Alan Clark has played with everyone from Bob Dylan to Lou Reed – as well as being a member of Dire Straits

BY BEN WEST

Dire Straits topped the charts from 1979 through to the early 1990s, with songs that included Sultans of Swing, Romeo and Juliet, Money for Nothing, Brothers in Arms and Walk of Life.

Although the band split up in 1995, past members still tour, under the moniker Dire Straits Legacy (DSL). One of them, keyboardist Alan Clark, who was in the band from 1980 to 1995, is looking forward to appearing at The Indigo O2 in Greenwich on 1 July to play all the hits.

“The band consists of several members of Dire Straits and one or two other choice musicians, including world famous producer Trevor Horn on bass,” says Clark, who was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for being a significant member of the band. “There are many Dire Straits cover bands around, but because we’ve been involved in the music, particularly myself, we definitely play the Dire Straits songs better than anyone else.”

Five members of DSL have recorded and toured as members of Dire Straits. As well as Alan, guitarist Phil Palmer and percussionist Danny Cummings played on the On Every Street album and world tour and the On the Night live record. Danny has since worked extensively with Mark Knopfler, playing drums in his band for many years and percussion on his latest world tour.

Sax player Mel Collins featured on Dire Straits’ Love Over Gold, Alchemy and Twisting by the Pool albums as well as touring for several years with the band. He is currently touring the world with a reformed King Crimson. Jack Sonni, Dire Straits’ ‘man in the red coat’, who danced around the stage on the Brothers in Arms world tour and Live Aid concert is with DSL also.

There’s also frontman Marco Caviglia, who is one of the world’s leading authorities on the music of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler’s guitar style, and Primiano Di Biase, one of Italy’s most sought-after keyboard players.

Since DSL’s inception in 2008, two other members of Dire Straits have joined, Hall of Fame members John Illsley and Pick Withers. Over the years they’ve attracted some superb musicians from other bands, including Steve Ferrone from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and, as Clark says, Trevor Horn, widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest record producers and who has worked with artists such as Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Yes, ABC, Spandau Ballet, Godley and Creme, Grace Jones, Propaganda, Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds, Tori Amos, Belle and Sebastian, Billy Idol, Robbie Williams, Rod Stewart and so many more. He also produced the original 1984 Band Aid single and his music has been sampled by The Prodigy and Dua Lipa. If that wasn’t enough, he also co-founded The Buggles and The Art Of Noise, and is a Brit, Grammy and Ivor Novello award winner.

With DSL being made up of such a ridiculously talented bunch of musicians, is there ever a rivalry between them all?

“There’s definitely a rivalry on to who’ll buy the drinks,” jokes Clark. “That’s about it, really. It started out as a fun band, and it still is.

“I’ve spent 20 per cent of my life with Dire Straits, and when the band broke up in the early 1990s I spent lots of years not playing the music. Then the opportunity to put a Dire Straits band came together about 10 or 12 years ago for a charity show at the Royal Albert Hall, and that led to the existence of this band. We just really enjoyed getting together and playing the tunes. In this day and age it’s nice to have a reason to get together and play live music and this is a particularly good reason – because we do it so damned well.”

Dire Straits has quite a connection with southeast London, not least performing one of their first gigs at the Royal Albert pub in New Cross Road.

“Dire Straits started in south London, and when I first joined the band I ended up living with the bass player for a couple of weeks in Forest Hill,” says Clark. “We used to rehearse in Greenwich at a place called Wood Wharf. It was a great place to rehearse, overlooking the river, and the barges.”

It certainly was a great place to hang out: I used to rehearse there also, with bands that were needless to say slightly less prominent than Dire Straits. In other rooms at any one time there could be the likes of Squeeze, Kate Bush, One the Juggler and a host of others. Prolific local musician Billy Jenkins lived there and ran it from 1983 to 1993.

Clark has played with an amazing selection of musicians in his career, including George Harrison, Billy Joel, Elton John, The Bee Gees, Phil Collins, Pet Shop Boys, Lou Reed, Robbie Williams and Van Morrison. What have been the highlights?

