Track Listing

1. Calling Elvis
2. Walk Of Life
3. Heavy Fuel
4. Romeo And Juliet
5. Private Investigations
6. Your Latest Trick
7. On Every Street
8. You And Your Friend
9. Money For Nothing
10. Brothers In Arms

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50019 in Music
• Released on: 1996-06-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Running time: 76 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This live album finds Mark Knopfler well into his decadent phase: prosperous, internationally acclaimed, and long past remembering the hard times and hungry years from which his band originally drew both its name and its attitude. Where the first three Dire Straits albums evinced a gritty determinism, an acknowledgement of their unfashionability coupled with an urgent desire to remake the world on their own terms, this seems bloated and self-congratulatory, so that even "Romeo And Juliet" (arguably Knopfler's greatest achievement as a songwriter--and undoubtedly his most popular) sounds vaguely perfunctory; while other, lesser tracks ("Heavy Fuel", "On Every Street") are merely inconsequential, the songs little more than excuses upon which to hang extended lead-guitar noodling. Sting makes a dutiful appearance on "Money For Nothing"--but somehow those lyrics seem less ironic than they used to, less savage: more a bald statement of fact. And that's scary. --Andrew McGuire

Customer Reviews

its okay
mmmmmm ........


What can I say, I was disappointed on listening to this cd, I am a big Dire Straits fan, but unfortunately Mark Knopfler has passed it and it shows.

The tracks are okay, but when you play live, you at least expect to hear the tracks like the studio, with may be a relaxing on the music slightly, but to have the guitar riffs and chords changed with something else is a shame. Brothers in Arms, if your gonna play it, please play the right notes and chords, so you can at least keep a breast of the track, but the guitar riffs between the verses has been changed with stuff thats not even remotely related to the original score, which is a shame.

I don't mind a little poetic licence but this makes the tracks strange and unknown, which is a shame, its not like the Alchemy live album, where tracks are enhanced, the guitar work is just made richer with it being totally recognisebale to the original work.

ALso, Walk of Life, what the hell is this doing on here, its so country and western, it might as well be sung by Garth Brookes. Thats the problem, its just gone off the edge with regards to being like a Dire Straits album.

Money For Nothing, another track ruined by the live performance, no intro straight to the guitar, nothing like the track.

There are good tracks on there, On Every Street is a good rendition, as is Calling Elvis, but overall, a real shame.

Exceptional Musicianship
This is definately Dire Straits at their pinnacle. Mark Knoppler's later solo work does not compare to the energy that the entire band conveys as you listen to this musical masterpiece.

A fantastically produced record that is thanks to not only exceptional musicianship but also the instrumentation/arrangements chosen.

A fair amount of post-production is evident in a very wide stereo image (unusual for a live concert recording), however this is incredibily effective in seperating the individual sounds further and so you can really hear all the drums in the fantastic drum fills. The level of all instruments throughout the concert is always as correct as it can ever be too.

Knoppler's voice and vocal style came underfire in the early days, but the simplicity of his style has a great bearing on the music and focusses you in on the fabulous way in which all the instruments gel seamlessly together and with his voice. His vocal is definately at its best on this CD.

Stand out tracks for me are 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Brothers in Arms' where the sincerity and pure power of the tracks are truely trumendous, the audience are I'm sure in awe of what they are witnessing.

Overall a great record not only for any Dire Straights fan but for any musician who wishes to listen to a fabulous live recording that truely endorses the cliche that 'less really is more'.

Dire Straits' last great live outing.
There are voices, both human and instrumental, that you will always be able to pick out of a crowd of thousands. Mark Knopfler and his guitar are an example of that, and "On The Night" is one of the best albums ever released by Knopfler and friends. Recorded during their 1992 tour at two concerts in Nimes and Amsterdam, the album shows that Dire Straits were a class act right to the end. While the band underwent multiple transformations in membership over the course of its existence, Mark Knopfler has always had the gift to surround himself with first rate musicians -- this is true for the people who have joined him on his more recent solo releases and tours, and it was likewise true with regard to Dire Straits, in whatever configuration they existed at any given time. And yet, the excellence of the people who join him on stage and in the studio only serves to enhance the brilliance of the guy whose middle name might, for all intents and purposes, be "Fender Strat," and whose laid back, understated, gruff vocals are as crucial and distinctive to the typical Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler sound as is his guitar play. Like all great musicians, he thrives on the live atmosphere, and not bound by the restraints of studio recording, he and the band delve into the songs, particularly their instrumental sections, with an energy and deep feeling for each piece that lesser musicians are far from achieving even at the height of their careers.

The record opens, as did the band's shows, with a powerful "Calling Elvis," and it is something like a live "best of Dire Straits" album (personally, I'd have wished they would also have included "Sultans of Swings" and "Telegraph Road;" which would of course have made it a "top 12" instead of the "top 10" song collection, though). Highlights include an incredibly soulful "Romeo and Juliet," one of the greatest love songs ever written in rock history, a very dark "Private Investigations," which goes from a slow, moody start to almost 5 minutes' worth of instrumental featuring a number of hard, edgy riffs, only to end on pensive notes again, and of course, "Brothers in Arms," to this day probably Dire Straits' greatest trade mark piece besides "Sultans of Swings," with a guitar solo which gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it.

"We need Dire Straits back," none other than Don Henley proclaimed during the last show of his own 2001 "Inside Job" tour, "to counter all the crap that's playing on the radio now." "On the Night" more than proves his point. But as long as that's not going to happen, I'll at least take Knopfler solo, with whoever he chooses to play, and I hope he doesn't decide to stop touring any time soon.