| Dire Straits | |
|---|---|
 Playing in Norway in October 1985
From L-R, Guy Fletcher (behind), John Illsley, Mark Knopfler & Jack Sonni |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Newcastle, England |
| Genre(s) | Rock |
| Years active | 1977–1995 |
| Label(s) | Phonogram, Vertigo, Warner Bros. (U.S.) |
| Associated acts | The Notting Hillbillies, Michael Brecker |
| Former members | |
| Mark Knopfler John Illsley Alan Clark Guy Fletcher David Knopfler Pick Withers Hal Lindes Terry Williams Jack Sonni |
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Dire Straits were a British rock band, formed in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead guitar and vocals), his younger brother David Knopfler (guitar), John Illsley (bass), and Pick Withers (drums), and managed by Ed Bicknell. Although the band was formed in an era when punk rock reigned, Dire Straits played a more conventional style, albeit with a stripped-down sound that appealed to modern audiences weary of the overproduced stadium rock of the 1970s. In their early days, Mark and David requested that pub owners turn down the amps so that patrons could converse while the band played — indicative of their unassuming demeanor. Despite this oddly self-effacing approach to rock and roll, Dire Straits soon became hugely successful, with their first album going multi-platinum globally.
Throughout Dire Straits' career Mark Knopfler was always the songwriter and also the driving force behind the group. The band's best-known songs include "Sultans of Swing", "Romeo and Juliet", "Tunnel of Love", "Telegraph Road", "Private Investigations", "Money for Nothing", "Walk of Life", "So Far Away", "Brothers in Arms" and "Calling Elvis".
Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date.[1][2]
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Dire Straits (so called due to the financial condition in which the four band members were living in at the time), recorded a five-song demo tape, which included their future single "Sultans of Swing". They took the tape to deejay Charlie Gillett, who had a radio show called "Honky Tonk" on BBC Radio London. Originally, they just wanted some feedback from Gillett, but he liked the music so much, that he played "Sultans of Swing" on the radio. Two months later, Dire Straits signed a recording contract with Phonogram Records.[3]
The group's first album, Dire Straits, was recorded at Basing Street studios (now Sarm West) near Portobello Road in West London in February 1978 (during the reign of punk rock) at a cost of £12,500.[4] Produced by Muff Winwood, the album had little promotion when initially released in the United Kingdom on Vertigo Records, a division of Phonogram, and was not well received. However, the album came to the attention of Karin Berg, an assistant in the artists and repertoire (A&R) department of Warner Bros. Records in New York City. She felt that it was the kind of music that audiences were hungry for, but only one person in her department agreed at first. "Other people didn't hear it. The act was doing poorly in the UK, and the record wasn't getting air play".[5]
In 1978, Dire Straits began touring the United Kingdom, as the opening band for the Talking Heads. After debut single "Sultans of Swing" started to climb the UK charts when re-released, the group went on their own headlining tour. This led to a US recording contract with Warner Bros. Records, and before the end 1978, Dire Straits had released their self-titled debut worldwide. They received more attention in the United States and landed at the top of the charts in Australia and New Zealand, and their debut album eventually went top 10 in every European country.[6]
The following year, Dire Straits performed in their first North American tour. They played 51 sold-out concerts over a 38-day period. "Sultans of Swing" scaled the charts to number four in the United States and number eight in the United Kingdom. "Sultans of Swing" remains one of Dire Straits' biggest hits, and went on to become a very popular live song throughout the band's career. Bob Dylan, who had seen the band play in Los Angeles, was so impressed that he invited Mark Knopfler and drummer Pick Withers to play on his next album, Slow Train Coming.
Recording sessions for the group's second album, Communiqué, took place in December 1978 at Compass Point Studio in Nassau. Released in June 1979, Communiqué was produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett, and went to number one on the German album charts with Dire Straits simultaneously at number three. The singles released included "Lady Writer" and "Angel of Mercy". The album continued in a similar monochromatic vein as the first album for the most part, if somewhat more polished sonically, and expanding the scope of Knopfler's storytelling through the moody, elegiac opening track "Once Upon a Time in the West".[7]
However, a year later this approach would change, along with the group's lineup.
