0:00:21 > 0:00:22Let's go with that.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28Mark Knopfler is one of the most successful musicians in the world.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33During the past 30 years, he's written and recorded over 300 songs,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36including some of the most famous in popular music.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40# A love-struck Romeo
0:00:40 > 0:00:43# Got his serenade
0:00:43 > 0:00:45# Laying everybody low
0:00:46 > 0:00:49# With a love song that he made. #
0:00:49 > 0:00:52# That ain't working That's the way you do it
0:00:52 > 0:00:55# Money for nothing and your chicks for free. #
0:00:55 > 0:01:00# You do the walk Do the walk of life
0:01:00 > 0:01:01# Yeah, the walk of life. #
0:01:01 > 0:01:03# With the sultans
0:01:03 > 0:01:08# Yeah, with the sultans of swing. #
0:01:11 > 0:01:17# We're fools to make war on our brothers in arms. #
0:01:35 > 0:01:40Mark Knopfler has sold over 120 million albums,
0:01:40 > 0:01:44both with Dire Straits and as a solo artist,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47yet on the afternoon of a sell-out concert in Lisbon,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50he's able to sit unrecognised outside a city centre cafe.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54For him, it would seem, it is all about the songs.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57He doesn't like fame, it's not about the money.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01And unlike most artists, he doesn't choose to live in his past.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04It's not Dire Straits anymore, but it's still...
0:02:04 > 0:02:06It always was him and his songs.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09# The chisels are calling
0:02:11 > 0:02:15# It's time to make sawdust
0:02:15 > 0:02:21# Steely reminders of things left to do
0:02:23 > 0:02:25# Monteleone
0:02:25 > 0:02:28# Mandolin's waiting... #
0:02:28 > 0:02:32I think he's one of the greatest living songwriters going right now.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34# My fingerplane's working
0:02:37 > 0:02:40# Gentle persuasion
0:02:42 > 0:02:46# I bend to the wood and I coax it to sing
0:02:48 > 0:02:53# Monteleone, your new one and only will ring
0:02:53 > 0:02:58The excitement is the creating - there's nothing like it.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03It's the best feeling that there is - when it's working.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09# I'm better with my muscles
0:03:09 > 0:03:11# Than I am with my mouth
0:03:11 > 0:03:14# I work the fairgrounds in summer
0:03:14 > 0:03:17# Or go pick fruit down south
0:03:18 > 0:03:21# When I feel them chilly winds
0:03:21 > 0:03:25# Where the weather goes I'll follow
0:03:25 > 0:03:27# Pack up my travelling things
0:03:27 > 0:03:29# Go with the swallows
0:03:29 > 0:03:34# And I might get lucky now and then
0:03:37 > 0:03:41# You win some You might get lucky now and then
0:03:45 > 0:03:47# Yeah, you win some... #
0:03:55 > 0:03:59I was born in Glasgow because my dad had gone up there to work,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02although my mum's family are from Newcastle.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06My dad was a refugee and he was Hungarian,
0:04:06 > 0:04:08and he came to England in 1939.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13He was a firebrand young socialist and he was expelled from Hungary.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15He did about three stretches in prison.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20He never hurt anybody, of course, he just probably
0:04:20 > 0:04:24handed out pamphlets or whatever he did, and he escaped to Czechoslovakia
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and he got out of Czechoslovakia and made it to Britain.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Pretty soon after that he got a job in Glasgow.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41He wanted to work as a city architect,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45he wanted to try and serve society as best he could.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49I suppose having a sense of what's right and wrong is just something
0:04:49 > 0:04:53that you grow up with in your family, if you're lucky enough to have that.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55I really can't say any more than that,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57other than that I had a good upbringing.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02Both parents did a good job, I like to think. I hope so anyway!
0:05:07 > 0:05:08When Mark was eight,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12the Knopfler family upped sticks and moved south to Newcastle.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15It was here that Mark's love of music was fired up
0:05:15 > 0:05:18by his boogie-woogie piano playing Uncle Kingsley.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22My mum's brother Kingsley had a banjo and he played boogie-woogie piano.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26And the boogie-woogie was very important to me,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29because it made a real connection with me.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34The sort of big blocks just moved into place,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38and I realised that that was for me.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41With Uncle Kingsley's boogie-woogie piano ringing in his ears,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44and the rapidly-emerging beat group scene,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48the young Mark Knopfler soon developed an obsession with guitars.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52I used to haunt the music shops long before I even had a guitar.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56And the music shops in Newcastle, I knew every inch of them.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59I would probably be the little lad in there
0:05:59 > 0:06:01who was too nervous to take a guitar down.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05I didn't know how to play anyway.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10I remember once, it was overpowering, and there was nothing I could do,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14and I just picked up this Spanish guitar and took it off the hook
0:06:14 > 0:06:18and took it down, and a voice behind me said,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21"If you drop that, I'll drop you."
