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When most of us will be relaxing and recovering on Boxing Day, Alan Clark and the other members of Dire Straits Legacy (DSL) will be catching a very long flight from Europe to play four NZ dates for A Summer’s Day Live shows, including Matakana Country Park on January 2.
Clark joined Dire Straits in 1980 as their first keyboard player and stayed with them until they split in the mid-1990s. During that era, the band came to New Zealand three times and he says he’s looking forward to returning after 30 years away.
“Yeah, I really like it, I did a lot of windsurfing there when I was there with Dire Straits,” he says, speaking from Italy on the latest leg of DSL’s ongoing world tour.
The band, which includes four musicians who played or toured with Dire Straits back in the day, has been on the road since May, playing Dire Straits classics at 40 shows in Brazil, the United States, China, France, Spain, Kosovo, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Italy, before heading south to NZ next week.
Clark says the schedule is tough – he tends to focus just on the week ahead at any one time – but fun, and he is hoping they’ll all have a few days to unwind here before heading home for a couple of months off.
He’s been involved with DSL for more than a decade, since founder and front man Marco Caviglia suggested bringing former band members together.
“I wouldn’t say Dire Straits Legacy is my baby, but I’m certainly part of its childhood,” Clark says. “It belongs to the Dire Straits members who are in the band really, and Marco Caviglia, who was the founder. He invited John Illsley, who was the bass player in Dire Straits, and I to play with him and his band in Italy, so we went and played with him in the Italian Alps, on top of a ski ramp – it was great.
“Gradually more and more Dire Straits people became interested and here we are, 10 or 12 years later, on our world tour.”
Clark’s distinctive piano and keyboard style added an extra dimension to Dire Straits’ sound, and he was a major influence on the band throughout their time together, co-producing their final album.
“From 1980, when I joined I played in every gig and on every recording thereafter,” he says. “When we split up, I’d just had twins, and they hadn’t seen a lot of Dad, so I spent time at home for a while, then I started doing music for TV series.
“I did a few shows for the BBC, and a bit of TV advertising music, so I kept myself busy, and I was recording with other people at the same time and doing other bits and bobs.”
Those “bits and bobs” turn out to be an understatement of the first order – over the years, Clark has worked with literally dozens of the world’s best known musicians, playing, arranging and touring with a string of stars, not least Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Lou Reed, Elton John, Bo Diddley, Al Green, Phil Collins, Buddy Guy, Van Morrison, George Harrison and Tina Turner.
He is joined in DSL by Mel Collins, who played sax on Love Over Gold, Twisting by the Pool and on many tours, plus guitarist Phil Palmer and percussionist Danny Cummings, who both toured and recorded On Every Street.
Other Dire Straits Legacy members in the eight-man line-up include legendary music producer and Buggles bassist Trevor Horn and Marco Caviglia, who has spent his career performing and perfecting Mark Knopfler’s distinctive guitar-playing style.
Drawing from the band’s six platinum albums, Dire Straits Legacy will play all the classic hits, including Money for Nothing, Sultans of Swing, Romeo and Juliet, Walk of Life, Brothers in Arms, Tunnel of Love and Skateaway.
Info and tickets: www.eventfinda.co.nz or https://trademark.flicket.co.nz/
