Knopfler said he wouldn’t play with the band again as he wanted to “expand and work with different players and have a bigger line-up”, despite loving his time on the road.
“The last time I had the band in, and that’s the high point for me, I would probably have had about six or seven guys. Bigger than the little four-piece that was stripped down when we had it, and that was great, I loved it.”
The group, which he formed in 1977 with brother David and friends John Illsley and Pick Withers, found global success with hit singles including “Romeo and Juliet”, “Money for Nothing”, and “Sultans of Swing”, before disbanding in 1995.
Knopfler didn’t have any regrets about his time in the group, saying “I had an absolute ball for as long as it lasted until it got so big that I didn’t know the names of all the roadies, it was just getting big.”
He added: “It got so big, we were actually leapfrogging stages, and that is what you have to do when you get to a certain scale.”
An animated video for Mark Knopfler‘s all-star charity single “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” – which brought together a stunning lineup of over 60 guitar gods to raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust – has been released. It features the final recording of Jeff Beck along with contributions by Bruce Springsteen, David Gilmour, Slash, Ronnie Wood, Joan Jett, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Sting.
“Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” originally came out in 1983 on the soundtrack on the Burt Lancaster film Local Hero. It was the first solo release by Mark Knopfler. The original recording isn’t familiar to many Americans, but it’s known throughout Europe as the intro music to the Newcastle soccer team.
He continues, “Before I knew where I was, Pete Townshend had come into my studio armed with a guitar and an amp. And that first Pete power chord…man, I tell you — we were in that territory, and it was just fantastic. And it went on from there. Eric [Clapton] came in, played great, just one tasty lick after another. Then Jeff Beck’s contribution arrived and that was spellbinding. I think what we’ve had is an embarrassment of riches, really. The whole thing was a high point.”
