1977–1979: Early years and first two albums heritage plaque commemorating Dire Straits' first performance in
Deptford, London Brothers
Mark and
David Knopfler were born in
Glasgow, Scotland, and grew up in
Blyth in the northeast of England. With
John Illsley and
Pick Withers, from
Leicester in the East Midlands, they formed Dire Straits in
Deptford, south east London, Withers was already a 10-year music business veteran, having been a session drummer for
Dave Edmunds,
Gerry Rafferty,
Magna Carta and others through the 1970s. He was the house drummer at Rockfield Studios in
Monmouthshire Illsley was studying at Goldsmiths' College, and David was a social worker. Mark and Withers had both been part of the pub rock group
Brewers Droop around 1973. The new band was initially known as the Café Racers. The name Dire Straits was coined by a musician
flatmate of Withers, allegedly thought up while they were rehearsing in the kitchen of a friend, Simon Cowe, of
Lindisfarne. In 1977, the group recorded a five-song demo tape which included their future hit single "
Sultans of Swing", as well as "
Water of Love" and "
Down to the Waterline". After a performance at the Rock Garden in 1977, they took a demo tape to MCA in Soho but were turned down. They sent a tape to DJ
Charlie Gillett, presenter of
Honky Tonk on
BBC Radio London. The group's first album,
Dire Straits, was recorded at
Basing Street studios in
Notting Hill, London, in February 1978, at a cost of £12,500. Produced by
Muff Winwood, it was first released in the United Kingdom on Vertigo Records, then a division of Phonogram Inc. It 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. That year, Dire Straits began a tour as opening band for
Talking Heads, after the re-released "Sultans of Swing" 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 US, but also arrived at the top of the charts in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
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 38 days. "
Sultans of Swing" scaled the charts to No. 4 in the US and No. 8 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 No. 1 on the German album charts, with the debut album
Dire Straits simultaneously at No. 3. In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at No. 5 in the album charts. Featuring the single "
Lady Writer", the second album continued in a similar vein to the first 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 line-up.
1980–1984: Making Movies, Love Over Gold and other side projects 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". The remaining trio continued the album, with a session guitarist
Sid McGinnis on rhythm guitar, although he was uncredited on the album, and
Roy Bittan from
Bruce Springsteen's
E Street Band guesting on keyboards. After the recording sessions, keyboardist
Alan Clark and Californian guitarist
Hal Lindes joined Dire Straits as full-time members for the
On Location tour of Europe, North America, and Oceania. Although never released as a single, "
Solid Rock" was featured in all Dire Straits' live shows from this point on for the remainder of their career, 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 1982
Richard Gere film
An Officer and a Gentleman. Although "Tunnel of Love" reached only no. 54 in the UK when released as a single in 1981, it remains one of Dire Straits' most famous and popular songs and immediately became a favourite live staple, entering the band’s concert repertoire from this point onwards.
Making Movies stayed in the
UK Albums Chart for five years, peaking at No. 4.
Rolling Stone ranked
Making Movies number 52 on its list of the "100 Best Albums of the Eighties". , June 1981 Dire Straits' fourth studio album,
Love Over Gold, filled with lengthy passages that featured Alan Clark's piano and keyboard work, 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 "
Telegraph Road". Also written by Knopfler during this period was "
Private Dancer", which did not appear on the album, but was eventually given to
Tina Turner for her comeback album of
the same name.
Love Over Gold reportedly sold two million copies during the first six weeks after its release. Shortly after the recording sessions 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
Man. , 1983 In January 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. The band won
Best British Group at the
1983 Brit Awards. Dire Straits embarked on the eight-month-long Love over Gold Tour, which finished with two concerts at London's
Hammersmith Odeon on 22 and 23 July 1983.
