Dire Straits Story How Dire Straits the band was started

Dire Straits enter into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or just a load of cock and shame. David Knopfler wont go because the promoters wont pay his taxi fare from the airport, no wonder I cannot get them to discuss money with me, he must be on the Dole, or maybe he should join me and demand he gets paid for his contribution playing on the album Making Movies where he to got ripped off. He also says his brother is far to busy to go and receive the accolade of the band he fronted getting admitted into any Rock Bands Havana, THE ROCK and ROLL HALL of FAME. Of course his decision not to go has been well documented by his fans, who have again made every excuse in the book for their Messiah giving the event the bums rush.

And perhaps overlooking the fact he may have at last broke the spell of years of forgetfulness, of who actually wrote the lyrics of the bands greatest hits, and maybe and I say maybe has a guilty conscience for the wrong that broke a family apart because of leaving his brother from knowing the truth about who wrote the lyrics for the D.S. album and who named the band before the innocent guy was conned into believing he was actually one of the founders, no David you were just a player and I’m really hoping you now know who the puppets were, you and brother?

Now here’s another strange scenario, why has David Pick Withers the drummer of D.S. been so easily overlooked, not only was he a great musician whose C.V. has every great Rock artiste bowing to his mastery on the drums. But having his knowledge of the music and friends in the business, the three amateur’s were allowed into a scene where only the greatest are privilege too? So has Pick also knocked back the offer of attending this sham gig, and found something more demanding of his time, like making a cup of tea?

So who does that leave, the Sham himself John Illsley the bass player of D.S. the Judas who for a free meal would sell his soul and the Knopfler’s to, for a doggy bag. This appearance for him to collect the award on behalf of D.S. is a mockery, and Mark should have declined the offer rather than let Illsley take any part in this theater where the greats of the music industry have stood, that makes the whole event just a sham, and with Guy Fletcher and Alan Clarke in attendance it becomes the Three Stooges show without their talent, SHAME Illsley doesn’t know the meaning of the word.

 

Who was it that said if you have one friend in your life your a very lucky person, when I contacted Mark Knopfler in 2006 to work with him again and reinvent Dire Straits, I was that person in his life I’d waited for him to get in touch and kept to my side of the bargain of not getting involved in D.S. unless I was needed and called for.

So it came as a shock when it was confirmed that Mark had no interest in reforming Dire Straits, and had gone solo that I got in touch as our agreement was over, and as this friend who had not interfered during his career, I honestly expected to be welcomed like a Brother in Arms. But instead my meeting with John Illsley who actually turned his back on me was so humiliating, it felt like I had Leprosy and he couldn’t get away from me quick enough in case he became contaminated with my presence.

Of course there is another wise saying, Do Not To Others unless you want it to happen to you, and this is now being proved by the way previous band members of Dire Straits and so called friends have turned feral and biting the hands that once fed them.

This is what has happened and  if it wasn’t seen by Knopfler and Illsley in the stars, it was certainly in my lyrics  and inevitable  especially when a bands reputation is being allowed to go to the wall because of lies, and deceit, maybe Mark Knopfler could let Illsley hypnotize him into believing that Wrong was a Right, but try telling that to the feral cats that would have killed to get the fame Knopfler achieved from being the front man of Dire Straits.

And now the cat is out of the bag, because of John Illsley’s negativity in his dealings with me, and now he has been exposed as a fraud and whether this has been deliberate to hurt Mark Knopflers reputation for going solo is debatable.

However because of what other people see as the truth, and Knopfler and Illsley’s  lack or interest to this real situation that not only effects their reputation in the music industry but as people, their negligence in protecting the rights of D.S. is now a free for all. Anyone SEEMINGLY can call themselves Dire Straits and get away with it, and if the public don’t look close enough at the article they could believe they are going to hear the original Dire Straits.

Now Chris White the guy who played the saxophone with D.S. is at it with a band called The Dire Strait Experience with the claim, Music Of Dire Straits Live on the Stage, if I played a record of D.S. it would mean almost the same thing, and of course we had the New Straits with Alan Clark, NOW ITS THE DIRE STRAIT LEGACY, and even Danny Cummings who I admire has left the sinking ship. Everyone of them dipping into the D.S. coffers because of John Illsley and his failure to be honest and whose lack of savvy has allowed Plagiarism to become the main interest of his old pals who are now taking liberties through his lack of back bone and seedy character traits.

This is the guy who like the Queen with the back of his hand dismissed and totally humiliated the person who started the Band Dire Straits whose lyrics and giving a name to the band started it all in the first place. And in truth its all being allowed to happen by Mark Knopflers lack of interest in a band that made his reputation and money, in fact he’s seemingly wiped his hands and left it all to a idiot like Illsley, who doesn’t give a damn as long as he holds the key to the Dire Straits bank vault.

