At school Mark had
demonstrated a flair for English and in 1967 he went
to study journalism for a year at Harlow Technical
College. At the end of the course he secured a job
in Leeds as a junior reporter on the Yorkshire
Evening Post. After two years he decided to
further his studies and commenced a degree in
English at Leeds University. It was whilst Mark was
living in Leeds that he met a local blues
singer/guitarist by the name of Steve Phillips. Mark
wrote newspaper articles and reviews on the music
scene in and around Leeds. By an odd coincidence,
Mark's boss was another man by the name of Stephen
Phillips. This has caused some confusion over the
years and a number of Steve Phillips biographies
have claimed erroneously that Steve himself worked
as a journalist. Mark and his boss - the other
'Steve Phillips' - went to see Steve playing in
Leeds. Steve fondly recalls how Mark's first words
were "Steve Phillips, meet Steve Phillips."
Steve and Mark found that
musically they had much in common and they went on
to form a duo called The
Duolian String Pickers. By day Mark continued
working as a reporter and, later, as a full-time
student, while Steve took a job restoring paintings
and furniture at Leeds City Art Gallery and Temple
Newsam House. They played together on and off over
the next five years. Some of their work is featured
on Steve's 1996 Just Pickin' album. "He was a
good guitar player", Steve says wryly of the young
Knopfler, "in a B.B. King sort of way." Steve was to
have a profound affect on Mark's guitar playing
introducing him to the intricate lead technique of
black blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson and the subtle
skills of country blues guitar, the elements of
which Mark was eventually to weave into his own
unique style of guitar picking. This was, in fact, a
very important stage in Mark's development as a
guitarist. He was later to tell Jack Sonni that it
was not until he began to finger-pick that he found
his guitar 'voice'. While living in Leeds Mark made
his first record. It was recorded in a room that had
been converted into studio in a house in Pudsey. The
song was called Summer's Coming My Way and
it featured Steve Phillips on twelve-string guitar.
On graduating from Leeds
University in 1973 Mark decided to go to London and
try to break into the rock scene. He scanned through
the music press and finally answered the biggest
advert he could find in Melody Maker. That
led him to an audition and a two month stint with a
blues band called Brewer's Droop. Mark played guitar
on three songs they recorded at Dave Edmunds'
Rockpile Studios in Wales. The band's drummer was a
guy called Pick Withers. Pick had turned
professional at the age of seventeen and was a very
experienced drummer. Having left Brewer's Droop Mark
took up a job as a lecturer at Loughton College in
Essex where he remained for two years living in a
rented flat in Buckhurst Hill, sometimes giving
guitar lessons at Staples Road School. Then brother
David came to stay for a few weeks en route
to London. The Knopfler brothers would often sit up
late into the night playing songs and, without
knowing it, to some extent laying the foundations of
what was to become, in time, Dire Straits. It was
the mid-1970s, David moved on to London and Mark
went on to form a working band with friends at
Loughton College. They called themselves the Café
Racers.
David came to share a flat
at Farrer House on Deptford's Crossfield Estate,
South-East London, with a Leicester-born bass player
by the name of John Illsley. John recalls first
meeting Mark. "I'd been out all night and came in
about ten in the morning. I walked into the kitchen,
started making myself a cup of tea, walked into the
lounge and there was this guy lying on the floor
with his head propped up against a chair. He was
fast asleep, fully clothed in denim with leather
boots. He had a guitar slouched over his waist."
David had often spoken to John of his guitar-playing
brother and John guessed correctly that the guy
sprawled out on the lounge floor was indeed Mark. It
wasn't long before John found himself on stage with
Mark. One night the Café Racers' bass player was ill
and John was asked to stand-in. Mark and John
immediately struck up a great working relationship
and both realized that, despite having built-up a
good reputation on the local pub scene, the Café
Racers had a limited future. In April 1977 Mark gave
up his flat in Buckhurst Hill and moved in with
David and John.
John quickly realized that
not only was Mark a talented and excitingly
different guitar player, he was also a gifted
song-writer. During the summer of 1977 the three
musicians found themselves playing and rehearsing
Mark's songs. Yet, something was missing - a
drummer. Mark, recalling his brief stint with
Brewer's Droop, said he knew of a drummer who would
be ideal for the sort of music they were developing.
Mark had been very impressed with Pick Withers back
in 1973 and so Pick was invited to the Farrer House
flat and the four musicians began doing gigs
together under the name of Mark's old band, the Café
Racers. John recalled that "playing with Pick
Withers was fantastic...I'd never played with
anybody as good as him." Later, a friend of Pick's
suggested a new name for the band - Dire Straits.
The die was cast. The band's first gig took place on
the open space at the back of the Farrer House
flats, the electricity provided by a power cable
running from the stage into a socket on the wall of
John's first floor flat.
