Dire Straits Experience coming to MixFest in September

Their music is like a box of chocolates, and choosing a favourite is near impossible. Terence Reis of The Dire Straits Experience echoed the sentiments of fans around the world, across generations, of one of rock’s most iconic bands.

The Dire Straits Experience’s Terence Reis and Chris White are coming to South Africa on 10 September, to perform at MixFest, and will also feature a collaboration with several local artists in a once in a lifetime ensemble.

The Dire Straits Experience started off as a once off charity event eleven years ago. Since then, Southern Africa’s Reis and Dire Straits Saxophonist – White, have toured the world, introducing younger audiences to some of music’s greatest tracks, and as for the rest of us, taking audiences down a memory lane filled with smart riffs and intelligent, sometimes existential, lyrics.

White said that Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler is one of the greatest artists in music.

“Mark wrote some of the greatest songs in history, he has a great talent for storytelling. He’s an artist in every sense of the word; the combination between writing the music, the lyrics and playing the instruments, and then performing it.”

White added that the 80s saw a wave of creativity ad musical dynamism, expression and craft. It’s an era now often revisited with tribute shows to other bands like Queen, ABBA, Pink Floyd and so on.

ALSO READ: Dire Straits calls up local muso Reis

Reis said The Dire Straits Experience has more depth than simply being a cover version performance.

White was a member of the band and, said Reis, shows sees them dig deep to express and create the emotive atmosphere that Knopfler’s compositions project.

Reis said the pair’s collaboration with South African artists at MixFest excites him to no end.

“When the organisers initially sent us a wish list of songs to perform, it was so long that we would have been there all night. There’s just so many good ones. But, the set that we will be performing will be incredible.”

Locally contributing artists have been at work learning the music, after which everyone will spend two days rehearsing non-stop in early September.

The line-up of artists at MixFest includes Soweto Gospel Choir, Wonderboom, Mango Groove’s Claire Johnston, Billy Inglish, John Ellis of Tree63 as well as the planned Legends Tribute Show.

White’s time on stage with Dire Straits included some memorable moments. He played saxophone in front of billions during the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in 1985 and later had the opportunity to meet Princess Diana and Prince Charles after a Prince’s Trust performance, where the royals also invited his parents for a meet and greet.

“It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and my parents didn’t stop talking about it for ages,” he said.

He added that playing in front of large audiences has never been a challenge for him, but when friends invite him over and ask him to bring his sax, he gets nervous.

“The thought of playing in somebody’s living room to a bunch of people that I might know scares the life out of me. But, I’ll happily stand up on any stage in front of any number of people and shake my ass for them.”

And if the never-ending series of rave reviews foreshadow what’s to come in September, South Africans are in for a treat and a lot of ass-shaking.

MixFest tickets are available at Computicket.