The Brothers in Arms Tour was a concert tour by British rock band

Dire Straits Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums and percuss ...

. The tour promoted and supported the group's fifth album, '' Brothers in Arms'', which was released in May 1985. The tour started on 25 April 1985 in Split, Croatia and ended on 26 April 1986 in Sydney, Australia. It included dates in the Balkans, Israel, Europe, North America, and Oceania. The tour included 248 concerts in 23 countries and 118 cities. More than two and a half million people attended the tour. With 900,000 tickets sold in Australia and New Zealand it was the biggest concert tour in Australasian music history, until it was overtaken in 2017–2018 by

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

on his

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Description

The tour lineup included

Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler (born 12 August 1949) is a British singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Born in Scotland and raised in England, he was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits. He pursued a s ...

(guitar and vocals),

John Illsley John Edward Illsley (born 24 June 1949) is an English musician, best known as bass guitarist of the rock band Dire Straits. With it, he has received multiple BRIT and Grammy Awards, and a Heritage Award. As one of the founding band members, ...

(bass),

Alan Clark Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Tra ...

Guy Fletcher Guy Edward Fletcher (born 24 May 1960) is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known for his position as one of the two Keyboard instrument, keyboard players in the rock band Dire Straits from 1984 until the group's dissolution, and his subs ...

(keyboards), Terry Williams (drums),

Jack Sonni Jack Sonni (born December 9, 1954) is a writer, musician and former marketing executive best known as "the other guitarist" in Dire Straits during the band's '' Brothers in Arms'' era. Early life and education Drawn to music at an early age, S ...

(guitar), and Chris White (saxophone). During the tour, Dire Straits performed " Money for Nothing" with

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...

and "

Sultans of Swing "Sultans of Swing" is a song by British rock band Dire Straits, written by lead vocalist Mark Knopfler. The demo of the song was recorded at Pathway Studios, North London, in July 1977 and quickly acquired a following after it was put in rotati ...

" at the

Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

concert at

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on 13 July 1985. Their performance was included on the DVD release of that event. The final concert on 26 April 1986 in Sydney, Australia was broadcast on television. TubeTV also filmed the show in London on 10 July 1985. Neither the Sydney nor the London shows were ever released as commercial videos and are available as bootlegs only. In addition, three

soundboard recording A soundboard recording is a sound recording of a concert taken from a direct connection to the soundboard at the venue. Soundboard recordings are considered to be among the highest quality bootleg recordings of live performances though some soundb ...

s were made in San Antonio, Houston, and Ohio, which have also circulated as bootlegs. The Brothers in Arms Tour consisted of four legs: * Europe and Israel * North America * Europe * Australia and New Zealand

Tour dates

Setlists

* 25 April 1985 (Split) - "Ride Across the River", "Expresso Love", "So Far Away", "Romeo and Juliet", "Private Investigations", "Sultans of Swing", "Walk of Life", "Why Worry", "Six Blade Knife", "The Man's Too Strong", "Two Young Lovers", "Money for Nothing", "Portobello Belle", "Wild West End", "Tunnel of Love", "Brothers in Arms", "Solid Rock" * 13 May 1985 (Ljubljana) - "Ride Across the River", "Expresso Love", "So Far Away", "Romeo and Juliet", "Private Investigations", "Sultans of Swing", "Why Worry", "Walk of Life", "Two Young Lovers", "The Man's Too Strong", "Money for Nothing", "Wild West End", "Tunnel of Love", "Solid Rock", "Going Home: Theme from Local Hero" * 16 May 1985 (Brno) - "Ride Across the River", "Expresso Love", "So Far Away", "Romeo and Juliet", "Private Investigations", "Sultans of Swing", "Why Worry", "Walk of Life", "Two Young Lovers", "The Man's Too Strong", "Money for Nothing", "Wild West End", "Tunnel of Love", "Brothers in Arms", "Solid Rock", "Going Home: Theme from Local Hero" * North American Leg - "Ride Across the River", "Expresso Love", "One World", "Romeo and Juliet", "Private Investigations", "Sultans of Swing", "Why Worry", "Walk of Life", "Two Young Lovers", "Money for Nothing", "Wild West End", "Tunnel of Love", "Brothers in Arms", "Solid Rock", "Going Home: Theme from Local Hero" * 26 April 1986 (Sydney) - "Ride Across the River", "Expresso Love", "Industrial Disease", "So Far Away", "Romeo and Juliet", "Private Investigations", "Sultans of Swing", "Why Worry", "Your Latest Trick", "Walk of Life", "Two Young Lovers", "Money for Nothing", "Tunnel of Love", "Brothers in Arms", "Solid Rock", "Going Home: Theme from Local Hero"

References

{{Dire Straits 1985 concert tours 1986 concert tours Dire Straits concert tours