Communiqué Tour

The Communiqué Tour was a 1979 concert tour of Europe and North American by the British rock band Dire Straits, supporting their second album, Communiqué, released in June 1979. The tour started on 11 February 1979 in Rotterdam and consisted of 116 concerts in Europe and North America, ending on 21 December 1979 in London. In the United States, 51 concerts were sold out during 38 days. All of the concerts in Europe were sold out as well. The tour lineup included Mark Knopfler (guitar, vocals), David Knopfler (guitar), John Illsley (bass), and Pick Withers (drums).

The Rockpalast show in Cologne, Germany on 16 February 1979 was filmed and broadcast by WDR TV channel. Two shows at the Rainbow Theatre in London were also filmed, and footage from these shows were included in the BBC documentary Arena (1980). The concert at the Roxy in Los Angeles on 28–29 March 1979 was filmed and included in the Bavarian TV report documentary (1979). Soundboard recordings from the tour include the concert at Old Waldorf in San Francisco on 31 March 1979, which was released as promo LP by Warner Bros. Records, the concerts at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia and the Orpheum in Boston were circulated as bootlegs.

The tour consisted of seven preview concerts in February in Europe, followed by four legs: