lizzy leader.
Order the CD edition in the U.K. and the U.S.; and the LP set in the U.K. and U.S.
Related: Our Album Rewind of Dire Straits’ Making Movies
A top editor at leading consumer and trade magazines for more than 40 years, Jeff has interviewed dozens of musical luminaries, including Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Wolfman Jack, Tommy James, Tom Waits, the Righteous Brothers, and the members of Steely Dan.
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Jump into a conversationAlchemy: Dire Straits Live was last remastered on compact disc in 1996 by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering.
Old Grey Whistle Test and live recordings at the Paris Theatre were BBC broadcasts series. So the title isn’t misleading at all!