By Jose Oliveira & Rosine Alleva – Rock At Night EU Editors
Chris White, was the Sax player guest when Dire Straits played at “Live Aid in Wembley” and became a member of the band during the “Brothers In Arms” world tour. He has chosen to revive the band’s most beautiful songs for Mark Knopfler! Tribute or homage, that’s the question!!
RAN– When my friend Gérard Drouot told me about the existence of your project a few years ago, I was far from imagining this enormous success. I even remember asking him, “But Mark doesn’t mind?” Well, first of all, how did this adventure come about?
Chris White– I was asked to play some Dire Straits tracks at a charity concert way back in 2011. The show was sold out and very well received. After that we kept receiving phone calls asking to play more and more shows. And here we are now!
RAN– Mark Knopfler is an iconic singer and guitar player. How did you choose Terence REIS? Was there a casting, as in the 60s, at the start of the British Boom?
ChW– No, Alan Clarke found Terence listening to people on the internet. Alan called him and Terence thought it was one of his friends having a joke! We found Terence, he came and it quickly became clear that Terence was not only a great guitar player but also the same fingerpick style as Mark Knoplfer. I think he was meant to be!
RAN– When there is only a vinyl, a CD or even a poster of one of our favorite bands left, the fashion is for Tribute Bands. Some are good, others not. You avoided this Tribute title. How do you define your musical project?
ChW– Some people have called us an “heritage band”. This is about the celebration of the music. It’s not about to look like Dire Straits, to copy a show. This is a band, in my opinion, of really great musicians who can do what we did with Dire Straits. It was never the same with Dire Straits, every night it would go in a different direction. That had to do with the feeling of the audience, the venue, the band…That’s what requires a degree of musicianship that we have here. With Dire Straits that’s what kept it alive, interesting and exciting for the band and the audience. That’s what we do and keep us different from a tribute band.
RAN– These songs are necessarily linked to life memories. What feeling do you get every evening when you go back on stage to perform these legendary tracks?
ChW– I was a fan of Dire Straits before joining them. It was really exciting to play on stage, I love the music, the songs and Mark has truly written great songs! So it’s like a continuation, I feel as excited to be on stage with this band as I did with Dire Straits back in the 80’s, 90’s. It has the same feel. With such great musicians, I know it will be exciting every night.
RAN– You have toured almost everywhere and even in Australia. But this extension of the 2023 tour in France this year has a very special taste.. Why this love for the French public?
ChW– From the start, we were playing in Paris and the reaction, the warmth of the French audience was phenomenal and that just continued. I remember spending a lot of time in France with Dire Straits. French people love seeing music played live and well! And they react to that. That’s why we love playing in France.
RAN– The joy of a quiet, domestic life, the simple satisfaction of working at home or going out shopping, to the movies or the pub with friends or family… Don’t you miss that?
Terence REIS– I think anybody found their way to this life. It’s your decision, you go on this way or you don’t. It’s a strange life but at the end of the day I don’t know anything different than performing as an artist. I don’t think I could drive to work everyday, it would drive me mad! This I understand
RAN– Your experience reminds me of JOHNNY CLEGG, whom I knew and who, like you, lived in South Africa. Tell me about your origins and the places that helped refine your musical culture?
TR– I grew up in Mozambique. There was one pop rock radio station called LM radio, which was restarted strangely enough. That was before the revolution and I used to listen to that radio with my little red transistor, there was no television , no magazines, I just loved all the music. But at the same time there was indigenous music and the first live music I saw were two African stick musicians playing sticks but with their fingers! They were walking, talking and playing on homemade guitars. I couldn’t understand how they could do that. I wanted to learn to do the same. That had a bigger impact on me that many things that came later. Something you’ve got in you, when your skin reacts. Later I found my way into Funk and blues. When I started playing rock with other musicians, I was still playing with my fingers.It was time to work something out ,the word pick came to my mind, and that’s how it started.
RAN– How, living in an African country, were you attracted to DIRE STRAITS? A band like SANTANA, I would have better understood…
TR– We were talking English and Portuguese in town. We were at a time in history where you could listen to American and English music. It was just normal. I was probably 15, 16 years old when I heard Dire Straits and it ticked a lot of boxes for me. But there was really amazing music at the time. All the British music, Police, Punk, Madness. I remember I joined more English bands than American music. It all happy so quickly. On a very short period you could go from Joni Mitchell to Folk rock to punk and heavy metal. That was the golden era from the mid 60’s to mid 90’s! My daughter realized I was around when that music first came out and she once asked me if I knew it was good…How did I react the first time I hear Bohemian Rhapsody. Well, for me, it was like a spaceship who landed!
