70s Music Artist watch: Dire Straits

Back in  the Queens Jubilee year of 1977, a group was formed with two brothers, they being Mark and David Knopfler ,who along with Pick Withers and John Illsley became Dire Straits. The group arrived right in the middle of the punk outbreak, so after making a demo tape they took it to a BBC Radio London DJ,Charlie Gillett to ask him if he rated it. He heard "Sultans of Swing", and played it on his show, which led to a record contract and the rest is history in the music of the 70s..



The song was like a breath of fresh air at the time, as when the charts were played it was nice to have an alternative to the fast paced screaming punk tracks, and have a record that produced that real feel good feeling, and was so different.

The first album called Dire Straits has all the tracks written by Mark Knopfler and included "Sultans of Swing". The next album in 1979 "Communique" spawned the next single "Lady Writer".

Here are Dire Straits being interviewed in 1979 by German Television, talking about playing big venues, and it shows how laid back they all were. This is at the sometime they really rocked the music of the 70s..

As the band entered the 1980s they exploded with huge hits,huge arena concerts and were involved in numerous TV and Film scores. The group are not working together now, and are rumoured not to be that close, but with all the money they have all made they are not in Dire Straits.

Here is a BBC radio One Interview with the group in 1978.