INTERVIEW: BROTHERS IN CONVERSATION (1993)
Primary Artist
ON THE NIGHT-VIDEO (1993)
Primary Artist
ON THE NIGHT (1993)
Primary Artist
THE VIDEOS-VIDEO (1993)
Primary Artist
ALCHEMY LIVE-VIDEO (1991)
Primary Artist
ON EVERY STREET (1991)
Primary Artist
MONEY FOR NOTHING-VIDEO (1989)
Primary Artist
MONEY FOR NOTHING (GREATEST HITS) (1988)
Primary Artist
BROTHER IN ARMS - THE VIDEO SINGLES-VIDEO (1985)
Primary Artist
BROTHERS IN ARMS (1985)
Primary Artist
BROTHERS IN ARMS-VIDEO (1985)
Primary Artist
WALK OF LIFE-VIDEO (1985)
Primary Artist
ALCHEMY (1984)
Primary Artist
TWISTING BY THE POOL-VIDEO (1984)
Primary Artist
TWISTING BY THE POOL (1983)
Primary Artist
LOVE OVER GOLD (1982)
Primary Artist
MAKING MOVIES (1980)
Primary Artist
COMMUNIQUE (1979)
Primary Artist
DIRE STRAITS (1ST LP) (1978)
Primary Artist
SULTANS OF SWING-VIDEO (1978)
Primary Artist
DIRE STRAITS/MAKING MOVIES
Primary Artist
25 YEARS OF RADIO 1 (1990)
Performer
THE HONKY TONK DEMOS
Performer

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Brothers In Arms

One World
Ride Across The River
Your Latest Trick
Why Worry
Money For Nothing
The Man's Too Strong
So Far Away
Walk Of Life
Brothers In Arms

On The Night-video

Calling Elvis
Walk Of Life
Heavy Fuel
Romeo And Juliet
The Bug
Private Investigations
Your Latest Trick
On Every Street
You And Your Friend
Money For Nothing
Brothers In Arms
Solid Rock
Going Home (theme from "Local Hero")

On The Night

Last year, Dire Straits attempted to trump the behemoth that was the BROTHERS IN
ARMS tour with the box-office busting ON EVERY STREET extravaganza, of which this is an
audio documentary. Recorded in Nimes and Rotterdam, it mixes four songs from ON EVERY
STREET itself with six old favorites and only the occasional rise and fall of suspiciously
manipulated cheering reminds the listener that it's all happening "live". In truth it's deadly dull.
Knopfler does nothing with his songs other than deliver them—no new arrangements, no
surprising diversions, no moments of musical transcendence. It's much like an overly
expensive tour book—glossily produced, tempting as a take-home souvenir perhaps, but
likely, before long, to be lost at the bottom of a box.
- John Bauldie
(Issue #81)(June 1993)
On The Night
Dire Straits
Calling Elvis
Walk Of Life
Heavy Fuel
Romeo And Juliet
Private Investigations
Your Latest Trick
On Every Street
You And Your Friend
Money For Nothing
Brothers In Arms

The Videos-video

Sultans Of Swing
Wild West End
Skateaway
Romeo And Juliet
Tunnel Of Love
Private Investigations
Love Over Gold
Twisting By The Pool
So Far Away
Walk Of Life
Money For Nothing
Brothers In Arms
Calling Elvis
Heavy Fuel
The Bug
Your Own Sweet Way
Feel Like Going Home
Will You Miss Me
Private Investigations
Going Home (theme from Local Hero)
 

