A look back over 12 months of music and a look ahead to 2024
Crikey. Where did that year go? It feels like only weeks ago that I was writing my review of 2022 and predicting what might happen in 2023. I’m convinced there are unseen forces somewhere out there cranking up the rate of time. There again, they do say time flies when you’re having fun, and 2023 certainly proved to be good fun from this writer’s perspective. But even if 2023 was great, 2024 has the potential to blow it clean out of the water. There are all kinds of things that might be happening over the next twelve months. So, let’s take a look back at some of my musical highlights from 2023, as well as looking ahead to all the potential that 2024 has to offer. You might want to keep that wallet handy!
MARK KNOPFLER & DIRE STRAITS
At the start of 2023, I don’t think anybody (save from those who were actually involved) could possibly have predicted that we might get a big box of live material by Dire Straits, including not just their original pre-existing live albums but expanded versions of those albums with previously unreleased songs added, as well as an album recorded at London’s Rainbow Theatre in 1979 that had never been released at all until now. Dire Straits Live: 1978-1992 really was a complete surprise and is without question the most exciting and interesting release by the band since their split in 1992. The project actually dated back some four years until its eventual release, so those in the know certainly did a great job of keeping it under wraps! With Dire Straits keyboardist and long-time Mark Knopfler wingman Guy Fletcher at the helm mixing the unreleased music at British Grove Studios and supervising the remastering process at Abbey Road, the quality of the set is – as one might expect – absolutely second to none. I will not go into intimate details of the set in this piece as I have already written an extensive review which you can find here, but it was an absolute pleasure making my way through all the discs in this set. It is a real treat to hear complete versions of live albums including recordings of songs that many of us would have assumed we’d never get to hear. The set was very possibly my top musical highlight of 2023, though the Sting concert I went to in Cardiff runs it close.
As for my musical highlight of 2022, which was the wonderful Local Hero musical staged at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester, I had half-expected that it might find its way to London or be taken on a UK tour. Unfortunately, this so far hasn’t happened and the project seems to be on hold for the time being. It would be a great shame if nothing more is to come of the musical because it is a beautiful tribute to a much-loved classic film. We had also been expecting a cast recording to emerge at some point. Whether or not this will still happen remains to be seen. As will become obvious from the next couple of paragraphs, 2024 is looking like a busy year where Mark Knopfler is concerned so if the production is to go ahead in some form or other in the future, my guess would be that it probably won’t happen in the next twelve months…though I would gladly be proven wrong in that prediction. Whatever happens, there is no doubt in my mind that this production deserves to be seen and heard by a wider audience. Hopefully it will.
As I wrote this time a year ago, many of us were expecting the release of Mark Knopfler’s new studio album at some point during 2023. This didn’t happen, primarily because of Mark’s relentless creative drive to write new songs. A new album was first hinted at by Mark in a message to fans via his social media outlets at the start of the first Covid lockdown way back in 2020. Obviously the delay incurred as a result of the disruption resulted in work on the album commencing much later than he had originally planned. And with Mark being the incredibly prolific artist that he is, he inevitably came up with many more new songs in the intervening time between March 2020 and finally getting into British Grove Studios in early 2021. And then between that time and the band arriving for four weeks of sessions a year later, he wrote even more songs. And then the band convened once again in late 2022 for more sessions, by which time he had written yet more songs. I shudder to think how many songs Mark has amassed in all that time, but one thing is for damn sure. He hasn’t exactly been short of material to record. Work on the album continued into 2023 with various overdubs, and finally he now has a complete album mixed, mastered and ready to unleash to the world. At last, I believe I am safe in assuming that this album will be released at some point during 2023. Given the amount of time that has passed since the story of this album began, it would be fascinating to know how much it has evolved from the album that Mark had originally envisaged.