Punishing
rehearsals and live gigs followed. There was just
enough room in the back of John's estate car for the
band's equipment and they earned just enough money
to pay for PA hire and a round of beers. On the 27th
of July 1977 Dire Straits recorded the now famous
demo tapes of five songs - Wild West End,
Sultans of Swing, Down To The Waterline, Sacred
Loving and Water of Love. In what was
probably October they recorded Southbound Again,
In The Gallery and Six Blade Knife for
BBC Radio London and, finally, on the 9th of
November demo tapes were made of Setting Me Up,
Eastbound Train and Real Girl. Many of
these songs reflected Mark's experiences in
Newcastle, Leeds and London, and were to be featured
on the first Dire Straits album the following year:
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; and, Lions, Wild West
End and Eastbound Train were all drawn
from Mark's early days in the capital.
The demo tapes were given
to BBC Radio London DJ Charlie Gillett. Charlie
played the tapes calling upon record company
executives to sign this new band: enter John Stainze
and Ed Bicknell. It is said that Phonogram A&R man
Stainze was in the shower listening to the radio
when he first heard Dire Straits. A few weeks later
he signed the band to Phonogram's Vertigo label and
Mark secured a publishing deal with Rondor Music.
Towards the end of 1977 Ed Bicknell was working at
the NEMS agency when he got a call from Stainze
asking him to fix up some gigs for Dire Straits. Ed
was invited round to Phonogram's offices in December
where he heard the Charlie Gillett demo tapes. He
was then taken to Dingwalls Club in North London to
meet Dire Straits. The date was the 13th of
December, 1977, and as he walked into the club they
were playing Down To The Waterline. Ed
recalls, "The first thing I noticed was that it
wasn't necessary to stand at the back of the room;
they were very quiet. I'd just done The Ramones, who
were deafening......The second thing I noticed was
that Mark was playing a red Stratocaster, which
immediately made me think of Hank Marvin, who I had
idolized in the sixties." After hearing two or three
numbers Ed decided that he wanted to manage the
band. He was organizing a tour for Talking Heads and
was able to put his new band on the bill as the
support act. Dire Straits were paid £50 per night
for the Talking Heads tour; a ten-fold increase from
their fee at Dingwalls. The rest - as is often said
- is history.
I
once asked Ed Bicknell's former assistant, Liz
Whatley, when it was that she realized Dire Straits
were going to be really big. She replied that it was
the first time she heard Romeo and Juliet.
By the mid-1980s Dire Straits had released
Brothers in Arms, one of the best selling
albums of all time, and had been tagged 'the biggest
band in the world'. By that stage the recording and
touring personnel of the band had changed more than
once. David left. Hal Lindes, guitar, and Alan
Clark, keyboards, joined. Then came Tommy Mandel,
keyboards, and Mel Collins, saxophone. Pick left and
was replaced on drums by Terry Williams. Keyboard
player Guy Fletcher became a member of Dire Straits
for the Brothers In Arms album. Jack Sonni,
guitar, and Chris White, saxophone, were brought in
for the subsequent world tour. By the time Dire
Straits commenced the 1991/92 On Every Street
tour Mark, John, Alan, Guy and Chris were left from
the mid-80s line-up. They were joined on stage by
Phil Palmer, guitar, Paul Franklin, pedal-steel
guitar, and percussionists Danny Cummings and Chris
Whitten. Others who have been featured on Dire
Straits' recordings include Roy Bittan, keyboards,
and Joop De Korte, drums.
The Brothers In Arms
tour saw Dire Straits play 234 shows in twelve
months to combined audiences of about 2.5 million.
Within a couple of weeks of the tour finishing Mark
was producing Tina Turner but, at the same time,
felt he needed to get back to his roots. Long-time
mates Steve Phillips and Brendan Croker had
teamed-up to form a duo shortly after Mark had left
Leeds in 1973. In 1986 Steve was in London and
called in to see Mark who said he fancied coming up
to Leeds and sitting in with Steve and Brendan on
one of their gigs. This resulted in the three of
them playing together at The Grove pub in
Hunslet, Leeds, on the 31st of May, 1986. The
following year Mark offered to produce Steve's next
album but Steve suggested that a new album should
feature both himself and Brendan. Guy Fletcher was
brought in to help out on the technical side. From
this evolved the Notting Hillbillies. Ed Bicknell is
an accomplished drummer in his own right and during
a meal in a Notting Hill wine bar, Mark sat next to
him and said "OK, Ed; we've formed a band, and
you're the drummer." Paul Franklin joined on
pedal-steel guitar. There followed an extensive UK
tour to promote the 1990 release of the
multi-platinum selling album
Missing......Presumed having A Good Time. Also
in 1990 Mark was able to release the Neck and
Neck album, a joint project with the greatly
admired Chet Atkins.
