NAME: Mark Knopfler
BORN: 12/08/1949
BIRTH PLACE: Glasgow, Scotland
BIOGRAPHY
Knopfler was a late bloomer who worked as a journalist and a teacher, before forming Dire Straits in 1977. Two years later, the band, including his younger brother David, scored their first hit, ‘Sultans of Swing’.
Though Dire Straits began as a group with a permanent line-up, it evolved into a title for Knopfler with varying personnel. An apolitical alternative to punk in the radical late 1970s and early 1980s, his restrained, thoughtful songs were characterised by mournful guitar and world-weary vocals.
The band’s third album, ‘Making Movies’, was his most personal, featuring what has become his best-loved song, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, about a failed love affair. For the most part, Knopfler kept the deepest part of himself out of his song writing, creating fictional characters and narratives.