But that’s not all! With the album seemingly wrapped up, it emerged in October 2023 that Mark and the band had once again gathered at British Grove for some more recording work. What could they possibly have been up to this time? Had Mark decided to add more songs to the album? Surely not. Could they already be working on the next album? Given that Mark no longer plans to tour, plus his insatiable appetite for creativity, it would not have been beyond the realms of possibility. As it turned out, they were indeed recording new songs, this time for an EP – a separate project from the new album which Mark revealed during a BBC interview focussing the auction of a large quantity of his guitars and amps, due to take place at Christie’s, London on 31st January 2024. In Mark’s hands, some of those guitars have been responsible for some iconic moments down the years – the red Schecter Telecaster that he always played on ‘Walk of Life’, the re-issue 1983 Les Paul that featured heavily on the Brothers in Arms album, and of course the Pensa-Suhr MK1 which was his primary instrument in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. He got some incredible sounds out of that guitar. It’s going to be a poignant moment to see some of those instruments go, but to quote Guy Fletcher in an answer to a recent comment of mine on his website:
“He has been mulling the idea of thinning out the collection for a long time. The sale in no way reflects on his enthusiasm for music creation. He’s as excited to come into the studio and record as ever.”
So, there is plenty of new music to look forward to. Though he does appear now to have retired from touring, there is very obviously still no end of creative drive left in him to write and record. And with the sheer quality of the music he produces in that studio, I am just as excited to hear what he and his brilliant band have been cooking up. With luck, I would like to think the new album will surface in the first quarter of 2024 with the EP possibly following later in the year. In addition, Mark and Guy have been producing a project in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust involving numerous legends that include the likes of David Gilmour, Ronnie Wood and Sting. Quite what the nature of this project is I do not know, but no doubt it will attract a good deal of public attention for a very good cause. Hopefully this is another item we can look forward to during 2024.
And as if all that new music wasn’t enough, we still have a TV series with Brian Johnson to look forward to. Entitled ‘Brian Johnson and Mark Knopfler’s Good Times’ and featuring guests including the likes of Emmylou Harris and Sam Fender, it was originally due for broadcast on Sky Arts in Autumn 2023, but presumably it will now reach our screens at some time in 2024. As clearly evidenced in a 2018 episode of Brian’s A Life On the Road, Mark and Brian have fantastic chemistry so it’ll be a joy to see them together for a whole series. All in all, 2024 is shaping up to be a hugely exciting year for all of us Knopfler enthusiasts!
STING & THE POLICE
One thing we can be certain of where Sting is concerned is that he does love to go touring. His current My Songs tour has been running in one form or another since 2019, albeit with an enforced break in 2020 and much of 2021 due to the Covid lockdowns. It was during that downtime that he cooked up his superb and much overlooked album The Bridge, which saw a release in November 2021. I was a little disappointed that the tour wasn’t appropriately rebranded to bring it in line with the album. It seemed odd to me that Sting continued to tour behind My Songs, an album of re-recorded and remixed hits from 2019, rather than focussing on a more recent album of entirely original songs – and a very strong album at that. Although a precious few songs from the album were added to the set, The Bridge has never really been toured properly unlike most of his studio albums, and the setlist has focussed almost entirely on well-trodden hits from across Sting’s back catalogue. Not that I have a massive problem with that. It’s just a shame that The Bridge never got the attention it deserved. But Sting’s hits are hits for a very good reasons – chiefly because they are bloody good songs. The crowds unquestionably love to hear them, so when Sting plays the kind of tours that visit venues of the larger variety, he will tend to focus primarily on songs that are more widely recognised by general audiences than his deeper cuts. And that was very much the case when I saw him live at Cardiff Castle in July 2023. I had missed out on the opportunity to see him live at the London Palladium in 2022 due to a combination of personal circumstances, but the show in Cardiff more than made up for it. Yes, the show featured almost wall-to-wall hits that us dedicated fans are more than familiar with, but there is far more to a concert than its setlist. Sting always finds something in his songs to keep them fresh and interesting for both him and his audience. Being an outdoor and unseated show with two opening acts, there was a good deal of waiting around to ensure I got near the front, but boy was it worth it. I had a fantastic time in a wonderful atmosphere with my lifelong musical hero literally only a few yards away from the perfect stage centre position I had managed to acquire on arrival. It was not an evening I will forget in a hurry. You can read my full review of the show here.
