Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler, 2006

Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE [ maːk frɔɪdə ˈnɔpflə ] (born August 12, 1949 in Glasgow ) is a British guitarist , singer and songwriter . The multiple Grammy winner was the head and co-founder of the rock group Dire Straits , with which he became known worldwide. He is also successful solo. With a total of around 120 million records sold, he is one of the “best-selling music artists” in music history. He is one of the most famous electric guitarists in the world and has written soundtracks for several films.

Life

Mark Knopfler, 1979

Knopfler's Hungarian - Jewish father Erwin Knopfler (1909–1993) was an architect whose Jewish origins and sympathies for communism forced him to flee Hungary in 1939 . Knopfler's English mother Louisa Mary Knopfler was a teacher.

Mark Knopfler was in the Scottish Glasgow born and moved at the age of seven with his parents in the in the northeast of England Blyth , the hometown of his mother. He learned to play guitar as a teenager and began writing for the Yorkshire Evening Post in Leeds after leaving school . Together with occasional appearances in clubs, he was able to finance his journalism studies at the University of Leeds , which he graduated in 1973. Later Knopfler was also a lecturer at Loughton College in Leeds. In 1977 he founded the band Dire Straits in London with his brother David Knopfler , bassist John Illsley and drummer Pick Withers . The name of the group, which means "serious emergency", refers to the difficult financial situation of the band at the time.

In 1978 the album Dire Straits was released , which also included the first hit with Sultans of Swing . In the following years, Mark Knopfler emerged as the head of the band. With the exception of bassist Illsley, the band members changed several times. The most important musical accompanist for Knopfler was Guy Fletcher , who had become a member of Dire Straits in 1985 and supported him with his side project The Notting Hillbillies and all of his solo albums.

With the soundtrack for the film Local Hero , Knopfler released his first solo album in 1983. But he remained a member of the Dire Straits, which had their greatest success in 1985 with the album Brothers in Arms . Her next and last studio album ( On Every Street ) was not released until 1991. After the subsequent tour, Knopfler concentrated on his solo career, with which he seamlessly continued his success with Dire Straits.

In addition to his recordings under his own name or with the Dire Straits, Knopfler was also a guest musician and producer. He worked with well-known country musicians such as his role model Chet Atkins , Emmylou Harris and John Anderson , but also with Eric Clapton , Van Morrison , Randy Newman and Sting . He wrote the song Private Dancer for Tina Turner and helped her make her comeback in 1984. In 1983, Knopfler produced the album Infidels for Bob Dylan .

In his first marriage he was married to a childhood friend. There are twin sons from his second marriage to Lourdes Salomone. Mark Knopfler lives relatively secluded with his third wife, Kitty Aldridge, an English actress, and their two daughters in Notting Hill .

Solo career

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, 2006

After the years with Dire Straits, Knopfler devoted himself to his solo career. In 1994 and 1995 he recorded the album Golden Heart in Dublin and London , which is dedicated to his wife Kitty Aldridge. Top musicians such as guitarist Richard Bennett from Chicago , bassist Glenn Worf , pianist Jim Cox and drummer Chad Cromwell supported him with the recordings. He was also accompanied by his Dire Straits colleague Guy Fletcher . This line-up was later called the "96ers". All of the musicians mentioned play at least two instruments and have made a name for themselves in the Nashville scene, i.e. more in the country area. On the album Golden Heart , Knopfler also recorded some tracks with Irish folk musicians , including Dónal Lunny , Liam O'Flynn , Seán Keane and Máirtin O'Connor (for example the intro to Darling Pretty , A Night in Summer Long Ago or Done With Bonaparte) . Instead of an extensive tour as in Dire Straits times, a small tour through Europe followed in 1996.

