SPOILERS: John Illsley will publish a book about Dire Straits

[2manyguitars]

I think some perspective is need here. Firstly, and I have said this before, no-one here knows Mark Knopfler, some may have shaken his hand or spoken briefly to him, but no-one knows him, so it really is hard to form a definitive opinion about Mark's choices, it is often said that Mark has been the bad guy in his choices of band members leaving for example, but why? we don't really know what his relationship was with Pick Withers for example, it is interesting that Mark is the only one not talking about these kind of things, surely he should be given credit for that, instead of him constantly running down his previous band members, just look at David Gilmour & Roger Waters!!

 Can Mark's personality be that bad? Take Emmylou Harris for example, she only had praise for Mark, she and Mark were even photographed with each of their mothers, wouldn't you only introduce nice people to your mother? Emmylou has no reason to be false about Mark, she could and does play with many other artists. Look at the admiration on the face of Bonnie Raitt last year when they played together, what about Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Nail, I don't recall any of them saying bad thing about Mark, I am not saying Mark is perfect, but I am saying, the people who really know him, don't seem to have a problem with him, of course there are bound to be people who he has played with that have an issue, but not as bad as has been made out. I would much prefer to be a fan of Mark than certain others who are more vocal, I respect Mark for that. I truly believe his choices have always been artistic ones, in the Arena documentary he stated it was never his aim to make a million dollars, I take his word for it, why wouldn't I? again I don't know Mark.

 I recently re-watched the Golden Heart EPK, just listen to excited the band members are to play and tour with Mark, again these are guy who play many, many sessions all the time, so they know the good people from the bad.

 I don't see the point talking about Mark's current guitar abilities one way or the other, he has nothing to prove anymore, and he hasn't for a long time, he is simply one of the greatest players ever to play the instrument, he always will be.

 As long as he keeps recording and playing live whenever he wants to, I am happy, but more to the point, he is happy, he doesn't have to do it, but he wants to do it, I applaud him for that. They are all his songs, and he should, and does have the final say in what he wants to play. He is fully aware of what his audience likes or doesn't like, but if you look from tour to tour, he does play new songs every tour, mixed in with older songs, so I don't see the issue.

 Oh, and I am looking forward to reading John's book.

 

Wise words! It reminds me of the tagline for "Social Network" movie: "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies." Totally applicable to Mark actually! I'm not a fan of discussing personalities that's for sure. In the long career Mark met and worked with so many people, and made so many fans, that even statistically speaking he's bound to make some people angry for whatever reason, can't be the other way. That's just math!

Mark is the leader and more than that, he's "the guy who wrote the song", so, in the end, song is king. You don't even need to be the leader as long as you write good songs. The music is all that really matters, and in the ideal world it is all that really matters, so again, in the ideal world there should be no books or biographies, because the songs speaks for itself. And that, I think, is that makes Mark not happy about John's book, because he'd be like "Isn't my songs is not enough? What you like to cheapen it a little bit by telling a story of how it was made?'. Mark could be too romantic about it, but in the end he would be right and would have the last laugh. He's the Poirot of songwriters!

Excellent comments. Finally someone with a decent understanding of where we are in relation to MK. So often being a devotee  leads to a false sense of intimacy with the object of one's desire, a false sense of entitlement, and ultimately disappointment.

No one can really claim to 'know' Mark Knopfler, buying records, tickets,cane merchandise amounts to nothing more than your own personal choice and continues to be so until he is no more. 😢.

There is no doubt that MK is a very private person who gives very little away. In this respect I think he has every right to keep personal things to himself.

People will always ride on the coattails of others, and in our dog eat dog world that's to be expected. They should just remember why they have an audience at all before committing ink to paper....

[KnopfleRick]

I think some perspective is need here. Firstly, and I have said this before, no-one here knows Mark Knopfler, some may have shaken his hand or spoken briefly to him, but no-one knows him, so it really is hard to form a definitive opinion about Mark's choices, it is often said that Mark has been the bad guy in his choices of band members leaving for example, but why? we don't really know what his relationship was with Pick Withers for example, it is interesting that Mark is the only one not talking about these kind of things, surely he should be given credit for that, instead of him constantly running down his previous band members, just look at David Gilmour & Roger Waters!!

