This week, Drysdale’s Potato Shed will host a local production celebrating the music, impact and story of timeless rock band Dire Straits.
Written by local historian, writer and performer Colin Mockett, Money For Nothing (And Your Chicks For Free) features Mockett’s retelling of the Dire Straits’ meteoric rise to fame and eventual disbandment interspersed by a four-piece band of local musicians performing the bands’ songs.
Mockett said the band’s story was a “20th century fairy story”, with the band emerging from obscurity to become the world’s biggest rock group.
“They basically seemed to appear from nowhere and go straight to the top of the American hit parade,” he said.
“It was something of a lucky chance, because the record company in London sent the first demo tape over to New York to say, should we sign this group? And on that demo was Sultans of Swing.
“The New York company released the song to a couple of radio disc jockeys to see what sort of reaction it got, and it got a huge reaction from people wanting to buy the record. They were signed… then turned into the biggest band in the world; bigger than the Beatles, bigger than the Stones, bigger than all of them.
“Then they decided they didn’t want to do it anymore… they didn’t like the lifestyle, so they just walked away.”
The band features veteran musicians Geoff Sinnbeck and Trevor Harrison, who are joined by young guns Evan Kennedy and Adam Powell.
Money For Nothing (And Your Chicks For Free) is at the Potato Shed at 10.30am on Tuesday, August 12. Visit geelongaustralia.com.au/potatoshed for tickets and more information.
