Your earliest Knopfler Memory...

[2manyguitars]

Was thinking about this today and how my mum and dad used to drag me around to folk clubs and festivals in the mid to late 70s. One incredibly boring Saturday afternoon a friend of theirs gave me a cassette player and a tape with DS first album on one side and Communique on the other. I remember being vaguely aware of them before hand, but just as a picture on a top of the pops chart countdown.

The rest is history, and lots of cash down the drain!

What are your earliest memories\experiences that introduced you to the world of Knopfler?

[SamGolden]

I vividly remember the day I discovered Dire Straits sound. In 1982, before the release of TR album.. A friend of mine, at school, invite me at home and He made me listen to the first notes of TOL on LP (Vinyl) from Making Movies Album. He recorded me as a gift two albums on a cassette tape, MM and the first album. It was a real musical shock (in a good way). The tape turned in my Walkman during years and years...
You can change life, job, family, religion but you never change your REAL PASSION....

[hunter]

For me it was in about 1988-89. I was at a friend's house, and their TV was tuned to MTV, which was showing what I believe must have been a clip from the Wembley show during the BIA tour. Pretty sure it was Money For Nothing. I was about 12, and it struck me how cool the music was and how normal the band looked. Such a contrast to the pop stars and metal guys that were in vogue at the time.


My next step was to buy the Money For Nothing cassette, which I played to death on my red Sony Walkman. I particularly loved Portobello Belle from that album. Those were the days. Good memories.

[ds1984]

French TV broadcasting Alchemy on a Saturday night in "Les Enfants du Rock" on the then called "Antenne2" channel.

From that night I was addicted to life!

The next Monday I was in the only record shop open on that day in my town (traditionally shop are closed on Monday) and bough the double live LP.

[PensaGhost]

Unfortunately there was a tv programme here in italy whose main theme was Telegraph Road, the middle solo from Alchemy remixed.

it was about 1988, no internet, I started to ask around 'who are these guys?'

I think after some weeks/months (?) I found someone who knew, started to buy the albums
and started to play guitar unfortunately

[superval99]

It was 1982 and my son brought home a home-made DS compilation on cassette that his friend had made.  I had heard of Dire Straits, but not heard their music, so when I eventually listened to the cassette, the music literally changed my life - I was hooked to this day!   

[Mudrian]

I was 16 years old,on a train going to Italy with school friends ...
We were talking about our musical tastes and , when my turn came, I said that I was far from being a music enthusiast but, that I loved rock ...
Then my friend put a tape in his walkman and said to me "you have to listen to this"
 It was  Money for Nothing intro.... that moment changed my life ...I still clearly remember what I felt.
Since then, music, and more precisely  guitars,  become a consuming passion .... 11 guitars at home (including a Fender Knopfler Signature ), 3 amps, and I play in 2 bands ....
Without Mark Knopfler ' s music , my life would have been different (I don' t mean worst, just different)

[KnopfleRick]

It was in 1979, I was sitting in front of the TV together with my brother who`s a BIG Hendrix fan and we were watching Rockpalast, a programme here in Germany we never missed back then.
This time Dire Straits were introduced and hit the stage for a 90 or so minutes show.
I`ve always loved the clear sound of Hank Marvins guitar playing and now there was this thin guy from London doing almost the same and much more better with his red strat.
I was so thrilled seeíng him doing finger picking on an electric guitar, I had just started learning it myself on an acoustic.
I`ve never seen anybody playing finger picking on electric before and couldn`t stop watching him while my brother (sitting next to me) couldn`t stop praising Hendrix being the greatest guitar player ever
and this guy from Dire Straits would sound boring to him. But NOT TO ME! I immediately knew that this music IS FOR ME! 
The next week I went to the music shop and bought „Dire Straits“ LP.
Since that day I became a loyal fan, have seen Mark many times live and cannot imagine life without his wonderful music.

