Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born August 12, 1949, Glasgow, Scotland) is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and film score composer.

Knopfler was originally best-known as the lead guitarist and vocalist for the band Dire Straits, which he founded in 1977. Since the final Dire Straits album in 1991, Knopfler has continued to record and produce albums as a solo artist, under his own name. Knopfler has occasionally played in other groups, such as the "supergroup" The Notting Hillbillies. Additionally, he has performed as a guest on works by other artists, including Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Eric Clapton, John Fogerty, Jools Holland, Steely Dan and the late Chet Atkins. He has produced albums for artists such as Tina Turner, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris. In addition, he has scored the music to several films, including Local Hero, The Princess Bride, Cal, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Wag the Dog.

He is one of the most respected fingerstyle guitarists of the modern rock era. Knopfler was ranked #27 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".


Biography

Mark Knopfler's father was a Jewish architect whose communist sympathies forced him to flee the fascist regime of his native Hungary. His mother was English. When Knopfler was about nine years old, the family moved to Knopfler's mother's home town of Newcastle upon Tyne in the North-East of England. There, he and his younger brother David (also a musician) attended Gosforth Grammar School, where he was inspired by his uncle Kingsley's harmonica and boogie-woogie piano playing. Later, in his teens, he wished to buy an expensive flamingo-pink Fender Stratocaster just like Hank Marvin's, but had to settle for a L50 twin pickup Höfner Super Solid. Like many other schoolboys of the 1960s, he served an early apprenticeship by forming and joining anonymous schoolboy bands and listening to guitarists such as Chet Atkins, 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.

In 1967, having displayed a flair for English, Knopfler studied 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 the University of Leeds. He also worked as a lecturer at Loughton College during this period. It was whilst Knopfler was living in Leeds that he met a local blues singer/guitarist by the name of Steve Phillips

He then moved (alone) to London and joined a High Wycombe based band called Brewer's Droop. One night while spending some time with friends, the only guitar available was an old acoustic with a badly warped neck that had been strung with extra-light strings to make it playable. Even so, he found it impossible to play unless he finger-picked it. He said in a later interview, "That was where I found my 'voice' on guitar." Soon after he made his first record in a London studio: an unreleased demo of an original song, "Summer's Coming My Way".


The Dire Straits days

Dire Straits' first sessions were done under the name of Knopfler's earlier band, the Café Racers, but after a short time, with Pick Withers as the replacement drummer and John Illsley as the new bass player, they changed their name to Dire Straits.

Dire Straits recorded and released their first album, the self-titled Dire Straits in 1978 to little fanfare, but five months later a single release, "Sultans of Swing" became a chart hit and album sales took off. The second album, Communiqué produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett, followed in 1979 and was considered to many to be a sophomore slump but eventually rose in stature. The band's third album, Making Movies, was released in 1980 and marked a move towards more complex arrangements and production which would continue for the remainder of the group's career.

In 1982 Dire Straits released their fourth album, Love Over Gold. Love over Gold showcased the epic soundscape "Telegraph Road," the humorous "Industrial Disease," and the #2 hit "Private Investigations," which became a popular live song. Around this time Mark Knopfler was also involved with other projects, including writing the music score for the film Local Hero, released in 1983. The soundtrack album Local Hero was a large success, and it was followed in 1984 by the score for the film Cal.

Knopfler married for the second time in the November of 1983, to Lourdes Salamone. Their twin sons, Benji and Joseph, were born in 1987.

With the release of Love Over Gold there was a world tour called Alchemy: Dire Straits Live. A double-LP of the recordings of two live shows in Hammersmith Odeon in London sold over 500,000 albums. Dire Straits' best-selling album was their fifth, Brothers in Arms, which became an international hit on its release in 1985, and spawned several chart singles including number-one hit "Money for Nothing," which was the first video ever to be played on MTV in Britain. The band's 1985–86 world tour, of over 230 shows, was immensely successful.

After the Brothers in Arms tour Dire Straits went on a lengthy hiatus, with Knopfler concentrating on film soundtracks. Additionally, in 1987, over a meal at a Notting Hill wine bar, he formed The Notting Hillbillies, a more country-focused band. Knopfler further emphasized his country music influences with 1990s collaboration with Chet Atkins, Neck and Neck.

Dire Straits regrouped in 1988 for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, in which they were the headline act and were accompanied by Eric Clapton. 1990 saw the recording of Dire Straits' final original studio album, On Every Street, which was released in September of 1991. The album met with a mixed critical reaction, regarded by some as an underwhelming follow up to Brothers in Arms. But the album sold well, nonetheless, reaching #1 in the UK.

After On Every Street, two live albums were released, the first of which, On the Night (1993), documented Dire Straits' final tour. This was followed two years later by Live at the BBC as a contractual album for Vertigo.

Knopfler's marriage to Salamone ended in 1993, and he subsequently married actress Kitty Aldridge. This marriage has given him daughters Isabella (born 1998) and Katya Ruby Rose (born 2003). The family currently lives in Chelsea.

