The Deptford council estate that birthed Dire Straits
Long before breaking sales records as a 1980s Billboard behemoth, Dire Straits first walked on stage, far removed from their future stadium headliners, as part of a little community festival in south London’s Deptford.
The pace at which they found fame was dizzying. Dropping their eponymous debut in 1978, featuring the canonical ‘Sultans of Swing’, frontman Mark Knopfler pulled Dire Straits from their pub rock roots to an increasingly polished pop boogie sound in perfect tandem with the American charts’ shifting trends. While already a fairly prominent force of the decade’s second British invasion, Dire Straits would eventually stand as its undisputed kings once the new wave began to ebb.
Even commercial heavyweights, The Police, were shoved out of the way in terms of sheer unit shifts. As well as selling more albums period, 1985’s Brothers in Arms flogged ungodly levels of sales, spending 14 non-consecutive weeks on the UK Albums Chart and nine on the Billboard 200, the 1980s’ biggest-selling British album. Helped by ‘Money for Nothing’s pioneering CGI video, Dire Straits for a moment stood alongside Madonna and Michael Jackson as the stars of the MTV age.
Every band’s got to start somewhere, however. Long before Live Aid slots, Knopfler and the gang played as a barely official part of 1977’s Deptford Music Festival, popularly known as Crossfields Festival among locals.
In the estate was Farrer House, a council block that was deemed insufficient by the local authorities and set for demolition, but was saved by campaigning efforts and decided to offer its many residences to young people in need of some cheap accommodation—an unthinkable provision in today’s neoliberal age.
It was perfect for aspiring young artists. In moved Knopfler, original rhythm guitarist and brother David, plus bassist John Illsley, in April 1977 to Farrer House while their rock ambitions were underway in earnest. The timing couldn’t have been better. Only two months later, the Crossfields Festival took over the green by the London to Greenwich arches and offered the perfect chance to kickstart their pub rock outfit in earnest.
It’s unclear just how much of a part of the programme they were. Headlining the bill was local lads Squeeze, just before their Packet of Three EP was out, with new wave come prankster outfit The Fabulous Poodles serving as warm-up. Standing as an impromptu support, Knopfler and the band, under the original name Café Racers, set up an amateur stage and plugged in their gear into a wall socket in Illsley’s first four flat at the back of Farrer House, and treated the crowd to early versions of ‘Sultans Of Swing’, ‘Down To The Waterline’, and ‘Southbound Again’.
It wouldn’t take long to win fame after their ramshackle Deptford show. Cutting their first demo the following month and around playing shows in nearby The Duke and The Birds Nest, Dire Straits would eventually adopt their settled moniker for a July show at Creek Road’s Albany Theatre, once again playing second fiddle to Squeeze. Signing with Phonogram Records, the band would drop their debut ‘Sultans of Swing’ single and see it rise to a whopping number six on the US charts. America was already in their sights.
Over 120 million album sales later, Knopfler and Illsley returned to the little Crossfield Estate in 2009 to unveil a blue plaque with the Performing Rights Society, marking the site where Deptford’s biggest rock export first took their step to fame.