On Every Street

The reasons for the six-year absence are well known: BROTHERS IN ARMS—the
15-million selling album and 250-date world tour—banished an unassuming bloke and his
mates to the outer reaches of unwanted superstardom. So now, after a prolonged working
sabbatical-cum-career re-think, Mark Knopfler has reversed Dire Straits' gradual drift into
cosmic respectability. The band returns with a new drummer and guitarist sounding leaner,
fitter and more like their original pub-rocking selves than at any time since the eponymous
debut in 1978.
Remember when people used to compare Dire Straits toJ.J. Cale? Well there are several tracks
on this album—the single, Calling Elvis, When It Comes To You and, in a darker mood, You And
Your Friend—which could have been penned by that legendary Southern mumbler-songwriter.
In fact, even when Knopfler heads off in other directions—late-night blues, Celtic folk, Nashville
country, Texas boogie and '50s Tex-Mex pop and more—the feel of the presentation is
Cale-ishly intimate and low-key. The epic dimensions of early '80s Straits numbers like
Telegraph Road, the layers of synthesizery fat and the adhesively catchy hooks which
spangled all the big hits from BROTHERS IN ARMS are conspicuous by their absence.
Heavy Fuel, a joky riff rocker about broads and booze, might on another record have come out
sounding as tidy as Money For Nothing. Here, driven by Jeff Porcaro's aggressively sharp
drumming, it sounds like ZZ Top in a garage. Leading from the front, Knopfler's voice has been
re-instated as a ruminative, restless growl which implies melodies once more, rather than
straining to sing them. The title track, a potentially pretty, Celtic-tinged ballad with a stunning,
finger-picked guitar coda, particularly benefits from this rough treatment.
The addition of the Nashville pedal steel expert and former Notting Hillbilly, Paul Franklin,
seems greatly to have broadened the stylistic reach of Knopfler's solos. There is a bluegrass
nimbleness and rhythmic subtlety to their interplay. Even a bantamweight country complaint
like How Long trips along with several guitars jostling each other in hot pursuit, while a more
sexually charged number such as You And Your Friend smolders suggestively beneath the
altercation of acoustic arpeggios, whining slide and screaming lead lines.
The best news of all though concerns the songs. Well-crafted as ever, they also pack more of a
punch than any Knopfler has previously written. In his wry, observational mode, My Parties
and Ticket To Heaven are wittier, Iron Hand (about the police treatment of striking miners at
Orgreave) more poignant than before.
As in-car entertainment, The Bug, When It Comes To You and Calling Elvis, tick along with
unparalleled precision. As love songs, On Every Street and Fade To Black reach deep into
areas of obsession Knopfler has only previously touched on. Clocking in at 60 minutes and
lacking a single duff track, this is, by any standard, a great album.
- Robert Sandall
(Issue #61)(October 1991)

On Every Street

Calling Elvis
On Every Street
When It Comes To You
Fade To Black
The Bug
You And Your Friend
Heavy Fuel
Iron Hand
Ticket To Heaven
My Parties
Planet Of New Orleans
How Long
 

Money For Nothing (Greatest Hits)

Whether fan or foe, there can be few people in the Northern hemisphere who have
escaped exposure to Dire Straits in the past 10 years, and much of this retrospective
compilation is likely to be minutely familiar even to those with the most casual interest in rock.
Walk Of Life, BROTHERS IN ARMS and MONEY FOR NOTHING are songs that have provided
the very warp and woof of the post-Live Aid, global rock tapestry.
If ever there was a group to the manner born it was Dire Straits. They set out with an unruffled
air in the summer of 1977, when virtuoso guitar playing and a laid-back American feel were not
qualities at a premium. Nevertheless, the record company A&R community snapped like a
water diviner's rod when Charlie Gillett played their demo tape on his Radio London show. It
included versions of the first two tracks on this album, the classic Sultans Of Swing and Down
To The Waterline, both of which now sound quaint and a little thin compared to the
heavyweight productions of later material.
Although they adhered to a strictly traditional guitar band format and Mark Knopfler was soon
to be found hobnobbing with the codgers of the '60s rock aristocracy, Dire Straits effortlessly
harnessed the technological innovations of video and CD as if such formats had been
invented expressly for their benefit.
Success on this scale naturally attracted the usual Pavlovian put-downs in the press, but
listening again to songs like ROMEO AND JULIET and Private Investigations one is struck by
the tremendous sense of place and drama which Knopfler creates through the unlikely
partnership of his mumbled singing and lyrical guitar motifs.
Oddly, the album omits Love Over Gold, So Far Away and Your Latest Trick in favour of a live,
Springsteenesque version of Portobello Belle and Where Do You Think You're Going, an
unremarkable song which Knopfler sings in his most throwaway Dylan drawl. On the cassette
and CD versions the running order is rejigged and a 12-minute live version of Telegraph Road
is included as a bonus.
A less than perfect hits album then from a band which has otherwise written a sizable chunk of
the book on multi-platinum rock '80s-style.
- David Sinclair
(Issue #26)(November 1988)
 
 

Money For Nothing (Greatest Hits)

Sultans Of Swing
Down To The Waterline
Walk Of Life
Money For Nothing
Private Investigations
Romeo And Juliet
Where Do You Think I'm Going
Twisting By The Pool (remix)
Tunnel Of Love ("Carousel Waltz" extract)
Portobello Belle (Bonus Track)
Telegraph Road (remix)
Brothers In Arms
Solid Rock (Bonus Track previou)

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