2023 also saw the 30th anniversary of one of my all-time favourite albums – Sting’s classic Ten Summoner’s Tales. Arguably the quintessential Sting album that showcased him at the absolute peak of his songwriting powers, it is an utterly timeless collection of songs that sound as fresh now as they ever did. It produced a number of hit singles, not least the likes of ‘Fields of Gold’, ‘If I Ever Lose My Faith in You’ and ‘Shape of My Heart’ and is widely regarded as is finest solo work to date. I had hoped and prayed that we might get a proper anniversary box set reissue including the remastered album, bonus tracks, live recordings from from the extensive world tour that followed, a newly remastered DVD / Blu-ray of the Ten Summoner’s Tales film shot at Lake House…but no. Sadly (and predictably), all we got was an expanded digital-only edition of the album with various B-sides, remixes and edits. An album of Ten Summoner’s Tales’ calibre really deserves better than this. Perhaps we will get the expanded physical box sets that all his solo studio albums so richly deserve at some time in the future…alas, I fear it won’t happen any time soon. You can read my special appreciation piece written for Ten Summoner’s Tales’ 30th anniversary here.
Another album that celebrated a big birthday in 2023 was Synchronicity – the album that took The Police to world domination in 1983. I’d have thought that a historically significant album like this would have seen some sort of special reissue for its 40th anniversary…but no. Certainly, it got a mention on The Police’s official social media outlets but there was no sign whatsoever of any kind of special commemorative release. I had thought, as mentioned in my 2022 review, that we might at least get something – perhaps a vinyl picture disc similar to the Ghost in the Machine ‘alternative sequence’ edition that came somewhat out of the blue that year. But there was nothing – not even a digital reissue. However, in an interview during his late summer break from the My Songs tour, Sting let slip that a big Synchronicity box set IS in fact being planned for 2024. OK, it’ll be a year or so late for the album’s big birthday but either way, it’ll certainly be a release to look forward to. Especially since, according to Sting, it will include his original demos for the album. They will surely make for fascinating listening. Quite what form the box will take remains to be seen, though no doubt there will be multiple CD and vinyl editions to choose from. And a live recording from the Synchronicity tour wouldn’t go amiss. I shall wait to see how the reissue is handled with much anticipation…assuming it does indeed go ahead.
Sting’s manic touring schedule will be continuing into 2024. A small number of US shows with the legend that is Billy Joel have been lined up which will no doubt make for rather special occasions, while his regular solo tour will once again cover Europe throughout Spring and Summer. Happily, a number of UK dates are once again included in that schedule although without any shows within a practical distance of me here on the south coast, I have opted not to attend a show on this occasion. It is heartening to see that Sting and his management’s faith in the UK seems to have been restored with last year’s shows having gone down very well indeed with critics and audiences alike, though it would be nice to see a refreshed, all-new show in comparatively smaller (preferably seated) venues – i.e. halls and theatres around the UK. And perhaps an all-new show might in fact be on the cards in the not too distant future. Sting does appear to have been doing some sort of recording work with the assistance of manager Martin Kierzsenbaum while out on the road and he does talk in terms of having a three year cycle between albums, so if he is indeed working on new songs, it is not at all beyond the realms of possibility that a new studio album could be in the works and might even see a release in the next twelve months. That would definitely be a catalyst for a shake-up of his live gigs. It is fantastic that we can even consider that as a possibility now – because until the release of 2013’s The Last Ship which arrived a full ten years after his previous album of original songs, one could easily have been forgiven for assuming we may never hear anything new from Sting again. After all, he is one of our finest songwriters so to have him back in the game coming up with new material really is a blessing.