In October 1980, Dire Straits released their third album, the aptly titled Making Movies. While the recording of the album was still in progress, rhythm guitarist David Knopfler departed from the band to pursue a solo career. With the group's size scaled down, Sid McGinnis filled in on rhythm guitar as the sessions continued. The album also featured keyboardist Roy Bittan from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and was produced by Knopfler with Jimmy Iovine. Keyboardist Alan Clark and Californian guitarist Hal Lindes joined Dire Straits as full time musicians after the recording sessions were completed.[8]
Although Mark played on one track on his younger brother David's first solo album, the two men have not played together again over the years.
Making Movies marked a move towards (largely) longer songs, with more complex arrangements and production, which would continue for the remainder of the band's career. The most successful chart single from the album was "Romeo and Juliet", while the album's lengthy (over 8 minutes long) opening track, "Tunnel Of Love" (with its intro "The Carousel Waltz" written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II), was one of the group's biggest hits and went on to become another of their most popular live songs. Making Movies reached number 4 in the album charts in the United Kingdom.
Dire Straits' fourth studio album Love over Gold, was well received when it was released in September 1982, and reached number 1 in the United Kingdom. The title was inspired by graffiti seen from the window of Knopfler's old council flat in Deptford, SE London. Comprised of lengthy atmospheric instrumentals, it was also the first Dire Straits album produced solely by Mark Knopfler. Its main chart hit, "Private Investigations", gave Dire Straits their first top 5 hit single in the United Kingdom, where it reached the number two position despite its almost seven-minute length (it was kept off the number one position by the Survivor hit Eye of the Tiger),[9] and became another of the band's most popular live songs. In other parts of the world, "Industrial Disease" was the main single from the album, particularly in Canada where it became a top 10 hit. As well as the album's title track, Love Over Gold featured the epic (over 14 minutes long) "Telegraph Road", the lyrics of which tell the sad story of the decline of an industrial town. Love over Gold reportedly sold two million copies in the first six weeks of its release.
Shortly after the release of Love Over Gold, drummer Pick Withers left the band for a jazz career. His replacement was Terry Williams, formerly of Rockpile.
In 1983, a four-song EP titled ExtendedancEPlay was released while Love Over Gold was still in the album charts. It featured the hit single "Twisting By the Pool" which reached the Top 20 in the UK. Dire Straits also embarked on a world tour. This was followed in 1984 by the double live album, Alchemy, a recording of two live concerts of the group at London's Hammersmith Odeon in June, 1983, and reportedly was released au naturel, with no studio overdubs on the live material. At the time, the concert was also issued on VHS video.
During 1983 and 1984 Mark Knopfler was also involved in other projects outside of the band. He wrote the music score for the films Local Hero (released in 1983), and Cal (released in 1984), the original soundtracks to both of which became available immediately on album.
At the end of 1984 Dire Straits started recording tracks at Air Studios, Montserrat for their fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms, released in 1985 and produced by Mark Knopfler with Neil Dorfsman. There were further personnel changes, with the addition of a second keyboardist, Guy Fletcher, who had previously worked as a session musician with Roxy Music among other artists.[10] Guitarist Hal Lindes left the band suddenly during the recording sessions. His place was taken by Jack Sonni although Sonni was not credited as an official band member for the new album release. American jazz fusion drummer Omar Hakim joined Terry Williams on drums: both are credited as band members for the album.[11]
Brothers In Arms went on to become the biggest-selling album of 1985 in the United Kingdom, and was a huge hit internationally. It spawned several chart singles: "Money for Nothing" (which reached number one in the United States and number four in the United Kingdom), "So Far Away", "Brothers In Arms", "Walk of Life", and "Your Latest Trick". "Money for Nothing" was the first video ever to be played on MTV in Britain, and featured guest vocals by Sting from The Police (who also co-wrote the song with Mark Knopfler). It also won a Grammy for the Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with a Vocal in 1985 at the 28th annual Grammy Awards.[12]
The album's title track is reported to be the world's first CD single. It was issued in the United Kingdom in two separate singles as a promotional item, one distinguished with a logo for the tour, Live in '85, and a second to commemorate the Australian leg of the tour marked Live in '86. Containing just four tracks, it had a very limited print run. Meanwhile, "Walk of Life" was the band's most commercially successful single in the United Kingdom, peaking at number two. "Money for Nothing," "Walk of Life" and "Brothers In Arms" all went on to become regular live favorites in the group's concerts from this point on.
