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Dire Straits

Band
1977 / 1995
United Kingdom United Kingdom

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Band Dire Straits

Overview

History

Dire Straits were a British rock band from Newcastle, United Kingdom, formed in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (guitar and vocals), his brother David Knopfler (guitar), John Illsley (bass), and Pick Withers (drums), and subsequently managed by Ed Bicknell. Dire Straits emerged during the post-punk era of the late '70s, and while their sound was minimalistic and stripped down, they owed little to punk. If anything, the band was a direct outgrowth of the roots revivalism of pub rock, but where pub rock celebrated good times, Dire Straits were melancholy. Led by guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler, the group built their sound upon the laid-back blues-rock of J.J. Cale, but they also had jazz and country inflections, occasionally dipping into the epic song structures of progressive rock. The band's music was offset by Knopfler's lyrics, which approximated the winding, stream-of-conscious narratives of Bob Dylan. As their career progressed, Dire Straits became more refined and their new maturity happened to coincide with the rise of MTV and the compact disc. These two musical revolutions from the mid-'80s helped make Dire Straits' fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms, an international blockbuster. The band - along with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and Steve Winwood - became one of the leaders of a group of self-consciously mature veteran rock & rollers in the late '80s that designed their music to appeal to aging baby boomers. Despite the band's international success, they couldn't sustain their stardom, waiting a full six years to deliver a follow-up to Brothers in Arms, by which time their audience had shrunk significantly.

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Members

Mark Knopfler (lead vocals, guitar)
1976 - 1994
John Illsley (bass guitar)
1976 - 1994
Alan Clark (keyboard)
1979 - 1994
Guy E. Fletcher (keyboard)
1983 - 1994
Terry Williams (drums)
1981 - 1987
Hal Lindes (guitar)
1979 - 1984
Pick Withers (drums)
1976 - 1981
David Knopfler (guitar)
1976 - 1979

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Discography

Studio Album

1977
Album has 22 releases
1978
Album has 18 releases
1979
Album has 16 releases
1981
Album has 22 releases
1984
Album has 33 releases
1990
Album has 12 releases
1993
Album has 1 releases

Single

1977
Album has 6 releases
1978
Album has 2 releases
1984
Album has 5 releases
1984
Album has 3 releases
1985
Album has 1 releases
1986
Album has 2 releases
1990
Album has 2 releases
1990
Album has 1 releases
1991
Album has 1 releases
1991
Album has 1 releases
1993
Album has 1 releases

EP

1977
Album has 1 releases
1981
Album has 5 releases