Brootal. El frente de juventudes. Ochenteros ochentones mandan. Los guitarras más míticos de Inglaterra reunidos para el mítico Going Home.
Como en los tiempos del Band Aid, Do they know it's Christmas time, We are the world...
Ante el vacío y horror musical actual vuelven los de siempre.
www.thetimes.co.uk
How Mark Knopfler assembled the greatest supergroup in music history
Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Brian May, Nile Rodgers and dozens more played guitar for the Dire Straits man on a new charity single of his Local Hero anthem Coming Home
Mark Knopfler jokes that when the word got out to his superstar mates about the new version of his Going Home anthem, he could have set up a soup kitchen outside his studio for the A-listers queueing up to play on it.
Assembled to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) and Teen Cancer America, Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes soon felt like a return to the days of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? and the US response, We Are the World — except that with these pals, Knopfler didn’t have to be Quincy Jones telling them to check their egos at the door. Among the first to show were Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton, frequent visitors to Knopfler’s British Grove Studios in west London. Sting came by on the same day as his fellow Geordie Sam Fender, ***owed by David Gilmour and Ronnie Wood.
• Who is the ultimate guitar hero? Times writers choose their favourites
The idea of a multi-artist charity record is in the ether again with the 40th anniversary of Band Aid and a West End musical about Live Aid, Just for One Day. Yes, bands and guitar music are in decline and hip-hop, electronica, African and Latin music are dominating, but if Going Home is the last all-star moment from the classic rock generation, it’s a hell of an encore. A rifftastic re-creation of Knopfler’s evocative theme from the 1983 movie gem Local Hero, it antiestéticatures one shining cameo after another and artwork by Peter Blake, 91, channelling his Sgt Pepper cover in a collage of the contributors, plus the Local Hero stars Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster, in front of Hanks, the famous guitar shop on Denmark Street in London.
Joe Brown, Knopfler, Ronnie Wood and Albert Lee at British Grove Studios in London
DAVE HOGAN/HOGAN MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Guy Fletcher, Knopfler’s collaborator of 40 years, received remote contributions from Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Brian May, Nile Rodgers, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and the last recorded solo by Jeff Beck, who died last year, and applied his digital needle and thread to mix more than 60 greats into a mighty whole.
Writing the sleeve notes for the single, I had the surreal treat of interviewing a procession of legends. The recurring theme was their pride at being on the same record as their guitar heroes.
“That first Pete power chord, man,” Knopfler marvels. “We were in that territory and it was just fantastic. Eric came in and played great, just one tasty lick after another. What we’ve had is an embarrassment of riches. The whole thing was a high point.”
“I love being around Mark because he’s so gracious to me about my guitar playing,” Townshend says. “His studio is a fantastic place and I’m obviously really pleased he’s supporting teen cancer.”
• From Ringo to Ronnie, the 54 rock gods on Mark Knopfler’s new song
Roger Daltrey, who adds harmonica, says of TCT, the only UK charity to offer unique cancer care and support designed for and with young people: “Everything helps, even if it’s just raising awareness of what the charity does. It’s not my charity, but it’s one I’ve been a patron of and been determined to get the music business to really support it.” On Monday Daltrey starts his last year as curator of TCT’s week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, which he has overseen since their creation in 2000.
Humble as Knopfler is, 120 million record sales in, his name was the magic password that many artists needed to sign up for Going Home. “I love Mark,” Rodgers says. “We used to record at the Power Station in New York together. Secondly, I’m a two-time cancer survivor, and TCT is one of the most rewarding charities I’ve worked for. When I went to the facility, the choir was there and we were laughing and singing and playing, and you could just feel the joy. Even if it was just momentary relief, it was something I’ll never forget.”
The cover art of Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) and, below, who’s who
Fletcher remixed on the hoof the five-minute version, expanding it to nine minutes on digital editions. “Brian May did an entire section, about a dozen guitar harmonies, and when he comes in it’s unmistakably Brian,” Fletcher says. “Peter Frampton did the end section, which is so beautiful. Bruce was very keen to play on it and that guitar sound is utterly phenomenal, it’s just so Springsteen.”
May was insistent that the track needed to rock. “I did give them a bit of grief,” he says, smiling. “But it turned out good, and it’s unique.”
“When David Gilmour came in, he played loads of stuff, but there were certain licks that were just absolutely Gilmour,” Fletcher says. “Same with Ronnie Wood, instant Stones. Joan Armatrading played it all the way through, and just wailed. You’d never think it’s Joan.”
“The track is so uplifting,” Armatrading says. “It’s a really nice thing to be asked to be part of.” A fan of such vintage axemen as Free’s Paul Kossoff and Mountain’s Leslie West, she adds: “It’s funny that people don’t always recognise me as an electric player because I’ve made so many albums where I’m the only guitarist on it.”
