“A brutal dictatorship”: the feud that forced Dire Straits to quit at their peak
What is the constant curse of the rock band? It seems that bands everywhere, regardless of their level of fame or how they met, are destined to fall out and break up at some point. When you look at legendary groups such as The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin, they are constantly surrounded by fights and feuds, which means their time together isn’t destined to last. So, why do so many bands break up?
The reason is pretty simple, and it runs parallel to why we care about music so much in the first place. Listening to music is an incredibly emotional thing to do, as a lot of feelings which you might have previously buried are brought to the surface in a way that people all over the world connect with and enjoy listening to. Our favourite artists make us feel seen, and that’s why we love them so much.
It’s one thing to be a consumer, listening to this music and connecting with it, but it’s another thing entirely, actually making the music. You are in a group of people, trying to be vulnerable when writing songs and making records, while constantly subjecting yourself to critique in the face of said vulnerability. Creative tension in a band is more than just not liking somebody’s ideas; it’s shooting down an individual at their most vulnerable.
Combine that idea with all of the perks that often come with being in a famous rock band. Not only are people putting their feelings on the line while making music, but they are doing so while sex, drugs, drink and money are all prominent factors in individual band members’ lives.
In an ideal world, all band members would have the same idea and would be able to work in unison; however, that’s not how things work. People’s priorities change, their taste evolves, and as a result, band members start to put forward different ideas. It can be difficult working out how to overcome contentious points, as if one band member takes too much of a leading role, it can make the other band members feel inferior. This is exactly what happened with Dire Straits, as despite the band’s persistent success, they split up as points of contention within the band were becoming a serious problem.
Mark Knopfler originally started playing guitar with the intention of simply contributing towards a band. “Mark was already a very capable guitarist at eighteen or nineteen, way above the norm,” said Steve Phillips. “But he hadn’t developed his own style. He was far more withdrawn then as well. He didn’t have the confidence he acquired later as a musician, and didn’t see himself as a singer at all. His idea was that he would be the guitar player behind somebody else.”
When the band became more famous, however, Knopfler became more decisive and took charge of the band’s creative direction. This created friction between all of the band members, but especially with his brother David Knopfler. David could see the tension arising early in the band’s trajectory.
“We didn’t talk about it, we just got on with it and it evolved,” said David Knopfler. “But then I think both Mark and I had a different vision of what we were up to. I was building a democracy, and Mark was making an autocracy.”
Ed Bicknell put it best when he said the band split because Mark Knopfler was taking unprecedented charge and pushed aside the rest of the band members as a result. “David’s problem was he thought that the band should be a democracy, and it was more like a brutal dictatorship, as far as he was concerned. The issues between him and Mark, which for public consumption have been packaged up as musical issues, they weren’t,” he said.
Concluding, “As John Illsley said to me at the time: ‘This has been going on since David was born.’ I’m stating the obvious, but David was in the group because he was Mark’s brother, not because he was the greatest rhythm guitarist that Mark could have found.”
