A debut with unexpected consequences

My first encounter with the Dire Straits was exactly on 24 May 1978 in the Hamburg Music Hall instead and did not go particularly happy. As the opening act for American Pomprocker Styx, the band was not only completely miscast, but was on top of that set by the nasty sound and light technicians of the main strip so so impossible in scene that the local local newspaper the next day laconically noted: 'Their music was somewhere between punk rock and marching music settled, but one of the first to the last song reaching thundering four-four rhythm, who invited to march with the flu offered nothing worth hearing. ' And I myself wrote at the time: 'When we arrived at half past eight, just the opening act called Dire Straits, a little significant mixture of Dr. Feelgood and Wishbone Ash produced. It was not exactly applauded enthusiastically and said goodbye to the about 1000 fans in the hall after six or seven pieces without adding '.

So far the story of a great misunderstanding. Just five months after that played Miracle guitarist and lead singer Mark Knopfler and his brother David Knopfler (rhythm guitar), John Illsley (bass) and Pick Withers (drums) as acclaimed main group in the same, this time sold-out venue, leaving an ecstatic audience, which also includes I was allowed to belong again. The small plastic badges in the shape of a guitar and bearing the inscription 'Dire Straits', the viewers were given before the concert, I still have today.

Their song "Sultans of Swing" had become his way through the Netherlands (!) Found in the local radio stations and thus provided for a development that was sensational in the days of disco, punk and new wave. Meanwhile, the debut album Dire Straits had in fact boarded not just the German charts, but remained there after all for a whopping 84 weeks and peaked at #. 3

Dire Straits (translated: 'lean times' or 'dead broke') had come together in 1977 in London and surprisingly quickly managed to get a contract with the well-known record label Vertigo. Their music could be described in the broadest sense with the time in England widespread notion pub rock, which mostly came along quite unremarkable. And were it not that brilliant, crystal-clear guitar playing was a certain Mark Knopfler, then their first LP would be probably remained their last. But it should turn out quite differently, because the sounds of this guitar, a red and white Fender Stratocaster, fins, had a similar effect as the magic of the famous Pied Piper of Hamelin by the legendary trumpet.

Knopfler's harsh vocals, however, was flat with no real self-confidence; he grumbled his lyrics almost shy in front of him, but you knew already that here an artist handed in his journeyman who could bring it still pretty far.

Muff Winwood, elder brother of the more famous singer Steve Winwood, and together former with him a member of the Spencer Davis Group ("Keep On Running", "Gimme Some Lovin '"), had the album Dust dry and clearly produced as a cold winter morning. Knopfler's guitar sounded very bright and a bit too pointed at him. This annoyed the audience not in the least, but the immense heat of the special Knopfler sounds could then admire only in the concerts.

Apart from "Sultans of Swing" had Mark Knopfler, who composed all the songs alone, another catchy numbers in stock: the wistful youth memories "Down to the Waterline" for example, or the bitter "Water of Love". His American model JJ Cale, he emulated in "Setting Me Up" and especially "Southbound Again". "Six Blade Knife" was almost a bit boring, while "In the Gallery", so to speak, the wonderful "Once Upon a Time in the West" anticipated by the second album RELEASE. Some designs from "Lions" also appeared on the next drive on again. And the casual "Wild West End" dealt, as most of the songs, with Knopfler everyday in southwest London.

The album Dire Straits evolved very slowly to a 'big seller' and finally reaching # 3 in the US and 4th place in England. What then followed is known, was an unexpected, worldwide success story to their mainstream Monster Brothers in Arms (1985) and the last album On Every Street (1991). But it all began in the spring of 1978 in the Netherlands and in Germany. And I, an early convert supporter, was in fact from the very beginning!