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Dire StraitsBrothers In ArmsCalling ElvisExpresso LoveHeavy FuelLady WriterLove Over GoldMoney For NothingPrivate InvestigationsSkateawaySo Far AwaySolid RockSultans Of SwingThe BugTwisting By The PoolTwo Young LoversWalk Of LifeWild West EndYour Latest Trick
Dire Straits built their sound upon the laid-back blues-rock of J.J. Cale, but they also had jazz and country inflections, occasionally dipping into the epic song structures of progressive rock. The band's music was offset by Knopfler's lyrics, which approximated the winding, stream-of-conscious narratives of Bob Dylan. As their career progressed, Dire Straits became more refined and their new maturity happened to coincide with the rise of MTV and the compact disc. These two musical revolutions from the mid '80s helped make Dire Straits' best selling album Brothers in Arms an international blockbuster which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and is the fourth best selling album in UK Chart history.[2][3] Along with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and Steve Winwood, Dire Straits became one of the leaders of a group of self-consciously mature veteran rock & rollers in the late '80s that designed their music to appeal to ageing baby boomers.[4] Throughout their history, Mark Knopfler was the songwriter and driving force behind the group. Dire Straits won numerous music awards during their career, including three BRIT Awards, four Grammys, and two MTV Video Music Awards.[1] Dire Straits' most popular songs include: "Sultans of Swing", "Romeo and Juliet", "Tunnel of Love", "Private Investigations", "Money for Nothing", "Walk of Life", "So Far Away" and "Brothers in Arms". Mark Knopfler, his younger brother David Knopfler,
John Illsley, and Pick Withers formed the band in 1977.[5] Dire
Straits (a name given to the band by a musician flatmate of drummer
Pick Withers), recorded a five-song demo tape which included their
future massive worldwide hit single, "Sultans of Swing", during 1977. They took the tape to DJ Charlie Gillett, who had a radio show
called "Honky Tonkin" on BBC Radio London. The band simply wanted advice, but Gillett liked the music
so much that he played "Sultans of Swing" on his show. Two months later, Dire Straits signed a recording contract with
Phonogram Records.[6] In October 1977, the band recorded demo tapes of "Southbound Again", "In the Gallery" and "Six Blade Knife" for BBC Radio London; in November demo tapes were made of "Setting Me Up", "Eastbound Train" and "Real Girl". The group's first album, Dire Straits, was recorded at Basing Street studios in West London in February 1978, at a cost of £12,500.[7] 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 A&R rep Karin Berg working at Warner Bros. Records in New York City. She felt that it was the kind of music audiences were hungry for, but only one person in her department agreed at first.[7] Many of the songs on the album reflected Mark Knopfler's experiences in Newcastle, Leeds and London. "Down to the Waterline" recalled images of life in Newcastle; "In the Gallery" is a tribute to a Leeds sculptor/artist named Harry Phillips (father of Steve Phillips); "Wild West End" and "Lions" were drawn from Knopfler's early days in the capital.[8][9] That same year, Dire Straits began a tour as opening band for the Talking Heads after the re-released "Sultans of Swing" finally started to climb the UK charts. This led to a United States recording contract with Warner Bros. Records; before the end of 1978, Dire Straits had released their self-titled debut worldwide. They received more attention in the United States, but additionally arrived at the top of the charts in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The album, Dire Straits eventually went top 10 in every European country.[6] The following year, Dire Straits embarked on 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. The song was one of Dire Straits' biggest hits and became a fixture in the band's live performances. 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.[10] 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 #1 on the German album charts,
with the debut album Dire Straits simultaneously at #3. Featuring
the single "Lady Writer", the second album continued in a similar monochromatic vein as the first, if
somewhat more polished, and displayed the expanding scope of Knopfler's
lyricism on the opening track, "Once Upon a Time in the West".[11] In the coming year, however, this approach began to change, along with
the group's lineup. In 1980, Dire Straits were nominated for 2 Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Sultans Of Swing".[12] The band returned to the recording studios from July to August 1980 record tracks for their third album, Making Movies, which was released in October of that year. During the recording sessions tension between Mark and David Knopfler took its toll on the band, and David Knopfler left over creative differences with his brother to pursue a solo career; he was uncredited on the album.[13] The sessions continued with Sid McGinnis on rhythm guitar and keyboardist Roy Bittan from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. The album was produced by Jimmy Iovine with Knopfler also sharing credit. After the recording sessions were completed, keyboardist Alan Clark and Californian guitarist Hal Lindes joined Dire Straits as full-time members for tours of Europe and North America.[7] Making Movies featured longer songs with more complex arrangements, a style which would continue for the rest of the band's career. The most successful chart single was "Romeo and Juliet" (number 8 in the UK singles charts), while the album's lengthy opening track, "Tunnel of Love", with its intro "The Carousel Waltz" by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, was featured in the film An Officer and a Gentleman and became one of the group's best loved songs as well as a favorite at live concerts. Making Movies reached number 4 on the UK album charts.