Dire Straits Dire Straits Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals and lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Pick Withers (drums and percussion). The band became one of the world's best-selling music artists, with album sales of over 100 million. Their first hit single "Sultans of Swing", from their self-titled debut album, reached the top ten in the UK and US charts in 1978. They released hit singles in the 1980s, such as "Private Investigations" (1983), "Money for Nothing" (1985), and
Dire Straits 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. Speaking to "Billboard" magazine, John Illsley stated, "it fills me with a lot of pleasure to be recognized and to be included in the thing that we love doing best, which is making music and playing rock n' roll". On a possible reunion performance he added, "Mark [Knopfler] is quite sort of restrained about things like this. We have spoken about (the induction), and we just said, 'Oh, that's nice.'