The commercial success of Brothers in Arms was greatly aided by the fact that the album was one of the first fully digitally recorded and produced albums available in the then new Compact Disc format, leading early adopters of the new technology to consider it a "must buy" album in a limited landscape of available music in CD format. The Brothers in Arms CD was one of the first CD albums to contain material not found on the LP equivalent; it featured the full 12" version of the "Money for Nothing" cut, rather than the version that appears on the LP. In fact, the CD includes extended versions of all tracks featured on the first side of the original LP, with the exception of "Walk of Life". The new compact disc offered an excellent showcase for Knopfler's meticulous production values on the group's previous albums, leading many existing fans to repurchase the group's entire back catalogue.
The 1985–86 world tour which followed the album's release was phenomenally successful. While playing a 13-night residency at Wembley Arena, the band moved down the road to Wembley Stadium on the afternoon of 13 July 1985 to appear in Live Aid. Their set included "Money For Nothing" with Sting as guest vocalist. The tour ended at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, Australia, where Dire Straits still holds the record for consecutive appearances (21 nights). The last show of this extended stay in Sydney was recorded and broadcast on Australian and New Zealand television, and is well known for the one-off calypso rendition of "So Far Away" and the band's impromptu attempt at the famous Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda". In a two-year span, Dire Straits played 247 shows in over 100 different cities.
Additionally in 1985, a walk set out from London to Khartoum to raise money for famine relief led by John Abbey, was called the Walk of Life. Dire Straits donated the Brothers in Arms Gold disc to the walkers in recognition of what they were doing.
In the United States Brothers in Arms was similarly successful, peaking at No. 1 on Billboard magazine's Top Pop Albums Chart for nine weeks, going multi-platinum, and finishing at No. 5 for 1986.
Brothers in Arms was certified nine times platinum in August 1996. In 2005 it was re-released in Super Audio CD format and DualDisc format, to mark the 20th anniversary since the album's original release. The 20th anniversary edition won a Grammy for Best Surround Sound Album. A recent poll conducted in the United Kingdom revealed that Brothers in Arms is the 5th best-selling album there of all time.
The hugely successful Brothers in Arms tour ended in 1986, and during 1987 Mark Knopfler concentrated on solo projects and film soundtracks. Dire Straits regrouped for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in 1988 at Wembley Stadium, in which they were the headline act. In the absence of guitarist Jack Sonni, they were joined for their set by Eric Clapton [13] (who performed his hit "Wonderful Tonight" with the group and played rhythm guitar on "Romeo and Juliet" and "Sultans of Swing"). Soon afterwards, drummer Terry Williams departed from the band.
In September 1988 Dire Straits disbanded, at least temporarily. The tremendous success of the Brothers in Arms album and the tour that went with it left the band members under a significant amount of stress, and Knopfler announced the group's official dissolution, saying that he "needed a rest".[14] Following this a greatest hits album, Money for Nothing, was released in October 1988 and reached #1 in the United Kingdom.
Additionally in 1988,[15] over a meal at a Notting Hill wine bar, Knopfler formed The Notting Hillbillies, a more country-focused band whose line-up featured keyboardist Guy Fletcher, along with Brendan Croker and Steve Phillips. The Notting Hillbillies sole studio album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time (featuring a minor hit single "Your Own Sweet Way"), was released in 1990. Knopfler and Fletcher worked and toured with the Notting Hillbillies for the remainder of that year.
Knopfler and Fletcher returned to Dire Straits at the end of 1990, after the tour with the Notting Hillbillies had ended. However, Knopfler would continue to further emphasize his country music influences with his 1990s collaboration with Chet Atkins.
In January 1991 Knopfler, John Illsley and manager Ed Bicknell decided to reform Dire Straits. With the departure of Jack Sonni and drummer Terry Williams, the regrouped band now comprised four members: Knopfler, Illsley, and keyboardists Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher.
The band members began recording tracks for a new album, and were accompanied by other part-time musicians including Paul Franklin, Danny Cummings, Chris White, and Phil Palmer. For the recording sessions Williams' place was taken by the highly respected American drummer Jeff Porcaro from Toto (who after recording was offered a full-time role in the band, but turned down the invitation to join due to recording commitments to Toto).
The result was the band's final original studio album, On Every Street, which was finally released in September 1991, six years after the release of Brothers in Arms. On Every Street was a widely anticipated release, but met with mixed reviews and moderate success and unlike its predecessor, produced only minor hit singles. The opening track on the album, "Calling Elvis" was the first single release in the United Kingdom, peaking inside the Top 30 in the single charts. In the UK there were three further tracks released from the album as singles, the last of which was "The Bug", which contains backing vocals by Vince Gill (who was also invited to join the band full time and declined). The new album was regarded by some reviewers as an underwhelming follow up and did not sell anywhere near as well as Brothers in Arms, however it still reached the number 1 position in the United Kingdom.
