March 28, 2024

The Straits to perform at Lakeside Casino

“Money for Nothing.” “Sultans of Swing.” “Walk of Life.”

These popular Dire Straits songs were all over the airwaves in the 1980s, and can still be heard on many radio stations today.

Now, that music is coming to Osceola with the band The Straits, which features Dire Straits’ Alan Clark and Chris White with other talented, hand-picked musicians.

“People can expect to see Dire Straits music played extremely well by a superb band of word-class musicians,” said Clark during a telephone interview with the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune Feb. 20.

The show is 8 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at Lakeside Casino’s Event Center.

How it began

The band The Straits was formed when Clark and White, a saxophonist, were having breakfast at a hotel in Rome. They’d been presented with an opportunity to play a charity show.

“I had no idea what this would become,” Clark said. “I was completely open-minded about it.”

The charity show soon evolved into a world tour for the band. During the time of the phone interview, The Straits were performing shows throughout the United Kingdom.

Touring

They travel to the United States this week for their tour, which will be the first U.S. tour for The Straits.

“It’s going to be a very pleasant experience,” Clark said.

He joked, if the crowd asked nicely, maybe they would play some Scottish music.

According to Clark, one of the few differences from Dire Straits to The Straits is when he looks over his shoulder while performing and sees a different musician playing.

Once the U.S. portion of the tour is finished, Clark said the band will fly back to London and spend a night there. The next day, they will travel to Russia — or more, specifically, Siberia — for their next leg of the tour.

“At one point, we wouldn’t have been able to do that,” Clark said.

Later this year, The Straits intend to record some of their own original material. Clark said the “whole process is well under way.”

The Straits

It has been 34 years since Clark joined Dire Straits in 1980, and he has played on every Dire Straits record from “Love Over Gold” onward and co-produced their last studio album “On Every Street.”

Clark said he remembered the popularity of the band becoming extremely huge as the years went on.

“Everything was on a huge scale with Dire Straits,” Clark said. “The scale is smaller with this band, and I welcome that because it makes life simpler. It’s more fun with this band.”