King Crimson saxophonist
Mel Collins and session keyboardist
Tommy Mandel, who had played with
Bryan Adams since 1981, joined the live lineup to help Clark cover his increasingly detailed keyboard parts and arrangements. The double album
Alchemy Live was a recording of excerpts from the final two concerts and was reportedly released without studio
overdubs. It was released in March 1984, reaching the Top 3 in the UK Albums Chart. During 1983 and 1984, Mark Knopfler was also involved with other projects outside of Dire Straits, some of which other band members contributed towards. Knopfler and Terry Williams contributed to
Phil Everly´s and
Cliff Richard´s UK hit single "
She Means Nothing To Me", released in early 1983, and Knopfler had also expressed his interest writing film music, and after producer
David Puttnam responded he wrote and produced the music score to the film
Local Hero. The album was released in April 1983 and received a
BAFTA Award nomination for
Best Original Film Music the following year. Alan Clark contributed significantly, and other Dire Straits members Illsley, Lindes and Williams played on one track, "Freeway Flyer", while
Gerry Rafferty sang lead vocals on "The Way It Always Starts". The closing track on the album and played during the credits in the film is the instrumental "
Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero" which was released as a single, and remains popular among football fans, especially those of Knopfler’s hometown club,
Newcastle United, as it is played as the team runs out before every home game. The track immediately became a popular live staple for Dire Straits, entering the band's repertoire from 1983 onwards. "Local Hero" was followed in 1984 by
Cal, which was also released on album and to which John Illsley and Terry Williams contributed, and
Comfort and Joy, which also featured contributions from Williams. Also, during this time Knopfler produced
Bob Dylan's
Infidels, which also featured Alan Clark, as well as albums for
Aztec Camera and
Willy DeVille. Also in 1984, John Illsley released his first solo album,
Never Told a Soul, to which Knopfler, Clark and Williams contributed. Knopfler also teamed up with
Bryan Ferry to contribute lead guitar to one track from his solo album
Boys and Girls, released in June 1985.
1985–1986: Brothers in Arms and international success At the end of 1984, Dire Straits began recording tracks at
George Martin's
AIR Studios in
Montserrat for their upcoming fifth studio album, to be titled
Brothers in Arms, with Mark Knopfler and
Neil Dorfsman producing. A feel-based drummer, Williams did not enjoy having to work with a click track, and neither Knopfler nor Dorfsman were happy with his playing in relation to the sound they wanted for the record. For recording purposes, Williams was temporarily replaced by jazz and session drummer
Omar Hakim, who re-recorded almost all of the album's drum parts during a two to three day session before leaving for other commitments. Ultimately, Williams would be retained for future touring, while Hal Lindes was eventually replaced in December 1984 by
Jack Sonni, a New York-based guitarist and longstanding friend of Knopfler (although Sonni's eventual contribution to the album would be minimal). Released in May 1985,
Brothers in Arms entered the
UK Albums Chart at number 1, spent a total of 228 weeks in the charts, and sold over 4 million copies. It went on to become the
best-selling album of 1985 in the UK. The album spent 34 weeks at number 1 on the Australian
ARIA Charts, and it remains the longest-running number one album in Australia. Style 0
resonator guitar features on the cover of
Brothers in Arms. Knopfler also used the guitar in the 1981 single "
Romeo and Juliet". The album featured a more lavish production and overall sound than Dire Straits' earlier work and spawned several big chart singles: "Money for Nothing", which reached number 1 on the US
Billboard Hot 100, and number 4 in the
UK Singles Chart, "
So Far Away" (No. 20 UK, No. 19 US), "
Brothers in Arms" (No. 16 UK), "
Walk of Life" (No. 2 UK, No. 7 US), and "
Your Latest Trick" (No. 26 UK). "Money for Nothing" was the first video to be played on
MTV in the UK and featured guest vocals by
Sting, who is credited with co-writing the song with Mark Knopfler, although it was the inclusion of the melody from "
Don't Stand So Close To Me" that triggered the copyright credit, as no lyrics were written by Sting. It also won a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in February 1986. Some sources cite
Brothers in Arms as the first album recorded entirely digitally, but the history of
commercially released all-digital recordings goes back to the early 1970s, and multitrack digital recorders were used for popular music albums by the late 1970s. Written during Britain's involvement in the
Falklands War of 1982, the album's title track, "Brothers in Arms", deals with the senselessness of war. In 2007, the 25th anniversary of the war, Knopfler recorded a new version of the song at
Abbey Road Studios to raise funds for British veterans who he said "are still suffering from the effects of that conflict." "Brothers in Arms" has become a favourite at military funerals. Reported to be the world's first CD single, it was issued in the UK 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. "Walk of Life", meanwhile, was nearly excluded from the album when co-producer Neil Dorfsman voted against its inclusion, but the band members outvoted him. The result was Dire Straits' most commercially successful hit single in the UK, peaking at number two. and it has been credited with popularising the CD format.