Session drummer Chris Whitten (who had played with Paul McCartney's band) joined Dire Straits when they embarked on a gruelling world tour to promote On Every Street, which lasted until the end of 1992. What was to be the group's final tour not as successful as the previous world tour in 1985–1986, and by this time Mark Knopfler had had enough of such massive operations. This drove the band into the ground, and ultimately led to the final breakup of Dire Straits in 1995.[16] The last concert in this tour (and the final concert of the group on tour) took place on 9 October 1992 in Zaragoza, Spain. A live album, On the Night, was released in 1993, documenting the tour. As with On Every Street, the On The Night release met with mixed reviews, and was regarded by some reviewers as an inferior successor to the group's other live album, Alchemy.
Dire Straits released one last album in 1995, Live at the BBC, as a contractual album release to Vertigo Records. The group's third and final live album was a collection of live recordings spanning the years 1978-81, which mostly featured the original lineup of the band, including David Knopfler and original drummer Pick Withers. After that album's release, Mark Knopfler laid Dire Straits to rest and launched a solo career.
Having expressed the desire to give up touring on a big scale, Mark Knopfler quietly dissolved Dire Straits in 1995. The band's popularity had peaked with Brothers in Arms; the On Every Street album and the gruelling world tour that accompanied it had not been the success that they thought it should have been. The group's final tour had also taken its toll on the band.[17]
In 1996 Knopfler started his career as a solo artist, and would also begin writing movie scores once again. During that same year, the entire Dire Straits catalogue was remastered by Bob Ludwig, and re-released on CD in most of the world outside the United States. The remasters were released in September 2000 in the United States. Three 'Best of' albums have been released: Money for Nothing (1988) was followed ten years later by Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits.
The four piece band reunited for one last time on 19 June 1999, playing five songs (including a performance of Chuck Berry's Nadine) for John Illsley's wedding, with Ed Bicknell on drums.[18]
In 2002 former Dire Straits members John Illsley, Chris White, Danny Cummings and Guy Fletcher joined with Mark Knopfler for four charity concerts. Brendan Croker joined Mark during the first half, playing mainly material composed with The Notting Hillbillies. Croker left at half time and Illsley replaced him for a Dire Straits session, towards the end of which, at the Shepherd's Bush concert at least, Jimmy Nail came on to provide backing vocals for Knopfler's solo composition "Why Aye Man".
The most recent compilation, called The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations, was released in November 2005. Featuring material from the majority of Dire Straits' studio albums as well as Mark Knopfler's solo and soundtrack material, it was released in two editions, a single CD (with a grey cover) and a double CD (blue cover). The only previously unreleased track on the album, All The Roadrunning, is a duet with country music singer Emmylou Harris. The album was well-received as an underground hit, considering Dire Straits had broken up over 10 years prior to its release.
2005 also saw the limited edition release of the 20th anniversary edition of the Brothers in Arms album, which was also a success, winning a Grammy award for Best Surround Sound Album.
Since Dire Straits disbanded Mark Knopfler has shown no interest in reforming his old band, although the keyboardist, Guy Fletcher, has been associated with almost every piece of Knopfler's solo material to date, and Danny Cummings has also made frequent appearances.[19] In 2007 Knopfler said in an interview that he did not miss the global fame that came his way at the height of the band's success, explaining that "It just got too big".[20]
In October 2008, John Illsley told the BBC he would be interested in a reunion tour for Dire Straits, saying that "We've definitely got one more tour in us", however he also suggested that Knopfler does not have any interest in reforming the group at present due to his continued success as a solo artist.[21] Knopfler declined when Illsley attempted to persuade him to reform Dire Straits, saying "Oh, I don't know whether to start getting all that stuff back together again", to which he added "If anyone can tell me one good thing about fame, I'd be very interested to hear it".[22]
Notable Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler fans include the late Princess Diana, Lancaster University politics guru Robert Patterson, eminent historian Sophie Dover, Quentin Tarantino, Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and the band The Killers, who performed a cover of "Romeo and Juliet" for the Live from Abbey Road series. The band System of a Down sometimes plays a part from "Sultans Of Swing" on their live concerts, as an intro for their song called "Aerials", and even Metallica played "Brothers In Arms" live on the 21st Annual Bridge School Benefit.
While the band has a legendary longevity and influence, it has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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