PAUL McCARTNEY
Even at the tender age of 81, Sir Paul McCartney is rarely one to stay idle for long. His 2023 began with the publication of a book of his own photography from the period of December 1963 to February 1964, when The Beatles underwent a transformation from four Liverpool lads to global superstars. The photographs were also showcased in a special exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. The imagery is a fascinating look at what in retrospect were world-altering events from the inside looking out. While promoting the project, Paul just happened to mention in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he had completed the ‘final’ Beatles song, entitled ‘Now and Then’. Seeing the short documentary video when the song was released in November was quite a tug at the heart strings – especially when hearing the late John Lennon’s isolated vocal from his original demo tape of the song, given to Paul by John’s wife Yoko Ono after John had passed away. That isolation has been made possible by Machine Assisted Learning technology, or MAL for short, which has allowed such projects to be undertaken. Songs recorded using rudimentary technology in the early days of music production can now be remixed by separating the multiple instruments originally recorded onto a single track into individual tracks with all other extraneous sonic elements removed, enabling a new stereo mix to be created. The possibilities of this could be endless, especially where early recordings by The Beatles are concerned. It will be interesting to see how this technology rolls out to recordings of the more rudimentary variety by other bands over the years to come. ‘Now and Then’ naturally generated huge excitement among listeners and became the 18th Beatles number one, followed by the reissue of newly expanded ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums which were essentially a vehicle for the single.
As for Paul’s solo work, the first half of the year had been relatively quiet but, just when speculation amongst fans was circulating that he may have quietly retired from touring, he announced the continuation of his Got Back tour with shows taking place in Australia, Mexico and Brazil between October and December. It really is quite astonishing that, after all these years, he still has the desire and energy to go out and play shows consisting of some forty or more songs to such huge audiences. He clearly has a great love of what he does. No European or UK dates were announced but with the Got Back tour not yet having covered our part of the world, it stands to reason that shows for 2024 will be announced before too long.
In the midst of the tour, Paul mentioned in an interview with a Brazilian news outlet that he had been working on some new songs that he was looking to release at some time in the new year. That sounds suspiciously like a new studio album to me. He has apparently been recording material with producer Andrew Watt, who was also responsible for producing the Rolling Stones’ newest studio album Hackney Diamonds, on which Paul guested on a track entitled ‘Bite My Head Off’. Who would have imagined that Paul McCartney would still be creating new music into the 2020s? It’s quite amazing. And it’s not as if he just throws the music together – the quality is still very high. 2018’s Egypt Station is very possibly one of the strongest albums he has recorded, and 2020’s McCartney III, the unexpected third instalment of his self-titled and self-produced albums made during ‘rockdown’ is just as artistic and quirky as the first two, released way back in 1970 and 1980 respectively. The creative juices are obviously flowing as strongly in Paul as they ever were.
The pandemic-delayed It’s a Wonderful Life musical, for which Paul wrote the songs, could also see the light of day in 2024. It’s a tough life for musicals out there with so many productions competing for space and it seemed that this project had fallen by the wayside, but if it does come to fruition I would imagine it will find its way to a theatre at sometime around Christmas, given the nature of the original movie. With both Sting and Mark Knopfler having written for musicals in the last few years, it’ll be exciting to hear the music Paul has come up with for this production.
It was another big anniversary for Wings’ seminal 1973 album Band On the Run in 2023. As has been the case for the 50th anniversaries of all of Paul’s post-Beatles albums so far, Band On the Run will be getting a half-speed mastered vinyl reissue in February 2024, though with this particular album being so historically significant, this time it will also be made available with a bonus disc of what are being described as ‘underdubbed’ mixes. These mixes were hastily prepared by producer Geoff Emerick shortly after Wings’ return to the UK from the eventful recording sessions in Lagos, before strings and various other overdubs were recorded. So in many ways, this is an early ‘rough mix’ of the album when it was still a work in progress. It will be fascinating to hear how the songs on this legendary album sounded while still in their infancy. The new edition will be released on February 2nd 2024 on both vinyl and CD.
