INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MARK KNOPFLER

On August 12, 1949, Mark Freuder Knopfler, former leader of the Dire Straits group, a successful solo musician and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, was born.

Mark Knopfler was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but spent a very large part of his childhood in the north of England, near Newcastle. Memories of the urban life of northern England complement the atmosphere of many Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler albums.

Mark Knopfler has been interested in music since childhood. At the age of 5, he tried to play the piano without notes. At the age of 8, he heard boogie-woogie on the piano performed by his uncle Kinsley: "That melody was one of the most beautiful I had ever heard. Three chords - that's the whole sequence. I learned it very quickly and played it non-stop, driving my family crazy." At the age of 13, Mark's dad taught him to play the violin. On his 15th birthday, he finally begged his parents for a guitar, something like a Stratocaster. Despite all this, Mark never liked notes, preferring to play by ear.

The Dire Straits group ("Stretched Circumstances") was created in 1977. Its name reflects the financial situation the musicians were in at that time.

Mark Knopfler's brother David was the rhythm guitarist in the early years of the group, and the debut album was recorded with him. However, the presence of both brothers in the group caused tension in the team, and in the midst of recording the second album, David decided to leave. As he later recalled, when he, already as a former member, came to rehearsals, they tried not to look at each other, their gazes were directed at the floor, in a creative sense, they were no longer connected. Mark Knopfler often writes songs from the perspective of other people. Perhaps the most famous song by Dire Straits, “Money For Nothing,” is written from the perspective of the lyrical hero, a loader. And once Mark even wrote a song from the perspective of a stripper, “Private Dancer.” However, he changed his mind about singing it and gave the song to Tina Turner. The song became a hit and revived the singer’s career. Later, Tina performed another of Knopfler’s songs, “Overnight Sensation.”

Dire Straits’ album “Brothers in Arms” holds the title of the first compact disc to sell more than 1 million copies. This fact even made it into the Guinness Book of Records. It is believed that this album marked the beginning of the mass popularity of the CD format.

Once, the New Zealand Minister of Transport called off a stewards’ strike so that Dire Straits could fly in and perform a concert in their country.

Since the 80s, Knopfler has often written music for films. In 1982, he received his first offer to work on a film soundtrack (it was "Local Hero" by David Puttam) and has since written music for more than ten films.

The theme to the film "Local Hero" is played before Newcastle United home matches. Mark sometimes attends these matches with his family.

The hero of the track "Done With Bonaparte" is a soldier from the Napoleonic wars. To make the song authentic, Mark had to delve into the history of the Russo-French War of 1812. He needed to find out whether a French soldier who lost an eye at Austerlitz could have been allowed to take part in the Russian campaign.

Mark is left-handed, but plays a right-handed guitar - according to him, this affects the sound. He is also one of the most famous rock musicians who plays the guitar with his fingers, without a pick.

Mark Knopfler collects cars and has even participated in vintage car races. He usually drives a Maserati 300S or an Austin-Healey 100S. Mark's repertoire also includes a song written on behalf of a racing driver - "Speedway at Nazareth". Mark Knopfler is perhaps the only musician who has the legal right to be called a "rock dinosaur". A dinosaur species was named after him - Masiakasaurus knopfleri. Scientists who discovered the remains of this animal on Madagascar loved listening to Dire Straits during excavations. During all the years of work in the group (as well as in the following years), Mark Knopfler did not refuse anyone who asked him to record a guitar solo, a joint song or somehow participate in this or that project. The list of his creative colleagues is truly amazing: Bob Dylan, Phil Lynott, Stevie Nicks, Van Morrison, Randy Newman, Buddy Guy, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Bryan Ferry, Phil Everly, Sting, James Taylor and many others. However, his friends and colleagues always responded to Knopfler's call to play and sing on his solo albums.