Dire Straits

In the late 1970s a rock band emerged from the North east of England who went on to global fame with a pub rock sound rather than the punk sound that was emerging.

The band was made up of Mark and Dave Knopfler with John Illsley and Pick Withers and the story started with a demo tape that they wanted further advice on and sought the advice of DJ Charlie Gillett who was on BBC radio London and he liked it so much he played it and as a result Phonogram records signed the band on the basis of one song Sultans of Swing.

They released a self titled album and Communique in the late 1970s to great success and the single 'Sultans of Swing' was a huge hit worldwide topping the top 10 in America and the UK. This song led to two nominations for Grammy awards in 1980 and the band went to work on the third album 'Making Movies'. however, this did not go smoothly and the Knopfler brothers had a fall out leaving David to leave.

The album only had 7 songs but yielded some big single success with 'Romeo and Juliet' hitting the top 10 in the UK and top 20 in America. The album was well received by the critics and public alike and peaked at number 4 in the UK album charts. A fourth album followed in 1982 named 'Love over Gold' and was a huge success hitting the top 5 in America and going number one in the UK. The lead single 'Private Investigations' reached number 2 in the UK singles chart and only 5 songs featured on the album including a 14 minute song Telegraph Road.Following the album success an EP was released featuring 'twisting by the pool'. Mark Knopfler also wrote Private Dancer for Tina Turner comeback and he continued to write scores for films such as Local Hero.

The next album was to push them into super stardom with the 1985 release of 'Brothers in Arms'. The album went straight to number one in the UK and stayed in the charts a staggering 4 years!!It also reached number one in America. The album featured many firsts with the video promo 'Money for nothing' being the first video shown on MTV in the UK and also the single 'brothers in arm' was the first CD single and the album was the first CD to sell one million copies in the UK. The album featured some huge hits such as 'Money for Nothing' with Sting on backing vocals , 'Brothers in arms', 'So far away', 'walk of life' and 'your latest trick'. the album won two Grammy awards as well as a BRIT award.

The next 2 years saw the band tour globally as well as a slot on the Live Aid concert and they played in over 100 cities. The band took a rest but go back together for the 70th Nelson Mandela concert. Shortly after that the band split and a greatest hits album was released and went to number one in 1988.

During the 1980s the group released 3 studio albums with 2 number ones in 'Love over gold' and 'Brothers in arms' and in terms of singles they released 13 singles with 4 top 10 singles with 'walk of life' reaching number 2 in the charts.