Alchemy: Dire Straits Live is the first live album by the British rock band Dire Straits, released in March 1984^[4] by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. Recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 22–23 July 1983, the double album features songs from the band's first four albums, the ExtendedancEPlay EP and Mark Knopfler's Local Hero soundtrack. Many of the songs have reworked arrangements and extended instrumental segments. The album cover is taken from a painting by Brett Whiteley.

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Alchemy: Dire Straits Live
Live album by the Dire Straits
Released	March 1984 (1984-03)[1]
Recorded	22–23 July 1983
Venue	Hammersmith Odeon, London
Genre	Rock progressive rock
Length	93:59 (CD) 88:50 (LP)
Label	Vertigo Warner Bros. (USA)
Producer	Mark Knopfler[2]
The Dire Straits chronology
ExtendedancEPlay (1983) Alchemy: Dire Straits Live (1984) Brothers in Arms (1985)

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AllMusic	[3]

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Alchemy: Dire Straits Live was remastered and reissued with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 for most of the world outside the United States and was remastered and re-released in the USA on 8 May 2001.

In November 2023, Alchemy was re-released and expanded for the box set Live 1978–1992.

Alchemy: Dire Straits Live was recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 22–23 July 1983, the final two concerts of Dire Straits' eight-month Love Over Gold Tour promoting their album Love Over Gold. The concerts were recorded by Mick McKenna using the Rolling Stones Mobile unit. The recording was mixed at AIR Studios in London in November 1983^[2] where Nigel Walker was the engineer.

The opening track, "Once Upon a Time in the West" is preceded by an uncredited version of the "Stargazer" instrumental from the Local Hero soundtrack.^{[citation needed]} "Tunnel of Love" is preceded by an otherwise unrecorded instrumental (actually faded in from the extended coda of "Portobello Belle", which was left off the album), already played on the 1981 tour, but here re-arranged to showcase Mel Collins' saxophone.^{[citation needed]} It is followed by the brief "Carousel Waltz" intro and standard version of the song.^{[citation needed]}

The album cover artwork was adapted from a section of a painting by Brett Whiteley titled Alchemy 1974.^[2] Alchemy is a hypothetical process once believed to turn ordinary elements into gold. The image of a guitar with lips held by a hand was added for the album design and covers sexually suggestive imagery in the original. The original painting, done between 1972 and 1973, was composed of many different elements and on 18 wood panels 203 cm x 1615 cm x 9 cm. In terms of media it used everything from feathers and part of a bird's nest to a glass eye, shell, plugs and brain in a work that becomes a transmutation of sexual organic landscapes and mindscapes.^{[citation needed]}

Reviewing retrospectively for AllMusic, critic William Ruhlmann wrote of the album "There is an interesting contrast .... between the music, much of which is slow and moody, with Mark Knopfler's muttered vocals and large helpings of his fingerpicking on what sounds like an amplified Spanish guitar, and the audience response. The arena-size crowd cheers wildly, and claps and sings along when given half a chance, as though each song were an up-tempo rocker." Ruhlmann concludes, "The CD version of the album contains one extra track, "Love Over Gold," which adds a needed change of pace to the otherwise slow-moving first disc."^[5]

All songs were written by Mark Knopfler, except where indicated.

Dire Straits

• Mark Knopfler – guitar, vocals
• Alan Clark – keyboards
• John Illsley – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Hal Lindes – guitar, backing vocals
• Terry Williams – drums

Additional musicians

• Mel Collins – saxophone
• Tommy Mandel – keyboards
• Joop de Korte – percussion

Production

• Mark Knopfler – producer
• Mick McKenna – recording engineer
• Nigel Walker – engineer
• Jeremy Allom – assistant engineer
• Brett Whiteley – artwork (adapted from Alchemy 1974)
• C More Tone Studios – design

The concert film was originally released in Beta, VHS video cassette and Laserdisc formats, and digitally remastered in 1995. 2010 saw new DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases of the concert with surround sound mixes prepared by Chuck Ainlay and the original video footage digitally enhanced and cleaned by Dick Carruthers.^[6] The song "Love over Gold" is not included in the video, just like the original album, but is available on the compilation Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits. It includes a mix of the live band footage with circus spectacle scenes. The 2010 Blu-ray release also included the BBC Arena documentary about Dire Straits aired in 1980.^{[citation needed]}

The Alchemy video opens with scenes of the band in a pub playing pool, interspersed with concert clips. Playing over this is the song Saturday Night at the Movies performed by The Drifters. The music changes to the instrumental "Stargazer", from the film Local Hero, over external shots of a sold-out Hammersmith Odeon. The scene switches to the inside of the venue as Dire Straits are announced and walk onstage for the concert. The closing credits again use the Drifters' "Saturday Night at the Movies".

• A Limelight Films Production
• Director – Peter Sinclair
• Film Editor – Peter Goddard
• Soundtrack produced by Mark Knopfler
• Recorded by Mick McKenna, Rolling Stones Mobile