The Sound of Dire Straits Warm Up Concert Announced

The Straits have just announced a special one-off "warm-up" concert at the Brighton Concorde2 on Tuesday September 20th. Tickets go on sale at 10am GMT on Friday August 12th from 01273 673 311, www.concorde2.co.uk/news.

The intimate one-off warm-up concert precedes the band's 10-date nationwide UK tour "The Sound of Dire Straits" which kicks off at the Birmingham Symphony Hall on Monday October 3rd. Very special guest on all dates is Jon Allen. The UK tour also takes in dates at Newcastle City Hall, York Barbican, Cardiff St Davids Hall, Bristol Colston Hall, London HMV Hammersmith Apollo, Ipswich Regent Theatre, Nottingham Royal Concert Hall, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and Manchester O2 Apollo. 

Due to huge public demand to hear Dire Straits' hits performed live, original Dire Straits keyboardist Alan Clark formed new band ‘The Straits' - including Alan on keyboards, Dire Straits' saxophonist Chris White and guitarist Phil Palmer, Tom Petty's drummer Steve Ferrone, bassist Mick Feat (Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour), and keyboardist Jamie Squire. Clark, who first joined Dire Straits in 1980 for the "Making Movies" album, recruited South African singer/guitarist, Terence Reis, to step into Mark Knopfler's shoes as front man.

In May 2011, The Straits performed their first concert at the Royal Albert Hall in front of 4,000 Dire Straits fans. The stunning set of greatest hits, including ‘Money for Nothing', ‘Romeo & Juliet', ‘Sultans of Swing', and ‘Tunnel of Love' went down a storm with the audience. In June they performed at the Cornbury Festival, Oxfordshire to a crowd of 14,000. "I was very sceptical about The Straits before I saw them," said one fan. "I couldn't believe that they could be the same without Mark Knopfler. How wrong I was. For me, The Straits were the absolute highlight of the festival. I was moved to tears at almost every track."

Listen to The Straits rehearsing "Money For Nothing" http://snd.sc/oexKAn, and "Private Investigations" http://snd.sc/r4RQNq. Alan Clark was recently interviewed by Jon Harle on BBC Radio Newcastle about The Straits' forthcoming October UK tour. Listen to the interview: http://soundcloud.com/noblepr/the-straits-interview-bbc.

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