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The younger sibling has also written sound tracks for films and has had his poetry published, but tends to shun the limelight.ĭavid, who was a social worker before becoming a professional musician, says: "I don't regard what I do as remotely glamorous. However he has also proved himself to be a fine songwriter and has released a string of solo albums. He claims that Mark, who handled all the songwriting duties for the band, became too domineering.ĭavid's career has been low key since leaving the band and he's now often regarded as a footnote in the history of Dire Straits.

Now 62-year-old David has shed more light on the simmering tensions between the brothers at the time. To add insult to his injured pride David, who is three years Mark's junior, was not even credited on the album. Matters came to a head in 1980 when David suddenly quit the band in New York during the recording of third album Making Movies.Ĭiting that old get-out clause "creative differences", the junior Knopfler walked away to pursue a solo career. However there were often hints that behind the scenes there was disharmony. Mark, on vocals and lead guitar, and David, on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, never looked back.ĭuring Dire Straits' first tour of the US the brothers performed 38 sell-out concerts spanning 51 days. Within a year Dire Straits had a deal with Warner Brothers and their self-titled debut album was a massive worldwide hit. It was a slow burner, first becoming a hit in the Netherlands before a wider audience caught on to the band's folk and blues-influenced sound. They performed in pubs in a band called Café Racers before forming Dire Straits and recording a demo tape containing the single Sultans Of Swing. The brothers founded Dire Straits - whose fans included Princess Diana - in 1977 and began performing together after leaving the North-east, where they grew up, and later shared a flat in London. We've got cousins who don't know one another." "Of course it casts a huge shadow on both our lives and our families. The bestselling album by Dire Straits was called Brothers In Arms but it has now been revealed that behind the scenes the group was torn apart by a severe case of sibling rivalry.ĭavid, the younger of the Knopfler brothers, admits that he no longer speaks to Mark after they fell out over the way the band was being run. Listening again now, the momentum of a band firing on all cylinders is unbroken, from the opening moments of “Once Upon A Time In The West” to the valedictory “Going Home.Together Mark and David Knopfler were the original lynchpins of one of the world's most successful rock bands. Saturday, he remembered, had been a good night – so that’s what was used for the Alchemy release. After two epic performances, the recordings of both were delivered to Knopfler at his home, but he was too exhausted from touring to listen to them. When Dire Straits gathered at Hammersmith Odeon, they were at the end of an extensive European tour that had included another London date at the Dominion Theater two nights earlier.

He completed the soundtrack to Bill Forsyth’s charming comedy Local Hero and won an Ivor Novello Award in the process for its “Going Home” theme. As this writer observed in the liner notes for the 2010 reissue of Alchemy, the London performances followed a period of solo endeavours in which Mark Knopfler laid the groundwork for the solo career he follows with such distinction today.
