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The year found Knopfler releasing Privateer , the first double-disc studio set of his career; the album debuted at eight in the U. Three years later, he returned with Tracker ; the album debuted at three in the U. In , he collaborated with Evelyn Glennie on the soundtrack for Altamira.

Mark Knopfler Biography, Songs, & Albums - AllMusic

Knopfler became friends with a handful of local musicians, and they formed a new band called the Café Racers. His father, a Hungarian émigré, worked as an architect, while his mother, of English heritage, was a schoolteacher. One of the most celebrated British guitar heroes to emerge in the late s and '80s, Mark Knopfler first rose to fame as the leader of Dire Straits , where his songwriting and incisive guitar work played a decisive role in making them an international success story.

After graduating from Leeds in , Knopfler moved to London and joined a pub rock band called Brewer's Droop , featuring drummer Pick Withers. And when Weird Al Yankovic asked Knopfler's permission to record a parody of Dire Straits ' "Money for Nothing" for the soundtrack to his film UHF , Knopfler agreed under one condition -- that he be allowed to re-create his guitar parts for Yankovic 's version.

Bicknell took Dire Straits under his wing and Stainze signed the group to Polygram's progressive and hard rock subsidiary Vertigo Records; Warner Bros. In , Knopfler added "film composer" to his résumé when he wrote the score for the Scottish comedy Local Hero ; Knopfler's music was cited in many of the film's rave reviews, and he would later score the films Cal , The Princess Bride , Last Exit to Brooklyn , and Wag the Dog , among others.

Dire Straits Tabs

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to use the site fully. After two years at the Post, Knopfler opted to return to school, studying English at Leeds University. Blues Classical Country. Electronic Folk International.

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However, he was soon feeling well enough to go back to recording, and issued Shangri-La in , a set recorded at the Malibu compound where the Band recorded and rehearsed in the '70s. Jazz Latin New Age. Aggressive Bittersweet Druggy. Energetic Happy Hypnotic. When the Café Racers found themselves in need of a bass player one night, Mark asked Illsley to sit in, and before long, Mark, David , and John were sharing an apartment and working on songs, with Mark on lead guitar, David on rhythm, and John on bass.

Released in November , Knopfler's ninth solo album, Down the Road Wherever , covered a wide range of themes and was again co-produced with former Dire Straits bandmate and longtime solo-era collaborator Guy Fletcher. Knopfler's tenure with the band was short-lived, and he took a position as a lecturer at Essex's Loughton College. The newly prolific Knopfler shortly returned to the studio and released The Ragpicker's Dream in the fall of ; a world tour was planned, but after Knopfler was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him with a broken shoulder and collarbone, the dates were canceled.

Meanwhile, he began to accumulate an impressive résumé as a producer, sideman, songwriter, and film composer in the '80s, eventually moving on to a successful career as a solo artist in which he continued to explore his interest in country, Americana, and roots music. In , he was invited to play lead guitar on Bob Dylan 's album Slow Train Coming , and in , he produced Dylan 's Infidels , as well as leading the backing band.

Knopfler and Harris toured together in support of the set, and a live album, Real Live Roadrunning , came out later the same year. In , Knopfler enrolled at Harlow Technical College, where he studied journalism, and a year later he landed a job at the Yorkshire Evening Post, where he wrote news stories and music criticism.

Mark's brother, David Knopfler , who was also a guitarist and songwriter, introduced Mark to a fellow musician John Illsley , who played guitar but was also a solid bassist. In the fall of , Dire Straits played their last concert, a show in Spain on tour in support of On Every Street , and in , Knopfler quietly announced that he'd retired the band, feeling they'd become too big. As Knopfler's taste for rootsy, country-influenced sounds became a growing presence in his solo work, he began working on material with singer Emmylou Harris , and their collaborative album, 's All the Roadrunning , was recorded during sessions spread over seven years.

He also penned the song "Private Dancer" for Tina Turner 's triumphant comeback album of the same name, and found his songs being covered by the Shadows , whose legendary guitarist Hank Marvin was one of Knopfler's first inspirations. Landing major chart hits on both sides of the Atlantic with songs like 's "Sultans of Swing" and 's "Money for Nothing" the latter anchoring their landmark album Brothers in Arms , Knopfler's dry wit and smooth, earthy guitar style helped Dire Straits cut a unique throughline that somehow traversed both the more traditional pub rock style of the '70s and the excess of the MTV era.

AllMusic relies heavily on JavaScript. Dire Straits ' self-titled debut album was released in the fall of , and the song "Sultans of Swing" became a surprise hit single in both America and the U. It was the first of a long string of successes for Dire Straits , and while the lineup would shift frequently over the group's lifespan -- Mark Knopfler and John Illsley would prove to be the group's only constants -- between and the group was a top concert draw and a frequent presence on radio and record charts; their landmark album Brothers in Arms sold over nine million copies in the United States alone, and was the top-selling CD of the '80s in the U.

It wasn't long after Dire Straits made their commercial breakthrough that Knopfler began expanding his creative boundaries. Mark invited Pick Withers to play drums with the new combo, and while they played their first few gigs as the Café Racers, before long they adopted a new name coined by Withers : Dire Straits.

Weird Al happily acceded to Knopfler's request. At 16, Knopfler and some pals cut a demo single that was never released, and he performed in a vocal group that was successful enough to merit an appearance on local television. While at Leeds, he became friends with a fellow guitarist named Steve Phillips , and they began playing out under the name the Duolian String Pickers; while working with Phillips , Knopfler began developing the fingerpicking style that would become his trademark.

With albums like 's Shangri-La , the Emmylou Harris duets album All the Roadrunning , and 's Privateering , Knopfler established himself as an organically rooted solo act and collaborator with a widespread global audience. The Knopfler family moved to England when Mark was seven, settling in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and he developed a passion for music while spending time with his uncle; as he told journalist Dan Forte , "I heard my Uncle Kingsley playing boogie-woogie on the piano when I was about eight or nine, and I thought that those three chords were the most magnificent things in the world -- still do.