Biography Dire Streits

Home »Biography» Music Dire Straits in the year Summer teacher of English Marc Knompler Solo-gitar, vocal, his younger brother, social worker David Knopfler Rhythm Gitar, sociology student John Illley Bas rented an apartment in Deptord, London. Mark composed songs, and the company, having equipped with a session drummer by the peak of Witers, began to learn them. From childhood, Mark never parted with a guitar, even slept, not letting her out of his hands, and in adolescence, according to rumors, even went to the toilet with her.

A graduate of the Grammar School in Lids, he worked part there in a newspaper, but decided to move to London to engage in music, having settled down to work in school in a specialty. The first performance at the Punk Festival in Farrar House was held under the “Brand Name” of the previous Mark team, Cafe Racers, but then it was decided to rename in Dire Straits. This name reflected constrained material circumstances in which the musicians were approximately translated as “on theal”.

However, the pounds on the recording of the demo are still scrapped, they slipped the cassette on the Air Force radio station, the song “Sultans of Swing” sounded on the air, and quite soon Dire Straits was offered a contract by Vertigo. It should be noted here that the music of Dire Straits was significantly different from the punk, with which the musicians began their creative path and which then all Britain was fond of.

Dire Straits played a transparent mixture of swing, blues, country, fan, and something difficult to have a difficult that already belonged to the post-punk and the “new wave”. Their music, moreover, gave the cold intellectuality, far from the anarchist punk-bezamiy, who reigned on the then musical stage. The visiting card of the sound of Dire Straits was the verified sound of the semi -acoustic guitar of the Kneper, on which he played very skillfully with his fingers, and all because the mediators Mark constantly lost!

The picture was complemented by the characteristic voice of Mark, which he did not sing, but rather pronounced the song text, introducing the philosophical and worshiped intonations. It is clear that such a manner could not like young nigiral rebels, and the first name of the LP group of the same name, released in the year, safely failed in the charts. Dire Straits was supposed to wait in the wings.

However, the professionals appreciated the group immediately, and the brand began to actively engage in the session-“guest” musician. At the end of the year, Dire Straits began to record the second album, the sad and at the same time ironic “Communique”, which was reflected in the observation of Nopfler over the journalistic environment. This album was accepted very hotly, occupied the highest lines in world charts, and in Germany even reached 1 place.

And it is not surprising - after all, according to the musical material, melodic and arrangement, this album turned out to be brighter than its predecessor, a certain thoroughness appeared, in the vocal of Nopfler - depth and special masculinity. His guitar manner was honed: light “slides”, elegant staccato, soft braids of string suspenders more and more characterized the branded noplian style.

In the wake of success, he began to rapidly score points and a debut album. The following album was recorded by Dire Straits, “Making Movies”, which turned out to be not as interesting as the previous one, although the single “Romeo and Juliet” achieved good results in the charts. The producer of the disk, along with Jimmy Ayovin, was Mark himself. This album became somewhat a draft for the next work, “Love Over Gold”, which was destined to bring a truly worldwide fame to the group.

The composition of the permutation again happened: Hal Linz came as the second guitarist, Alan Clark settled behind the keys, and Mike Maineri performed a batch of vibral and Marimba in two tracks. The producer, this time, sovereigned Nopfler. In the musical thinking of Dire Straits, signs of what is commonly called “progressive rock”: a single through breathing, a voluminous sound, the emphasis on instrumental deployment, deep philosophical texts, full of concentrated thoughts about the social and spiritual life of a modern person were clearly designated.

The album immediately took off to the first position in 16 countries including Britain, and each of the songs included in it became an unconditional hit: Private Investigations, Industrial Disease, Love Over Gold, IT Never Rains and, of course, minute Telegraphas Road ”, opening the disk. A curious detail: it was from this album that the composition “Private Dancer” “fell out”, which later entered the repertoire of Tina Turner and played a significant role in her career later, Tina played another thing of the nopfler, “Overnight Sensation”.

Meanwhile, the group was left by the drummer peak Whiters, who had long experienced a tendency to jazz, and his place was taken by Terry Williams.However, in the studio work, a significant break came, filled with active touring activities with the guest participation of the saxophonist Mel Collins, the release of Alchemy’s double concert Mark also helped his brother David in the recording of the debut solo album.

Only in the year the next LP “Brothers in Arms” was published, and it turned out that fans had been waiting for so long for not in vain. The album turned out to be no less successful than the previous one; A high note of citizenship was clearly heard in it, and, as before, the theme of internal sadness, although the dramatic idea itself was more traditional: 9 average of the duration of songs.

The quiet, calm, concentrated music Dire Straits again blew up the world. The sound was very decorated with the presence of the second keyboard player, Guy Flatcher, as well as felt solo on the winds performed by Chris White. It is not surprising that he headed the charts in all countries, still remaining a bestseller. At the same time, it was historically that it was “Brothers in ARMS” that became the conductor of digital recording technology and the CD format into wide consumer masses.

However, after that, the group fell silent for six years. Of course, the nopfler did not disappear anywhere, he took part in all large -large concert promotions, continued to work in various “third -party” and joint records today in his asset - cooperation with Stely Dan, Bob Dylan, Wan Morrison, Joan Armatrading, Eric Clapton, Phil Ewerley, Randy Newmen, Etkins and others.

At his leisure, he played his beloved country-blize with his old friends Steve Phillips and Brendan Croker, releasing a plate under the name Notting Hillbillies and giving a series of concerts. The Dire Straits group also performed from the stage, for example, closing the grand event in honor of the Nelson Mandela flight at the Wembley stadium in the same year, a collection of hits “Money for Nothing” was published.

However, for the new, 6th studio work, the time has come only in the year, when they have already begun to forget about the group. In addition to the founding fathers of Nopfler and Illley, both keyboards participated in the records-Clark and Flatecher, the new guitarist, the Maestro Nashville Steel Gitar Paul Franklin, as well as many invited musicians. The string section was in charge of the famous George Martin.

An even more melancholy, penetrating and internally deep-deep than predecessors, the album “On EVERY SREET” caused the delight of the upcoming fans. They, like the old Dire Straits, to this day, are happy to twist radio stations, refuting the widespread opinion that intellectual music cannot gain wide popularity. That's just the new Dire Straits albums do not spoil us.

A collection, a concert and previously unrelated records are all that has happened over the past ten years since ON EVERY SREET. In the Golden Heart album, Mark began solo activities, while attracting to the recording of Dire Straits musicians. In August, the guitarist released the next work - the solo album "Sailing to Philadelphia".

However, no one knows about whether the new creation of Dire Straits will ever see light, even Nopfler himself.