DIRE STRAITS : ALCHEMY - DIRE STRAITS LIVE

 

Disc One (53:58)

  1. Once Upon A Time In The West
  2. Industrial Disease
  3. Expresso Love
  4. Romeo And Juliet
  5. Love Over Gold
  6. Private Investigations
  7. Sultans Of Swing

Disc Two (53:19)

  1. Twisting By The Pool
  2. Two Young Lovers
  3. Portobello Belle
  4. Tunnel Of Love
  5. Solid Rock
  6. Telegraph Road
  7. Going Home - Theme From 'Local Hero'

Label : Vertigo / Mercury

Venue : Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK

Recording Date : July 22-23, 1983

Release Date : March 13, 1984 / November 3, 2023 (Live 1978-1982 Box Set)

Review (Wikipedia) : Alchemy: Dire Straits Live is a double album and the first live album by the British rock band Dire Straits, released in March 1984 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. Recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 22–23 July 1983, the album features songs from the band's first four albums, the ExtendedancEPlay EP and Mark Knopfler's Local Hero soundtrack. Many of the songs have reworked arrangements and extended improvisational segments. The album cover is taken from a painting by Brett Whiteley. Alchemy: Dire Straits Live was recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 22–23 July 1983, the final two concerts of Dire Straits' eight-month Love Over Gold Tour promoting their album Love Over Gold. The concerts were recorded by Mick McKenna using the Rolling Stones Mobile unit. The recording was mixed at AIR Studios in London in November 1983 where Nigel Walker was the engineer. The opening track, "Once Upon a Time in the West" is preceded by an uncredited version of the "Stargazer" instrumental from the Local Hero soundtrack. "Tunnel of Love" is preceded by an otherwise unrecorded instrumental (actually faded in from the extended coda of "Portobello Belle", which was left off the album), already played on the 1981 tour, but here re-arranged to showcase Mel Collins' saxophone. It is followed by the brief "Carousel Waltz" intro and standard version of the song (with improvisation sections). Three more songs were recorded live but not included on the official album release: "Industrial Disease," "Twisting by the Pool" and "Portobello Belle". All three missing songs were newly mixed and inserted into the Alchemy running order for the 2023 box set Live 1978-1992 (the other songs were remastered from the original mix), however this version of the album omits the "Rocks and the Thunder" intro to "Going Home" like the original LP did, and swaps the order of "Telegraph Road" and "Solid Rock". Also, "Portobello Belle" (7:22) has the full intro, but a shortened outro.

Review (AllMusic) : There is an interesting contrast on this 94-minute double-disc live album (recorded at London's Hammersmith Odeon in July 1983) between the music, much of which is slow and moody, with Mark Knopfler's muttered vocals and large helpings of his fingerpicking on what sounds like an amplified Spanish guitar, and the audience response. The arena-size crowd cheers wildly, and claps and sings along when given half a chance, as though each song were an up-tempo rocker. When they do have a song of even medium speed, such as "Sultans of Swing" or "Solid Rock," they are in ecstasy. That Dire Straits' introspective music loses much of its detail in a live setting matters less than that it gains presence and a sense of anticipation. Alan Clark's keyboards help to fill out the sound and give Knopfler's spare melodies a certain majesty, but Dire Straits remains an overgrown bar band with a Bob Dylan fixation, and that's exactly how the crowd likes it. The CD version of the album contains one extra track, "Love Over Gold," which adds a needed change of pace to the otherwise slow-moving first disc.