The Guardian ranked the
Brothers in Arms CD number 38 in their list of the 50 key events in rock music history. The
1985–1986 Brothers in Arms world tour which followed the album's release (with Sonni now fully in place as rhythm guitarist and Williams back on drums) was phenomenally successful, with over 2.5 million tickets sold. The tour included dates in Europe, Israel, North America, and Australia and New Zealand. The band, joined by saxophonist
Chris White, played 248 shows in over 100 cities. The tour began on 25 April 1985 in
Split, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia). Following the opening show in Split, the band performed concerts in Israel, appearing at Sultan’s Pool in Jerusalem on 30 April 1985 and at Park HaYarkon in Tel Aviv in early May, before continuing the European leg of the tour. While playing a 13-night residency at
Wembley Arena in London, 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. John Illsley states, "It was a very special feeling to be part of something so unique. Live Aid was a unique privilege for all of us. It’s become a fabulous memory." The tour ended at the
Sydney Entertainment Centre, Australia, on 26 April 1986, where Dire Straits still holds the record for consecutive appearances at 21 nights. The band also made an impromptu attempt at the Australian folk song "
Waltzing Matilda". With 900,000 tickets sold in Australia and New Zealand, it was the biggest concert tour in Australasian music history, until it was overtaken in 2017–2018 by
Ed Sheeran. (
exterior pictured) on 13 July 1985, in between 13 dates at the nearby Wembley Arena. Additionally, in 1985, a group that 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. The band's concert of 10 July 1985 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 partially televised in the United Kingdom on
The Tube on
Channel 4 in January 1986. (Although never officially released,
bootleg recordings of the performance entitled
Wembley does the Walk (2005) have been circulated.) In 1986,
Brothers in Arms won two
Grammy Awards and also won Best British Album at the
1987 Brit Awards.
Q magazine placed the album at number 51 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever in 2000. The album also ranked number 351 on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003.
Brothers in Arms is also ranked number 3 in the best albums of 1985 and number 31 in the best albums of the 1980s, and as of December 2017, the album was ranked the
eighth-best-selling album in UK chart history, and is the 107th-best-selling album in the United States. In August 1986,
MTV Europe was launched with Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing".
