About 10 tonnes of music equipment, including 36 guitars that has Fenders, Martins, Les Pauls, a Gretsch 6120, a Drugan Arch Top and an Epiphone, have been mounted on a 3,000-ft stage for the high-voltage show Monday night here by 'Sultan of Swing' Mark Knopfler.

Best known as the voice and guitar behind Dire Straits, Knopfler will go live at the lawns of Bangalore Palace, built by the Maharajas of Mysore in the Tudor style.

After a spectacular performance in Mumbai Saturday night on his first concert visit to India, the Glasgow-born Scottish rock-and-roll star flew into Bangalore Sunday with a band of 30 singers and musicians.

"To educate your ears, you should have enough reverence for music. You have to know old stuff - get right back into it, know it and feel it," Knopfler said on arrival here.

Music aficionados will be treated to flying lights, with 100,000 watts of sound and a galaxy as the backdrop when Knopfler takes the stage to belt out his classical hits from "Walks of Life", "Dire Straits", "Brothers in Arms" and "Shangri-La".

Accompanying the 56-year-old for the two-hour show will be Glenn Worf (bass), Chad Cromwell (drums), Richard Bennett (guitar), Guy Fletcher (piano) and Matt Rollings (piano, organ and accordion).

According to T. Venkat Vardhan of DNA Networks, the showman behind many a rock and classical concert in India, Knopfler's show is intend to offer a rare experience of dazzling sound and light.

"For the first time in a concert in India, we are using 'flying lights' to give a four-finger effect. The lights will be suspended 40 ft above and arrayed to produce the effect with sound behind," Vardhan said.

Fifty moving heads of intelligent lighting will be lit up at split-levels. A Meyer sound system will generate about 100,000 watts of sound. A LCD Star cloth will create a galaxy effect of stars on the massive stage.

On Knopfler's list of songs are all-time hits such as "Calling Elvis", "What It Is", "Romeo & Juliet", "Sultans of Swing", "Money for Nothing", "Prairie Wedding" and "Telegraph Road".

A journalist in his hey days, Knopfler became a full-time musician when he formed the band Dire Straits in the autumn of 1977, with his brother David, John Ilsley (bass) and Pick Withers (drums).

The band is learnt to have got its name thanks to its perpetual financial trouble.

Their first album "Dire Straits" hit the stores in 1978 and took hold of music buffs across the world. And their second album "Brothers in Arms" turned out to be an all-time hit in the mid-1980s.

During his quarter century of musical life, Knopfler has collaborated with the likes of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Randy Newman, Buddy Guy, Tina Turner and Eric Clapton.

Knopfler also scored music for numerous Hollywood films, including "The Princess Bride", "Last Exit To Brooklyn", "Metroland, "Wag The Dog" and "A Shot At Glory."