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Dire Straits

Dire Straits

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Dire Straits: On Every Street

Review by Robert Sandall, Q, October 1991

THE REASONS FOR the six-year absence are well known: Brothers In Arms – the 15-million-selling album and 250-date world tour – banished an unassuming bloke ...

Audio interviews

Mark Knopfler (2004)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 10 September 2004

The besweatbanded guitar wrangler talks about his new album Shangri-La; looks back at that dirty old town Newcastle; about Dylan, Donegan and his influences; surviving the dire straits of stardom, and on what it means to play guitar.

File format: mp3; file size: 51.8mb, interview length: 56' 32" sound quality: ****

List of articles in the library

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Dire Straits: Hope & Anchor, Islington

Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 8 October 1977

NOT AN obvious little band, this. ...

Dire Straits: Rock Garden, London

Live Review by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 21 January 1978

THE SUPPORT band at the Rock Garden sweatshop were new wavers Cheap Stars. One of their songs, all of which lasted the statutory two minutes, ...

Dire Straits: The Nashville, London

Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 28 January 1978

DIRE STRAITS are not yet one year old, and they've been playing to the public for little more than six months. Nevertheless they must arguably ...

Talking Heads, Dire Straits: Sheffield University, Sheffield

Live Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 28 January 1978

How 77 moves smoothly into '78 ...

Dire Straits

Report and Interview by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 11 March 1978

THEY SEEMED to come out of nowhere: Dire Straits, that is. Suddenly last year London's bitter-and-Number-Six grapevine was buzzing with the name. Everyone wanted to ...

Dire Straits: Bottom Line, New York

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979

LIVE, DIRE Straits are precisely what they are on record: a throwback to the kind of unassuming funk that hasn't enjoyed much popularity since Delaney ...

Of Sultans and Kinks: Dire Straits Speak Up

Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, April 1979

SHEFFIELD, ALA. — Mark Knopfler keeps getting these compliments, and they make him nervous. Ever since his classic British R&B quartet, Dire Straits, came to ...

Dire Straits: The Roxy, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 21 April 1979

IF THERE really is the third British Invasion the Californians keep talking about, platinum-sellers Dire Straits, welcomed to L.A. by bunting across the Sunset Strip ...

The Non-Trendiness of Dire Straits: A Music Biz Yarn

Profile and Interview by Gary Kenton, Creem, June 1979

Starring Mark Knopfler: America's Newest Guitar Hero (from England, natch) ...

Dire Straits: A Poor Man's Guide To That First Million

Report and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 9 June 1979

ROY CARR gives DIRE STRAITS a lesson in market forces. But M. Knopfler Inc. need no telling. ...

Dire Straits: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 23 June 1979

The end of innocence ...

Dire Straits: Communiqué From a Washeteria

Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 30 June 1979

A million quid from record sales can buy you the love of a multinational, but can it pay for the freedom to wander up the ...

Dire Straits: The Mild Bunch

Interview by David Hepworth, Sounds, 30 June 1979

DAVID HEPWORTH shoots the breeze with DIRE STRAITS ...

Dire Straits: Communique (Warner Bros.)

Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 1979

THE GREATEST CHALLENGE facing a band that has enjoyed sudden commercial success is to avoid churning out subsequent LPs that are carbon copies of the ...

Bob Dylan: Slow Train Coming (CBS 86095)*****

Review by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 25 August 1979

Rich man enters kingdom of heaven shock ...

Dire Straits: Whitla Hall, Belfast

Live Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 22 December 1979

IN THE foyer they flog T-shirts, programmes and all the paraphernalia of a rock band's promotional department bar embossed wellingtons and inflatable underwear. Rumours that ...

Nine Or Ten Unbelievably Interesting Facts About Dire Straits

Report and Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, February 1981

Plus The Usual Unsubstantiated Opinions, Speculations, And Outright Inventions ...

Singles Reviewed by MARK COOPER

Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 22 January 1983

THE GAP BAND 'Outstanding' (Polygram) Yet another soul concerto from The Gap Band with a monstrously hard-hitting handclap from the engine room and a vocal ...

Dire Straits: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 25 July 1983

FEW ROCK GROUPS depend as heavily for success on an intimate engagement with the emotions of the listener as Dire Straits, so it is a ...

Dire Straits: Graceful Strengths

Interview by Richard Williams, The Times, 26 April 1984

By most of the yardsticks of pop music in 1984, Dire Straits are so conventional as to be practically invisible. No exotic dancing, no men ...

Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms (Vertigo)

Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, 18 May 1985

ON TWO consecutive nights last week, I sat in a park in Tel Aviv and sometimes winced as I watched Dire Straits play. What amazed ...

Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms (Warner Bros.)

Review by Craig Zeller, Creem, September 1985

IT'S HARD to get worked up about a record as endlessly mediocre as this one but I'll try, believe me, I'll try. ...

BPI Awards: Middle-age Spread

Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 15 February 1987

JON SAVAGE takes a sceptical look at the BPI Awards ...

Mark Knopfler: Going His Own Sweet Way

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 20 April 1990

NO, THE Notting Hillbillies are not Mark Knopfler's version of the Traveling Wilburys. In fact, there was never supposed to be a band at all. ...

Dire Straits: On Every Street (Vertigo/All formats)

Review by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 14 September 1991

SO HERE it is, Slowdive fans, the most important LP ever made. If you see what I mean. It is six years since the last ...

Dire Straits: On Every Street (Vertigo)

Review by Max Bell, Vox, November 1991

AND ON EVERY CD player...they wish. ...

Coming To a Street Near You: Dire Straits

Comment by Dave Rimmer, Tip Berlin, Summer 1992

Note: This deliberately rather facetious story was written for a Tip magazine cover story in summer 1992, and translated into German by Wolfgang Doebeling. I’m ...

Dire Straits No More

Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Rolling Stone, 1996

DIRE STRAITS is dead. Or as good as. The grave may open once in a while for the odd charity appearance, but as to another ...

Mark Knopfler

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, May 1996

"I’m always conscious of... how hard life is for a lot of people," says Mark Knopfler. The eight-bar rest midsentence is characteristic. Likewise, the right ...

Dire Straits Revisited

Sleeve notes by Charlie Gillett, Phonogram Records , 1998

FROM THE START, Dire Straits was a classic case of wrong time, wrong place. In the summer of 1977, Britain was ablaze with the aggression ...

The Rock’s Backpages Interview: Mark Knopfler

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2004

RBP: You recorded your new album Shangri-La at the studio of the same name in Malibu. When was the studio refurbished? ...

see also Mark Knopfler

see also Notting Hillbillies, The

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