So Ive put on his statement he supposedly wrote to my Solicitors, that I believe is fraudulent, and to expose his weak claims for denying me what is mine, were the time and dates and the name of the coffee house where we met were not concluded, did he not read my lyrics the Barocco Bar dumb dumb. And I have never said he and I wrote together, and as a person who has gone three rounds on many occasions the only thing I’d like to do with him his knock his lying head off. He also concluded that he’d never met me and he would take offense at being called a plagiarist, that is why I started this blog to see if he would really stand by his word and take the person who wrote the lyrics that started his and the Knopflers career in the music industry to court. And like all thiefs he bottled out and sneaked away hoping I would disappear and his lies would not be seen, I’m afraid Illsley its here for anyone to read, your not only a plagiarist your a liar and a thief, so come on dear stand by your threat take me to court and leave the Knopflers alone. The only old or new experience the Dire Strait fans want is for the real Dire Straits to stand up on stage and be the band they love and want to hear, and now that David Knopfler has said he would gladly play again with his brother lets get it together again and become the real Dire Straits eh Mark one more time, or one more thing the Vultures are coming down from the trees, I warned you pal. Robert Marshal

He sneaked into Scotland for three gigs and found his behavior as a plagiarist had followed him, so he was not seen as musician on stage but a rip off merchant, so we hope he doesn’t come back, he’s had enough money for nothing. And his crocodile tears about hiding the fact he had cancer and looking for sympathy, the guy never even asked me how I was keeping when I had traveled to London to speak to him, in my book this guys character is so low, you’d have to be a bug to see eye level with him. Its nearly 2018 so lets see how he behaves in the New Year, however if cancer didn’t get him to see his faults, perhaps there wont be much change, what on earth did the Knopflers see in him.

Well he’s started 2018 with a bang, ‘I received a phone call from a friend of mine congratulating me,’ not Mark Knopfler that in 2018 Dire Straits would be going into the Rock Hall of Fame, and I Robert Marshal got a phone call from a friend of mine that he John Illsley was going to come clean about my part in Dire Straits, I thought the guy had a few loose nuts when I met him, now I know its not dementia or delusional hysteria he’s suffering from, its just that the old queen is a born liar and is needing another visit to his shrink, who if his treatment was based on his part in Dire Straits would have had to tell the doctor about me, so before you spin anymore stories Illsley remember a secret is only a secret if you keep it to yourself, and I never told a soul is just another crock of lies.

I’ve just read a news article in the Scottish Sun newspaper written before his failed attempt to be recognized as the founder of Dire Straits to the Scottish D.S. fans where he’s grovelling about Mark Knopfler being his friend, for if he wasn’t standing in front of the guy with his begging bowl with his Never Told a Soul bollocks honestly Mark. Not just the truth about me would come out but the reason for the brothers break up that obviously has the Illsley seedy characteristics about it, something I witnessed twice when I was in Deptford, that riled me to the point of decking the big queen stopped only by Mark telling me he had the situation with Illsley under control, or in his own words, ‘I know how to handle him,’ no you don’t pal you lost your brother because of him, and now your allowing him to lie while using your name to support him.
And in the article he claimed that Pick Withers came up with the name of the band, again making another person out to be a liar, and with the amount of artists that have come and gone during the time he’s been with Knopfler, its obvious his scheming and dishonesty has worked on them to, so its time for Knopfler to stop taking his forgetful medication and clean up his act and get the liar sorted out before the shite hits the fan and hits him on the face because of his former boyfriends hold over him, you might not be able to polish crap Mark but you can flush it down the toilet.

In fact if his head was not so empty he would have realized when I was writing the lyrics that not only the house in Deptfords surrounds were giving me the pictures in my mind, like Water of Love that I wrote from the gloomy hostility of the area surrounding the house, and after his second hostile attempt to threaten me about his sole claim on Mark Knopflers affections I wrote “Setting Me Up” and if you visualize the scenario of having been threatened by a six foot four nutter for showing to much attention, in a house somewhere in Deptford with two people you have only recently met, and your thinking to yourself, how the hell will I get out of here without using violence, well you say.

