My Life in Dire Straits
The Inside Story of One of the Biggest Bands in Rock History
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4.3 • 9 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
With a foreword by MARK KNOPFLER
'An uplifting journey through the sheer hard work, pitfalls and thrills of navigating a great rock band to the pinnacle of success. I so enjoyed the ride!' ROGER TAYLOR
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Dire Straits filled giant stadiums around the world and sold hundreds of millions of records. Throughout the eighties they were one of the biggest bands on the planet. Their classic songs - 'Sultans of Swing', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Money for Nothing', 'Brothers In Arms' - formed the soundtrack of a generation and live on today: still racking up sales, still being played on the radio on every continent. In My Life in Dire Straits, John Illsley - founding member, bassist and mainstay - evokes the spirit of the times and tells the story of one of the great live acts of rock history.
Starting with his own unlikely beginnings in Middle England, he recounts the band's rise from humble origins in London's spit-and-sawdust pubs to the best-known venues in the world, the working man's clubs to Madison Square Garden, gigging with wild punk bands to the Live Aid stage at Wembley. Until, ultimately, the shattering demands of touring on a global scale and living life in the spotlight took their inevitable toll.
John's story is also a tribute to his great friend Mark Knopfler, the band's lead singer, songwriter and gifted guitarist - the only band members to stay the fifteen-year distance. Told with searching honesty, soulful reflection and wry humour, this is the first and only account of that incredible story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Illsley, bass player of the British rock band Dire Straits, delivers a fascinating take on the band's history. Following his rock-crazed youth in Leicestershire, he details his eventful meeting in the mid-1970s with guitar playing brothers David and Mark Knopfler in London's Deptford district, a bleak area that, during a decade marked by "crippling strikes," was "far ahead in the race to the bottom." But it was the ideal place to form a band, as Illsey ably illustrates, recalling how it enabled Dire Straits to develop a unique sound away from the punk scene that dominated London at the time. Once the band's demo tape landed with popular disc jockey Charlie Gillett in 1977, who began playing their song "Sultans of Swing" on repeat during the summer of 1977, the group shot to superstardom. Illsley breathlessly recounts the nonstop touring that began after they signed with Warner Records, the ascendancy of "Sultans" to worldwide hit status, and the increasingly popular records that followed, among them 1985's Brothers in Arms, whose breakout song "Money for Nothing" led to a prominent performance at Live Aid. Along the way, Illsley is brutally frank about the toll that the band's fame had on his relationships, most notably his marriage ("a victim," he writes, "of my life on the road"). Fans will be mesmerized.
