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The album’s lead single, ‘Private Investigations’, a moody, seven-minute semi-spoken piece, became the group’s biggest single hit to date, reaching No. Dense, atmospheric and unusual ‘Telegraph Road’ demonstrated how far outside the mainstream Knopfler was happy to work. Releasing an album with a 14-minute opening track in 1982 was not exactly fashionable, but then that was something Dire Straits never worried about.
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Love Over Goldshowed the group developing further. The group’s sound was becoming more expansive, and the presence of keyboard player Roy Bittan added a touch of Bruce Springsteen’s sound into the mix. Recorded with Jimmy Iovine, the album contained Knopfler’s next classic, ‘Romeo And Juliet’, a perfect everyman love song that became a worldwide hit, as well as stage favourites ‘Tunnel Of Love’ and ‘Solid Rock’. Wexler had been impressed, as he wrote in his autobiography, “Mark Knopfler is a remarkably versatile guitarist and a luminous musical mind – Dire Straits was an example of how funky Englishmen can be when they pay attention.ĭavid Knopfler was to leave the group in 1980 during sessions for their next album, Making Movies. Although a sizeable hit at the time, it has been somewhat overlooked because of the scale of what went before and what was to happen next. Produced by R&B legend Jerry Wexler, Dire Straits’ second album, Communique, is the great, unearthed gem in their catalogue. Such was their success that Bob Dylan invited Mark Knopfler and Pick Withers to play on his Slow Train Coming album. In the US they became a critical and commercial sensation. 5 in the UK charts and stayed on the listings for a remarkable 132 weeks. The re-released ‘Sultans Of Swing ‘ became an enormous hit, and increasing numbers enjoyed the mellow jaggedness of the group’s debut. It was only when Warner Brothers became interested in the band in the US, and their concerts over there were well-received, that word began to spread back to their home country. Released in mid-1978, their self-titled debut album seemed somewhat out of kilter with the times, and indeed, after a modest beginning, did not initially perform strongly in the UK. A review of one of their January 1978 gigs, by Chas DeWhalley in Sounds, quickly spotted Mark Knopfler’s greatness, saying he “leads his four-piece band twisting and turning his body, jabbing his elbows and bending his fingers into the most fearsome of chordal inversions and then slipping in and out of the rhythms like an escapologist extraordinaire.” The group supported Talking Heads on tour, and Straits’ chippy, angular take on artists such as JJ Cale chimed with the times. Dire Straits emerged at the time of new wave, and to the untrained eye, looked hardly any different to the premier art-punk bands of the day, Television and Talking Heads. On the strength of the tape, by October 1977 the group had signed with Phonogram Records, enlisting veteran producer Muff Winwood to produce their first album. A unique mixture of rock, country, soul and funk, they were championed by BBC London DJ Charlie Gillett, who heard their five-song demo tape and played it on his Honky Tonk show. With Knopfler’s stockpile of songs, they enlisted Pick Withers on drums and were christened Dire Straits by a friend of Withers. In April 1977, Mark Knopfler moved to Deptford, South London, to join David, and his flatmate, John Illsley, who was proficient on bass. David Knopfler, who had been to Bristol Polytechnic, came to London to work as a social worker. While Knopfler taught at Loughton College, he kept his hand in with pub band, Cafe Racers. He recorded with them and made the acquaintance of their drummer, Pick Withers. Relocating to London, Knopfler joined Brewer’s Droop after answering an advert in Melody Maker. It was during this period that Knopfler and Steve Philips formed a duo, The Duolian String Pickers. At the turn of the 1970s, Knopfler went to study English at Leeds University.
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In 1967 Mark studied journalism at Harlow Technical College, and subsequently became a junior reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post. Both brothers were enchanted by music: Mark joined various school outfits and David was singing in folk clubs by his mid-teens. Mark Knopfler was born in Glasgow on 12 August 1949, before relocating with his family to Blyth, Northumberland at the age of seven, where he attended Gosforth Grammar School with his younger brother David.