WITH HIS NEW solo album racing up the charts around the world – Get Lucky(his finest work to date) is number two in the European charts, top 10 in the UK and has just entered the top 20 in the US charts – Mark Knopfler is still a bit grumpy, writes BRIAN BOYD
"I like being a grumpy old man," he says as he sits in an upmarket London restaurant. "I think there is this decline, this cheapening of our culture. You see it everywhere now, this erosion of values. It seems that if you want to have a hit now you have to cast Jordan as Michael Jackson in a film about the Normandy landings. But then you look at how Big Brotherhas been taken off the TV and you see that people are flocking to the theatre and you wonder if things are changing. It's not that I'm against popular culture – I mean I do play a red electric guitar."
As one of the world’s best guitar players, Knopfler (now 60) not only patented his own unique finger-picking style but his distinctive sound underscored the music of Dire Straits, the band who ruled supreme during the 1980s and who have sold in excess of 120 million records.
Since the band broke up in 1995 he has released a series of well-received solo albums but none have made the immediate chart impression of this current release.
“We’re hearing new chart placings all the time for this new one and it’s doing really well” he says. “But chart success is not why I do this anymore. I had all that with Dire Straits. When you’re young and in a band it’s like you have a football under you arm – you’re running with it. I don’t make music now for any commercial reason”.
Get Luckyfinds Knopfler doing a form of Americana as informed by English, Irish and Scottish folk stylings. It's a blues/country/Celtic album – largely acoustic – that is beautifully crafted. Undulating rather than hitting you between the eyes, there is nothing remotely contemporary sounding about it – but this is perhaps the very reason people are attracted to it.
"I'm a bit of a veteran at this music thing now," he says. "There's a song on the album called The Car Was The Oneand that's about the famous American race car driver Mark Donahue. I found that his passion and desire to race reminded me of my own drive as young man to be in a rock band. I wanted to be the best I possibly could".
Knopfler (his father is Hungarian) was originally a journalist, working for a while on the Yorkshire Evening Postwhile also playing in bands.
Dire Straits were formed in 1977 and were an immediate sales phenomenon. Knopfler's distinctive guitar playing always stood out on albums such as Making Moviesand Love Over Goldand he was frequently asked to collaborate with artists such as Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry and Eric Clapton. He also did film soundtrack work, most notably on Local Heroand Cal.
HE GREATLY ENJOYSthe fact that he can now go about making records without all the attendant hype and fuss associated with big-scale Dire Straits releases. "I don't really release singles as such to promote the album and there aren't even any videos," he says. There are none of his trademark guitar solos on the album – rather, it's a more meandering affair that lets its many delights unfurl at an easy pace.
One of the tracks on the album, Before Gas and TVechoes, although only in its title, the Van Morrison track In the Days before Rock 'n' Roll."I remember seeing Van Morrison playing in Newcastle once," he says. "It was quite stunning. There something about how the Irish have that storytelling aspect to their art. I love John Banville's books – all the astronomy ones – and now I'm reading Sebastian Barry".
The standout track on the album is Remembrance Day. "I suppose it was indirectly influenced by what's happening in Afghanistan," he says.
“It’s about a cricket team – because in a lot of communities you’ll find it’s the cricket teams and the football teams who were the kids who went to war. In the US, I suppose it would be the baseball teams. The names I use are not real people – they’re the names of some of my friends”. All proceeds from the sale of this particular song will go to the Poppy Appeal, which provides assistance to present and former members of the British armed services.
He’s keen to tour this album and has lined up a series of shows – including one at Dublin’s O2 arena next year (May 19th). “Getting the chance to tour is one of the reasons I still make records,” he says. “I have this sort of compulsion to play every now and again and it’s an important part of what I do.”
While he focuses mainly on his solo material during the live shows, he also does some Dire Straits songs. "I'm careful about how I handle those old songs because they have become like milestones for people and you have to remember that when playing them" he says. "With other songs, I'll change them around here and there but when I do Brothers In Arms, for example, I play those first four notes exactly the same because that's how people remember the song. And when I play Sultans Of Swing, I have to do all the fiddly guitar bits at the end just like on the record. Otherwise people can get very upset . . ."
- Get Luckyis out now
So Far Away The Chances Of A Dire Straits Reunion
ONE OF THE few gigantic-selling groups not yet to reform, many lucrative offers have been made to the band but for Mark Knopfler it’s a non-starter. “I get asked about it all the time” he says. “When the band finished, it finished at the right time”.
But bass player John Illsley has been sending out overtures through the media to Knopfler. Speaking to the BBC, Illsely said “I think we’ve definitely got one more tour left in us, and probably another record too. I’m very open to doing whatever is suggested.”
Knopfler and Illsley were the only two original members of the band left when they broke up and are still in contact. But Illsley knows that the continuing success of Knopfler’s solo career means a reunion is looking more and more unlikely, saying, “he’s doing incredibly well, so hats off to him – he’s having a good time doing what he’s doing”.
Knopfler is happier with the reduced level of limelight. Speaking at the Hay Literary Festival last year, he said Dire Straits “just got too big”.
“f anyone can tell me one good thing about fame, I’d be very interested to hear it,” he added.