Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 12th of August 1949.
He was around seven years old when the Knopfler family moved to Newcastle
-Upon-Tyne in the North-East of England. Mark attended Gosforth Grammar
School. As a young boy Mark was inspired by his uncle Kingsley's harmonica
and boogie-woogie piano playing. Later, in his teens, he set his heart on
an all too expensive flamingo-pink Fender Strat, just like Hank Marvin's,
but in the end he had to settle for a £50 twin pick-up Hofner Super Solid.
£50 was a lot of money in those days. Like lots of other guitar-toting
schoolboys of the 1960s, Mark served an early apprenticeship by forming
and joining anonymous schoolboy bands and listening to guitarists such as
Scotty Moore, Jimi Hendrix, Django Reinhardt and James Burton. At sixteen
he made a local TV appearance as half of a harmony duo along with school-
friend Sue Hercombe.
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
effect 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 a 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' Rockfield 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 realised 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 realised 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.
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. 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. By the mid-1980s Dire Straits had released Brothers in Arms, one of
the best selling albums of all time. 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
Clark and Guy Fletcher 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, and many
others. 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 smoky 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 made a full recovery from his injuries and was
on the road again in 2005 to promote his fourth solo album, Shangri-La,
released in September 2004. One year on saw the release of The Best of
Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations compilation album.
2006 saw the release of a number of albums to which Mark has contributed,
and also of the much acclaimed and Grammy nominated All The Roadrunning CD
with Emmylou Harris, promoted by a tour of Europe and North America. In
the fall of 2007 Mark will be releasing a new solo album, Kill To Get
Crimson.
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
almost thirty years at the top of his profession, Mark Knopfler remains,
at heart, a family man who loves nothing better than to spend time with
his wife and his children.