[14] Dire Straits' fourth studio album Love Over Gold, an album of songs filled with lengthy, experimental passages, was well-received when it was released in September 1982, going gold in America and spending four weeks at number one in the United Kingdom. The title was inspired by graffiti seen from the window of Knopfler's old council flat in London. The phrase was taken from the sleeve of an album by Captain Beefheart. Love Over Gold was the first Dire Straits album produced solely by Mark Knopfler, and its main chart hit, "Private Investigations", gave Dire Straits their first top 5 hit single in the United Kingdom, where it reached the number 2 position despite its almost seven-minute length, and became another of the band's most popular live songs.[15] 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 title track, Love Over Gold featured the 14-minutes-long "Telegraph Road", the lyrics of which tell of the boom and bust of the American city of Detroit. Love over Gold reportedly sold two million copies during the first six weeks after its release. Shortly after the release of Love Over Gold, drummer Pick Withers left the band. His replacement was Terry Williams, formerly of Rockpile and a range of other Welsh bands including the legendary Man. 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 and Canada. Dire Straits also embarked on a world tour. This was followed in 1984 by the double album, Alchemy, a recording of two live concerts of the group at London's Hammersmith Odeon in June, 1983.[16] It reportedly was released without studio overdubs. It was one of the first Albums to be released on Compact Disc Format in UK and the concert was also issued on VHS and subsequently remastered and released on Blu-Ray – the only performance on the new format to date. During 1983 and 1984 Mark Knopfler was also involved in other projects outside of the band. He wrote the music scores for the films Local Hero and Cal, which were also released as albums.[17] Also during this time Knopfler produced Bob Dylan's Infidels album, as well as Aztec Camera and Willy DeVille; he also wrote Private Dancer for Tina Turner's comeback album of the same name. Also in 1984, John Illsley released his first
solo album, Never Told a Soul, to which Mark Knopfler and Terry
Williams contributed. Dire Straits returned to the recording studios at the end of 1984, when they began recording tracks at Air Studios Montserrat for their fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms, produced by 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 and on the Cal soundtrack.[7] Guitarist Hal Lindes left the band during the recording sessions. New York guitarist Jack Sonni took his place although he was not credited as an official band member for the new album release.[18] According to a Sound on Sound magazine interview with Neil Dorfsman, a month after the recording sessions began drummer Terry Williams' performance was found to be unsuitable for the desired sound of the album, and he was temporarily replaced by one of the most popular jazz session drummers of the time, Omar Hakim, who recorded the entire drum parts for the album in two days and then left.[19] Both Hakim and Williams are credited on the album,[20] although Williams' only contribution is the improvised crescendo at the beginning of "Money for Nothing". The remainder of the album features Hakim on drums, but Williams would be back in the band for the music videos and the subsequent world tour. Released in May 1985, Brothers In Arms went on to become the best-selling album of that year in the United Kingdom and was a huge hit internationally. It spawned several chart singles: "Money for Nothing", which reached #1 in the U.S. on the Billboard 100, and #4 in the UK Singles Chart, "So Far Away" (#19 U.S.), "Brothers In Arms", "Walk of Life" (#7 U.S.), and "Your Latest Trick".[12] "Money for Nothing" was the first video ever to be played on MTV in Britain and featured guest vocals by Sting from The Police. It also won Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with a Vocal in 1985 at the 28th annual Grammy Awards.[21] Brothers in Arms was among the first albums recorded on digital equipment due to Knopfler pushing for improved sound quality.[22] The album's title track is reported to be the world's first CD single. It was issued in the United Kingdom as a promotional item distinguished with a logo for the tour, Live in '85, while a second to commemorate the Australian leg of the tour marked Live in '86. Containing just four tracks, it had a very limited 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" immediately became live concert favorites. The commercial success of Brothers in Arms was greatly aided by the fact that the album was the first compact disc to sell a million copies,[23] and is largely credited for launching the CD format as it was also one of the first DDD[24] CDs ever released, leading early adopters of the new technology to consider it a "must buy" album. The Brothers in Arms CD was one of the first to contain material not found on the LP equivalent; it featured the full 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 1985–86 world tour which followed the album's release was phenomenally successful. Saxophonist Chris White joined the band, and the tour began on 25 April 1985 in Split, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). 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 a Live Aid slot,[25] in which their set included "Money For Nothing" with Sting as guest vocalist. The band's 10 July 1985 concert at Wembley Arena, in which they were accompanied by Nils Lofgren for "Solid Rock" and Hank Marvin joined the band at the end to play "Going Home" (the theme from "Local Hero"), was televised in the United Kingdom on The Tube on Channel 4 in January 1986[26] (and was issued in 2005 on DVD as Wembley does the Walk). The tour ended at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, Australia, where Dire Straits still holds the record for consecutive appearances at 21 nights. The last show of this extended stay in Sydney in April 1986 was recorded and broadcast on Australian and New Zealand television and is well-known for the one-off calypso rendition of "So Far Away". The band also made an 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 group 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 participants in recognition of what they were doing. Brothers in Arms was similarly successful in the
