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Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler (OBE)
Born August 12 1949
Glasgow, Scotland
Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter, Film score Composer
Knopfler is best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist with British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977 with his brother David.
Following the dissolution of Dire Straits in 1995, Knopfler has continued to record and produce albums as a solo artist under his own name. Occasionally Knopfler has played in other groups such as the "supergroup" "The Notting Hillbillies" and has guested on works by other artists such as Bob Dylan, Brian Ferry, Eric Clapton, John Fogerty, Jools Holland, Steely Dan and Chet Atkins. He has produced albums for artists Tina Turner, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris and in addition he has scored the music to several films including, Local Hero, Cal, Last exit to Brooklyn, Wag The Dog and Rob Reiner's classic The Princess Bride.
Knopfler is one of the most respected fingerstyle guitarists of the modern rock era. Knopfler was ranked #27 ON "rolling Stone" magazines list of "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time". Mark Knopfler's father was a Jewish architect whose communist sympathies forced him to flee the fascist regime of his native Hungary (Mark is not Jewish himself). His mother was English. The family first moved to Scotland, but then settled in his mother's home town of Newcastle upon Tyne in the north east of England when he was nine years old. There he and his younger brother David were inspired by their uncle Kingsly's Harmonica and boogie-woogie piano playing. In his teens he wanted to buy an expensive Flamingo-Pink Fender Stratocaster just like Hank Marvin, but had to settle for a £50 twin pickup Hofner Super Solid.
Knopfler served an early apprenticeship by forming and joining anonymous schoolboy bands and listening to singers like Elvis Presley and guitarists Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore, Jimi Hendrix and Django Reinhardt. At sixteen he made a local TV appearance as half of a harmony duo with a friend from school, Sue Hercombe.
In 1967, after displaying a flare 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. Two years later he decided to further his studies and graduated with a degree in English at the University of Leeds. He worked as a lecturer at Loughton College and it was during this period while Knopfler was living in Leeds that he married Kathy White, his long-time girlfriend from his school days, however the marriage didn't last.
After separating from his wife, he moved to London and joined a High Wycombe based band called Brewers Droop, appearing on the album "The Booze Brothers". 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 true voice on guitar".
The Dire Straits Years.
The early sessions of Dire Straits were done with Knopfler's brother David writing and serving as front man on one of the five songs with Pick Withers as drummer and John IIIsley on bass guitar.
Dire Straits recorded and released their first album, the self titled "Dire Straits" in 1978 initially to little fanfare in the UK, but a single release "Sultans of Swing" became a chart hit in Holland and album sales took off across Europe and then the United States. The second album, "Communique;" reached number one in Germany while the first album was still at number three.
The bands third album "Making Movies", was released in 1980 and marked a move towards more complex arrangements and production which continued for the remainder of the group's career. In 1982 Dire Straits released their forth album "Love over Gold" which included their #2 hit "Private Investigations".
A double LP of the recordings of two live shows in Hammersmith Odeon in London was released in March 1984 and sold over 500,000 albums. Knopfler married for the second time in November in 1983, to Lourdes Salamone, their twin sons Benji and Joseph, were born in 1987.
Dire Straits biggest studio album was by far their fifth "Brothers In Arms" released in 1985, it became an international hit and spawned several chart hits including the US #1 "Money For Nothing", which was the first video to be played on MTV in Britain. It was also the first CD to sell a million copies.
1991 saw the recording of Dire Straits final original studio album "On Every Street" which was released in September of that year. The album met with a mixed reaction regarded by some as an underwhelming follow up to "Brothers in Arms" nonetheless the album sold well hitting #1 in the UK.
There were frequent changes within Dire Straits over the years but Mark Knopfler was always the driving force behind the group. Knopfler's marriage to Lourdes Salamone ended in 1993.
In 1995 he quietly laid Dire Straits to rest but I'm sure you would agree that Mark Knopfler will surely go down in the history books as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. |
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