Dire Straits
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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
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
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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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