Dire Straits' line-up changed over the band's career, but Knopfler was always the driving force behind the group. After expressing a desire to give up touring on a large scale, Mark Knopfler launched his solo career and quietly disbanded Dire Straits in 1995. However, the band's keyboardist Guy Fletcher has been associated with almost every piece of Knopfler's solo material following Dire Straits' dissolution. Danny Cummings, the percussionist, also makes frequent appearances, including one on Knopfler's latest solo album.

However, in 2002 Mark Knopfler did four charity concerts with Dire Straits members John Illsley, Chris White, Danny Cummings and Guy Fletcher playing some old Dire Straits songs. The session also included The Notting Hillbillies.

After Dire Straits

In 1996, the year after Dire Straits officially disbanded, Knopfler released his first solo album, Golden Heart. Formed during the Golden Heart sessions, the main line-up of his solo band, also known as "The 96'ers," has lasted much longer than any Dire Straits line-up. In August the same year, Brothers in Arms was certified nine times platinum.

In 1997 Rolling Stone magazine released a poll: "Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll", which included "Sultans of Swing," Dire Straits' first hit, which remained significant throughout their entire career as a band.

In 1997 Knopfler recorded the soundtrack for the movie Wag the Dog. In October a hits collection of Dire Straits was released: Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits. It would, however, be three years before he was to release his next album, Sailing to Philadelphia.

Knopfler released his third solo album, The Ragpicker's Dream, in 2002. However, as a keen motorcyclist, in March 2003 Knopfler was involved in a motorbike crash in Grosvenor Road, Belgravia. He suffered from a broken collarbone, broken shoulder blade and seven broken ribs. The planned Ragpicker's Dream tour was subsequently cancelled, but Knopfler recovered and was able to return to the stage in 2004 for his fourth album, Shangri-La.

Shangri-La was recorded at the Shangri-La Studio in Malibu, California in 2004, where The Band made recordings for The Last Waltz. In the promo for "Shangri-La" on his official website he said that his current line-up of Glenn Worf (bass), Guy Fletcher (keyboards), Chad Cromwell (drums), Richard Bennett (guitar) and Matt Rollings (piano) "play Dire Straits songs better than Dire Straits did." The "Shangri-La" tour took Mark to countries like India and the UAE for the first time. In India, his concerts at Bombay and Bangalore were very well received, with over 20,000 fans gathering at each concert to listen to a legend who many thought would never visit their country.

In late 2005 a third compilation, The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations was released, and consisted of material from most of Dire Straits' studio albums and Knopfler's solo and soundtrack material.

Knopfler recorded an album of duets with country music singer Emmylou Harris, entitled All the Roadrunning, which was released on April 24, 2006. It reached #1 in Denmark and Switzerland, #2 in Norway and Sweden, #3 in Germany, Holland and Italy, #8 in Austria and UK, #9 in Spain, #17 in the United States (Billboard Top 200 Chart), #25 in Ireland and #41 in Australia.

Joined by Emmylou Harris, Knopfler supported All the Roadrunning with a successful world tour. Selections from the duo's June performance at the Gibson Ampitheatre were released as a CD/DVD package entitled Real Live Roadrunning on Nov. 14, 2006. In addition to several of the compositions that Harris and Knopfler recorded together in the studio, Real Live Roadrunning features solo hits from both members of the duo, as well as three tracks from Knopfler's days with Dire Straits.

All The Roadrunning was nominated for "Best Folk Rock/Americana Album" at the 49th Grammy Awards (February 11, 2007) but lost out to Bob Dylan's nomination for Modern Times.

Mark has recently released his fifth solo studio-album Kill to Get Crimson. His long-time band mate Guy Fletcher maintains a pictorial studio diary for the album which can be found on Guy's own website. The album was released on September 14, 2007 in Germany, September 17 in the UK and September 18 in the USA. Besides the standard CD edition, a special "Deluxe Edition" with an extra DVD is also on sale.

Knopfler will also be commencing a world tour to support the album, starting in late 2007 and continuing in to 2008.


Musical style

Mark Knopfler is noted for being left-handed, but playing right-handed, and for fingerpicking (using a personal variant of the clawhammer) style instead of using a plectrum (i.e., "pick"); fingerpicking is usually associated with the acoustic guitar, but Knopfler usually (though not always) plays an electric guitar.

Knopfler revealed during a French interview that he does use a pick for his rhythm work during recording sessions and started out using one. Knopfler surprised the interviewer by pulling one out of his pocket and saying that he usually carries one.

Knopfler was a guitar hero of the 1980s and played some of the decade's definitive riffs and solos. Mark's tone evolved from the simple and clean (or slightly overdriven) guitar sound of the Straits' first two albums to the "rocky" overdriven sounds on Brothers In Arms and on to the warm tube sounds on his solo albums.

He has around 70 guitars, including:

* Fender Stratocasters including a 1954 (one of the first ever produced) which he has named "Jurassic Strat"
* Fender Telecasters
* Gibson Les Pauls
* Danelectro 59-DCs
* Pensa Custom custom-built solidbody guitars. Also models MK-1 MK-2 & MK-80, which Pensa named in honor of Knopfler.
* Schecters
* National Style 0 Resonator guitar, as used on "Romeo and Juliet".
* Ramirez Spanish Guitar, used on "Postcard from Paraguay"

His Artist Series Stratocaster can be viewed on the Fender website