USA, peaking at No. 1 on Billboard magazine's Top Pop Albums Chart
for nine weeks, going multi-platinum, selling nine million copies.[12][27]
In August 1986, MTV Europe was launched with Dire Straits "Money for Nothing".[28] After the Brothers in Arms tour ended Mark Knopfler took a break from Dire Straits and during 1987 he concentrated on solo projects and film soundtracks. Dire Straits regrouped in 1988 for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, in which they were the headline act. They were joined for their set by Eric Clapton[29] who performed his hit "Wonderful Tonight" with the group and played rhythm guitar on "Romeo and Juliet" and "Sultans of Swing", while guitarist Jack Sonni was absent. Soon afterwards, Williams left the band. Mark Knopfler announced the official dissolution of Dire Straits in September 1988. He told Rob Tannenbaum in Rolling Stone: "A lot of press reports were saying we were the biggest band in the world. There's not an accent then on the music, there's an accent on popularity. I needed a rest".[30] 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 that he wanted to work on more personal projects.[6] A greatest hits album, Money for Nothing, was released in October 1988 and reached the number one position in the United Kingdom.[15] Also in 1988, John Illsley released his second solo album, Glass which featured Mark Knopfler, Alan Clark, Guy Fletcher and Chris White. In 1989, over a meal at a Notting Hill wine bar,[29] Knopfler formed The Notting Hillbillies, a country-focused band whose lineup featured Guy Fletcher, Brendan Croker, and Steve Phillips and manager Ed Bicknell on drums. The Notting Hillbillies' one album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time with its minor hit single "Your Own Sweet Way". was released in 1990. The Notting Hillbillies toured for the remainder of the year, and also appeared on Saturday Night Live. Knopfler would further emphasize his country music influences on his 1990 collaboration with guitarist Chet Atkins, Neck and Neck. Also in 1990, Dire Straits performed with Elton
John and Eric Clapton at Knebworth Festival, playing three songs: "Solid Rock", "Money for Nothing" and a never heard anywhere else cut "Think I Love You Too Much", before Knopfler, John Illsley and manager Ed Bicknell decided to reform the
band the following year.[31] In early 1991, Mark Knopfler, John Illsley and manager Ed Bicknell decided to resurrect Dire Straits. The reformed band now comprised four members: Knopfler, Illsley and keyboardists Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher.[31] Dire Straits began recording tracks for a new album, this time accompanied by other session musicians including steel guitarist Paul Franklin, and percussionist Danny Cummings. Saxophonist Chris White returned, guitarist Phil Palmer took the place of Jack Sonni, and for the recording sessions Terry Williams' place was taken by the highly respected American session drummer Jeff Porcaro, who was invited to join the band full-time but turned the invitation down time because of his commitment to Toto. Dire Straits released their final studio album On Every Street, in September 1991, which was a widely anticipated release, but met with more moderate success and mixed reviews, and by this time the band's audience had shrunk significantly, despite Dire Straits' previous international success. On Every Street was regarded by some reviewers as an 'underwhelming' follow-up to Brothers in Arms and it was less popular, however it sold 8 million copies, reaching number one in the United Kingdom and number 12 in the United States. The opening track "Calling Elvis" was the first single release in the United Kingdom (the video for this song was based on the 1960s television show Thunderbirds), and did not fare as well as the band's earlier singles, peaking inside the Top 30. This was followed by "Heavy Fuel" which failed to reach the Top 50 in the singles charts in the United Kingdom, however in the United States the track reached number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart,[32] their second song to do so (after "Money for Nothing"). The final single released from the album and from the band in the United Kingdom was "The Bug", which contains backing vocals by Vince Gill, who was also invited to join the band full time and declined. Session drummer Chris Whitten joined Dire Straits when they embarked on an extensive two-year, 300-show tour, playing in front of some 7.1 million ticket-buying fans. While musically more elaborate than the previous 1985–1986 world tour, the band's gruelling final tour was not as successful. It proved to be too much for Dire Straits, and by this time Mark Knopfler had had enough of such massive operations. This led to the group's second and final break-up. Bill Flanagan described the sequence of events in Gentleman's Quarterly: "The subsequent world tour lasted nearly two years, made mountains of money and drove Dire Straits into the ground. When the tour was over, both Knopfler's marriage and his band were gone".[33] The last stop on the tour and the final touring concert of the group took place on 9 October 1992 in Zaragoza, Spain. In May 1993 a live album documenting the tour, On the Night, was released, again to very mixed reviews. Nevertheless, it reached the UK Top 5, a rare achievement for a live album. The four track Encores EP was also released and managed to reach number one in the French singles chart. Having expressed a wish to give up touring on
a big scale, Mark Knopfler quietly dissolved Dire Straits in 1995.
