2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
British group Dire Straits formed in 1977 in London against the backdrop of a general craze for punk music. The founder of the band was Mark Knopfler, a lecturer at the University of London, a highly educated person in terms of music and a talented guitarist. He refused to follow newfangled trends and turned to the classics, seasoning it with exquisite blues motives. The result is so aristocratic and professional that the band has forever entered its name in the history of rock music.
Early Dire Straits
The band's first demo was Sultans of Swing and was especially liked by R&B fans. The song instantly gained popularity and began to be broadcast on the radio, after which it was included in the collection of Charlie Gillette's private radio station The Honky Tonk Demos. Dire Straits became even more popular, and the Phonogram recording studio drew attention to the musicians. The following year, the debut composition was released as a full-fledged studio single and stayed on the first lines of the charts for about a week.
The band recorded their debut album in the Bahamas with the help of one of the best American producers Barry Becket and Jerry Wexler. As a result, the album entered the top three in America, and in England took only 5th position. It is interesting that it was in the USA that the group found a stunning success already at the beginning of their career, while in their homeland the Dire Straits were clearly underestimated.
Climbing the musical Olympus
After the success of the debut album, it became clear to everyone that we are dealing with a new star of rock music, and these people are professional musicians who compose quite complex and diverse music. The band's second album, Communique, was slightly inferior to the debut in terms of material quality, but the group was saved by a large-scale US tour, so they still managed to stay on the top lines of the charts. By the way, on the first posters the name of the group was announced as Dire Straights, but then they decided to shorten it.
Followed by Making Movies and the famous Love Over Gold, which finally brought Dire Straits to the attention of the UK and stayed on the first line of the charts for a long time. In 1980, the brother of the founder, David Knopfler, left the band, who was responsible for rhythm guitar and backing vocals. Hal Linde took his place, and the ascent to the top of the musical Olympus continued.
The band built up their potential every year, and finally, in 1983, their first world tour took place, in which they performed the best songs of the Dire Straits and attractedcrowds of new fans. The monetary reward also turned out to be quite solid, which allowed the musicians to move away from the financial side of the issue and fully focus on writing new material. The result was not long in coming, and in 1985, perhaps the best album of the group Brothers in Arms, which became multi-platinum, hit the world.
Dire Straits video art
The clips of "Dair Straits" are mostly concert in nature, the most popular video was filmed for a song from the legendary Brothers in Arms album called Your Latest Trick. Among the live clips you will find Walk of Life, Money for Nothing, Tunnel of Love and many other hits of the group.
Later Dire Straits
During its existence, the group broke up in 1990, but the next year the musicians got together again and released several more high-quality albums and the compilation "The Best of Dire Straits". After that, in 1995, the founder of the band, Mark Knopfler, nevertheless made the decision to permanently disband the group.
However, the story of Dire Straits did not end there, as the musicians began solo activities. Despite the fact that after the dissolution, the band members did not show a desire to reunite, they continue to work closely together in the musical field. For example, keyboardist Guy Fletcher took an active part in the recording of parts on all Mark's solo albums.
In total, Mark Knopfler released 7 solo albums, the last of which,Privateering was released in 2012. The musician was ranked 27th in the hit parade of the best guitarists of all time according to Rolling Stone. During his illustrious career, he has worked with such famous colleagues as Sting, Bob Dylan, Chris Rea, Tina Turner and many others.
In the autumn of 1999, after the dissolution, the group received the Heritage Award and immortalized its name on one of the London houses where the first rehearsals of the group took place. The team has made an invaluable contribution to the development of modern musical art, and its founders still continue to delight fans with quality music.
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