From 1996 to 1998 he toured the UK again with the Notting Hillbillies . He also wrote the soundtracks for the films Metroland and Wag the Dog during these years . In memory of the victims of the school massacre in the Scottish city of Dunblane on March 16, 1996, in which 16 students and their teacher were killed in Dunblane Primary School, Ted Christopher took the solo guitar with a student choir from Dunblane and Mark Knopfler. Re - enacted Dylan's classic Knockin 'on Heaven's Door , in which Christopher wrote a new verse to match the tragedy. With this recording, donations were collected at the same time, which went to a new community center in the city. In September 1997, a benefit concert for the island of Montserrat took place in London's Royal Albert Hall , where Knopfler had recorded their most successful album, Brothers in Arms , with the Dire Straits . Knopfler played his own pieces and supported other musicians such as Eric Clapton, Phil Collins , Sting and Paul McCartney on guitar.

From 1998 to 2000, Knopfler Sailing to Philadelphia recorded the hit single What It Is in Nashville. The album was successful in the charts: it came in at number 2 in Austria and number 1 in Germany. Sailing to Philadelphia was very different from Knopfler's previous albums. With a few exceptions like What It Is or Silvertown Blues , most of the songs are influenced by the country style. The album also features duets with James Taylor and Van Morrison. In 2001 a tour followed that took Knopfler to South America for the first time .

In 2000 he wrote the soundtrack for the film A Shot at Glory . In the same year Ed Bicknell retired as his manager (he had also been manager of Dire Straits). Paul Crockford took over his job. In July 2002, Knopfler gave four charity concerts, in which he reunited with the Notting Hillbillies in the first part of the gigs and played with musicians from Dire Straits ( John Illsley on bass, Chris White on saxophone and Danny Cummings on drums) in the second part . The Ragpicker's Dream - recorded again in Nashville - was even more country-heavy than its predecessor. In 2003 Knopfler had to cancel the tour for the album because of a motorcycle accident.

In February 2004, Knopfler began recording Shangri-La in Los Angeles . The title track Our Shangri-La expresses Knopfler's gratitude that nothing worse happened in his motorcycle accident. The line of text "This is all the heaven we've got, right here where we are" is intended to remind people to appreciate and enjoy life. A limited DVD shows the making of the record with interviews with the band. In 2005 another major tour followed, which took him back to Australia for the first time since 1992 .

Mark Knopfler, 2006

From 1999 to 2005 Knopfler had recorded a few tracks with country singer Emmylou Harris . These songs were compiled into a duet album called All the Roadrunning , which was released in April 2006. Then the two went on tour through Europe and the USA. In 2006 Knopfler could also be seen twice in Germany. As part of his concert tour An Evening of Duets with Emmylou Harris, he played in the Color Line Arena in Hamburg in 2006 and in the Frankfurter Festhalle in June . On this tour he was accompanied by Richard Bennett (rhythm guitar), Glenn Worf (bass and backing vocals), Matt Rollings (keyboards and backing vocals), Guy Fletcher (keyboards and backing vocals), Danny Cummings (drums) and Stuart Duncan ( fiddle , mandolin and acoustic guitar ) accompanied. A live DVD and a live CD with the title Real Live Roadrunning were released for this tour in November 2006 .

Mark Knopfler, 2013

In September 2006 Knopfler gave a benefit concert in the American city of Boothbay in the state of Maine for the rescue of the old opera house on Boothbay Harbor. He played with Guy Fletcher (keyboards and guitar), Richard Bennett (guitar) and Glenn Worf (bass) without a drummer. In return, the almost two hour long performance included titles from his solo albums that Knopfler had not played live before. In May 2007, a new recording of the Dire Straits ballad Brothers in Arms was released, which should remind that 2007 was the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War . The proceeds supported needy veterans of the war. Knopfler recorded this new version in the Abbey Road Studios in London in a "one-take session".

In winter 2006/2007 and spring 2007 Knopfler worked with Guy Fletcher, Glenn Worf and Danny Cummings in London on his solo album Kill to Get Crimson , which was released in September 2007. It is a calm album that presents a lot of lyrics with plot or historical background. The title song Let It All Go with the text line “kill to get crimson”, for example, is about a painter who wants to kill people in order to get the color purple. Accordion, violin and flute can be heard on the album. Saxophonist Chris White was there again and can be heard on the song In the Sky . Then Knopfler went on a promotion tour for the new album and played one-hour “showcases” in small concert halls. The tour for the album Kill to Get Crimson started at the end of March 2008 in Amsterdam. The set list contained only the title of the album True Love Will Never Fade and The Fish and the Bird .