1987–1990: First break-up After the
Brothers in Arms tour, 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. Guitarist Jack Sonni was unable to play the show as it coincided with the birth of his twin daughters, so
Eric Clapton played rhythm guitar with the band, and during the set performed his hit "
Wonderful Tonight" with them. Sonni and Terry Williams both officially left the band shortly afterwards. Mark Knopfler announced the 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 its tour left the band members under significant stress, and Knopfler announced that he wanted to work on more personal projects. A greatest-hits compilation,
Money for Nothing, was released in October 1988 and reached number one in the UK. Also in 1988, John Illsley released his second solo album,
Glass, which featured Mark Knopfler, Alan Clark, Guy Fletcher and Chris White. During this period, Alan Clark joined Eric Clapton's band for three years, during which time Knopfler also briefly joined. In May 1989, Dire Straits reunited for a one-off charity concert at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle in honour of 11-year-old Joanne Gillespie – the National Children of Courage and North East Personality award winner who published the 1989 book
Brave Heart about her fight against cancer. The concert raised more than £35,000. This was the last appearance by Terry Williams as the band’s drummer, and
Brendan Croker played rhythm guitar in place of Jack Sonni. Also in 1989 over a meal at a Notting Hill wine bar, In 1990, Dire Straits (Knopfler, Illsley, Clark and Fletcher) performed alongside Eric Clapton and his band at the
Knebworth Festival, playing "Solid Rock", "Money for Nothing" and "I Think I Love You Too Much". Knopfler explained that the last was an experimental song and was unsure if they should record it on a following record. The song, a
blues rock track with solos by Knopfler and Clapton, also appeared on the 1990 album
Hell To Pay as a gift to Canadian blues/jazz artist
Jeff Healey from Knopfler. This was prior to the time that Knopfler, Illsley and manager Ed Bicknell decided to re-form the band the following year.
1990–1995: On Every Street and final dissolution In 1990, Dire Straits reunited. Retaining Bicknell as their manager, Mark Knopfler, John Illsley, Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher were joined in the studio by saxophonist Chris White, steel guitarist
Paul Franklin, percussionist Danny Cummings and guitarist
Phil Palmer, with drums split between
Jeff Porcaro of
Toto and
Manu Katché. The new album was produced by Knopfler, Clark and Fletcher. Dire Straits released their sixth studio album,
On Every Street, in September 1991, which turned out to be their final studio release. It was met with more moderate success and mixed reviews, as well as a significantly reduced audience. Some retrospective reviewers, including the
AllMusic Guide, dubbed
On Every Street an "underwhelming" follow-up to
Brothers in Arms. However, it had sold 15 million copies by 2008, and on release, it went straight to number 1 in the UK Albums Chart. The album also reached number 1 in numerous European countries and Australia, and was particularly successful in France, where it achieved Diamond certification. In the US, it peaked at number 12. An edited version of the opening track "
Calling Elvis" was the first single released from the album. With a video based on the 1960s television show
Thunderbirds, the track charted at number 21 on its first week in the UK Singles Chart but dropped out of the charts within four weeks. The track fared much better elsewhere, however, reaching the top 10 in Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe, peaking as high as the number 2 position in several countries, including Denmark and Switzerland, and number 1 in Italy. The follow-up single, "
Heavy Fuel", failed to reach the Top 50 in the UK Singles chart; however, it reached number one in the US on the
Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, their second song to do so (after "Money for Nothing"). The track reached the top 20 in Canada and Belgium and peaked inside the top 30 in other European countries, as well as Australia. The album's
title track was also relatively unsuccessful in the UK, failing to reach the top 40, although it reached the top 25 in France. The final single released in the UK was "
The Bug", which reached the top 25 in Canada and contains backing vocals by
Vince Gill, who was invited to join the band full-time but declined and pursued a solo career. "
You and Your Friend" was also released as a single in France and Germany, but not in the UK. Dire Straits, with
Chris Whitten on drums, embarked on a world tour to promote the album, which lasted until October 1992. The
On Every Street Tour featured 300 shows in front of some 7.1 million ticket-buying fans. While musically more elaborate than the previous 1985–86 world tour, the band's gruelling final tour was not as critically acclaimed nor as commercially successful. This proved to be too much for Dire Straits, and by this time Mark Knopfler had enough of such massive operations. This led to the second and final break-up. Bill Flanagan described the sequence of events in
GQ: "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." , John Illsley stated, "Personal relationships were in trouble and it put a terrible strain on everybody, emotionally and physically. We were changed by it. Neither of us wants to go back to those days." Manager
Ed Bicknell also said, "The last tour was utter misery. Whatever the
zeitgeist was that we had been part of, it had passed." John Illsley agreed, saying "Personal relationships were in trouble and it put a terrible strain on everybody, emotionally and physically. We were changed by it." After the tour, Mark Knopfler expressed a wish to give up touring on a big scale and took some time out from the music business. A live album,
On the Night, was released in May 1993, which documented the tour, again to very mixed reviews. Nevertheless, it reached the UK Top 5, a rare achievement for a live album. Dire Straits' final album,
Live at the BBC, is a collection of live recordings from 1978 to 1981, which mostly feature the original line-up of the band. At this time, Mark Knopfler quietly disbanded Dire Straits and prepared to work on his first fully fledged solo album (still signed to Mercury Records). Knopfler later recalled, "I put the thing to bed because I wanted to get back to some kind of reality. It's self-protection, a survival thing. That kind of scale is dehumanising." Knopfler spent two years recovering from the experience, which had taken a toll on his creative and personal life.
