When Dire Straits formed in 1977 they produced music which was different from the punk and stadium rock which surrounded them, creating a stripped back, cleanly produced, guitar based sound. At first their debut Dire Straits (1978) looked set to bomb, but it was championed by the label and eventually went platinum across Europe, helped in part by the memorable single “Sultans of Swing”.
After Communiqué in 1979, their third album was Making Movies (1980) which spawned “Romeo and Juliet”, one of their most enduring singles. David Knopfler left during the making of this album, marking the first of several line-up changes throughout the life of the band.
Love Over Gold was released in 1982 and produced the hit single “Private Investigations”, but it was their next studio album Brothers in Arms (1985) which was to redefine their career. The success was augmented by the fact that they released the album on CD, a new-fangled technological gimmick which was still in its infancy at that time. The album went multi-platinum and they toured to massive crowds.
The band took a break after Brothers in Arms, and Mark Knopfler concentrated on writing film scores and his side project The Notting Hillbillies. It wasn’t until 1991 that their last full-length record On Every Street was released, but it was met with guarded comments from the critics and failed to achieve the success of their previous album. In 1995 the group split without any fanfare.