Peter Blake and Mark Knopfler
DAVE HOGAN/HOGAN MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK
The first “voice” in the piece is especially poignant. “Once I got Jeff Beck’s contribution, there was no way I was going to mess with that,” Fletcher notes. “It was as pure as it can be. What he did with it brings you to tears, it’s absolutely astonishing. Only five or six months after I received it, he passed away. The fact that he’s first is kind of beautiful.”
Going Home came about when Knopfler was asked by Local Hero’s producer, David Puttnam, for a rousing theme for his first soundtrack as a composer. “The tune came into my head when I was walking past Carnegie Hall in New York,” Knopfler says. Born in Glasgow, he moved to Newcastle with his family aged seven. “I was ransacking my bits of memory of Scotland, the little that I knew about Scottish music.”
Despite its epic span, the updated Going Home never feels repetitive, building in momentum as its stellar cast weaves in and out of the emotive melody. And if Knopfler thought his stadium rock days were behind him — it’s more than 30 years since he retired Dire Straits in favour of a more gentle but no less distinguished solo career — then, a fortnight ago, 52,000 football fans proved him wrong.
• Would you like to own one of Mark Knopfler’s guitars?
I was with him and Fletcher at St James’ Park, where Knopfler first watched Newcastle United in the early Sixties, as the new recording was played immediately before kick-off, just as the original has been for decades. The night before, at a TCT guitar auction, Knopfler was interviewed by his fellow local hero Alan Shearer. Filmed messages from Hank Marvin, and Newcastle players expressing what it means to run out to the melody, had Knopfler misty-eyed.
An excerpt from Going Home by Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes
Marvin, speaking from his adoptive home in Perth, Australia, recalls playing Going Home with Dire Straits during the Brothers in Arms tour in the mid-Eighties. “I heard about them early on,” he says, jovial as ever. “Someone said they sounded like the Shadows on acid.” He adds: “There’s so many great players on this, I thought, ‘Is this going to be an LP of one track?’”
“This thing is much bigger than us,” Knopfler says. “I really had no idea that it was going to be like this.”
Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) by Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes is out on BMG and available from markknopflersguitarheroes.tmstor.es. Johnson and Knopfler’s Music Legends is on Sky Arts and Now from April 2
Como en los tiempos del Band Aid, Do they know it's Christmas time, We are the world...
Ante el vacío y horror musical actual vuelven los de siempre.
How Mark Knopfler assembled the greatest supergroup in music history
Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Brian May, Nile Rodgers and dozens more played guitar for the Dire Straits man on a new charity single of his Local Hero anthem Coming Home
www.thetimes.co.uk
How Mark Knopfler assembled the greatest supergroup in music history
Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Brian May, Nile Rodgers and dozens more played guitar for the Dire Straits man on a new charity single of his Local Hero anthem Coming Home
Mark Knopfler jokes that when the word got out to his superstar mates about the new version of his Going Home anthem, he could have set up a soup kitchen outside his studio for the A-listers queueing up to play on it.
Assembled to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) and Teen Cancer America, Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes soon felt like a return to the days of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? and the US response, We Are the World — except that with these pals, Knopfler didn’t have to be Quincy Jones telling them to check their egos at the door. Among the first to show were Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton, frequent visitors to Knopfler’s British Grove Studios in west London. Sting came by on the same day as his fellow Geordie Sam Fender, ***owed by David Gilmour and Ronnie Wood.
• Who is the ultimate guitar hero? Times writers choose their favourites
The idea of a multi-artist charity record is in the ether again with the 40th anniversary of Band Aid and a West End musical about Live Aid, Just for One Day. Yes, bands and guitar music are in decline and hip-hop, electronica, African and Latin music are dominating, but if Going Home is the last all-star moment from the classic rock generation, it’s a hell of an encore. A rifftastic re-creation of Knopfler’s evocative theme from the 1983 movie gem Local Hero, it antiestéticatures one shining cameo after another and artwork by Peter Blake, 91, channelling his Sgt Pepper cover in a collage of the contributors, plus the Local Hero stars Peter Riegert and Burt Lancaster, in front of Hanks, the famous guitar shop on Denmark Street in London.
Joe Brown, Knopfler, Ronnie Wood and Albert Lee at British Grove Studios in London
DAVE HOGAN/HOGAN MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Guy Fletcher, Knopfler’s collaborator of 40 years, received remote contributions from Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Brian May, Nile Rodgers, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath and the last recorded solo by Jeff Beck, who died last year, and applied his digital needle and thread to mix more than 60 greats into a mighty whole.
Writing the sleeve notes for the single, I had the surreal treat of interviewing a procession of legends. The recurring theme was their pride at being on the same record as their guitar heroes.