The band's final album, Live at the BBC, was a contractual release
to Vertigo Records.[34] 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.[34] Having disbanded Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler started his career as a solo artist in 1996 after nearly 20 years of collaborations. Brothers in Arms was certified nine times platinum in the U.S. in August 1996.[12] 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. Knopfler, John Illsley, Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher reunited for one last time on 19 June 1999, with Ed Bicknell on drums, playing five songs including a performance of Chuck Berry's Nadine for Illsley's wedding.[35] In 2002, Mark Knopfler was joined by John Illsley, Guy Fletcher, Danny Cummings and Chris White for four charity concerts. Brendan Croker joined Knopfler during the first half, playing mainly material composed with The Notting Hillbillies. Illsley came on for a Dire Straits session, toward the end of which, at a Shepherd's Bush concert, Jimmy Nail came on to provide backing vocals for Knopfler's solo composition, "Why Aye Man". The most recent compilation, titled The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations, was released in November 2005 and reached the UK Top 20. 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 grey cover and a double CD in blue cover. The only previously unreleased track on the album, All The Roadrunning, is a duet with singer Emmylou Harris. The album was well-received as an underground hit. In 2005, Brothers in Arms was re-released in a limited 20th anniversary edition, which was a success, winning a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album at the 48th Grammy Awards ceremony.[36] Since the break-up of Dire Straits Mark Knopfler has shown no interest in reforming the band, although keyboardist Guy Fletcher has been associated with almost every piece of Knopfler's solo material to date. Danny Cummings has also made frequent appearances.[37] In 2007 Knopfler said he did not miss the global fame at the height of the band's success, explaining that "It just got too big".[38] In October 2008, John Illsley told the BBC that he wanted Knopfler to agree to reform Dire Straits for a comeback tour. Knopfler declined, saying that in the past he was often reluctant to reform the group and insisting that he "isn't even a fan of Dire Straits' early hits".[39][40] In the same interview, Illsley also suggested that Knopfler is enjoying his continued success as a solo artist, saying that "He's doing incredibly well as a solo artist, so hats off to him. He's having a perfectly good time doing what he's doing".[38] In December 2009, the band was commemorated with a Heritage Award from PRS for Music. A plaque was placed on a block of flats in Deptford, London, the location where Dire Straits played their first gig.[41] In January 2011, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council banned the uncut version of the band's 1985 hit "Money for Nothing" from Canadian Radio Airplay because the word "faggot" is used three times. A single complaint against Newfoundland Radio Station CHOZ-FM resulted in this decision from the Council.[42][43] About a week later, in response to numerous objections
to the ban from music fans around the world, the Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the government's regulatory
body for the broadcast industry, launched a review of the ban stating
that the context of the wording in the era of the song's original
popularity be taken into consideration.[44] One of the world's best selling music artists,
Dire Straits have sold over 120 million albums worldwide to date.[1]
In November 2009, Dire Straits were honoured by the new PRS for
Music Heritage Award. A special blue plaque was erected at Farrer
House, Church Street, Deptford, where the original group, Mark
Knopfler, David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers once shared
a council flat and performed their first ever gig in 1977. PRS
for Music has set up the Heritage Award to recognise the unusual "performance birthplaces" of famous bands and artists.[1] * Dire Straits (1978) [edit] Awards * BRIT Awards 1983 – Best British Group [edit] Award nominations * Grammy Awards 1980 – Best New Artist
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