0:06:25 > 0:06:27For the 11-year-old Mark Knopfler,
0:06:27 > 0:06:31only one guitar would fit the bill, and that was the Fender Stratocaster
0:06:31 > 0:06:34as used by his hero, Hank Marvin of The Shadows.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40Back then, I wanted to have a Strat
0:06:40 > 0:06:45just because of The Shadows' sound and the twang, that's what it was.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49It's just really pick and tremolo arm, that twang.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59And not everybody can just get that.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Sometimes you get people that are more hammy on it,
0:07:02 > 0:07:04so everybody's got a different touch on it.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07And Hank had a beautiful vibrato on it.
0:07:07 > 0:07:13So that sound thankfully just came kind of naturally.
0:07:13 > 0:07:14Just that sound.
0:07:14 > 0:07:20And I still wish I could get a guitar to sound the way he gets it to sound.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22So here he is, one of the all-time favourites,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24the man himself, Hank B Marvin.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Hank used to come down and play with us on our encores.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33If he was about, he would come down and do Local Hero and stuff.
0:07:33 > 0:07:39MUSIC: "Going Home"
0:07:53 > 0:07:58It's always very nice to complete the circuit with your childhood.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00# Bye-bye, love
0:08:01 > 0:08:04# Bye-bye, happiness
0:08:04 > 0:08:06# Hello, loneliness
0:08:06 > 0:08:09# I think I'm a-going to die... #
0:08:09 > 0:08:13In his early teenage years, another sound Mark found hard
0:08:13 > 0:08:16to resist was the sweet vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20A good friend of mine called Vince, who I'm still friendly with,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23we used to play Everly Brothers records together and things
0:08:23 > 0:08:25that belonged to his big sister Francine.
0:08:25 > 0:08:30# There goes my baby with someone else, yeah, yeah, yeah
0:08:30 > 0:08:32# She sure looks happy
0:08:32 > 0:08:35# I sure am blue. #
0:08:35 > 0:08:38And when the Everlys recorded a song that I wrote,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42I got the chance to play it with them at this TV special
0:08:42 > 0:08:44in Vanderbilt in Nashville.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47And the Evs came along,
0:08:47 > 0:08:53and it's a real thrill to be playing your song with the Evs.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57# Why worry?
0:08:57 > 0:09:01# There should be laughter after pain
0:09:03 > 0:09:06# There should be sunshine after rain
0:09:07 > 0:09:11# These things have always been the same
0:09:13 > 0:09:16# So why worry now? #
0:09:20 > 0:09:23By the age of 16, while patiently waiting to go electric,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Knopfler could be found finger-picking his way
0:09:26 > 0:09:28around the folk clubs of Newcastle.
0:09:28 > 0:09:29Doing things like,
0:09:29 > 0:09:34# I'm going down that road and I'm feelin' bad, baby
0:09:34 > 0:09:38# Going down that road and I'm feelin' bad
0:09:40 > 0:09:43# Ain't gonna be treated this way
0:09:45 > 0:09:51# These two darn shoes kill my feet, baby
0:09:51 > 0:09:54# Daughter's shoes is killing my feet
0:09:56 > 0:09:59# Ain't gonna be treated this way. #
0:10:02 > 0:10:04So this kind of duality going on
0:10:04 > 0:10:11where I'd be playing in folk places at the age of 16
0:10:11 > 0:10:15and wanting to play electric music as well.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30For a kid growing up in Newcastle in the '60s,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33no music was more electrifying than that of the blues.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35One bluesman in particular, BB King,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38would create a lasting impression on the young Mark Knopfler.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42He had a record called Live at the Regal
0:10:42 > 0:10:46and that was really, really important for me.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49It was a very definite thing happening.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53This relationship between the voice, the guitar and the audience
0:10:53 > 0:10:57that I'd never heard before and made a big impression on me.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04# The way I used to love you, baby
0:11:07 > 0:11:11# Baby, that's the way I hate you now. #
0:11:14 > 0:11:17And then Bob Dylan, of course, changed it all for me.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21As far as realising that you could write about anything.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24# Oh, my name, it ain't nothing.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26# My age, it means less.
0:11:28 > 0:11:34# The country I come from is called the mid-west
0:11:34 > 0:11:41# I was taught and brought up there The laws to abide.