[jbaent]

It was really in christmas 1988, when MFN compilation was released. I heard about DS and MK throught many music magazines so I knew them by name, also knew they were the big stars on the Nelson Mandela concert, but that same christmas a cousin lend me a tape with Alchemy, and after listen to that endlessly, I went to a record shop and bought the MFN compilation on tape.

[JF]

june 88. I was seventeen

I had already heard Walk of life a couple of times but then I discovered the whole BIA album
and at the same time the Mandela gig was broadcasted live

few weeks later, my cousin gave me Alchemy on cassette, and I listened to it during all summer
at the end of August I had bought all albums (on cassettes), and next months the MFN comp was released

1988 was definitively my DS year !

[dmg]

It must've been about 1985, I was 8 or 9, and I was at my friends house.  His elder brother was in his room listening to MFN on his ghetto blaster! 

Needless to say I asked my friend about this fab music, so when his brother left he borrowed the cassette and we played it in his room, with air guitar accompaniment!

My parents then bought for me the BIA album on cassette (which I still have), and I quickly built up my collection from there. 

Then I attended my first concert which was DS in Glasgow on 13th September 1991.

By the time the early 90s came I was attending record fayres and buying bootlegs; there were a lot doing the rounds after the OES tour.

[2manyguitars]

It must've been about 1985, I was 8 or 9, and I was at my friends house.  His elder brother was in his room listening to MFN on his ghetto blaster! 

Needless to say I asked my friend about this fab music, so when his brother left he borrowed the cassette and we played it in his room, with air guitar accompaniment!

My parents then bought for me the BIA album on cassette (which I still have), and I quickly built up my collection from there. 

Then I attended my first concert which was DS in Glasgow on 13th September 1991.

By the time the early 90s came I was attending record fayres and buying bootlegs; there were a lot doing the rounds after the OES tour.

Your first paragraph was me and my brother to a tee....

I think we wore out part of the BIA cassette repeat playing the MFN intro....

[herlock]

It was also in 1988 (must be a central point in time, like 1955 in Back to the Future)
I was 14, and at the back of the bus taking us french school children to England on a discovery trip. A friend of mine had the BIA cassette and had asked the driver to play it. Being at the back of the bus I hardly could hear anything... but the power chords of "the man's too strong". I was intrigued by that sound, so I climbed up to the front of the bus, and could listen to the whole album. I was hooked. I the purchased my very first CD - the famous MFN compilation. I discovered SOS, DTTW, TOL, and the wonderful PB and TR live versions. I ended up buying the whole set of DS albums, and marvelled at them. I have been to my first (and only) DS concert in 1992 in Lyon. I came 8 hours in advance to be at the front row. I got the front row... and survived about 10 minutes there. Back in that day people were barbaric in concerts and pushed like mad. So I spent the concert at the back of the venue, with good sound but no view... and no TOL, just TR That day. I was only 18, no internet, no autonomy, no information. I wished I had the same means as today, i would have gone to tons of concerts instead of just one...
I then kind of didn't realize that Mark had a solo career. In 1996 I listened to the GH album with interest, but was not even aware of the tour ! I then lost touch completely. I only woke up in 2008 (one month 2 late to attend a KTGC show), and discovered the marvels I had been ignoring - STP, TRD, SL and KTGC). In 2010 I finally attended concerts again, and had a wonderful decade until last year. Just wish I hadn't skipped the 2000s...

[peterromer]

I must have been 11 in 1980. My older sister and a friend of the family were listening to the first DS album. I had of course no idea what I was listening to and was only told some years later that it was that album. It was the very first memory. Five years later I bought BIA on a cassette and months later as a CD. From there I began buying all the earlier stuff, including available bootlegs.   

[Tomcaster]

I was five years old. Just moved to Germany from the communist block. My father picked up my mum, my 3 months old sister and myself from the airport. We went home. The TV was running and there was a weird robotic sound plus a quadratic dog. I was terrified, but I remembered that overdriven sound forever.

The channel was MTV and the song was Money for Nothing.