 Can Mark's personality be that bad? Take Emmylou Harris for example, she only had praise for Mark, she and Mark were even photographed with each of their mothers, wouldn't you only introduce nice people to your mother? Emmylou has no reason to be false about Mark, she could and does play with many other artists. Look at the admiration on the face of Bonnie Raitt last year when they played together, what about Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Nail, I don't recall any of them saying bad thing about Mark, I am not saying Mark is perfect, but I am saying, the people who really know him, don't seem to have a problem with him, of course there are bound to be people who he has played with that have an issue, but not as bad as has been made out. I would much prefer to be a fan of Mark than certain others who are more vocal, I respect Mark for that. I truly believe his choices have always been artistic ones, in the Arena documentary he stated it was never his aim to make a million dollars, I take his word for it, why wouldn't I? again I don't know Mark.

 I recently re-watched the Golden Heart EPK, just listen to excited the band members are to play and tour with Mark, again these are guy who play many, many sessions all the time, so they know the good people from the bad.

 I don't see the point talking about Mark's current guitar abilities one way or the other, he has nothing to prove anymore, and he hasn't for a long time, he is simply one of the greatest players ever to play the instrument, he always will be.

 As long as he keeps recording and playing live whenever he wants to, I am happy, but more to the point, he is happy, he doesn't have to do it, but he wants to do it, I applaud him for that. They are all his songs, and he should, and does have the final say in what he wants to play. He is fully aware of what his audience likes or doesn't like, but if you look from tour to tour, he does play new songs every tour, mixed in with older songs, so I don't see the issue.

 Oh, and I am looking forward to reading John's book.

 

Very well said!  Thank you VERY MUCH for your great post, qjamesfloyd.
I am really sick and tired of all these Mark bashings going on here lately.

For an artist like MK who has such a vast song catalogue it is almost impossible to please each and every fan.
But as long as he keeps singing R&J I will be happy with all of the other songs he will choose. 

[Rolleyway Man]

Very well said qjamesfloyd, 2manyguutars and KnopfleRick. It’s fair enough being constructively critical, but the overt negativity towards MK on this forum has become ridiculous. None of you actually know the man. I’d still like to see some definitive proof of the claim that Mark is unhappy about this book. Because people on this forum just seem to have automatically gone along with it and used it as yet another stick to bash him with.

[Robson]

Very well said qjamesfloyd, 2manyguutars and KnopfleRick. It’s fair enough being constructively critical, but the overt negativity towards MK on this forum has become ridiculous. None of you actually know the man. I’d still like to see some definitive proof of the claim that Mark is unhappy about this book. Because people on this forum just seem to have automatically gone along with it and used it as yet another stick to bash him with.

Exactly!

[jabbathehut]

If you see life on the road with Brian Johnson then you get a very good idea of what Mark's thoughts are and he didn't seem remotely grumpy in that.Lately there have been some autobiographical songs.I think he would feel genuinely uncomfortable writing a book about himself and i would imagine John would have mentioned it to him at some point in the process that he was writing a book.

 

[quizzaciously]

If you see life on the road with Brian Johnson then you get a very good idea of what Mark's thoughts are and he didn't seem remotely grumpy in that.Lately there have been some autobiographical songs.I think he would feel genuinely uncomfortable writing a book about himself and i would imagine John would have mentioned it to him at some point in the process that he was writing a book.

 

This depends on what you would call a book about yourself. I imagine Mark's book being something like "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", a collection of stories, rather than your typical biography. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" renders Mr Feynman character so clearly, you feel like you knew the man personally, and leaves you with a deep feeling that you would want to know him in person. Such a great personality! So I'd want something like that. And Mark actually did something like that, he told a lot of stories in his radio programme, like meeting Ennio Morricone, meeting Chet Atkins, meeting Chet Baker. That's all extremely book-worthy, well at least we got it in the form of audio. By the way, Mr. Feynman's books were also transcribed from audio interviews with him. That's so simple — just record your stories and put it on paper, nobody wants a complete 1000-pages long autobiography. Maybe John's book will be like that, I hope.