0:11:42 > 0:11:49# And the land that I lived in has God on its side. #
0:11:49 > 0:11:55Obviously, your childhood influences, they all help, but what they all did,
0:11:55 > 0:12:00they all made a song person and not an instrumental type person.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03They made me much more of a song person.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05Not somebody who wanted to play in an orchestra.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07# Southbound again
0:12:10 > 0:12:14# Don't know if I'm going or leaving home. #
0:12:14 > 0:12:16After finishing school at 18,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20Knopfler left home and journeyed south to Essex to train as a journalist,
0:12:20 > 0:12:22only to return north a year later
0:12:22 > 0:12:27when he was offered a job in Leeds as a cub reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Musically, I was slowly starting to put together a couple of songs.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35But the journalism was a really great thing for a kid to do,
0:12:35 > 0:12:43because it toughened me up and it meant that you had to get yourself organised half way.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Not that I ever really did.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49In fact, I don't know whether I was tough enough to be a newspaper man.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54I didn't have the printer's ink running in my veins and I think it has to.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01During the six years Knopfler spent in Leeds, he continued to play music in various line ups.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06He also enrolled at Leeds University to continue his studies in English.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09This would lead to Knopfler accepting a teaching job in Essex.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13But the desire to get his songs recorded wouldn't go away.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15The songs had been pushing and pushing.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17But they pushed harder and harder.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22And I suppose I was writing more of them.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26So it was just adding to their weight to the door frame.
0:13:26 > 0:13:27# Sweet surrender. #
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Against the background of a now emerging punk rock scene,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Knopfler, aged 27, along with brother David on guitar,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39John Illsley on bass and Pick Withers on drums,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42formed the group that would become Dire Straits.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51By the time I actually managed to get Dire Straits together, the little line-up we had,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54the songs had been pushing so hard
0:13:54 > 0:13:58that they actually pushed me out of a job
0:13:58 > 0:14:06and at last I had what I could see was the way ahead just to get these songs recorded.
0:14:06 > 0:14:12Radio London DJ Charlie Gillett was persuaded by the group to play their demo tape on his radio show.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17This led to them being signed by Vertigo Records.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20Finally Knopfler had found an outlet for his songs.
0:14:24 > 0:14:32On 16th May 1978, Dire Straits made their TV debut playing the song that would become their calling card.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34# Get a shiver in the dark
0:14:34 > 0:14:36# It's raining in the park but meantime
0:14:38 > 0:14:42# South of the river you stop and you hold everything
0:14:45 > 0:14:49# A band is blowing Dixie double-four time.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55# Feel all right when you hear the music ring... #
0:14:55 > 0:14:59Sultans of Swing is like a kind of situation tune I suppose.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02I was living in Deptford at the time.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07And there was a little pub round the corner, a dingy little place.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10# Coming in out of rain I hear the jazz go down... #
0:15:10 > 0:15:14There was nobody in, except some lads playing pool in the corner
0:15:14 > 0:15:20and a little Dixieland jazz band playing on a little stage at one end.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23# Way on down south
0:15:25 > 0:15:29# Way on down south, London Town... #
0:15:29 > 0:15:31Because nobody was applauding or anything.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36The guy announced, "We're the Sultans of Swing, good night."
0:15:36 > 0:15:39And they couldn't have been less Sultans of Swing.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42# We are the Sultans
0:15:44 > 0:15:47# We are the Sultans of Swing. #
0:15:47 > 0:15:53Having been a kid reporter, I think, really did help me organise material,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56be able to make sense out of what I was looking at.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00For some reason, something reverberates with a writer
0:16:00 > 0:16:07and they note it, they mark it and it goes into the junk yard
0:16:07 > 0:16:11and it may or may not find a home somewhere.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20A lot of the things that you improvise in the studio
0:16:20 > 0:16:23become part of the furniture of the thing.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34Certainly with Sultans, the stuff at the end...
0:16:38 > 0:16:42All that stuff. If you don't do that, it's not Sultans of Swing anymore
0:16:42 > 0:16:46and people would feel that's not why I spent all that money on the ticket.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Sultans, I think, was a massive hit all over the world
0:17:13 > 0:17:17and the first album was a massive hit all over the place
0:17:17 > 0:17:19and it was a real avalanche of activity.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27The idea never was to do it to make a million dollars.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31It never was that in the first place.
0:17:31 > 0:17:37What happens to a lot of successful acts is that the business starts to channel them along
0:17:37 > 0:17:40and you're out there touring and you're getting used to playing
0:17:40 > 0:17:45in bigger places and it's all experience, all that stuff.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47But it comes at the expense of something.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57After the worldwide success of the first album, the group's second album, Communique,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01and its single, Lady Writer, was viewed by many as a disappointment.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03# Lady writer on the TV
0:18:03 > 0:18:07# Talking about the Virgin Mary
0:18:07 > 0:18:10# Reminded me of you
0:18:10 > 0:18:14# Expectation left to come up to, yeah. #
0:18:14 > 0:18:19You're out there playing live, but all the time you're doing that, you're not writing.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24And all the time you're doing that you're not even really practising, not that much anyway.
0:18:24 > 0:18:30So it didn't take me long to realise that I wasn't having enough time
0:18:30 > 0:18:34to develop properly as a player or as a writer or anything.
