My Life in Dire Straits: The Inside Story of One of the Biggest Bands in Rock History

A great book if you love everything about Dire Straits and their approach to music. John Illsley their Bass player is a humble man and his writing is that a humble but astute observer about the growth of a band from its roots to the world stage. Illsley is someone you would want in your band - he is a solid musician, dependable, a great attitude and honest about his mistakes and makes changes where needed. This book is also a book about life in a band in general. He clearly has a high regard for Mark Knopfler and his talents as a guitarist and songwriter/composer. Knopfler has continued to compose solo albums well into the 21st Century and continues to be prolific. If you like music and Dire Straits, then you will like this book. This book is very different from those typical unreadable rock biographies where groups struggle, make it big, deal in drugs and women and then burn out in a cold turkey infused explosion and never recover.

If you’re born in the 60s/70s and have taken to Dire Straits, your journey is incomplete if you don’t read this book. Thanks, John!

the book just reached before Christmas and its the best christmas gift ever!!! started reading the book and i know its gonna be a nice read🙆🏻‍♀️ ty Illsley for making this kinda book. It's a great way to know more of Dire Straits for us the young people who wasn't even born back then❤️❤️🙌🏼

Excellent down to earth truth about actual rock band life on the road

Sono un grande fan dei Dire Straits e mi aspettavo molta più profondità sulle dinamiche del gruppo. Ho invece trovato una sorta di cronaca giornalistica dei concerti, che mi ha annoiato. Peccato.

John Illsley is the bass guitarist and founder member of Dire Straits, the British rock band. This book is his memoir and I found it to be an OUTSTANDING 5 star entertaining and informative read. My Life in Dire Straits starts off with a Foreword by Mark Knopfler, the lead guitarist, songwriter and the other founder member of Dire Straits. Mark’s Foreword puts the reader in the right frame of mind to enjoy this book to the full. I liked how this book gives the reader the full picture of the life of a successful musician, the stresses involved in touring and working as part of a big team. This is not a glamorous showbusiness story but an honest revelation of what life is like doing long tours and the effects it will have on your family back home. The frankness makes this book such a joy to read and it feels like making a new friend whilst on holiday. John’s story is not one of fame and fortune but of honest steady work. He rightly makes the comparison between soldiers engaged in war theatres and rock bands performing around the globe. People do suffer fatigue from these long campaigns/tours of duty only to find it difficult to adjust to life on their return home. I loved the tonnes of anecdotes in this memoir and the nice dry but gentle humour. It was great to learn all about his time playing bass guitar as he explains that it is all about feel… It’s vital for the bass player and drummer to sync. I had come to realize that good playing was essentially about feel. I stopped trying to play every note the same every time; I started playing them as they felt right in the moment and for the song. I kept it really simple, and I’ve been playing that way ever since. …I loved how John was able to explain the buzz musicians get when playing live and why once they get that buzz from live performances, they don’t want to stop playing, which is why so many play until their dying day. I liked how John quietly explained just how professional Dire Straits and their support crew are when touring. None of them were divas or drama queens but professionals in their field. Each concert started on time as though they were operating a long distance coach or train service. This was not a handful of gigs but on one global tour lasting 366 days performing 248 concerts, at 118 cities in 23 countries. This was an intensive workload spanning 10 years on the road and over 15 years had produced 6 studio albums. It was a big touring crew and they all pulled their weight and worked as a team… Our bubble had been blown way bigger and it was uplifting to be part of this huge, daily collective effort: arrive at the venue, unload, build the stage, set up the equipment, build the lighting rigs, uncoil miles and miles of leads and cables, prep the instruments, do the soundcheck, walk on stage at eight-thirty, go straight into the set, drink beer, grab food, conduct post-mortem, pack up and hit the highway for the next city. Our crew, most of them Welsh, were as good as any attached to any band on the road at the time and a great many of them stayed the course with us. …I got an awful lot from John’s memoir and it is great that his working life is in the public domain. Nowadays people are not allowed to write about their day jobs because employers do not want the public to know the nitty gritty of their business - thankfully John being self employed, he can choose to share his life with anyone. I now know how and why the name Dire Straits was chosen for the band. Even if you are not a fan of Dire Straits, I still think you will enjoy this book if you like any genre of popular modern day music.

Witten by a sympathetic, witty musician. Great stories about a great Band.

A very fascinating book about one of the biggest bands of the eighties, but also a story about growing up in England after the war. A must for all fans of Dire Straits, but you don't have to be a fan to enjoy the book.