Again I found something nice on youtube I personally have never heard before: Portobello Belle from the On Every Street tour in 1991, performed at The Point in Dublin.. I have had one “official” bootleg (= silver pressed CD) called Strait to the Point from a Dublin gig of that tour (August 26 – they played there for 5 nights from August 23 – 27) but the one I have does not include Portobelle Belle (and neither some other rare songs performed there like Fade to Black, Long Highway, or Iron Hand). In fact it seems that Portobelle Belle was performed on that tour in Dublin only (correct me if I’m wrong) – well, it is a”song about a long gone Irish girl …”
This version starts with a sax intro by Chris White and ends with a ‘pedobro solo’ by Paul Franklin (pedobro = an acoustic pedal steel with a dobro resonator, built by Paul Franklin’s father I think), and it is generally rather different from previous or later version. Mark plays the National Style-O it seems (it is an audience recording so the sound is not perfect) It does not feature much spectacular guitar playing, but a great version anyway. Enjoy!
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2 thoughts on “Dire Straits – Portobello Belle – The Point, Dublin, 1991”
I don’t remember it being played at the first night of the next venue the Sheffield Arena. I guess after all the Irish whistles and cheers at every Irish reference it wouldn’t have been the same.
Yes, very nice version, one of my fav, just after Paris 83 (the best one IMHO, with Mark’s licks, followed by Collins’ sax at the end)
I had Strait to the point too. Back 10-15 years ago, I was searching only for silver pressed bootlegs, and I managed to get few : Once upon a time (werchter 81), Boston 79, Strait to the point, Rotterdam 78, walk on stage (london 85), solid rock (mandela 88), on every stage (nimes 92), on stage (zurich 91), sydney 86, american tour 85, hamburg 96, swinging golden hearts (london 96), amsterdam 2001, and so on…
even for DVD, I was looking only for silver pressed ones.
I founded it nice, well packaged, and you know they looked like “real” items.
But, I was missing all those nice gigs they were talking on several forums.
Seeing on JVT’s site all other versions available, and I knew that they would’nt never been released by boot labels.
And, on silver pressed boots, songs are often edited, not in the correct order, even not well spelled on the sleeve, and sometimes gigs are mixed each-others.
So, about 3-4 years ago, I decided to sell all my silver pressed boots, and download all what I could, and burn my own CD, with the correct date, the correct setlist in the correct order, and etc..
Now, I don’t have any silver pressed boot, but I can listen to this marvelous Portobello Belle which wasn’t on Strait to the point 🙂