“There’s lots of highlights,” he says, unsurprisingly. “Playing with Bob Dylan was a great experience, especially as I was a fan of Dylan. I became a big fan of his Desire album before I joined Dire Straits. I remember many a night on my apartment floor listening to Desire – and then to be in the studio with him. The first time I recorded with Bob, which was on his Infidels album, when he started singing in the headphones it was a bit of a surreal moment really, suddenly it was like ‘whoa’. I got on great with Bob, he’s nice person, with a lovely warm smile. We played pool together and had a great time.”

He recently released a solo piano album, Back Story. Did that take long to do?

“I started recording it just before Covid, so that would be early January 2020,” he says. “That was at Real World Studios, which is Peter Gabriel’s studio near Bath. It took about four days, I think. It was a very different process, working alone, it’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like it. I never thought I would really do it, I never had a burning ambition to make a solo piano album.”

To be a really successful, great musician, do you need to have that talent deep within you from the start, or can it be taught? It’s like being a comedian, I would have thought, you can’t just learn comedy from scratch.

“I think it has to be an inherent talent. And then you have to teach yourself how to manifest that talent, that’s the trick. There are lots of talented people around who don’t get the opportunity, because they haven’t, for whatever reason, managed to fulfil their potential. The main thing is to be ready when the opportunity arises – which I have to say I was when the opportunity to play with Dire Straits came along. I was ready to accept the challenge.”

What changes to the music industry have most surprised you?

“What I’m most disappointed about is the revenue from record sales which has diminished to the point that it is almost non-existent now. I know somebody who has had six million streams on Spotify and Apple Music and made £2500, so there’s no money in records anymore. Records now are promotional tools for live shows. And of course, the most disappointing thing has been the past 18 months or so, when live shows have virtually disappeared. So lots of great musicians are stacking shelves in Sainsbury’s and things, which is unfortunate.”

Do you prefer to play or listen to music?

“Play, definitely! I rarely listen to music, strangely enough, because music is in my head all the time. I could be out running and I’m still thinking of the tune I’m currently writing, the last tune which I played.”

So if you were in the kitchen cooking, for example, you wouldn’t put on the radio, you wouldn’t put on an album? Is it a busman’s holiday kind of thing?

“If music comes on, I either have to listen to it intently or dismiss it as not liking it. I listen to music differently to most people, because I listen to it from a musician’s point of view.”

Does touring and moving around the world make you feel a bit of a nomad, or are you grounded, rooted somewhere?

“I’m very much grounded, I live in Cheshire,” he says. “I’m a Geordie, so I guess my heart is still in Northumberland, but I really enjoy travelling. I’ve travelled around the world several times – I literally had a around the world British Airways First Class ticket once.

“When you’re touring you only get to see the area of the city you’re in. But it depends on how much time you have off. Touring Australia is actually quite good because the cities are such a long way apart. Which means, for the equipment to get there, the trucks take several days to arrive and you have time off in between. So Australia is my favourite place to tour. I have fond memories of being there during the Brothers in Arms tour and the On Every Street tour. I’d be out windsurfing every day. With the Brothers in Arms tour, when we did Sydney we ended up playing over 20 back-to-back shows in the Entertainment Centre. I would be out windsurfing all day, and there would be times when I would arrive at seven o’clock in my wet suit, quickly get changed, have a shower, have dinner, and then go on stage at 8.30, and then repeat the process the next day.”

Are you nervous going on stage?

“No. I’ve done it so many times that you kind of get bored of being nervous quite early on. I’d find myself looking out at 40,000 people from the stage and think I should at least be excited about it. But because I’d done it 135 times that year, it’s like walking into the living room, really. I’d probably be more nervous playing to a dozen people in a house somewhere, just because it’s not a familiar situation I guess.”

Dire Straits Legacy play The Indigo O2 in Greenwich on 1 July. Further details: theo2.co.uk, dslegacy.com