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Alan Clark - Dire Straits Keyboardist


HammondDave

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On his birthday, some props to a great 80's keyboard player... And a great band as well!

 

[video:youtube]

 

[video:youtube]

'55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D

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Yeah... Truly a great band... And Mark also composed the soundtrack for Princess Bride...

'55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D

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The first time I heard Dire Straits I had a very talkative lady friend in the car. The Sultans of Swing grabbed my attention. I turned the radio up and asked her to be silent for a few minutes. That didn't work, so I told her to either shut up or get out and walk home. That worked.

 

She was nice, but I'd rather listen to Dire Straits.

--wmp
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brings back a nice memory for me. I was 17, my best friend who played guitar in the band we were in, bought me a ticket for my birthday to see DS with him at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Brothers in Arms tour. They played 21 consecutive nights. It was the 1st concert i ever attended. I was just in awe. :) Loved it.
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Brothers in Arms was the 2nd album I heard on CD... the first was The Nylon Curtain... Both incredible digital recordings. Love DS...

'55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D

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Big fan of DS and Mr. Knopfler. This too brings back strong memories for me. I was in high school when Brothers in Arms was released and this album led to my discovery of the Alchemy Live audio and more importantly video recordings. I watched Alan's live work almost daily. Also at this time I began taking guitar lessons with a good friend. We would try to cop Knopfler's licks. On a sad note, this same friend took his own life a few years ago. I will always remember my friend and DS fondly.

 

 

Bill

Nord Stage 3 Compact, Korg Kronos 61, Casio PX-5S, Yamaha DXR 10 (2)), Neo Vent, Yamaha MG82cx mixer and too many stands to name.
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This thread will inspire me to break out a much-remembered Keyboard Magazine from about 1985 that has a feature on the DS keyboard players. They had awesome rigs and great tasteful playing. I read the article countless times. I think it was the same issue with Kenny Kirkland (RIP) during the Dream of the Blue Turtles era.
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Mark made me love listening to electric guitar....

 

Interesting how Telegraph Road sounds like a Springsteen song (in composition and orchestration)... but it has so much more taste to it....

'55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D

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So much more taste.. that's debatable but if you must know Roy Bittan played a lot of their stuff and one album in particular.

"Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello"

 

 

noblevibes.com

 

 

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"Money For Nothing" is one of the biggest turds ever recorded.

 

Of course, it was huge when it came out (but so was We Built This City - HA!)

The 80s was unkind to many reputable acts. I'm sure there's a tune or 2 that Steve Winwood would like to forget. ;)

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Punchestown Racecourse 17th July 1983 - the sound was so good I could make out lyrics I'd never been able to work out before (1983 the days before you could just google lyrics).

 

Heard "The Straits" at an 80s festival last year (Rewind Perth). Don't want to say too much because I'd pay to hear them on their own and I'd like them to come back to Perth - but they were pretty ropey to be honest. Maybe it was a bad night. Alan Clark was on stage. He sounded fine.

I'm the piano player "off of" Borrowed Books.
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So much more taste.. that's debatable but if you must know Roy Bittan played a lot of their stuff and one album in particular.

 

Roy Bitton is a god! Love his playing....

'55 and '59 B3's; Leslies 147, 122, 21H; MODX 7+; NUMA Piano X 88; Motif XS7; Mellotrons M300 and M400’s; Wurlitzer 206; Gibson G101; Vox Continental; Mojo 61; Launchkey 88 Mk III; Korg Module; B3X; Model D6; Moog Model D

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funny, never noticed keyboard in Dire Straits playing...

I guess it's art of being a background :cool:

 

Me neither...and apparently there were two of them.

Korg Kronos 61 (2); Roland Fantom-06, 2015 Macbook Pro and 2012 Mac Mini (Logic Pro X and Mainstage), GigPerformer 4.

 

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funny, never noticed keyboard in Dire Straits playing...

I guess it's art of being a background :cool:

 

Me neither...and apparently there were two of them.

 

Really?

 

Organ & Synth intro on Walk of Life? Synth intro on "Money for Nothing? Organ intro & piano outro on "Tunnel of Love"? Hammond on "Brothers in Arms"? Piano hits on "Private Investigations"? Piano on "Romeo and Juliet?"

 

 

 

 

Stuff and things.
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Yeah, I dug DS in my youth too.

 

They were a bit of a gateway band for me, and I dont really listen to them much anymore. However, Alan Clarks response on the Hammond to Knopflers line Oh but its a sad reminder when your organ grinder has to come to you for rent on It never rains (Love over gold album) really grabbed me. What was making that sound? We had a Wurlitzer home organ at home, so I thought I knew what organs sounded like but this sound that I was hearing on the record was changing and morphing - while it was being played! What voodoo was that?

 

That little sound-bite, plus other things I was hearing on other records at the time, led to me finding out about Hammonds and Leslies, and all things keyboard-related. Havent really stopped since.

 

Thanks Alan!

 

 

My blog

Nord Electro 2 | microKorg | Casiotone MT-65 | Hammond XB-2 | Korg Electribe-R ER-1

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funny, never noticed keyboard in Dire Straits playing...

I guess it's art of being a background :cool:

 

Me neither...and apparently there were two of them.

 

Really?

 

Organ & Synth intro on Walk of Life? Synth intro on "Money for Nothing? Organ intro & piano outro on "Tunnel of Love"? Hammond on "Brothers in Arms"? Piano hits on "Private Investigations"? Piano on "Romeo and Juliet?"

 

 

 

 

..and there were TONS of synth on Money For Nothing

Kronos 88 Platinum, Yamaha YC88, Subsequent 37, Korg CX3, Hydrasynth 49-key, Nord Electro 5D 73, QSC K8.2, Lester K

 

Me & The Boyz

Chris Beard Band

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funny, never noticed keyboard in Dire Straits playing...

 

While technically not a Dire Straights record, there was plenty of great keyboard playing on Golden Heart, Guy Fletcher plus some classic Pig Robbins ("Are We in Trouble") Barry Beckett, Matt Rollins (Rudiger!) and even little old me :laugh:

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Back in the day my band did "Money for Nothing" (sans intro......). I recall there was a patch I copped for my DX-7 that nailed that metallic-sounding, octave bass part that intermittently punctuates the song. Made me happy. :)

 

We also did "Walk of Life" which I recall being challenging in terms of covering all of the parts (e.g., the synth harmonies). The still-relatively-new MIDI was a big help!

 

To this day I never get sick of hearing Sultans....musician's song!

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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