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Category: Touring

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Wow - I cant believe it’s been February since my last post. Suffice to say I’ve been very busy and very grateful for it.

Since March I've been to Slovakia, Czech, Austria and Sweden with the Dire Straits  Exeprience. We had a tour of the Netherlands in May and various trips to France in June, July and August plus a tour of Germany. 

I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Sydney writing this post as we are now touring New Zealand and Australia with a little stop off at Tahiti on the way home for a gig. We’ll barely have enough time to unpack our bags and then we leave for France for 3 and half weeks in November. Even December sees two final pre Christmas gigs, one in Helsinki, the other in Madrid. 

So that’s my excuse for the lack of posts to my website - apologies. 

It’s been a great year for work and I try never to take it for granted. 

Who knows what 2025 will bring....

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I’m glad to say some normality has finally returned to gigging life, albeit slowly and cautiously.

The Dire Straits Experience have at last been busy. March included a two week tour of France with no less than 11 shows, all with fantastic audiences, food and hospitality. After a brief 3 day respite back home we then had a gig in Prague followed by two in Austria , again fabulous audiences. And just last weekend we performed at the Magma Art Venue in Tenerife.  Coming up is this month is the Azores, Finland and Germany. So it’s good to be back and seeing living breathing audiences, even if wearing face masks. Here’s to the promise of a good and busy year in 2022. 

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Welcome back after what feels like a very surreal and enforced sabbatical. I’m pleased to say that glimmers of normality appear to be returning.

A few weeks ago I experienced my first proper gig in over 18 months at a beautiful setting at the Festival in Vilar les Dombes just north of Lyon. The Dire Straits Experience visited France on a tour bus, some 13 of us (musicians and crew). 

Whilst the gig was an absolute pleasure and the French audience was amazing , the journey across the English channel was somewhat challenging. Sadly the combination of Covid travel restrictions and more annoyingly , the Post Brexit restrictions , make this kind of journey very troublesome . But nonetheless  we made it. A relief after having no less than 6 gigs since June cancelled due to the aforementioned troubles We hope to be visiting Israel in October for a four date tour that was postponed in August. Fingers crossed this will go ahead. Watch this space !

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What better way to start the New Year than with a bit of Rock ’n Roll with Spike Edney’s Allstar Band. Sadly the great man was unable to attend himself due to his Queen commitments. Instead, Guitar Rock Lord, Jamie Moses lead us on this fabulous gig in Madrid on the 20th Jan. (picture attached).

After this the Dire Straits Experience had a full week’s rehearsal at Soundstage Studios in Acton in readiness for the big three week tour coming up in March in Czech, Poland and France. 

Currently I’m touring on the Branden Cole UK event, The Showman having missed last year’s. Sadly I’m only able to do 12 of the 16 dates due to the imminent DSE tour.

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What a great way to finish the year with 12 gigs in just over 2 weeks covering Belgium, Holland and France. As per usual, great audiences and great venues. That just about wraps it up for 2019 - a very busy year for the Dire Straits Experience although we are awaiting confirmation of a possible New Years Eve Gig in Bucharest. The photo attached is of myself and Sax player extraordinaire, Chris White, who played with the original Dire Straits back in the 80s. It's taken by an amazing photographer, Jo Sudau, who has followed the band from venue to venue getting some terrific shots.

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A slight departure from the norm for me. Whilst not being available to play on this new show from the Raymond Gubbay team, I did however get involved with programming all the specialised sounds for the three keyboard players on the show. Nearly 150 patches prepared especially for the excellent arranging of my friend, Clive Dunstall. The show as you can imagine features nearly 30 pop hits from the 80s and includes singers, full rhythm section and orchestra. 

The tour kicked off in De Montfort Hall on the 15th November with another 6 regional shows running up until the end of November. Im sure more will appear next year. 

For more details follow the link

http://www.raymondgubbay.co.uk/whats-on/now-thats-what-i-call-the-80s-live

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It has been a very busy time with the Dire Straits Experience having just returned from a 3 show tour in Finland. With less than a day to rest in the UK we then left for South Africa having 2 shows planned in Mozambique, one in Pretoria outside of Johannesburg and then on to the French owned Réunion Island. The reaction and sheer numbers in the audiences continues to reaffirm just how far-reaching Dire Straits music was and continues to be. With age ranges from teens to 70 plus it’s clear the music strikes a universal chord with many.  

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A few days ago I received the very sad news that this year’s 80s Invasion tour would be cancelled. This promised to be one of the best lineups of 80s artists that I’ve worked with.  Eight UK shows had been planned with artists including Jason Donovan,  5-Star and Sister Sledge. 

It has however been a very difficult year for many tours with the undeniable uncertainty of Brexit and what it might entail. This impact is very clearly affecting the live music industry and no doubt played a big part in the promoter’s eventual decision to cancel. This is indeed the first time I’ve directly felt such an impact.

There are plans to possibly try again next year but for now it’s time to look forward to a more settled music industry and hope that whatever the outcome of our politicians efforts, the consequences aren’t too far reaching on ours and other businesses .

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Despite the Summer lull in DSE gigs thanks to two weather-related last-minute cancellations, we were happy to appear at the Henley Rewind Festival on August 17th. Sadly only a 40 minute appearance for us due to so many artists on the bill, but enough to keep us in trim for the forthcoming September gigs where we will be appearing in Germany, Switzerland and Israel. Come October we have gigs in Finland and Mozambique and November includes a 12 date tour in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. 

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A very unexpected but fun gig indeed. On the 8th August myself and a pretty sizeable orchestra were flown out to Sardinia to accompany Dame Shirley Bassey performing at a big UNICEF charity gig. Whilst only a brief appearance I was lucky enough to hear her 2 greatest hits performed live - Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever. I have to say that even at the age of 80 plus, she can still really sing. A totally class act and an honour to work for her indeed.