In winter 2008/2009 Knopfler went back to the studio to record a new album with the team with whom he had already recorded Kill to Get Crimson . It was released in September 2009 under the name Get Lucky . The subsequent Get Lucky Tour led through North America and Europe in 2010. In October 2011, Knopfler started a European tour with Bob Dylan in Dublin. Both musicians played their own concerts one after the other with their band. The further the tour progressed, the more Knopfler worked his way into Dylan's program, so that as the highlight of the evening, Knopfler stood on stage with Dylan and accompanied some of Dylan's songs on the guitar.

In August 2012, the double album Privateering was released. A European tour followed from April to July; in October 2013 he gave four concerts in the USA. His eighth solo album, Tracker , was released in March 2015. This was also followed by a tour of Europe and North America.

In 2018 he released his ninth solo album Down The Road Wherever , which he produced together with Guy Fletcher in his own studio in London . The first single Back on the Dancefloor was probably the best song that Knopfler had written for about thirty years, judged Richard Kämmerlings . From April to July 2019, Knopfler toured Europe and performed 57 concerts in twenty countries starting in Barcelona .

Musical influences and style

Musically, Knopfler was strongly influenced in his youth, as he told in an interview with the Austrian radio station Ö3 in October 2004 , by the guitarist of the band The Shadows , Hank Marvin . Since he played a red Fender Stratocaster , Knopfler's first guitar should also be red. The comparison of the guitar on the song Atlantis from The Shadows with the pieces Our Shangri-La and Everybody Pays on Knopfler's album Shangri-La shows how much Marvin's sound inspired him. The American musician JJ Cale is also one of his sources of influence.

Characteristic, besides his smoky voice, is his way of playing the guitar, in which the strings of the electric guitar are struck or plucked with the fingers. He is one of the few electric guitarists who play almost without a pick . For "emergencies" he has a pick with him, which he uses for a so-called hybrid picking . A characteristic feature of his guitar solos is the deliberate “stumbling on the fingerboard” - a very fast and controlled, strongly asyncopian shifting of individual tones within the melody without getting out of step. Another feature is to turn up the volume knob when you strike the string. Knopfler is left-handed, but plays his guitar like a right-handed person.

In 2011, the Rolling Stone listed Knopfler as 44th of the 100 best guitarists of all time . In a list from 2003 he was ranked 27th.

Guitars

He usually plays a Fender Stratocaster. Fender dedicated his own red signature model called "Hot Rod Red" to him. He also plays other guitars such as Gibson Les Paul , Schecter , Gretsch or Rickenbacker , and on the Shangri-La tour in 2005, Danelectro and Silvertone instruments . His favorite live guitars are a MK-II made by Pensa-Suhr and a 1937 National Style “O” guitar , which he used for the piece Romeo and Juliet and which is also on the cover of the Dire-Strait The album Brothers in Arms is pictured.

Discography (solo career)

