Mark Knopfler

What can you say about a person who labled his group Dire Straits? Knopfler is a great fan of racing cars and motorbikes (what once led to a disaster), and one little raptorial dinosaur Masiakasaurus Knopfleri was named after him. Knopfler's father was a staunch communist, who escaped from Hungary to Great Britain from the persecution of the fascist regime. Mark himself and his younger brother David have been interested in music since childhood and the future "guitar king" appeared on TV with the musical turn for the first time at the age of 16. Later Knopfler became a journalist, moved to Lids, then to London, where he joined a band Brewers Droop.

One night, when Mark was resting with his friends, he decided to play something – but there was only one guitar in the house, that was just shivering, so he had to play extremely carefully. Knopfler said in a later interview, that was when he found his original style, which he continues to stick to: it is soft, calm, and the instrument becomes "the second voice" of the musician. Very soon everybody talked about the Knopfler's peculiar vocal – "Sprechgesang", that is not quite the singing, but not quite the talking too. In 1978 Mark together with his brother organized group Dire Straits. Their first albums - Communique (1979), Making Movies (1980), Love Over Gold (1982) – brought him the favour of the "guitar king". By the way, at the same time he was working with the group, Knopfler managed to collaborate with such famous musicians as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Sting, Chet Atkins (their greatest team-work is the album Neck & Neck), and also to write the soundtracks for the films. The other side-project of Knopfler was the band called The Notting Hillbillies.

But in 1995 Mark disbanded his group and next year he published his first solo album, Golden Heart. New works of Knopfler were made in the same style: Classic/Hardrock-music at the edge of country and blues, specific long guitar solos and, of course, the masterly playing. The next album Sailing to Philadelphia was issued only in 2000. After that The Ragpicker's Dream followed in 2002 and then there were another two years of silence – Knopfler had an accident on his bike. However the famous guitarist was able to come back, realising Shanqri-La in 2004. Besides the solo albums he recorded an album of duets in the country style All the Roadrunning (2006) with Emmyllou Harris. Moreover Knopfler continued recording the soundtracks for the films - Metroland (1998), Wag the Dog (1998), A Shot at Glory (2001). In 2007 Knopfler released his fifth successful solo album Kill to Get Crimson.

Two years later, Mark prepared another studio work, called Get Lucky. This record became a continuation of musical themes started by the artist earlier.