RAN– You have worked with such prestigious names as Ray Charles, Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney and so on. Who impressed you the most and why?
ChW– I played only one night with Ray Charles but I was so happy! Robbie Williams was a great band. I learned a lot working with Mark actually, he was very open to let people contribute on tracks he was working on. The first time I worked with Paul Mc Cartney, it was on a movie. And Jeff Porcaro, Steve Lukather and Louis Johnson were the band. It was a week of filming and while waiting between the scenes, I just jammed with Steve Lukhather, Jeff and Louis Johnson ( Toto) for a week. It was really great, I was very lucky. And Joe Cocker was a sweetheart, he was great!
RAN– In the seventies, the dream of conquering America was a leitmotif. Does this feeling affect you too? What would be the Country where you haven’t played yet and would like to go?
ChW– We played in Faro, Portugal, 2 years ago at a festival with twenty five thousand people. That was fantastic. We would love to play in Portugal again, we haven’t played in America. You’re right, I remember with Dire Straits, when the album Brothers in arms really took of in America, that made a big change. We’re happy to play in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, in Tahiti. What comes, comes.
RAN– This new fever around Tribute Bands is causing a huge reaction from purists and the other bands suffer from this competition. What’s your feeling?
ChW– Yes, there is a reaction. We get it too. People saying we shouldn’t be doing this. “If Mark Knopfler isn’t doing this, there shouldn’t be no Dire Straits!” But we’re not Dire Straits, we’re Dire Straits experience. We’re a bunch of people exploring the music, having fun with the music. And the answer to those people is “look at the number of people who want to see this music played live!” When we set this up, we agreed it had to be the best it could be and as good as it was when I was with Dire Straits. And that’s what we strive for. I can’t see why there’s a problem with that, Maybe this is the new classical music. It’s not wrong to explore it.
TR– I think it’s strange that people who were born at the time when it all happened and find it kind of difficult today when this music still matters to them! We see young people after 20 years Dire Straits stopped! There are kids who never had the chance to hear it when it was created. They would have never imagined they could see it played live! People come here for music. It’s a noble thing nowadays to be all together in the same building for the music! I find it a bit strange that there’s a competitive element to it. A Tribute band is more about an act like a Beatles act or The Bee Gees. This is much more the bodywork that was created by Mark at the time. His solo work is now much bigger, with much more material than when he was with Dire Straits.
ChW– For me it’s not something you put in a trophy case, close it and polish it, it’s a living thing that needs to be explored. The age range from the audiences is huge. We see so many people from kids to people I met in 1975! So the work has spoken to so many generations.
TR– People redo Skakespeare or redo music from the 40’ or the 50’, it doesn’t matter who plays it after so many years. It’s the work, the way to approach the music, the way to orchestrate it, to play it.
RAN– Alan Clarke found Terence Reis but he formed the Dire Straits Legacy. Can you explain why there are two bands?
ChW– I think there was a different approach to it.
TR– Alan Clarke found me cause I put a band together in England, we were doing our own music. It was the Olympics in England at the time and art money was put into Sport money. We knew musicians would suffer. That’s when I heard about Tribute bands. Someone came up seeing I played with my fingers and wanted to see me playing Dire Straits music. I did three rehearsals but this wasn’t for me. There were clips on YouTube of some of it and that’s how I had this phone call thinking it was a joke …Alan Clarke wanted to play his own music and was tired of playing Dire Straits. Steve Ferrone wanted to do something different and was still with Tom Petty at the time…So, it was quite a surprise when DSL started this. But it’s different, they put their own songs in as well.
RAN– Thank you very much for your time and this interesting interview.
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I was born in Portugal and lived the Sixties exploring the great UK Rock magazines: "The New Musical Express" and "Melody Maker". Ray Charles and Pat Boone were my father’s fav. I became “The Great Pretender”. Cliff Richard was our Elvis Presley. As a beach boy, with my first guitar, I met a beautiful French girl on the beach! It was the Summer of 69!! We got married and rock music was our dowry. In France, I became a Wine Genetic Research Scientist. One of my works contributed to the decoding of the genome of the vine! As a rock journalist, I’ve worked twenty years for the Portuguese and Brazilian Rock Press. I ‘ve interviewed so many great artists. Then, one day I met FRANK ZAPPA! I got into trouble for introducing my wife to "Uncle Meat"!
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