Interview with John Illsley of Dire Straits

Dire Straits legend John Illsley heads to Leeds City Varieties on 3 November 2025 with an intimate evening of music and stories. Marking 40 years of the landmark album Brothers in Arms, the show blends solo material with classics from the catalogue, plus behind-the-scenes tales from an extraordinary career — from pub gigs and punishing tours to the MTV era and beyond.

John, you’re heading out on tour across the UK in 2025. What can people expect from these shows?
John Illsley: Well, the idea is to make the evenings a mixture of music and storytelling. I’ll certainly be playing some of my solo songs — I enjoy giving them a life beyond the studio — but of course, with the 40th anniversary of Brothers in Arms in 2025, the second half of the show is going to focus very much on that album.

We’ll be performing a good number of the tracks, but it won’t just be about the music. I’ll also be sharing stories from the sessions, the atmosphere around the band at that point, and what was really going on behind the scenes. People seem to like that combination: hearing the songs they love but also learning about the context — the little details and the human side of what was happening.

It’s not about trying to be Dire Straits again, because that’s not possible and not what I want. It’s about celebrating the music and reliving those moments in a way that connects with people.

This tour blends music with spoken word. Many fans will have read your autobiography a few years back — will you be sharing things beyond the book?
John Illsley: Absolutely. Inevitably, the book comes into it, because it covers so much of my journey — how I first got into music, how Dire Straits came together, and what it was like to suddenly find ourselves on this extraordinary ride. But a book can only go so far.

On stage, I can add more colour. I can share things that didn’t make it into the autobiography — the atmosphere of certain tours, the funny or slightly chaotic moments that you only really appreciate years later. It’s also about honesty. Being in a successful rock band isn’t just glamour. There are gruelling aspects: the endless travelling, the lack of sleep, missing your children growing up. You make huge sacrifices to keep the machine moving.

For me, I stayed on that train because I felt compelled to. It was tough at times, but looking back, it was an extraordinary period of my life, and I think people enjoy hearing the warts-and-all version as well as the highlights.

You have a big catalogue now, both Dire Straits material and your solo work. How do you decide what makes it into the setlist?
John Illsley: It’s honestly one of the hardest parts. Between all the Dire Straits material and my solo albums, I could easily put together a five-hour show but no one would thank me for that!

There are songs you simply have to include, the ones fans expect, and I genuinely love playing them too. But there are always tracks I’d personally like to bring out that there just isn’t room for. With this tour, the focus on Brothers in Arms makes the decision-making a little easier, but even then it’s difficult. You always end up leaving something behind.

How does touring now compare with the days when Dire Straits were at their peak?
John Illsley: It’s a completely different experience now. Back then, everything was on such a massive scale — arenas, stadiums, tours that went on for months. It was thrilling, but it was exhausting too. The schedule was relentless.

These days, I prefer the smaller venues. There’s an intimacy to it. I can see people’s faces, I can tell stories between the songs, and there’s room for genuine connection. Playing to 50,000 people in a stadium is incredible in its own way, but you can’t create the same personal atmosphere. At this stage of my life, I really value that closeness.

Is it true the band’s name came about because you were literally in “dire straits” at the time?
John Illsley: Yes, in a sense. Life was very simple, or you could say very hard, in those days. We were living in a council flat in Deptford. South London wasn’t what it is now; it was rundown, grey, not many trees, a very different atmosphere. We’d survive on a fry-up, a couple of pints, and maybe a cheese sandwich.

When Pick Withers joined the band, he was living with some of the guys from Lindisfarne. After one of our first gigs, which we’d done under the name Café Racers, he went home and told them we needed a better name. One of them said, “Why not Dire Straits? You’ve been playing all your lives and never made a penny.” Pick brought it back, and it stuck.

At first, people thought we were a punk band with a name like that, and sometimes agents would book us expecting something entirely different. But we didn’t care. We just wanted to make music together.

Can we talk about “Sultans of Swing”? Did you know it was going to be a hit?
John Illsley: Not at all. It started with Mark going to a pub in Greenwich with his brother David. There was a band playing in the corner calling themselves the Sultans, and Mark went home and wrote a song about it. The earliest version was almost a country tune, and we can’t even remember exactly how it went it was never recorded.

The turning point was when Mark picked up that red Stratocaster. He played the riff, I jumped on the bass, and suddenly the song came alive. It just had a spark. We didn’t sit there thinking, “This will change our lives,” but once it got radio play, the reaction was huge. That was when we realised it was special.

Seven or eight years later, you released Brothers in Arms, one of the biggest albums of all time. How did you manage to make that while touring so heavily?
John Illsley: It was a whirlwind. If we weren’t on the road, we were in the studio. After Alchemy, we finally had a break, our first real holiday in years. I made my first solo record, and Mark kept writing. When we regrouped, he had this incredible batch of new songs.

There was such variety: the simplicity of ‘Walk of Life,’ the melancholy of ‘Brothers in Arms,’ the atmosphere of ‘Your Latest Trick.’ We knew it was strong, but none of us imagined it would become such a phenomenon.

The timing was extraordinary: the rise of MTV, the launch of the CD, and that pioneering “Money for Nothing” video. All those things combined to create a perfect storm.

Speaking of that video — did you have much involvement?
John Illsley: Not directly. That was Steve Barron, the director, who really pushed the technology. Mixing computer animation with live footage was groundbreaking at the time. It was also extremely expensive.

The song itself came from Mark overhearing a couple of guys in an appliance shop grumbling about the bands on MTV. Steve turned that into a visual story, and it worked brilliantly. We were mostly on tour, so we weren’t micro-managing it, but MTV played it constantly, and it gave us enormous visibility.

Would you ever consider reforming Dire Straits for one more run?
John Illsley: No, I don’t think so. We had our time, we enjoyed the success, but it ended when it ended. Mark is very private these days, and he’s happiest writing on his own terms. For me, I get enormous joy from playing with the band I’ve had for over a decade now: Robbie McIntosh on guitar, Steve Smith on keyboards, Hannah Robinson singing. We have real chemistry. I don’t feel the need to go back.

Do you have any regrets when you look back?
John Illsley: Not many. Maybe I wish I’d learned piano earlier. I’m still fairly basic on it, but I use it for songwriting. Sometimes knowing fewer chords is a blessing, because it keeps you focused on the essence of the song.

Beyond that, no real regrets. We worked hard, we had a lot of luck, and the music has stood the test of time. You can’t ask for much more than that.

John Illsley appears at Leeds City Varieties on 3 November 2025. Tickets available from the venue box office or johnillsleymusic.com/tour.