Mark brought Dire Straits
back together for the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th
Birthday Concert which featured
Eric Clapton who was standing-in for Jack Sonni as
Jack had just become the father of twin girls. Mark,
John, Alan and Guy appeared on stage at
Knebworth in June 1990 along with, among
others, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Ray Cooper and
Phil Palmer, to help raise funds for the Nordoff
Robbins charity. Then came the On Every Street
album. The resulting extensive world tour, which
played to more than four million people, was
punishing and exhausting. After it was over Mark
felt that he needed to take a break from the
pressures of live performance and studio schedules.
Over the years
Mark has collaborated with many artists. He has at
one time or other worked with people such as Bob
Dylan, Van Morrison, Randy Newman, Buddy Guy, Tina
Turner, Phil Lynott, Willy DeVille, Eric Clapton,
Waylon Jennings, Chet Atkins, Phil Everly, Vince
Gill, Paul Franklin, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Paul
Brady, The Chieftains, Ben. E. King, Mary
Chapin-Carpenter, Joan Armatrading, Scott Walker,
Jeff Healey, The Judds, Jimmy Nail, Bryan Ferry,
Aztec Camera, Steely Dan, Sting, Sonny Landreth,
James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and
David Rawlings. He has also devoted a great deal of
time to charity work for institutions large and
small. Dire Straits did a total of three concerts
for the Prince's Trust in front of Prince
Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales. They appeared
at the 1985 Live Aid Concert and
the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Concert.
In 1995 Mark was featured on the chart-topping
Dunblane single Knockin' On Heaven's Door
and in September 1997 was one of the artists who
performed for Sir George Martin's Music For
Montserrat Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
The Notting Hillbillies, too, have performed many
charity concerts helping to raise money for a range
of deserving causes. Mark has been the recipient of
countless awards and accolades, not least among
which was the conferring in May 1993 of an Honorary
Music Degree by Newcastle University of which he is
justly proud.
Mark Knopfler has always
been a songster, to him the song is king. It is said
that he has never really understood why his music is
so popular. In this he is not alone. When reviewing
the Sultans of Swing compilation album in
November 1998, the writers of Mojo magazine
commented "overwhelming sales testify to Mark
Knopfler's song-writing ability and guitar
expertise, and there is certainly something intimate
and friendly in that smokey voice and fluid guitar,
though the scale of Dire Straits' success remains
mildly baffling." Some have tried to answer this by
arguing that Mark's music has an instant appeal.
Perhaps a better explanation comes in Robert
Sandall's liner essay for the Sultans of Swing
compilation. Sandall noted, "As the fires of punk
raged around them, they made no secret of their love
for styles of music which the cultural commissars of
the day had recently declared irrelevant....What
part could this lot possibly play in the brave new
world of anarchy, media manipulation and
anti-musicianship? Apart from their consummate skill
as performers, it was their complete disregard for
all the fashionable nonsenses of the moment that
rescued Dire Straits from the fate which swiftly
overtook most of their punky contemporaries. While
others lived and died in a blaze of publicity and
disappointing record sales, they took the world by
stealth....Dire Straits were, above all, superb
communicators.... The heartfelt simplicity of their
music - chiefly derived from Mark Knopfler's gruff
vocals and elegantly burnished Fender guitar tone -
came across in songs that sounded both fresh and
timeless, and which also possessed a breathtaking
accuracy."
Mark also found time to
score the music to numerous films. First came
Local Hero in 1983 followed in 1984 by the
Cal and the Comfort and Joy
soundtracks. These were followed in 1987 by
The Princess Bride and two years later
came Last Exit To Brooklyn. Further
soundtrack work has seen the release of Metroland
and Wag The Dog, both of 1998, and the
soundtrack album to the film A Shot At Glory
released in 2001.
In 1996 Mark began his
career as a solo performer with the release of the
Golden Heart album. The album was simply a
step forward in the evolution of his music, "It's
just moving forwards...", he said, "... just trying
to be better." Mark's solo career has allowed him to
hone his rare talent as a singer/song-writer. His
second solo album, Sailing To Philadelphia,
was released in 2000. Autumn 2002 saw the release of
his third solo album, The Ragpicker's Dream,
but, just as rehearsals were about to begin, the
planned 2003 tour had to be cancelled due to a
serious motorcycle accident. Thankfully, Mark has
made a full recovery from his injuries and is
looking forward to being on the road in 2005 to
promote his fourth solo album, Shangri-La,
scheduled for release in September 2004.
There remains another side
to Mark Knopfler, a very private side. By the
mid-80s Mark was being referred to by some as the
"quiet man of rock and roll." He is shy by nature
and gets embarrassed when fans tell him how much
they have been affected by his songs and how his
music has changed their lives. It is a matter of
public record that Mark has been married three
times. His second marriage produced his twin sons,
Benji and Joseph, born in 1987, and his third
marriage to Kitty Aldridge has been blessed with two
daughters, Isabella, born in 1998, and Katya born in
2003. After more than twenty-five years at the top
of his profession, Mark Knopfler is now a family man
who loves to spend time with his wife and his
children..
TERRY KILBURN