All About Sultan Of Swing
Best known as the founder and leading guitarist of the Dire Straits rock band, Mark Knopfler has also dedicated himself to an equally successful solo career.
Dire Straits
Mark Knopfler worked as a journalist and a teacher before the Dire Straits creation. In 1978 the band released their first album Dire Straits and one year later there was the second album Comunique. The band's next albums, Making Movies (1980) and Love Over Gold (1982) featured hits Tunnel Of Love, Romeo And Juliet, Telegraph Road and Private Investigation.
In 1985 Dire Straits released Brothers in Arms, one of the best selling albums at all times. The 'Live in 85/6' tour saw Dire Straits play 234 shows in twelve months to combined audiences of about 2.5 million. Dire Straits did a total of three concerts for the Prince's Trust. They appeared at the Live Aid Concert (1985) and the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Concert (1988) and the Knewborth Concert (1990). The last Dire Straits studio album On Every Street was released in 1991.
Contributions
After he and the Dire Straits band's drummer Pick Withers played on Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming, Knopfler was asked to produce the Dylan's Infidels in 1983. Also he produced albums for Chet Atkins, Randy Newman, Willy DeVille, Aztec Camera and Tina Turner, for whom he composed the title track of Private Dancer. Knopfler as a session guitarist made his contributon to albums of Steely Dan, Phil Lynott, Van Morrison, Bryan Ferry and many others.
Collaborations
In 1989, he and his old friends Steve Phillips and Brendan Croker formed the Notting Hillbillies for the multi-platinum selling album Missing... presumed have a good time and the following tour. Also in 1990 Mark was able to release the Neck and Neck album, a joint project with the greatly admired Chet Atkins.
His most recent collaboration with Emmylou Harris, All The Roadrunning garnered a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Contemporary Folk / Americana Album.
Solo career
In 1983 Knopfler started a parallel solo career with David Puttnam's film Local Hero. Further film work included soundtracks to Cal, Comfort And Joy and The Princess Bride.
The official solo career was announced in 1995. The debut Golden Heart featured support from Sonny Landreth, Paul Brady, the Chieftains and Vince Gill. Knopfler then returned to soundtrack work with contributions to the movies Wag The Dog, Metroland, and A Shot At Glory.
There were sold 3.5 million copies of his second solo album Sailing To Philadelphia and featured contributions from Van Morrison and James Taylor. These were followed in 2002 by The Ragpicker’s Dream and two years later came Shangri-La. A latest solo album Get Lucky debuted at #17 on the Billboard 200.
MK studio diary 2011 by Guy Fletcher
Mark and Guy are back in the studio working on a new record
www.guyfletcher.co.uk