Gift for Dire Straits Fans: 14 Albums, 75 Musicians, and One Drum Intro

The drummer of Dire Straits is credited on Brothers in Arms for the drum intro to "Money for Nothing" and nothing else. That single line in the credits is why a gift for Dire Straits fans works better as a map than as a framed album sleeve, because a sleeve cannot show you that somebody else played the rest of the record.

I built this one from the credits upwards, album by album, and what kept surprising me was how little of the band stayed constant. Six studio albums in thirteen years, and only one man is on all of them alongside Mark Knopfler.

The short version. My Dire Straits discography map plots the six studio albums from Dire Straits (1978) to On Every Street (1991), then continues into John Illsley's eight solo albums, giving 14 stations in all. My research sheet carries 75 named contributors, each drawn as a tube line calling at the albums they played on. Available as a Giclée art print in A2 and A1, unframed or framed, from £42.00.

Why a Gift for Dire Straits Fans Needs Eight Extra Stations

Six albums are a short map. Drawn on its own, the Dire Straits catalogue ends abruptly in 1991, and the print has a lot of empty paper on the right-hand side.

So I carried the network on into John Illsley's solo records, because the credits carry on too. Once you see who crosses from one catalogue into the other, the two stop looking like separate stories.

That decision is what makes this a present rather than a poster. The fan you are buying for knows the six albums by heart, and almost certainly does not know that some of the players on On Every Street arrived through Illsley's side of the map first.

The Dire Straits Discography Map

Fourteen stations, 75 credited musicians, drawn as one transit network.

Explore This Art Print

John Illsley Is the Only Line That Calls at All Fourteen Stations

Mark Knopfler's line is the one everybody expects to run the length of the print, and it very nearly does. He is credited on all six Dire Straits albums, and then on two of Illsley's solo records, Never Told a Soul in 1984 and Streets of Heaven in 2010. That is eight stations out of fourteen.

The 2010 credit is the one worth pointing at. Knopfler had not appeared on a station since On Every Street in 1991, so his line drops out for nineteen years and then quietly comes back on somebody else's album.

Illsley never drops out at all. Bass and backing vocals on the debut, bass, lead guitar and lead vocals by the time he is running his own sessions, and a credit on every single station from 1978 to VIII in 2022. On the print, it is one unbroken line across 44 years.

Terry Williams Plays the intro, and Omar Hakim Plays the Album

Pick Withers drums on the first four albums, and then his line stops after Love over Gold. Terry Williams takes the seat, and on my sheet, his first credit is drums on Illsley's Never Told a Soul in 1984.

Then comes Brothers in Arms, the record that sold in numbers nobody in the band had planned for, and Williams is credited only with the drum intro on "Money for Nothing". Omar Hakim is credited with drums, tambourine and cowbell on all tracks.

Drawn as lines, that is stark. The band's own drummer has a stub touching one station, while a session player carries the whole album. It is my favourite thing on this map.

Sid McGinnis Is Uncredited on Making Movies and Still Gets a Line

Making Movies in 1980 is the leanest station on the print, with five names in total. Two of them are visitors who never come back.

Roy Bittan, on loan from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, plays keyboards on it and appears nowhere else in the catalogue. Sid McGinnis plays guitars on it and is not credited on the sleeve at all.

I still gave him a line. The map plots people credited with playing something, and where the documentation is solid, but the sleeve is silent, I follow the documentation. Producers who only produce get no line, which is why the desk is largely absent from this print.

Chris White Joins on a Solo Album and Ends Up on the Last Dire Straits Record

This is the crossover that justified the whole layout. Chris White first appears on tenor and alto saxophone on Illsley's Never Told a Soul in 1984, three years before anyone was thinking about another Dire Straits album.

He then turns up on On Every Street in 1991, playing flute and saxophone, and stays on Illsley's records into 2010. Five stations were entered through the side door.

Phil Palmer does something similar and stranger. Guitars on Never Told a Soul in 1984, guitars on On Every Street in 1991, then nothing at all until Long Shadows in 2016. A 25-year gap in one line, and you can see it from across the room.

The Final Dire Straits Station Has Two Drummers and a Beatles Arranger

On Every Street carries twelve names on my sheet, and no permanent drummer among them. Jeff Porcaro plays drums and percussion, and Manu Katché plays drums and percussion on two further tracks.

Paul Franklin brings pedal steel and acoustic lap steel to track 6, Vince Gill brings guitar and backing vocals to track 5, and the Nashville pull in Knopfler's later work is already visible here.

Then there is George Martin, credited as string arranger and conductor on track 9. He is on the map because that is a musical credit, not a production one, and it makes the last Dire Straits station one of the more surprising places on the print.

"Brilliant idea... really like what you've done, Mike." Billy Bragg

"It is truly amazing." Bruce Springsteen Archives, Monmouth University

"Awesome!" Warren Ellis

A2 or A1 for the Dire Straits Fan You Are Buying For

Both sizes are landscape, and the choice comes down to how much detail you want them to read while standing up.

The A2 reads the main lines clearly from a few feet away. The A1 is the one I would send to somebody who owns Brothers in Arms on vinyl, because at that size the sixteen names crowding that station separate out properly, and Terry Williams's stub is obvious without hunting for it.

Every print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free, unframed or in a black wood frame. Full details are on the specification page.

Questions I Get Asked About This Map

Why are John Illsley's solo albums on a Dire Straits map?

Because the credits run continuously across both. Illsley is the only person on all fourteen stations, and players such as Chris White, Phil Palmer and Guy Fletcher move between the two catalogues rather than stopping in 1991.

Is Mark Knopfler on the solo albums?

On two of them. He is credited on Never Told a Soul in 1984 and again on Streets of Heaven in 2010, which puts a nineteen-year gap in the middle of his line.

Which album has the most credited musicians?

Brothers in Arms, with sixteen names on my sheet, against four on the 1978 debut. The map shows that expansion is a widening of the network rather than a number in a list.

Are producers drawn as lines?

Only where they are also credited with playing or arranging something. George Martin appears for the string arrangement and conducting on On Every Street, not for anything he did behind a desk.

Does it include live albums or compilations?

No. This map plots studio albums only, six from Dire Straits and eight from Illsley's solo catalogue.

Maps That Connect to This One

These pairings come off the credits rather than a guess. Roy Bittan plays keyboards on Making Movies, which puts the Bruce Springsteen map one station away from this one. For the same run of guitar-led, road-worn songwriting across the same decades, the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers map is the natural companion piece.