→ Main article : Mark Knopfler / Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1996	Golden Heart Vertigo , Warner Bros.	DE5 (28 weeks) DE	AT8 (16 weeks) AT	CH3 gold (24 weeks)CH	UK9 gold (17 weeks)UK	US105 (12 weeks) US	First published: March 26, 1996 Sales: +350,000
2000	Sailing to Philadelphia Mercury , Warner Bros.	DE1 platinum (36 weeks)DE	AT2 gold (13 weeks)AT	CH1 platinum (25 weeks)CH	UK4th gold (16 weeks)UK	US60 gold (22 weeks)US	First published: September 26, 2000 Sales: + 2,031,286
2002	The Ragpicker's Dream Mercury, Warner Bros.	DE4th gold (16 weeks)DE	AT9 (8 weeks) AT	CH4th gold (15 weeks)CH	UK7th gold (5 weeks)UK	US38 (6 weeks) US	First published: September 30, 2002 Sales: + 530,000
2004	Shangri-La Mercury, Warner Bros.	DE3 gold (17 weeks)DE	AT14 (6 weeks) AT	CH7th gold (9 weeks)CH	UK11 silver (4 weeks)UK	US66 (6 weeks) US	First published: September 28, 2004 Sales: + 200,000
2007	Kill to Get Crimson Mercury, Warner Bros.	DE2 (24 weeks) DE	AT10 (6 weeks) AT	CH3 gold (13 weeks)CH	UK9 silver (5 weeks)UK	US27 (7 weeks) US	First published: September 17th, 2007 Sales: + 110,000
2009	Get Lucky Mercury, recap	DE2 gold (31 weeks)DE	AT10 (7 weeks) AT	CH5 (11 weeks) CH	UK9 silver (5 weeks)UK	US17 (8 weeks) US	First published: September 14, 2009 Sales: + 230,000
2012	Privateering Mercury	DE1 gold (13 weeks)DE	AT1 (14 weeks) AT	CH2 (13 weeks) CH	UK8th silver (5 weeks)UK	US65 (1 week) US	First published: September 3, 2012 Sales: +190,000
2015	Tracker Mercury, Verve	DE1 gold (23 weeks)DE	AT1 gold (13 weeks)AT	CH2 gold (22 weeks)CH	UK3 silver (14 weeks)UK	US14 (3 weeks) US	First published: March 16, 2015 Sales: + 197,500
2018	Down the Road Wherever British Grove, Virgin EMI , Blue Note	DE3 (22 weeks) DE	AT4 (9 weeks) AT	CH1 (21 weeks) CH	UK17 (6 weeks) UK	US15 (1 week) US	First published: November 16, 2018 Sales: + 10,000

Others

The dinosaur species Masiakasaurus knopfleri , discovered in Madagascar, was named after Mark Knopfler . In 2015 an asteroid was named after him: (28151) Markknopfler .

In protest against raids and repression by Russian authorities against human rights activists from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch , Knopfler canceled two concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2013.

swell

1. ↑ See Facts - Swiss News Magazine 2000
2. ↑ Greatest Guitar Players ( English ) buzzle.com. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
3. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists ( English ) rollingstone.com. November 23, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
4. ↑ see page about Erwin Knopfler on Chessscotland, accessed September 2, 2018
5. ↑ Mark Knopfler News: Mark Knopfler Authorized Biography (2002) ( Memento from January 25, 2012 on WebCite )
6. ^ Hannes Fricke: Myth guitar: history, interpreters, great hours. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , p. 91.
7. ↑ New version, Brothers in Arms single - SAMA release ( English ) MarkKnopfler.com. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
8. ↑ www.rollingstone.de: Review of the album .
9. ↑ Information on the 2013 European tour on Mark Knopfler's website, accessed on January 28, 2014
10. ↑ Information on the 2013 USA tour on Mark Knopfler's website, accessed on January 28, 2014
11. ↑ Current Tour . Mark Knopfler Official Website.
12. ↑ https://www.welt.de/kultur/pop/article183840650/Mark-Knopflers-neues-Album-Das-ist-fast-schon-tanzbar.html
13. ↑ gibson.com: Left-Handed Guitarists: the Famous and the Facts ( Memento from October 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
15. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time - David Fricke's Picks. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
16. ^ Electric Guitars . fender.com. Archived from the original on December 10, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
17. ↑ The six guitars by MK Portrait on openculture.com, accessed on September 3, 2014
18. ↑ Zeit online dpa Newsticker people: Mark Knopfler cancels Russian concerts in protest against raids ( memento from March 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 5, 2013

Web links

Commons : Mark Knopfler  - Collection of Images

• Mark Knopfler in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Mark Knopfler at Discogs (English)
• Official website (English)
• Mark Knopfler News (English)