1996–present: Reunion speculations and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction After disbanding Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler started a career as a solo artist, releasing his first solo album,
Golden Heart, in March 1996 after nearly 20 years of collaborations.
Brothers in Arms was certified nine times
platinum in the US in August 1996. In July 2002, Knopfler was joined by Illsley, Fletcher, Danny Cummings and Chris White for four charity concerts under the name of "Mark Knopfler and friends". 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 provided backing vocals for Knopfler's solo composition "
Why Aye Man". This song appeared on ''
The Ragpicker's Dream'' (2002), an album that contained references to Knopfler's home area in the northeast of England. A compilation album,
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 and Knopfler's solo and soundtrack material, it was released in two editions, a single CD with a grey cover and a double CD in a blue cover. The only previously unreleased track on the album, "
All the Roadrunning", was 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 won a
Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album at the
48th Grammy Awards ceremony.
(with Emmylou Harris), Kill to Get Crimson, Get Lucky and One Deep River''. In 2007, Knopfler said he did not miss the global fame that came his way at the height of the band's success. He said, "It just got too big." In the same interview, Illsley said Knopfler was enjoying his continuing success as a solo artist. "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 were commemorated with a
Heritage Award from
PRS for Music. A plaque was placed on a block of flats in
Deptford, London, where Dire Straits was formed and played their first gig. In 2011, Alan Clark, Chris White, and Phil Palmer, along with
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' drummer
Steve Ferrone, formed a new band, the Straits, to perform at a charity show at the
Royal Albert Hall in London. On 13 December 2017, Dire Straits were announced as inductees into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2018. Speaking to
Billboard magazine, John Illsley said he was pleased to have his work as a musician recognised, Dire Straits were the first act ever inducted without anyone introducing them, and they did not perform. In 2009, Illsley and Clark performed several Dire Straits songs in an open air concert in San Vigilio, and since then, Clark, Palmer, Illsley, Cummings, Collins, Sonni and Withers, in various line-ups, have toured as the Dire Straits Legends and continue as the Dire Straits Legacy. They have released an album,
3 Chord Trick. In a 2018 US tour they were joined by
Trevor Horn on bass and
Steve Ferrone on drums. In September 2021, Alan Clark released his piano solo album
Backstory, and in November 2021 Illsley published his autobiography
My Life in Dire Straits. Former Straits guitarist
Jack Sonni died on 30 August 2023 at the age of 68. In November 2023, John Illsley reiterated in an interview that he and Knopfler had no interest in re-forming Dire Straits, in spite of having received large financial offers to re-form. He reflected that the band members had "reached the end of the road" after their final world tour in 1992, and that he was "pretty happy" when the band's run came to an end, recalling feeling "mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted" by the time Dire Straits disbanded. He said he and Knopfler had enjoyed the success of the band, despite the stress of keeping it working, and quoted Knopfler's comment that "success is great, but fame is [...] something you don't really want". Knopfler said: "I had an absolute ball for as long as it lasted, until it got so big that I didn't know the names of all the roadies [...] It got so big, we were actually leapfrogging stages [running duplicate convoys of equipment]." == Musical style and influences ==