0:18:34 > 0:18:40So, of course, the second album, like a lot of second albums, a lot of acts are compromised that way.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47By the time of their third album, Making Movies, in 1980, Knopfler had returned to form.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52Having moved from London to New York, this new environment would influence his song writing.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55No more so than on the classic Romeo and Juliet.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00I suppose I was thinking along more of a West Side Story kind of a life,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03rather than a Wild West End kind of a line.
0:19:03 > 0:19:11I was playing my national with this guitar and just maybe fiddling around with it in the key...
0:19:13 > 0:19:18It's like, it's almost like a semi banjo-y kind of thing.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20And I started from somewhere else.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Instead of starting there, I started there
0:19:24 > 0:19:30and I was trying to find a way in to the lyrics for Romeo and Juliet.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35I sort of saw the Romeo figure as a kind of figure of fun.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43So there...
0:19:43 > 0:19:45is the key and that's where the guitar's tuned to.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49I always get people saying, how did you do that?
0:19:49 > 0:19:52It's really just a kind of happy accident.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17# So you're a love-struck Romeo
0:20:17 > 0:20:19# Got a serenade
0:20:19 > 0:20:23# Laying everybody low
0:20:23 > 0:20:25# With a love song that he made
0:20:26 > 0:20:28# Finds a street light
0:20:28 > 0:20:32# Steps out of the shade and says
0:20:32 > 0:20:35# You and me babe, how about it?
0:20:37 > 0:20:42# Juliet says goodness me it's Romeo You nearly gave me a heart attack
0:20:43 > 0:20:45# He's underneath the window
0:20:45 > 0:20:48# She's singing Hey-la, my boyfriend's back.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53# You shouldn't come around here Singing up at people like that
0:20:53 > 0:20:59# Anyway, what you going to do about it?
0:20:59 > 0:21:05# Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start
0:21:05 > 0:21:10# And I bet, then you exploded in my heart
0:21:10 > 0:21:17# And I forget, I forget The movie song
0:21:17 > 0:21:22# When you going to realise it was just that the time was wrong?
0:21:22 > 0:21:25# Juliet. #
0:21:25 > 0:21:27I enjoy playing the song now.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29Some of those songs, they just seem to want to go on
0:21:29 > 0:21:32and as long as they've got a life, I'll enjoy playing them.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36I've got to find something in it for myself when I do it
0:21:36 > 0:21:39just to try and make sure that there's something real
0:21:39 > 0:21:42in it happening for me all the time.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46# And the dream was just the same
0:21:46 > 0:21:51# You dreamed your dream for you And o now your dream's real
0:21:53 > 0:21:56# How can you look at me as if I'm just another one of your deals?
0:21:56 > 0:22:00# When you can fall for chains of silver
0:22:01 > 0:22:04# You can fall for chains of gold
0:22:04 > 0:22:07# You can fall for pretty strangers
0:22:07 > 0:22:10# And the promises they hold
0:22:10 > 0:22:13# You promised me everything
0:22:13 > 0:22:16# You promised me thick and thin
0:22:16 > 0:22:18# Now you just say
0:22:18 > 0:22:20# Romeo, you know I used to have a scene with him
0:22:22 > 0:22:27# Juliet, when we made love you used to cry
0:22:27 > 0:22:31# You said I love you like the stars above
0:22:31 > 0:22:33# Oh I'll love you till the day I die
0:22:33 > 0:22:37# And there's a place for us
0:22:38 > 0:22:40# You know the movie song
0:22:40 > 0:22:46# When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong?
0:22:48 > 0:22:50# Juliet. #
0:22:56 > 0:23:02I don't think you do necessarily know which song is better than another. They're just different.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06They're like people and you have to do the best thing by them
0:23:06 > 0:23:11and you do the best thing by them
0:23:11 > 0:23:14almost like a little person and then they grow up and you do
0:23:14 > 0:23:19the best thing and they're the boss and then they walk away from you.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22When they're recorded, off they go and they have their life.
0:23:22 > 0:23:23This song's Tunnel Of Love.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33For the song Tunnel of Love, also on the Making Movies album,
0:23:33 > 0:23:38Knopfler was drawing inspiration from memories of his childhood growing up in the north-east.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47The biggest fair in Europe comes to Newcastle every year and that was a magnet for me.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49I was just always lost in the middle of it.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53Also when I was little we used to go to Cullercoats and Whitley Bay.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57On the train from South Gosforth station, there was an electric train that went there
0:23:57 > 0:24:02and we used to go there and the Spanish City is something that I remember.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11I'd been just on a roller coaster ride for the past few years.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15# Crazy on the waltzers
0:24:15 > 0:24:19# But it's the life that I choose... #
0:24:19 > 0:24:21I realised that's what I was going to do.