“That first Pete power chord, man,” Knopfler marvels. “We were in that territory and it was just fantastic. Eric came in and played great, just one tasty lick after another. What we’ve had is an embarrassment of riches. The whole thing was a high point.”
“I love being around Mark because he’s so gracious to me about my guitar playing,” Townshend says. “His studio is a fantastic place and I’m obviously really pleased he’s supporting teen cancer.”
• From Ringo to Ronnie, the 54 rock gods on Mark Knopfler’s new song
Roger Daltrey, who adds harmonica, says of TCT, the only UK charity to offer unique cancer care and support designed for and with young people: “Everything helps, even if it’s just raising awareness of what the charity does. It’s not my charity, but it’s one I’ve been a patron of and been determined to get the music business to really support it.” On Monday Daltrey starts his last year as curator of TCT’s week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, which he has overseen since their creation in 2000.
Humble as Knopfler is, 120 million record sales in, his name was the magic password that many artists needed to sign up for Going Home. “I love Mark,” Rodgers says. “We used to record at the Power Station in New York together. Secondly, I’m a two-time cancer survivor, and TCT is one of the most rewarding charities I’ve worked for. When I went to the facility, the choir was there and we were laughing and singing and playing, and you could just feel the joy. Even if it was just momentary relief, it was something I’ll never forget.”
The cover art of Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) and, below, who’s who
Fletcher remixed on the hoof the five-minute version, expanding it to nine minutes on digital editions. “Brian May did an entire section, about a dozen guitar harmonies, and when he comes in it’s unmistakably Brian,” Fletcher says. “Peter Frampton did the end section, which is so beautiful. Bruce was very keen to play on it and that guitar sound is utterly phenomenal, it’s just so Springsteen.”
May was insistent that the track needed to rock. “I did give them a bit of grief,” he says, smiling. “But it turned out good, and it’s unique.”
“When David Gilmour came in, he played loads of stuff, but there were certain licks that were just absolutely Gilmour,” Fletcher says. “Same with Ronnie Wood, instant Stones. Joan Armatrading played it all the way through, and just wailed. You’d never think it’s Joan.”
“The track is so uplifting,” Armatrading says. “It’s a really nice thing to be asked to be part of.” A fan of such vintage axemen as Free’s Paul Kossoff and Mountain’s Leslie West, she adds: “It’s funny that people don’t always recognise me as an electric player because I’ve made so many albums where I’m the only guitarist on it.”
Peter Blake and Mark Knopfler
DAVE HOGAN/HOGAN MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK
The first “voice” in the piece is especially poignant. “Once I got Jeff Beck’s contribution, there was no way I was going to mess with that,” Fletcher notes. “It was as pure as it can be. What he did with it brings you to tears, it’s absolutely astonishing. Only five or six months after I received it, he passed away. The fact that he’s first is kind of beautiful.”
Going Home came about when Knopfler was asked by Local Hero’s producer, David Puttnam, for a rousing theme for his first soundtrack as a composer. “The tune came into my head when I was walking past Carnegie Hall in New York,” Knopfler says. Born in Glasgow, he moved to Newcastle with his family aged seven. “I was ransacking my bits of memory of Scotland, the little that I knew about Scottish music.”
Despite its epic span, the updated Going Home never feels repetitive, building in momentum as its stellar cast weaves in and out of the emotive melody. And if Knopfler thought his stadium rock days were behind him — it’s more than 30 years since he retired Dire Straits in favour of a more gentle but no less distinguished solo career — then, a fortnight ago, 52,000 football fans proved him wrong.
• Would you like to own one of Mark Knopfler’s guitars?
I was with him and Fletcher at St James’ Park, where Knopfler first watched Newcastle United in the early Sixties, as the new recording was played immediately before kick-off, just as the original has been for decades. The night before, at a TCT guitar auction, Knopfler was interviewed by his fellow local hero Alan Shearer. Filmed messages from Hank Marvin, and Newcastle players expressing what it means to run out to the melody, had Knopfler misty-eyed.
An excerpt from Going Home by Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes
Marvin, speaking from his adoptive home in Perth, Australia, recalls playing Going Home with Dire Straits during the Brothers in Arms tour in the mid-Eighties. “I heard about them early on,” he says, jovial as ever. “Someone said they sounded like the Shadows on acid.” He adds: “There’s so many great players on this, I thought, ‘Is this going to be an LP of one track?’”
“This thing is much bigger than us,” Knopfler says. “I really had no idea that it was going to be like this.”
Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) by Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes is out on BMG and available from markknopflersguitarheroes.tmstor.es. Johnson and Knopfler’s Music Legends is on Sky Arts and Now from April 2
Última edición:
