Another week, another Albert Hall gig and also another excellent support act. This time it was Ruth Moody, a member of the Wailin' Jennys, singing folky songs to great effect. The voice is pure and strong, the songs were heartfelt and the band were good.
Mark Knopfler came on as part of a superb band that included John McCusker and Phil McGoldrick mainly on celtic type instruments (pipes, whistles, fiddle), the usual crew of Richard Bennett and Guy Fletcher, a rhythm section of Glenn Worf and Ian Thomas and the superb Jim Cox on piano. He was also joined on stage by Ruth Moody for a few tracks early on and then later by Nigel Hitchcock on sax for three songs. Now that is a band.
Mark Knopfler is someone who just a natural on guitar, often expressive when starting or finishing songs or even tuning. The whole set was quality from the opening bars of 'What it is' and onto the rocking riff from 'Cornbread City' and then the folky 'Privateering'. And so on for nearly two and a half hours without a dud track in there. As recorded tracks I particularly like 'Hill Farmers Blues' and 'Seattle' but the live highlights for me at this gig were 'I Dug a diamond' with Ruth Moody on backing vocals and a fabulous version of 'Marbletown' with an extended instrumental break featuring John McCusker and Glenn Worf. Throughout Mark changed guitars purposefully and the band changed instruments and each track was arranged to perfection. If I had to pick a criticism then I would say that MK's voice is ageing but it would be churlish to nitpick. The 'Dire Straits' stuff was also done brilliantly with Mark revelling in the band as he ripped through 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Telegraph Road' and 'So far away from me'. The encore was a beautiful version of 'Our Shangri-la' followed by the theme from 'Local Hero'. All done - when can I repeat?
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