One last thing I would like to mention where Paul is concerned is his Archive Collection. This is the series of expanded reissues of Paul’s post-Beatles albums that has been running since 2010. The deluxe editions of these releases are always beautifully presented with period photography, artwork and of course the music itself which will include the newly remastered original albums themselves, as well as plenty of bonus material from B-sides of the era to previously unreleased outtakes and demos. Clearly a great deal of attention to detail goes into making these sets, but unfortunately the series seems to have stalled. The last release was Flaming Pie back in Summer 2020, but we are now in 2024 and there has been no word on when the next set might be released. Fans are crying out for Archive editions of Wings’ last two albums London Town and Back to the Egg, but the only reissue we got in 2023 was a somewhat needless third anniversary edition of McCartney III on coloured vinyl. London Town and Back to the Egg remain the only albums of the 1970s not to have been covered by the Archive series. Ideally I’d also love to see Archive sets of 1986’s Press to Play and 1993’s Off the Ground, which would cover all of Paul’s studio albums up to and including 1997’s Flaming Pie. To end the series with just four albums left to go really would be a crying shame. So come on Team Paul, let’s finish the job! I would hope we will at least have some news of the status regarding the Archive series in 2024. If nothing happens within the next twelve months, I fear we will have to assume the project has been quietly shelved.
PET SHOP BOYS
Yes, it may come as somewhat of a shock to anyone reading this who knows me, but I DO like the Pet Shop Boys. I’ve written in a previous article about how I believe they are among the most innovative songwriters in the business. They are unique in many respects. Like many of the greats, they have a style that is all their own. Neil Tennant has an instantly recognisable vocal style, and they have a knack of writing intelligent, well-crafted pop songs that have a clear structure, but then setting them to a predominantly electronic medium. That is something that sets them apart. Their most recent album was 2020’s Hotspot, which was supposed to be followed by the Dreamworld tour – their first greatest hits tour. Once again, that tour was delayed by the Covid pandemic and didn’t get underway until 2022. The well-received tour continued into 2023 with a show at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen being recorded for a concert film which will be shown in selected cinemas on 31st January and 4th February 2024. Whether this show will get a wider release remains to be seen, but one would hope it will see a physical Blu-ray / CD release or suchlike at some point after the cinema showings, rather than being made available to stream exclusively behind the paywall of some subscription service as has unfortunately been the case with concert films by some other artists in recent times. In 2023 we also had the release of the Lost EP, featuring tracks originally recorded but unused for the Super album and a track aimed quite squarely at a certain leader whose name rhymes with the words ‘poo’ and ‘tin’. One thing is for sure – PSB do satire brilliantly. The Dreamworld tour will continue into 2024. A new studio album has meanwhile been in production and this is currently planned for a release at some time during Spring 2024. After the trilogy of albums produced by Stuart Price – 2013’s Electric, 2016’s Super and 2020’s Hotspot – it will be interesting to hear how different an artistic direction they might take with this new record which is being produced by James Ford, known for his work with artists as diverse as Blur, Depeche Mode, Arctic Monkeys and Kylie Minogue.
IN OTHER NEWS…
Elton John’s 2023 was nothing if not momentous. The closing stages of Farewell Yellow Brick Road, his final world tour, were marked in spectacular fashion by a headline slot at Glastonbury which proved to be one of the most memorable and well-received sets the festival has ever seen. He hasn’t ruled out the prospect of occasional shows in the future but what a way to bow out from his touring life. Paul McCartney’s set had gone down extremely well the previous year, but Elton’s set seemed to outstrip even that. For all his faults (of which he does have a few), he has remained an outstanding performer throughout his career. His big character and immense stardom tends to overshadow what an incredible musician he is. His skills as a pianist are second to none, and although his voice has undeniably changed somewhat over the years, he is as strong a vocalist as he ever was. And that’s before I even mention his band, most of whom have been with him for decades and are all top class musicians. The end of the tour, however, does not bring an end to Elton’s career by any means. For some while now he has occasionally let slip that a new album may be on the way. He does appear to have been in the studio fairly recently, so with any luck 2024 will see the release of his first regular studio album since 2016’s Wonderful Crazy Night, which I happen to think was his best work in many a year. Hopefully it will be a considerable improvement over 2021’s atrocious Lockdown Sessions album which featured collaborations which such contemporary ‘talents’ as Lil Nas X, Young Thug and Nicki Minge. Or is that Minaj?
