17 Facts About Dire Straits

Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers .

Dire Straits won four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and various other awards.

Dire Straits have sold over 120 million units worldwide, including 51.

The name Dire Straits was coined by a musician flatmate of Withers, allegedly thought up while they were rehearsing in the kitchen of a friend, Simon Cowe, of Lindisfarne.

Dire Straits's felt that it was the kind of music audiences were hungry for, but only one person in her department agreed at first.

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Year, Dire Straits began a tour as opening band for Talking Heads, after the re-released "Sultans of Swing" finally started to climb the UK charts.

In 1980, Dire Straits were nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Sultans of Swing".

Love Over Gold was the first Dire Straits album produced solely by Mark Knopfler, and its main chart hit, "Private Investigations", gave Dire Straits their first top 5 hit single in the United Kingdom, where it reached the number 2 position, despite its almost seven-minute length, and became another of the band's most popular live songs.

Dire Straits's replacement was Terry Williams, formerly of Rockpile and a range of other Welsh bands, including Man.

Dire Straits returned to recording at the end of 1984 and began recording tracks at Air Studios in Montserrat for their upcoming fifth studio album, to be titled Brothers in Arms, with Mark Knopfler and Neil Dorfsman producing.

Dire Straits donated the Brothers in Arms Gold disc to the participants in recognition of what they were doing.

Dire Straits regrouped in 1988 for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, in which they were the headline act.

Dire Straits released their sixth studio album, On Every Street, in September 1991, which turned out to be their final studio release.

Dire Straits' final album, Live at the BBC, is a collection of live recordings from 1978 to 1981, which mostly feature the original line-up of the band.

In 2011, Alan Clark, Chris White, and Phil Palmer, along with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' drummer Steve Ferrone, formed a new band, the Dire Straits, to perform at a charity show at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

On 13 December 2017, Dire Straits were announced as inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2018.

Dire Straits remains one of the most popular British rock bands as well as one of the world's most commercially successful artists, with total worldwide album sales of more than 120 million.