[jbaent]

Buying the Phil Palmer "Session Man" book I've found some info to pre-order John Illsley's book!

https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-life-in-dire-straits/john-illsley/9781787634350

Hardback 320 Pages / Published: 21/10/2021   


Some bands go huge - only a few stay huge.

One of the most successful music acts of all time, Dire Straits have filled stadia around the world. Their album sales number the hundreds of millions and their music is still played in every continent today. Their songs were either the complete soundtrack or the background music for an entire generation. There was, quite simply, no bigger band on the planet throughout the eighties.

In this powerful and entertaining memoir, bass guitarist, founder member and mainstay, John Illsley, gives the inside track on the most successful rock band of their time. From playing gigs in the spit-and-sawdust pubs of south London, to hanging out with Bob Dylan in LA, John tells his story - and the story of the band - with searching honesty, soulful reflection and great humour.

He also pays tribute to the remarkable talents of Mark Knopfler, whose unique ability to connect with people from all corners of the world was so important to the success of the band. John's is the first - and only - inside account of this global music phenomenon and is a fitting celebration that will delight millions of Dire Straits fans.

Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9781787634350
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 750 g
Dimensions: 240 x 156 x 40 mm

[skydiver]

Thanks for the update info!
Really something interessting to look forward to this year!

[Pottel]

ordered. 9 pounds postage? jeez.
so 35€ now.
very anxious to read it!

[jbaent]

ordered. 9 pounds postage? jeez.
so 35€ now.
very anxious to read it!

Yeah... A long wait until late October lol

[Stanko]

when it comes to the book, I expect to find the best parts between the lines 

[Klaus74]

Wow, good news. Sounds interesting. I also watch for it.

[cannibals]

Will it be availible in other languages or only in english??

[Robson]

Buying the Phil Palmer "Session Man" book I've found some info to pre-order John Illsley's book!

https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-life-in-dire-straits/john-illsley/9781787634350

Hardback 320 Pages / Published: 21/10/2021   


Some bands go huge - only a few stay huge.

One of the most successful music acts of all time, Dire Straits have filled stadia around the world. Their album sales number the hundreds of millions and their music is still played in every continent today. Their songs were either the complete soundtrack or the background music for an entire generation. There was, quite simply, no bigger band on the planet throughout the eighties.

In this powerful and entertaining memoir, bass guitarist, founder member and mainstay, John Illsley, gives the inside track on the most successful rock band of their time. From playing gigs in the spit-and-sawdust pubs of south London, to hanging out with Bob Dylan in LA, John tells his story - and the story of the band - with searching honesty, soulful reflection and great humour.

He also pays tribute to the remarkable talents of Mark Knopfler, whose unique ability to connect with people from all corners of the world was so important to the success of the band. John's is the first - and only - inside account of this global music phenomenon and is a fitting celebration that will delight millions of Dire Straits fans.

Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9781787634350
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 750 g
Dimensions: 240 x 156 x 40 mm

The title of the book has changed?

[dustyvalentino]

Buying the Phil Palmer "Session Man" book I've found some info to pre-order John Illsley's book!

https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-life-in-dire-straits/john-illsley/9781787634350

Hardback 320 Pages / Published: 21/10/2021   


Some bands go huge - only a few stay huge.

One of the most successful music acts of all time, Dire Straits have filled stadia around the world. Their album sales number the hundreds of millions and their music is still played in every continent today. Their songs were either the complete soundtrack or the background music for an entire generation. There was, quite simply, no bigger band on the planet throughout the eighties.

In this powerful and entertaining memoir, bass guitarist, founder member and mainstay, John Illsley, gives the inside track on the most successful rock band of their time. From playing gigs in the spit-and-sawdust pubs of south London, to hanging out with Bob Dylan in LA, John tells his story - and the story of the band - with searching honesty, soulful reflection and great humour.

He also pays tribute to the remarkable talents of Mark Knopfler, whose unique ability to connect with people from all corners of the world was so important to the success of the band. John's is the first - and only - inside account of this global music phenomenon and is a fitting celebration that will delight millions of Dire Straits fans.

Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9781787634350
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 750 g
Dimensions: 240 x 156 x 40 mm

The title of the book has changed?

MK probably told him to change it.