Dire Straits were a British rock band from 1977 to 1995. They comprised Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), his younger brother David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Pick Withers (drums and percussion). Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest to beat music within the context of rock and roll. Despite the prominence of punk rock during the band's early years, the band's stripped-down sound contrasted with punk, demonstrating a more "rootsy" influence that emerged out of pub rock. Many of Dire Straits' compositions were melancholic. Dire Straits became one of the world's most commercially successful bands, and sold over 120 million albums worldwide. The band's best-selling album, ''Brothers in Arms'', has sold over 30 million copies.

Dire Straits won numerous music awards during their career, including three BRIT Awards, four Grammys, and two MTV Video Music Awards. 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".

History

1977–1979: Early years and first two albums

Mark Knopfler, his younger brother David Knopfler, John Illsley, and Pick Withers formed the band in 1977. In 1977, 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 hit single, "Sultans of Swing", as well as "Water of Love", "Down to the Waterline", "Wild West End" and David Knopfler's "Sacred Loving". 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.

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. 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; representative 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. 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.

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 also 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.

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''.

Recording sessions for the group's second album, ''Communiqué'', took place in December 1978 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. 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". In the coming year, however, this approach began to change, along with the group's lineup.

1980–1984: Increased musical complexity

In 1980, Dire Straits were nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Sultans Of Swing". In July 1980 the band started recording tracks for their third album. Produced by Jimmy Iovine with Mark Knopfler also sharing credit, ''Making Movies'' was released in October 1980. 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. The sessions continued with Sid McGinnis on rhythm guitar and keyboardist Roy Bittan from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. 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.

''Making Movies'' featured longer songs with more complex arrangements, a style which would continue for the rest of the band's career. The album featured many of Mark Knopfler's most personal compositions. The most successful chart single was "Romeo and Juliet" (number 8 in the UK singles chart), a song about a failed love affair becoming one of Knopfler's best-loved songs, with a trademark he developed keeping personal songs under fictitious names. 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 favourite at live concerts. ''Making Movies'' stayed in the UK Albums Chart for 5 years, peaking at number 4.

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.

In other parts of the world, "Industrial Disease", a song that looks at the decline of the British manufacturing industry in the early 1980s, focusing on strikes, depression and dysfunctionality, was the main single from the album, particularly in Canada, where it became a top 10 hit. As well as the title track and "It Never Rains", ''Love Over Gold'' featured the 14-minute-long epic "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. The double album ''Alchemy Live'', a recording of two live concerts of the group at London's Hammersmith Odeon in July 1983, was released in March 1984. Reportedly released without studio overdubs, it was one of the first albums to be released on Compact Disc Format in the UK and it reached the Top 3 in the UK Albums Chart. The concert was also issued on VHS and was remastered and released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010 – 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. 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 Williams contributed.

1985–1986: The ''Brothers in Arms'' era and international success

According to a ''Sound on Sound'' magazine interview with Neil Dorfsman, a month after the recording sessions began drummer Terry Williams was felt to be unsuitable for the desired sound of the album, and he was temporarily replaced by jazz session drummer, Omar Hakim, who recorded all the drums for the album tracks during a two day stay before leaving for other commitments. Both Hakim and Williams are credited on the album, 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 number 1 in the U.S. on the ''Billboard'' 100, and number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, "So Far Away" (#19 U.S.), "Brothers In Arms" (#16 U.K.), "Walk of Life" (#7 U.S., #2 U.K.), 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, who co-wrote the song with Mark Knopfler. It also won Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with a Vocal in 1985 at the 28th annual Grammy Awards.

''Brothers in Arms'' was among the first albums recorded on digital equipment due to Knopfler pushing for improved sound quality. 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.

"Walk of Life" meanwhile was nearly excluded from the album when co-producer Neil Dorfsman voted against its inclusion, but the band members out-voted him. The result was Dire Straits' most commercially successful hit 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, and is largely credited for launching the CD format as it was also one of the first DDD 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, 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 (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. In August 1986, MTV Europe was launched with Dire Straits "Money for Nothing".

1987–1990: First break-up

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". 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. A greatest hits album, ''Money for Nothing'', was released in October 1988 and reached the number one position in the United Kingdom.

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, 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''.

In 1990, Dire Straits performed alongside Elton John and Eric Clapton at Knebworth Festival, playing three songs: "Solid Rock", "Money for Nothing" and a song which Knopfler prefaced as an experimental song, unsure if they should record it on a following record. The song, titled, "I Think I Love You Too Much", a blues rock piece with solos by both Knopfler and Clapton. This was prior to the time that Knopfler, Illsley and manager Ed Bicknell decided to reform the band the following year.

1991–1995: Resurrection, final albums and final dissolution

Dire Straits released their final studio album ''On Every Street'', in September 1991, which, although a highly anticipated release, met with more moderate success and mixed reviews, as well as a significantly reduced audience, despite Dire Straits' previous international success. Some reviewers including the All Music Guide dubbed ''On Every Street'' as an 'underwhelming' follow-up to ''Brothers in Arms''. However, it still managed to sell 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, 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 as a sideman when the band 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". 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 rose to 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. 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.

1996–present

''Brothers in Arms'' was certified nine times platinum in the U.S. in August 1996. 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.

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, ''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.

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.

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, including on Knopfler's last three solo album releases ''All the Roadrunning'' (with Emmylou Harris), ''Kill to Get Crimson'' and ''Get Lucky''. 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".

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". 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".

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.

Popularity

Band members

Discography

Studio albums

Awards

Award nominations

References

External links

Category:English rock music groups Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1995 Category:Musical groups established in 1977 Category:Music from Newcastle upon Tyne Category:Dire Straits