0:24:21 > 0:24:27I realised that was my life and that was the way it was all going to be, I was just,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29I was in the middle of it, in the eye of the storm really
0:24:29 > 0:24:32but I was just riding it just fine, I was doing it,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36I was hanging in there and I was determined that I was going to go on.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42# She took off a silver locket
0:24:42 > 0:24:43# Said remember me by this
0:24:47 > 0:24:49# Put a hand in my pocket
0:24:49 > 0:24:51# I got a keepsake and a kiss
0:24:51 > 0:24:54# And in the roar of dust and diesel
0:24:55 > 0:24:57# I stood I watched her walk away
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Could have caught up with her easy enough... #
0:25:03 > 0:25:07My travels had taken me to New York at this point, but I knew where I was from,
0:25:07 > 0:25:13it's a process that started a Cullercoats, it's a process that
0:25:13 > 0:25:17started in Whitley Bay, it's a process that started in Newcastle,
0:25:17 > 0:25:19maybe even earlier.
0:25:20 > 0:25:27And that all of this stuff comes back to who you are as a little person, you know?
0:25:27 > 0:25:32And it all still influences what I do.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35# I'm searching through these carousels
0:25:35 > 0:25:36# And the carnival arcades
0:25:36 > 0:25:39# Searching everywhere, from steeplechase to palisades
0:25:39 > 0:25:43# In any shooting gallery where the promises are made
0:25:43 > 0:25:44# To walk away, walk away
0:25:47 > 0:25:49# Walk away, walk away
0:25:51 > 0:25:53# Cullercoats and Whitley Bay
0:25:55 > 0:25:56# How to walk away. #
0:26:10 > 0:26:15During 1982, Knopfler's musical journey took him into unchartered waters when he was commissioned
0:26:15 > 0:26:20to write his first film score for director Bill Forsyth's Local Hero.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24Is that the yank in that thing, Edward?
0:26:24 > 0:26:26Aye, Peter, that's him away.
0:26:28 > 0:26:29I meant to say cheerio.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35Doing film work is something that I thought would be interesting
0:26:35 > 0:26:39and just make a change from writing these ditties.
0:26:39 > 0:26:45It's very lucky, I think, for me to have had those early years in Scotland, musically,
0:26:45 > 0:26:51it's been a big factor, because it never seems too hard for me
0:26:51 > 0:26:57to be able to create something in that Celtic area
0:26:57 > 0:27:00that's melodic or that seems to work.
0:27:00 > 0:27:06I just seem to be at home with that kind of music and I've always felt that I've had a connection to it.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10MUSIC: "Going Home"
0:27:50 > 0:27:54In 1985, Dire Straits would release an album which would go on to become
0:27:54 > 0:27:56one of biggest selling records of all time.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00- Do you know which album sold most copies in 1985?- Dire Straits?
0:28:00 > 0:28:03# That ain't working That's the way you do it
0:28:03 > 0:28:07# Money for nothing and your chicks for free
0:28:07 > 0:28:09# Money for nothing... #
0:28:09 > 0:28:12All right, so what was the biggest selling compact disc?
0:28:12 > 0:28:13Dire Straits.
0:28:13 > 0:28:14# You do the walk
0:28:14 > 0:28:17# Yeah, you do the walk of life
0:28:17 > 0:28:18# You do the walk of life. #
0:28:19 > 0:28:22OK, Rover, so what's the album called?
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:28:48 > 0:28:55Thanks very much. It's very early on, I didn't even have time too make sure my trousers were zipped up.
0:28:58 > 0:29:06It's just a little bit strange, it's 1987 now and that record was made in 1985,
0:29:06 > 0:29:11but it's very nice recognition and...
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Thanks for all your votes and... It's much appreciated. Thanks very much.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18I'm sure one of the reasons why Brothers in Arms
0:29:18 > 0:29:23was such a big record is that it coincided with the CD.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28In fact So Far Away, I think, was the first CD single that was ever made.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30I've no doubt that had a lot to do with it.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34And also the fact that a couple of the songs on the record
0:29:34 > 0:29:38did well in the States and that will always sell you records.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40So that was a big factor, too.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45# Here I am again in this mean old town
0:29:45 > 0:29:48# And you're so far away from me
0:29:49 > 0:29:53# And where are you when the sun goes down?
0:29:54 > 0:29:56# You're so far away from me
0:29:59 > 0:30:01# You're so far away from me
0:30:03 > 0:30:06# So far I just can't see
0:30:07 > 0:30:10# You're so far away from me
0:30:11 > 0:30:15# You're so far away from me. #
0:30:15 > 0:30:18I don't think when you're writing a song, or making a record,
0:30:18 > 0:30:21that you're not really conscious that it's going to be a big record.