They say I’m the greatest bound for glory, well the word is that I’ve learned, I got the last part of your story, so I’m pulling out before you get burned, Well your hands are squeezing me down to the bone, but I’ve never saw you breaking no law, Stands to reason I got to leave you alone, What you taking me for, Are you setting me up to put me down, Your making me out to be a clown, You better give it up, Quit your messing around, You think I care for your reaction, you think I don’t understand, All you wanted was a piece of the action, Now you talk about another man. Robert Marshal

And that’s how setting me up became a lyric for the Dire Straits when you read the story behind Money for Nothing keep Setting Me Up in mind for in those lyrics that are about Knopfler and Illsley, see those yo yo’s was my way of responding to the way I’d been treated and believe me happy to vacate the premises, even with Illsley’s offer of introducing me to the younger Knopfler who had yet not returned to this house of intrigue and jealousy. This is why I know Illsley was playing the third party between the brothers, and though I’ve explained to David that with this conspiracy of him not being told about me should change his and Marks thinking about what went before, he continues to see Illsley as a friend and not the snake in the grass. And believe me I would love to see the brothers united, as I feel I’m partly to blame for whatever caused the split up between them, so come on guys read the lyrics.

Wouldn’t it be something if we could find out what the second D.S. Album would have been with my lyrics. ?

What came first the Singer, the Lyricist or the Musician, when I wrote the lyrics for the Dire Straits Album, I’d never heard Mark Knopfler play the guitar, and as I sang most of the lyrics basically all Knopfler had to do was play music around the songs, and copy the way I’d sang the hooks.?

His next task was to form a band, he had that with his brother David able to play rhythm guitar, and John Illsley capable of playing bass, all they needed was a drummer and Dave Pick Withers was one of the best having backed some of the best rock singers and bands in the country, and with his experience in the music industry, he could open doors that the three amateurs didn’t know existed.

Everyone of the songs on the Dire Straits album are my lyrics, and when Mark Knopfler brought out the second album Communique the 4 million fans who were waiting for the follow up to the first D.S. album were shocked to find the lyrics and songs all written by Knopfler bore no resemblance to the first, and each album continued in that trend never fulfilling what the fans wanted another Harry.

I know a lot of guitarists can play like Knopfler, but can they play music around the lyrics that should have been the second Dire Straits album, if you have a band and think you have the talent get in touch. Robert

Dear Edward, that was what you told me to call you if I got in touch, and when I did you claimed because I didn’t mention the name of the cafe where me met, you didn’t know me, and you took offense at being called a Plagiarist. What you really mean Edward is that Mark Knopfler because he wrote the songs around my lyrics is the Plagiarist, and as you were just the bass player in Dire Straits your innocent of aiding and abetting. That was the feeling I got from you on the journey in your car when you drove me to Deptford, if I get involved with him, Ill get ripped off, and those who have read this blog and have surmised the reason for the trip wasn’t exactly to write lyrics, would be right, and as money didn’t pass hands, you would again be only aiding and abetting.

And Edward when I said to you, if you become famous you might not want to know me, I knew by the look on your face, this guy is going to rip me off, and this time your not aiding and abetting your actually ripping me off, and this time its your pal Mark whose aiding and abetting. And I wouldn’t be surprised Edward that the money that David Knopfler got knocked for from the Making Movies album didn’t go straight into your pocket, and remember your just the bass player not the maestro, so I wonder what the hold is, perhaps a Private Dancer.

You may have found me Edward but you definitely didn’t founded Dire Straits, without Mark Knopflers songs and my lyrics, you’d still be sitting in that cafe without a name, looking for another arsehole to rip off. I’m writing this open letter to you because it doesn’t seem to sink into your head that music and writing lyrics is a gift, and you have neither that is why you prowl like a starved animal looking for your next meal. I saw the same look on your face with Greg Pearle as you did when you met me, in fact its actually imprinted on a photograph when your on stage with him, its a empty public schoolboy hooking a working class talent in a effort to suck them dry, a bit like the above photograph of you trying to be a rock star, I’d say you have never been to a dance hall or even know how to dance your what we working class call a poser.

I gave you the chance to be a man a gentleman or just a good guy when I went to your painting exhibition in St James, another of your guises that you soon gave up after I came back into the scene. You turned your back on me claiming you were to busy, to busy to speak to the person whose talent had you in St James in the first place, and you turned your back on me. And you convince the Private Dancer to do the same, though I will say this  in his defense it was with reluctance, for I know he is talented and gifted where as you are just a user.

Dire Straits fans that bought the 4 million L.P.s heard Knopflers guitar playing and his songs, and like my lyrics they sent message, a message that has yet to be fulfilled, so what would your interest be Edward since your part of the set up was as a bass guitarist, it would be to get as much control of the band as you could. And the proof of this is identified when David Knopfler was not told about my meeting with his brother, and if Mark was afraid if David did know I’d written the lyrics he perhaps might want to change them, for David is a artist as well.

