When you meet him, you come across as a peaceful man, one of those British Mail pensioners you might meet in some suburb of the Midlands, among the red brick houses and fish’n’chips. Yet this quiet and distinguished 74-year-old gentleman has set stages all over the planet on fire and has entered many of the soundtracks of our lives. Yep, if you say the 80s you say Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits. And even if Mark abandoned his friends almost thirty years ago (it was 1995) and, as we will see, has no intention of taking them back, the myth of him remains unshakeable. Even if he does nothing to fuel it.
The occasion of the meeting is «One Deep River», the ninth solo album which joins the band’s legendary six. The album seems to be set not in the Midlands, but in Newcastle where Knopfler grew up, starting from the cover which features the bridge over the Tyne, the river of the northern port city.
An autobiographical record, one might say.
“Not necessarily. The river I’m talking about could also be a person, a situation, whatever you like. I like that songs can be flexible.”
It’s certainly a trip down memory lane: «Ahead of the game» talks about his tiring beginnings, half a century ago.
«I was a journalist, which helped me focus on who I was in life. And I was a teacher, a job that literally saved my life. In the morning with the boys, in the evening out with a rockabilly band, with the car, amplifiers and guitars bought thanks to that job. I don’t know if, without it, I would be here today…”.
Guitars, his trademark: they don’t seem so popular now among young bands.
«If kids want to use washing machines and bottles, that’s fine with me, there shouldn’t be a law, according to which a band must have a bassist, a drummer or a guitarist: I would never subscribe to such an orthodoxy. Everything can be attractive. I don’t like formalisms according to which tango must be done like this, flamenco like this…”.
Maybe there is a band, though: our Måneskin, where the guitar is still central to their poetics.
“No, I do not know them. What are they called? Manskin? However I will delve deeper. Anyway, for me guitars are a songwriting tool. I never wanted to be a virtuoso like Jimmy Page or Ritchie Blackmore so to speak and, said with the utmost respect, I prefer to stick with my nursery rhymes.”
He won’t say he sounds “like a plumber,” as he’s said in the past.
He laughs. «Look at my hands, they are exactly those of a plumber: my playing has deteriorated, a guitar teacher wouldn’t approve».
In Smart money he talks about easy money…
«Yes, that’s betting jargon. But it is also the metaphor of showbiz: careers are increasingly shorter. I’m still around selling records, it seems like a hundred years and there are people who disappear after two. You have the feeling that young people are being devoured by dinosaurs with talent shows.”
Here are the records: it’s 40 years since Dire Straits’ masterpiece «Brothers in Arms».
«We did well with the singles, right from the first one they became hits in America, there was a critical mass around those songs. And right at that moment the CD became very popular. The combination of these two elements made the album successful.”
But the song that gives the album its title, an anti-militarist anthem, is not listened to much, see the war in Ukraine or Palestine.
«However, if “Brothers in Arms” is useful to people, makes them feel as if everything makes sense and serves as comfort in difficult times like these, I’m happy».
Many bands from the past have reunited. Among the few who have been missing for 29 years are Dire Straits.
«And I won’t change my mind. It was good while it lasted, I had fun. But I don’t want to be “bigger” than I am today, I don’t care.”
But will we at least see her on tour again for this album?
“For now I think I’ll stay at home, together with my wife, dedicate myself to the family this time: because I never feel bad writing other songs and going to the studio.”
And in the future?
«I don’t know if I will resume…»
Finally, you are a Newcastle fan, earlier we talked about betting: what are your thoughts on the Tonali case?
“Nobody’s perfect”
Tags: Dire Straits tour wife dont Maneskin
