Mark Knopfler: from Sultans of Swing to Going Home | Ultimate Guitarist Reunion

Why fans still care

MARK KNOPFLER and Dire Straits put Brothers in Arms into the UK albums chart on 25 May 1985, and then it wouldn’t leave. It spent 14 weeks at number 1 in Britain and 273 weeks in the Top 100. In America it held number 1 for nine weeks, and Money for Nothing topped the Hot 100 for three.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame puts it another way. Dire Straits, it says, were one of the few rock bands to break through at a time when punk and disco ran the show. Out front was Knopfler, singing, writing the songs and playing the guitar.

Early life and training

Mark Freuder Knopfler was born in Glasgow on 12 August 1949. He grew up in North East England, though the sources don’t agree on exactly where: Newcastle, around Gosforth, or his mother’s home town of Blyth.

His younger brother, David, would later start Dire Straits with him.

He went to journalism school and spent two years as a reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post, reviewing local bands along the way. Then he took an English degree at Leeds, finishing in 1973, and taught at Loughton College until 1977. All through it he played in pub bands, including Brewers Droop and the Café Racers.

Career chapters

1. 1977Dire Straits formed in London
2. 1979Sultans of Swing reached number 8 in the UK
3. 1985Brothers in Arms; Money for Nothing went to number 1 in the US
4. 1991Two Grammys with Chet Atkins
5. 1995Dire Straits ended
6. 2018Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Dire Straits
7. 2024Christie’s guitar sale, the Going Home charity single and One Deep River

Sultans of Swing 1977 to 1979

Dire Straits formed in London in 1977, with Mark and David Knopfler among the founders. Their calling card was Sultans of Swing. It entered the UK singles chart on 10 March 1979 and climbed to number 8.

The other two founders were bassist John Illsley and drummer Pick Withers. Their first gig was in June 1977, on waste ground behind Farrer House in Deptford, near the flat they shared. A demo did the rounds of the record companies with no luck until Charlie Gillett played Sultans of Swing on his BBC Radio London show. A deal followed, and the debut album, Dire Straits, came out in 1978. Communiqué followed in 1979, Making Movies in 1980 and Love Over Gold in 1982.

Brothers in Arms 1985

Brothers in Arms is the record most people know. It went to number 1 in the UK for 14 weeks and in the US for nine. Money for Nothing reached number 1 on the Hot 100 on the chart dated 21 September 1985 and stayed there for three weeks.

The awards followed. Brothers in Arms won the Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form, in 1987. At the BRIT Awards, Dire Straits were Best British Group in 1983 and 1986, and Brothers in Arms was British Album of the Year in 1987.

On Every Street followed in 1991, and the band ran until 1995.

Chet Atkins and the solo years 1991 to 2023

In 1991 Knopfler won two Grammys with Chet Atkins, for Best Country Instrumental Performance and Best Country Vocal Collaboration. In 2006 he won again, for Best Surround Sound Album. Grammy.com credits him with six wins from 17 nominations.

Guitar Player counts ten solo albums since 1995.

Before that came two side projects in 1990: the Notting Hillbillies, a country band of friends whose one album was Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time, and Neck and Neck, the duets album with Atkins. His first solo studio album, Golden Heart, came out in 1996.

Going Home again 2024

Going Home first appeared on his 1983 soundtrack for Local Hero. Early in 2024 Knopfler recut it as a charity single, credited to Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes. The guest list reads like a roll call of this painting: David Gilmour, Who’s Who number 9, Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3, Pete Townshend, Who’s Who number 8, Brian May, Who’s Who number 20, Tony Iommi, Who’s Who number 23, Joe Walsh, Who’s Who number 25, Ronnie Wood, Who’s Who number 19, Slash, Who’s Who number 43 and Jeff Beck, Who’s Who number 15. Bruce Springsteen, Who’s Who number 17 in · Ultimate Eagles Reunion (story coming soon) is on it as well.

It came out on 15 March 2024. On the main UK singles chart it peaked at number 18, but it went to number 1 on the Sales, Physical and Vinyl charts. “I really had no idea that it was going to be like this,” Knopfler told Blabbermouth.

Six weeks later his solo album One Deep River entered the UK chart, on 25 April 2024. It reached number 3 and stayed there for two weeks.

Craft, sound and style

You can learn a lot about a guitarist from the guitars he keeps, and in 2024 Knopfler let everyone see his. On 31 January Christie’s sold more than 120 guitars and amps from his collection for £8,840,160. The top lot, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, went for £693,000, a world auction record for a ’59 Gibson Les Paul. The 1983 Les Paul reissue Christie’s lists as his Money for Nothing guitar, estimated at £10,000 to £15,000, sold for £592,200.

A share went to charity. At least a quarter of the proceeds was split among the British Red Cross, Tusk and Brave Hearts of the North East. A signed 2021 gold top raised £403,200, and all of it went to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

These days he likes working in his own studio. “I haven’t had a bad day in there,” he told The Independent.

The red Strat

The guitar on the first Dire Straits album and Sultans of Swing was a 1961 Fender Stratocaster. Christie’s says he had it stripped to natural and later painted red, and that he said it was basically the only thing he played on that album. Fender based his signature Stratocaster on it, released in the summer of 2003, with a three piece swamp ash body in Hot Rod Red, a “soft C” neck modelled on a 1962, and three Texas Special pickups he chose after testing several sets.

Money for Nothing and Walk of Life

The 1985 Money for Nothing sound came from a Laney amp and microphones placed almost by accident, with nothing extra added in the mix. Which guitar it was depends on who you ask. Guitar Player says a Les Paul Junior played with his fingers, and Christie’s lists his 1983 Les Paul reissue. Walk of Life was written, recorded and played on a red 1983 Schecter T style, one of his most toured guitars. From 1988 to 1992 his workhorse was a Pensa-Suhr MK1, which John Suhr thought of as a cross between a Les Paul and a Strat.

Thumb and two fingers

In his Café Racers days he played with a pick, in a style he likened to Mick Green’s. Then he found he could do things with his thumb and two fingers that a pick wouldn’t allow. He says Northumberland folk singer Joe Davidson taught him to play four notes to the bar with his thumb. Fingers give a sound that’s “more rounded, softer”, though he still calls the pick “the best amplifier there is”, and in 1979 he still used one now and again for strumming. As a boy he wanted to be B.B. King, Who’s Who number 2 or Jimi Hendrix, Who’s Who number 6, he says, and Hank Marvin was an early idol.

On the road in 2019

His tech Glenn Saggers ran two Kemper Profilers, a main and a backup. His amps were profiled at British Grove over months, then fine tuned in rehearsals. The strings were D’Addario XL110 on most electrics, and the Danelectro was in open C for slide. He made Neck and Neck with Chet Atkins in 1990, and it won a Grammy.

Stories people still tell

1. The roll call.

   One charity single in 2024 brought together nine of the guitarists in this painting, with Knopfler making ten.

2. Number 18 and number 1.

   The 2024 charity version of Going Home reached number 18 on the main UK chart, then topped three others. The 1983 original had peaked at number 56. That’s why the “UK number 1” claim you’ll see online is only half right.

3. No reunion.

   In April 2024 he told BBC Breakfast a Dire Straits reunion was unlikely. Guitar Player reported the same position in October 2026.

Legacy

Dire Straits went into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. The same year the Scottish Music Awards gave Knopfler their Hall of Fame and Living Legend honours.

He looks back on the band fondly. “I had an absolute ball for as long as it lasted,” he said in 2024.