0:30:21 > 0:30:29Making Brothers in Arms, I was just making another album, I wasn't really conscious about the size of it.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34I think it's really not connected with your journey as a writer or a songwriter.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37One of the stand-out songs from the album which still resonates to this day
0:30:37 > 0:30:42and remains a staple in Knopfler's live shows is the title track itself, Brothers In Arms.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47Brothers in Arms was just a phrase I heard and my dad happened to remark
0:30:47 > 0:30:53how ironic it was that the Russians were siding with the Argentineans in the Falklands.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57There you are you, he said, the Russians are being brothers in arms
0:30:57 > 0:31:00with a fascist dictatorship and the phrase stuck in my head
0:31:00 > 0:31:06and when you're a songwriter that's something you take notice of.
0:31:06 > 0:31:11To a certain extent, you've got a kind of antenna for that kind of thing.
0:31:11 > 0:31:18In fact, the first line of the song, these mist-covered mountains, the mist-covered mountains
0:31:18 > 0:31:24is the title of an old Scottish air and so I said these mist-covered mountains are a home now for me.
0:31:24 > 0:31:29But that's taken from an old song title and that's what a songwriter will do.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31It's just these...
0:31:31 > 0:31:33There's just this stuff.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35There's this stuff...
0:31:35 > 0:31:38in the scrap yard!
0:31:38 > 0:31:41# These mist-covered mountains
0:31:43 > 0:31:46# Home now for me
0:31:50 > 0:31:54# But my home is the lowlands
0:31:57 > 0:31:59# And always will be
0:32:03 > 0:32:07# Some day you'll return to
0:32:10 > 0:32:13# Your valleys and your farms
0:32:17 > 0:32:19# And you'll no longer burn
0:32:19 > 0:32:23# To be brothers in arms... #
0:32:26 > 0:32:30What I was actually thinking about in terms of the song itself
0:32:30 > 0:32:35was the idea of the mortally wounded man surrounded by his friends,
0:32:35 > 0:32:40and that's just one of those battle scenes, isn't it?
0:32:43 > 0:32:46There's a poem, The Burial Of Sir John Moore At Corunna,
0:32:46 > 0:32:48and things that I'd read as a kid.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51# And the sun's gone to hell
0:32:56 > 0:32:59# Got the moon riding high
0:33:03 > 0:33:05# Let me bid you farewell
0:33:10 > 0:33:13# Every man has to die
0:33:18 > 0:33:21# But it's written in the starlight
0:33:25 > 0:33:29# And every line on your palm
0:33:32 > 0:33:35# We are fools to make war
0:33:35 > 0:33:39# on our brothers in arms... #
0:33:50 > 0:33:54It became a sort of anthem for troops in the Gulf.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58I was actually doing an interview one day on the radio
0:33:58 > 0:34:03and this tank man actually called up to say that at the end of the battle,
0:34:03 > 0:34:07they linked all the tanks up in the dawn and they played it.
0:34:20 > 0:34:25It's a comfort to me that the song, that the music, not just that song,
0:34:25 > 0:34:30but other music is used by people for all sorts of things,
0:34:30 > 0:34:36to celebrate things and to mark occasions, you know, to get married.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40A woman told me the other day that...
0:34:41 > 0:34:47She said, "We used all your stuff for our wedding."
0:34:47 > 0:34:49Well, that's really nice, isn't it?
0:34:49 > 0:34:55That's great. So it's not all to do with necessarily funerals.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08Money For Nothing, Knopfler's wry take on the MTV generation,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11gave Dire Straits their first No 1 single in America.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Thanks in no small part to Knopfler's distinctive guitar sound.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18When people say, how do you get those sounds? Usually I say, I don't know,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22I fiddle about with the amp until I get something that works.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24That's essentially what this was.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27I had actually forgotten how I did it.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45And that's really essentially what I'm doing - I'm blocking out quite a lot of notes.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54And as the song is going...
0:35:59 > 0:36:00That's just two strings.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14# Look at them yo-yos That's the way you do it
0:36:14 > 0:36:17# You play the guitar on the MTV
0:36:17 > 0:36:21# That ain't working That's the way you do it
0:36:21 > 0:36:24# Money for nothing and your chicks for free... #
0:36:24 > 0:36:27Money for nothing, that's a situation kind of a song.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30This was an electrical appliance store
0:36:30 > 0:36:34and all the TVs at the back of the store were all tuned to MTV.
0:36:34 > 0:36:40MTV was a pretty new thing then and then some big meathead guy in a checked shirt
0:36:40 > 0:36:47had been doing some deliveries and he was delivering his opinion about everybody who was on the MTV.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53And I had to actually spy on him, because his lines were so classic.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00# The little faggot with the earring and the make-up
0:37:00 > 0:37:03# Yeah, buddy, that's his own hair
0:37:03 > 0:37:07# That little faggot got his own jet airplane
0:37:07 > 0:37:11# That little faggot, he's a millionaire
0:37:11 > 0:37:14# We gotta install microwave ovens
0:37:14 > 0:37:19I actually went to the counter and I asked for a pen and paper
0:37:19 > 0:37:23and there was a kitchen display in the window of the store,
0:37:23 > 0:37:28it was in New York, and I sat down in the window of the store and started writing down the lines.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32So that guy essentially gave me a song.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36# I want my, I want my
0:37:36 > 0:37:41# I want my MTV. #
0:37:41 > 0:37:45During the Brothers in Arms tour, which lasted 12 months,
0:37:45 > 0:37:48Dire Straits played 247 shows in 100 cities,
0:37:48 > 0:37:52including a 13-night record-breaking stint at London's Wembley Arena.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Dire Straits were arguably the biggest band in the world.
