~~ recommended by dreamjoehill12~~~
45 years ago on April 7 1979, Dire Straits’ self-titled LP peaked at #8 on the UK Albums Chart (April 7)
Dire Straits were a unique band, and this was their debut LP.
Brothers Mark and David Knopfler were from Newcastle, and when the band started, Mark was working as an English teacher, and David was a social worker.
Bass player John Illsley was studying at Goldsmiths' College, while drummer Pick Withers was already a 10-year music business veteran, having been a session drummer for Dave Edmunds, Gerry Rafferty, Magna Carta and others through the 1970s.
Withers and Mark Knopfler had both been part of the pub rock group Brewers Droop at different points in and around 1973.
In 1977, the group recorded a five-song demo tape which included their future hit single, "Sultans of Swing", as well as "Water of Love" and "Down to the Waterline", all of which appear on this album.
They took it to MCA who rejected them, but after giving it to a BBC radio DJ who played “Sultans of Swing” on his show, they were offered a recording contract with the Vertigo division of Phonogram Inc.
They recorded this first album for a miserly cost of £12,500, and it was produced by Mervyn “Muff” Winwood, Steve Winwood’s older brother.
As a debut LP it was a huge success, anchored by the popularity of the “Sultans of Swing” single.
It went all the way to #2 in the US and New Zealand, #3 in Germany and the Netherlands, #8 in the UK, #6 in Sweden, and #10 in Spain and Norway.
The band then went on from strength to strength from these humble beginnings to become one of the biggest and most successful bands in the world….
Dire Straits w/ Sting playing at Live Aid in Wimbleton in '85
Industrial Disease, from the Love Over Gold record, is a zany and profound satirical comment on class, medicine and most of all the inherently harmful and deadly effects of a crumbling capitalist system that no one really seems to have a handle on.
Some blame the management, some the employees
Everybody knows it's the industrial disease
Yeah, now the work force is disgusted, downs tools, walks
Innocence is injured, experience just talks
Everyone seeks damages, everyone agrees that
These are classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze
On ITV and BBC they talk about the curse
Philosophy is useless, theology is worse
History boils over, there's an economics freeze
Sociologists invent words that mean "industrial disease"
Here they are in '86 with sirens ans that 80's headband - radical!
Charities & foundations supported 4
Mark Knopfler has supported the following charities listed on this site:
Amnesty International
Gibson Foundation
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Prince's Trust
Knopfler has a new album to benedit teen cancer teatment.
Out on 15 March, the track is produced by Knopfler’s long-time collaborator Guy Fletcher, who has edited the contributions into a nine-minute piece, featuring 60 ‘Guitar Heroes’. They include David Gilmour, Ronnie Wood, Slash, Eric Clapton, Sting, Joan Armatrading, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Nile Rodgers, Joan Jett, Brian May, Tony Iommi, and Sam Fender, while the track also opens with Jeff Beck’s final recording.
Roger Daltrey, Teenage Cancer Trust’s Honorary Patron and co-founder of Teen Cancer America (with Pete Townshend), has added the harmonica, and Ringo Starr is on drums along with his son Zak Starkey, while Sting plays a rhythm section on bass.
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