Then he should have been told after the Dire Straits album was released, instead it seems a conspiracy of silence was put in place giving you Edward the power of Attorney between two brothers, and if Mark never suggested after the success of the first album to contact me to continue our partnership, then I’m mistaken about his character. And with David concerned about how the band was developing after the release of Communique, and this sudden change in the message in the lyrics and songwriting he had every right to be for he was being duped, and how can he be blamed for leaving when he did, when he knew something was wrong since the first album and not even his brother was explaining why, heavy stuff not fuel, and you let it go on for all those years. If you Edward didn’t have part in the message myself and Knopfler was trying to send out in music and lyrics, you certainly gave us the message. This  selfish  and  commandeering  aptitude  has  destroyed  a  family,  who  if  they’d  known  the  truth  of  what  you  have  done  to  their  children  and  because  of  your  behaviorism  or  mental  instabilities,  would  not  have  seen  you  as  a  friend   Edward  but  a  dangerous  influence  that  I  witnessed  of  wanting  to  control,  other words  a  control  freak,  and  because  of  this  a  band  that  has  become  one  of  the  leading  musical  contributors  in  rock  history  like  those  involved  in  D.S.  has  to  suffer  because  of  you.  Robert

 

I’m signing 500 copies of the Dire Straits Album as I need 50,000 pounds to get Knopfler and Illsley into the Law Courts. I’m asking a 100 pounds per album, and the monies will go straight to the Lawyers who will be acting for me.

I’m also sure those who buy the autographed albums will not only own a valuable piece of the Dire Straits history, but buy a signed album that’s value will only increase. Robert Marshal

Mark Knopfler who the music press named, “The quiet man of rock’, seems to have had a good reason for keeping quiet during the interviews. For Knopfler the lead guitarist of Dire Straits who along with his brother David, who he hasn’t spoken to for thirty six years, and bassist John Illsley formed the rock group in the late 1970s has opened another can of worms that the music industry seems to throw up periodically?.

Though Knopfler was taken aback by the question asked at the P.R.S. plaque unveiling ceremony outside the council house in Deptford South London, that he’d shared with John Illsley before the group became famous, and exclaiming, “That was forty years ago,”. The dynamic master of the electric guitar revealed that he didn’t write the lyrics of the bands debut album Dire Straits.

Though his many fans thought he had, the Sultan of Swing guitarist maintains he has never stated that he himself has ever said that he wrote the lyrics, and points the oversight to the credits on the back sleeve of the album where it misleadingly reads Songs by Mark Knopfler, lyrics kindly reproduced by Straitjacket Songs.

This directs the blame of the oversight on the reporters who were writing about the band in the 70s, who had  presumed he had written the lyrics as well as the songs, and taken their information from the sleeve of the album. Amazingly Knopfler has only been asked twice in a interview regarding the debut album about the lyrics, he answered he liked, “Southbound Again,” as it reminded him of his journey from Newcastle to London where he worked as a lecturer.

Then when the groups second album Communique was released that lyrically had no similarity to the first, when asked about the huge variation between the two, he’d simply replied, “Its different,” and it certainly was and now we know the reason why. Again we can blame the reporters for getting it wrong, unless they hadn’t noticed that Knopfler this time took the credits for the lyrics on Communique as well as the song writing.

Though Edd Bicknell almost almost gave the game away, when he jokingly told a reporter from a well known newspaper, when he was asked about the debut album, “That a guy had whispered the lyrics into Mark Knopfler’s ear, and hoped he wouldn’t be taking them to court,” so if Bicknell hadn’t been told by his star protege that the lyrics were written by someone else, he doesn’t know how close to the truth he came, yet maybe there was a motive behind Bicknell’s slip of the tongue for he wasn’t usually loose with his comments even as a joke?.

He had witnessed the ruthless end of David Knopfler’s career with Dire Straits in 1980, in a studio in America where the band was putting together the music of the album, Making Movies, its said a row started between the two brothers, others say a fight but whatever it was it became a feud that has lasted until this day and it seems unlikely the two brothers will ever make up. And just to rub salt into the wound Mark Knopfler denied any credits and probably money to his younger brother, though David obviously played on the Making Movies talk about sticking the proverbial Six Blade Knife in the back, no wonder Edd Bicknell was also watching his back, he liked David so we can be assured the rumour that Brothers in Arms was written for David is just another myth. Though the meaning of a Sultan of Swing in Scotland, is a Highland Dancer, in English a Chancer, so who was it that whispered into Edd Bicknell’s ear that Mark didn’t write the lyrics, David perhaps?.