0:37:56 > 0:38:02There was a kind of critical mass happening, where a lot of people wanted to see the band play live.
0:38:02 > 0:38:08And they were into the records and they were into seeing, experiencing the whole thing live.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11All right this is where Wembley does the walk.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13I know they don't let you stand up,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17but if you all do it, there's nothing they can do about it.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22In fact I think they like it really.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26On the surface, it would appear Knopfler was having the time of his life,
0:38:26 > 0:38:29but he was learning that success on this scale came at a price.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33Oh, yeah, you're really not used to it. It's a massive strain.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38I think it's probably just good luck that I wasn't younger.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42I really sympathise with kids who go off the rails with it all.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45I probably just survived it.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47But there's a lot of damage.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51And things happen things that you're not ready for always.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54It's a new experience entirely.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58And for a songwriter, a songwriter's more of an observer
0:38:58 > 0:39:04and you suddenly feel people looking at you and there's a reversal going on.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06And of course they're not really.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10It's just something that you feel, because of the attention the music is getting that week
0:39:10 > 0:39:12or the band's getting that week.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15It takes a while to get the whole thing in perspective.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Following the tour, Knopfler put Dire Straits on hold
0:39:25 > 0:39:28and got back to basics by forming the Notting Hillbillies.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31The line up included Steve Phillips and Brendan Croker,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35two mates from his days as a struggling musician in Leeds.
0:39:35 > 0:39:41I just rested up for a while and after a bit, as usually is the case,
0:39:41 > 0:39:45looking to get some gainful employment after goofing around.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51# It's been something seeing you again
0:39:51 > 0:39:53# In this time we've had to spend
0:39:53 > 0:39:57# Been so good to be around
0:39:59 > 0:40:02# I thank you for that special trip
0:40:02 > 0:40:07# Keep me going on until the next time I'm in town... #
0:40:07 > 0:40:11And so we just ended up having a lot of fun doing it.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14I suppose that was like relaxing.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19# I see you smile and I remember what went down... #
0:40:19 > 0:40:24I think it probably was a way of reminding me how much I enjoyed picking songs
0:40:24 > 0:40:31and if that's all that had ever happened to me in life, I'd still be doing that now.
0:40:31 > 0:40:36I'd be playing guitar with somebody and picking old time songs.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40If I'd never written a song, that's what I'd be doing now.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45And the person that I admire an awful lot,
0:40:45 > 0:40:50very famous guitarist of Dire Straits,
0:40:50 > 0:40:54writes all their tunes and sings all the songs.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57I love him as a musician and as a person, Mark Knopfler.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01Another side project during his sabbatical from his day job with Dire Straits
0:41:01 > 0:41:06was when he teamed up with the legendary guitar picker Chet Atkins on the album Neck And Neck.
0:41:06 > 0:41:11I think the only reason that Chet actually called me up and asked me
0:41:11 > 0:41:14to play on the record, was because he took pity on me,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17because I was a finger picker like him.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21I think this is one of the first things we did, See You In My Dreams.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Chet being so kind, I'm sure he'd keep it fairly simple for my benefit.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15Really, it's all come from...
0:42:17 > 0:42:19..that.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21Picking. Finger picking.
0:42:21 > 0:42:29And that's how Chet essentially pulled himself, he picked his way out of real poverty.
0:42:29 > 0:42:30You know, genuine poverty.
0:42:30 > 0:42:36When he used to walk to school, he didn't have a coat in the winter.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40And he...
0:42:40 > 0:42:44he literally picked his way to fame. And fortune.
