Dire Straits in High Demand as ‘Substantial Offers’ Pour in for Reunion
Rock bands are often looked to as a potential source of reunions, but it appears that it may never come to fruition.
Dire Straits’ star, John Illsley, has stirred excitement among fans with hints of a possible reunion in a recent interview about the rock band’s past success.
The bass guitarist disclosed that the iconic “Sultans of Swing” group, which disbanded in 1995, still receives tempting offers for a comeback, seeking to capitalise on their legacy as one of the foremost rock bands of the 1980s.
Illsley, a key member of Dire Straits alongside the Knopfler brothers, Mark and David, and drummer Pick Withers, remained a steadfast presence throughout the band’s tenure from 1977 to 1995, with a brief hiatus in the late Eighties.
Given that many of their contemporaries either stuck together or reunited for new ventures, there’s been speculation about why Dire Straits never contemplated a reunion – and it appears they may never do so.
In a recent interview ahead of an upcoming live box-set release, Illsley mentioned that during his occasional meetings with the band’s former manager, Paul Crockford, he learns that there’s still a demand for Dire Straits.
However, he suggests that Crockford isn’t enticed by the notion, remarking to The Telegraph: “Every time we have lunch, [he] says to me, ‘I wish people would stop offering me huge amounts of money to put [Dire Straits] back together’.”
Reflecting on the band’s dissolution, Illsley recalled feeling a sense of relief when he realised that “things were coming to an end” due to feeling “mentally, physically, emotionally exhausted”.
He explained, “Most of our marriages were falling apart, we weren’t seeing our children very much – it was all wrong, basically. It’s the usual things that can happen to people in bands.”
Yet, he soon began to wonder if it was a wise decision to “halt a machine like the Dire Straits operation” as it created “a massive vacuum”.
“You ask yourself if it was a good idea,” he mused. “And I had to keep telling myself that it was a good idea. Because you’re doing something else, completely different – I was in London studying painting, I got some lessons, made a terrible mess for seven or eight years, and then started doing art shows. I thought, ‘OK, this is fun’. And I stopped playing music for quite a while. I leant the bass against the wall and said ‘Thank you very much but I’m doing something different now’.”
(Andre Csillag/Shutterstock)
In 2008, Ilsley informed BBC News that he had suggested the possibility of reuniting the band with Knopfler, who responded with, “Oh, I’m unsure about revisiting all of that again.”
Knopfler himself mentioned in later years that he would only contemplate a reunion for charitable purposes, stating, “I’m grateful for all the experiences I’ve had – I had a lot of fun with it – but I prefer things the way they are.” He has released a total of nine solo albums and composed soundtracks for nine films.
Dire Straits released a total of six albums, and are most renowned for hits like “Walk of Life”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Money for Nothing” and “Brothers in Arms”.