Lindsey Buckingham, formerly the guitarist, vocalist and producer of Fleetwood Mac, has had a fairly quiet year since his somewhat stuttering European tour of 2022 during which he had been battling some undisclosed health issues. Happily, he revealed that his health had returned towards the latter stages of that year and that he had set to work on his next solo album. News on the status of the album has not yet been forthcoming but with Fleetwood Mac work no longer impeding progress on his solo endeavours, perhaps we’ll see this album emerging during 2024. His self-titled album released in 2021, a set of relatively straight-ahead pop-rock songs, seemed to go down very well and was a relative commercial success by the standards of his solo output. If there is to be a follow-up this year, it’ll be interesting to hear whether he sticks with the comparatively more conventional pop-rock songs of his newest album or goes back to the slightly more experimental, ‘left of the palette’ approach of previous albums.
The great Ron Sexsmith released another album of well-crafted songs entitled The Vivian Line in the early stages of 2023, followed by a one man tour covering Europe and the US. The album, produced by multi-instrumentalist collaborator Brad Jones, was yet another demonstration of his prolific, top-class songwriting skills. It doesn’t quite seem possible, but Ron will turn 60 in January, a feat he will be celebrating with a special show called Sexsmith at Sixty at his favourite venue, Massey Hall in Toronto, on February 29th. So Happy Birthday Ron, and let’s hope for many more years of great music. There is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the finest songwriters in the game. You can read my review of The Vivian Line here.
Finally, I’d like to pay tribute to some of these we’ve lost during 2023.
Tina Turner was a force of nature – a big character with big hair, and with one of the most instantly recognisable voices in the history of popular music. The fact that she is gone seems impossible. Personally, I will remember her for the superb theme she recorded for Pierce Brosnan’s first Bond movie GoldenEye, as well as her collaborations with my two biggest musical heroes Sting and Mark Knopfler. Sting made a cameo appearance on a song called ‘On Silent Wings’ – a UK top 20 hit in 1996 and possibly my favourite Tina Turner recording.
And of course it was Mark Knopfler who wrote the iconic ‘Private Dancer’, one of her biggest hits which also lent its name to her 1984 studio album.
Very sadly, we’ve also lost three great musicians associated with Mark in the last year.
Jack Sonni played guitar and sang backing vocals with Dire Straits for the Brothers in Arms tour in 1985-86. He was only with the band for a relatively short period, but he made his mark when Dire Straits was right at the peak of success. He always looked to be having an absolute ball on stage and I’m sure he will be fondly remembered by all of us fans.
Mike Henderson was a hugely talented and uncompromising bluesman who played brilliant slide guitar, harmonica and fiddle on Mark’s 2001 Sailing to Philadelphia tour. Later he would form the bluegrass group The Steel Drivers. He is another who will be much missed by MK fans.
We bade farewell to Brendan Croker who, along with Mark, Steve Phillips and Guy Fletcher, formed The Notting Hillbillies in the late 1980s. He was a wonderful vocalist and sang the lead brilliantly on many of the Hillbillies studio recordings and live performances, perhaps the most memorable being ‘Feel Like Going Home’ – the closing track on the band’s one-off album Missing…Presumed Having a Good Time.
Lastly, we lost the great Denny Laine towards the end of the year. Having previously been with the Moody Blues with whom he recorded the mega hit ‘Go Now’, Denny became a founding member of Wings along with Paul and Linda McCartney and was a mainstay with the band throughout its various line-up changes from 1971-79. When I think of Wings, one of my first thoughts is of the front cover image of the London Town album featuring Paul, Linda and Denny standing in front of Tower Bridge. Now only Paul remains.
They will all be sorely missed, but all of the above mentioned were involved in making music that will forever remain a part of all our lives. And that, in many ways, makes them immortal.
Mike's Musical Musings 