I'm very proud to have a pic that Ingo never seen before It's very unusual

I thnik we must be careful with internet pics caption. I don't remember the site where "my" pic comes from, so I don't know how the caption accurate is.

nevertheless, regarding Mark's clothes and guitar, the pic is quite sure from late 1978, so that's what's important

about the strap issue, I looked again at the "Live at BBC" cover and I saw that Mark had the neck lace and the rosewood strat, but with the brown thin strap, so the neck lace hint isn't always a proof of early 79 or am I wrong ?

BTW, was this neck lace related to Holly Vincent ?

I'm not an expert in these dates, so I trust you when you're talking about that subject, but I must admit that I don't understand all very well now

"The one on Live at the BBC must be late 78 or early 79 (but definitely not from the gig recorded on this CD, London July 19, 1978."

And you say that after Hamburg, he got the music man strap.

If so, how could the pic from Live BBC cover be from early 79 ? as it has the brow strap (or am I blind)

About the Live BBC cover, I just wanted to point out that he already had the neck lace and still the brown strap.
So I guess that the neck lace came around late 78. So, pics with the neck lace are not necessarily from early 79.

He also could have used the brown strap, even after he got the music man one
If so, we could have pics from early 79 with the brown strap…..

About the neck lace, I wonder if it's related to Holly Vincent. I don't remember if it's very accurate in the Oldfield's book, but I guess he met her around late 78 or early 79, and they broke in late 79. As Ed Bicknell said, the day of the break-up, Mark sung WDYTYG in a very special mood, but I don't know the exact date, and even if there's a recording of it…

About amps, I find strange Mark playing on a Peavey, but who knows ? I guess it's rather David's, but in this case, why should have Mark used a Muic man AND a twin reverb. Maybe for backup ?

I had a dream : after the gear database will be completed, we should have a database of all pics in chronological order.

OK, I know it's a dream. It would be a pharaonic job, and I even couldn't help you, apart from travelling to Germany, in order to scan your thousands of pics.

Maybe one day…

Ah Ok, all is clear now

At first, I thought that the music man strap was wide Full-length (like some straps does, e.g. the actual Fender ones). So when I saw this thin end, I thought it was the brown one. And the B&W pic doesn't help that much

about amps :

Possible reasons: (a) need of more volume on bigger stages, (b) to cover a wider angle with best sound, (c) mixing two sounds tow get a unique new sound

(a) doesn't the sound of the amp get driven into desk for the FOH sound ? If so, why have 2 amps to get more volume ? The volume is adjusted by the mixing desk isn't it ? Or were the stages to small fo having a FOH system sound ? Do you think that in 78 gigs, the sound was directly coming from amps ? I guess it the was the case in clubs

(e.g. barbarella's), but after summer 78, I thought that they played in venues which looked like cconcert halls ?

(b) do you mean by switching amps depending on songs ?

I find strange to add amps for getting more monitor volume. It could have disturbed the sound tech, or even the FOH sound.

On your pic with the maple strat a brown strap, they have big monitor system, so they had enough wide area stage monitor sound I think.

I would rather guess that one amp was for backup, or maybe combinated for a "new" sound