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The Latest Breaking News from Dire Straits

A rare 12-string guitar that Mark Knopfler “borrowed” for 50 years is now up for auction

The guitar was originally owned by his friend, Lindisfarne's Jeff Sadler – and was played on the Dire Straits' sophomore album, Communiqué

Guitar World

"The fallout was much bigger than anything we could ever have foreseen": Dire Straits and the adventure of Brothers In Arms

Everything changed for Dire Straits when they made Brothers In Arms: Mark Knopfler, John Illsley and Guy Fletcher look back

Louder

“People have bought tickets and you can see them thinking, ‘That’s not ‘Brothers in Arms’”: Mark Knopfler on why one of the Dire Straits’ most iconic tracks hinges on this four-note guitar intro

The Dire Straits guitarist reflects on the songwriting process of some of the band’s classic tracks

Guitar World

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"Once I’ve played those four notes, then I can start to improvise”: Mark Knopfler on the Dire Straits song he's come to accept that he has to start in the same way every time

"People have bought tickets," he says

MusicRadar

“Being called a guitar hero was just awkward. Whether I’ve written a good song or not, that’s what counts to me”: Mark Knopfler on 40 years of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms – the guitars, the riffs… the pressure of learning to play in time

From his lucky ’83 Les Paul and Fleetwood Mac-inspired soloing to “getting away with murder” at the sessions, the Dire Straits legend opens up in his most revealing interview in years

Guitar World

“He reached under the sofa and pulled out this dusty old case. And he says, ‘Mark, I want you to have this guitar. I don’t play it anymore’”: Mark Knopfler on the treasured Gibson he received as a gift from a rock hero – which became his studio go-to

Last year, Knopfler parted ways with 120 of his prized instruments for charity, including much of the Brothers in Arms gear

Guitar World

This iconic guitar appeared on the cover of one of the most successful albums ever – but what’s the story behind it?

It’s one of the most famous guitars in music – and its picture is in more than 30 million homes

Louder

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“I gave up trying to be a great guitar player. I have enough to get by in the studio – I got away with murder”: Mark Knopfler on why he doesn’t consider himself a “guitar god” – and the ones in the industry who deserve that title

40 years after the release of the Dire Straits’ seminal album, Brothers in Arms, Knopfler reflects on that game-changing period and why he was always a reluctant rock star

Guitar World

“It’s a cheap guitar, it sounds very direct, I did everything wrong, but I think they’re perfect notes”: Mark Knopfler names his favourite guitar solo

“I just said what I had to say. I didn’t go too far”

MusicRadar

How Dire Straits outsold everyone, hijacked MTV, and accidentally made a classic: Only in the new issue of Classic Rock

Also in this issue: Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, Mike Peters, Buckcherry, Adam Duritz, Battlesnake, Eureka Machines, H.E.A.T, Steve Lillywhite, Live Aid USA and more

Louder

A Dolby Atmos-ready rival to the Sonos Arc Ultra, iFi hi-fi travel gadgets, top end streamer and more

Our hi-fi and home cinema experts detail the top stories to break over the past week

What Hi-Fi?

Ramshackle Canonbury studio where Dire Straits and The Police recorded set for conversion into house

The unassuming building saw everyone from Madness to John Cleese come through its doors

Evening Standard

Here’s why audiophiles still love Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms 40 years on

Now look at them yo-yos, that's the way you do it

What Hi-Fi?

“Playing four notes to the bar with your thumb... That changed everything for me, because that’s what I wanted to be able to do”: How Mark Knopfler grew up wanting to be Jimi Hendrix until he ditched the pick and went fingerstyle

Or how one lesson with a folk singer from the northeast of England (and a bunch of lost picks) changed the history of electric guitar

MusicRadar

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Louder

"Pure manna for a fanbase denied any whiff of a reunion": Dire Straits' 30-million-selling Brothers In Arms celebrates its 40th birthday with energised extras

Mark Knopfler’s crowning achievement: mildly dated, largely evocative, expanded with live shows

MusicRadar

"Everybody was going 'Does anybody know how to work this thing?'": How Guy Fletcher and a classic ‘80s synth became Dire Straits’ secret weapon on Brothers In Arms, and helped to turn it into one of the biggest albums of the decade

“Without him there, we would have probably been completely lost"

The Guardian - UK

Mark Knopfler on Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing: ‘I wrote it in the window display of a New York appliance store’

‘A big bonehead of a delivery guy was looking at all these TV screens tuned to MTV and the lines he was saying were too good to be true. So I borrowed a pen and paper, sat down and started writing’

Louder

“He thought that the band should be a democracy, and it was more like a brutal dictatorship as far as he was concerned”: The tangled story of Dire Straits, the million-selling band who quit at the height of their fame

How Dire Straits went from the pubs of London to become one of the biggest bands of the 1980s

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Guitar World

Stevie Ray Vaughan, Simple Minds, Megadeth, the Cult and the class of 1985 – only in the new Guitar World

Also starring Jimmie Vaughan, GA-20, Kiki Wong, Dead Kennedys, the Smithereens' Jim Babjak, Cracker's Johnny Hickman, King Diamond, Third Man Hardware, Sue Foley's new GW column, Money for Nothing and more

Guitar World

“What’s going through our mind is ‘What the…?’ And if you see Bob’s face, you could see he’s thinking the same thing”: When Bob Dylan played with an LA punk band to promote the album he made with Mark Knopfler

1983's Infidels, Dylan's first secular album in half a decade, was graced with a bounty of sweetly tasteful leads from the Dire Straits man. To recreate two of its songs on Late Night with David Letterman, Dylan hired LA punks the Plugz

Louder

10 huge hits given away from one artist to another

From Prince to Joni Mitchell and Macca to the Bee Gees, the stars who were in such a creative purple patch that they had classics going spare and shopped them elsewhere.

The Independent UK

The Who’s Pete Townshend backs album in support of Parkinson’s disease charity

The album is raising funds for the Cure Parkinson’s charity.

Guitar World

“I don’t think they do too well living in a case all their lives”: Mark Knopfler parted ways with his guitar collection – but he hopes they all get played

2024 Year in Review: The Dire Straits icon raised a huge amount of money for charity selling off 120 prized instruments, including his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard

The Independent UK

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 22-28

Celebrities having birthdays during the week of Dec. 22-28 include actor Timothée Chalamet, comedian Seth Meyers and guitarist David Knopfler of Dire Straits

Evening Standard

William’s ears left in dire straits thanks to Prince Louis’ drumming practice

The Prince of Wales spoke to musicians at the Tusk Conservation Awards.

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