0:42:47 > 0:42:53In 1991, Dire Straits got back together to record what would be their final studio album,
0:42:53 > 0:42:59On Every Street, and Knopfler found himself back on the road on another sell-out world tour.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04The gigs that we were doing On Every Street were massive gigs and we had
0:43:04 > 0:43:11two stages that were leapfrogging around and we'd brought in extra people to do all that.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15One of the things I'd always enjoyed about touring and still enjoy
0:43:15 > 0:43:18about touring is it's like having a circus. That's part of the fun.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22I think if it gets so big, you lose that.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34Although there was no official announcement that the group were breaking up,
0:43:34 > 0:43:39the On Every Street tour was the last time Knopfler would play with Dire Straits.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42I think it just gently rolled out.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44I kind of put to it bed.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48I wanted to get back to being a guy who could write a song,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51do all the things I've said with it
0:43:51 > 0:43:56and then go and tour it for people, but do it at a kind of manageable level.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06Following the demise of Dire Straits,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10Knopfler has continued to tour and record as a successful solo artist.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12This new-found musical freedom has allowed him to collaborate
0:44:12 > 0:44:16with other musicians, such as country legend Emmylou Harris.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19# This is us down at the Mardi Gras
0:44:19 > 0:44:22# This is us in your daddy's car
0:44:24 > 0:44:26# You and the missing link
0:44:26 > 0:44:28# Had a little too much I think
0:44:28 > 0:44:32# Too long in the sun
0:44:32 > 0:44:33# Having too much fun
0:44:33 > 0:44:37# You and me and our memories This is us.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39# This is us... #
0:44:41 > 0:44:45These songs that I'm writing, sometimes they'll fall into types
0:44:45 > 0:44:50and I'd noticed that there were a few songs that were making the male/female shape
0:44:50 > 0:44:54and so I thought about doing a duet.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57I thought that, um,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00"Mark and Emmy" might be all right, you know.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03I don't know, I don't exactly know why.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06I think it was just because I'd been writing certain kinds of songs.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10# Famous last words
0:45:12 > 0:45:16# Laying round in tatters
0:45:17 > 0:45:20# Sounding absurd
0:45:23 > 0:45:26# Whatever I try
0:45:29 > 0:45:32# But I love you
0:45:34 > 0:45:39# And that's all that really matters
0:45:40 > 0:45:43# If this is goodbye
0:45:46 > 0:45:49# This is goodbye. #
0:45:49 > 0:45:56If This Is Goodbye was inspired by an article Knopfler read in The Guardian by author Ian McEwan.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00In which McEwan wrote about the voice messages left for loved ones
0:46:00 > 0:46:04by those trapped in the Twin Towers on September 11th.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07I think actually Emmy just liked the song.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11I don't think she even knew what it was about
0:46:11 > 0:46:16in terms of the... She just thought it was a goodbye song.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19She hadn't, wasn't seeing it in terms of...
0:46:19 > 0:46:21of that event.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25When somebody mentioned it to her,
0:46:25 > 0:46:30then it really changed and she became very emotionally attached to the song.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33# My famous last words
0:46:36 > 0:46:40# Could never tell the story
0:46:41 > 0:46:44# Spinning unheard
0:46:47 > 0:46:50# In the dark of the sky
0:46:53 > 0:46:55# But I love you
0:46:58 > 0:47:01# And this is our glory
0:47:03 > 0:47:07# If this is goodbye
0:47:08 > 0:47:11# If this is goodbye
0:47:14 > 0:47:17# If this is goodbye
0:47:19 > 0:47:24# If this is goodbye. #
0:47:25 > 0:47:30It's always interesting to me how a creative act, how it engenders other creative acts.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33When you drop a stone into a well,
0:47:33 > 0:47:37the ripples go out and things come back.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48With Sailing to Philadelphia,
0:47:48 > 0:47:53I was reading a book about Mason and Dixon and the Mason-Dixon Line,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55and with Dixon himself, you know,
0:47:55 > 0:48:01being from the north, and his travels taking him all over the place,
0:48:01 > 0:48:03I felt a bit of a kinship with him.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08Obviously, I didn't do anything of remotely the same sort of importance.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12# I'm Jeremiah Dixon
0:48:12 > 0:48:14# I am a Geordie boy
0:48:14 > 0:48:17# A glass of wine with you sir
0:48:17 > 0:48:19# And the ladies I'll enjoy
0:48:21 > 0:48:24# All Durham men, Northumberland
0:48:26 > 0:48:29# Measured up by my own hand
0:48:31 > 0:48:34# It was my fate from birth
0:48:35 > 0:48:38# To make my mark upon the Earth... #
0:48:38 > 0:48:42I'm one of lucky ones who enjoys the whole cycle,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45and if you want to think of it in terms of a cycle
0:48:45 > 0:48:51of being a songwriter so I can write a song, so I enjoy all that.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57OK, once more.
0:48:57 > 0:49:04'And then I enjoy very much getting into the studio and recording. Not everybody likes that.'
0:49:08 > 0:49:11THEY HARMONISE
0:49:11 > 0:49:15'I really enjoy rehearsing to go out on tour. I really enjoy it.
0:49:15 > 0:49:22'Getting the band together, rehearsing is one of most fun things for me, and then the playing live.'
0:49:22 > 0:49:26# Save my soul from evil, Lord, and heal this soldier's heart
0:49:27 > 0:49:29# I'll trust in thee to keep me
0:49:29 > 0:49:32# Lord I'm done
0:49:32 > 0:49:34# With Bonaparte. #
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Unlike many of his contemporaries, who have broken up supergroups
0:49:42 > 0:49:47only to reform at a later date, Knopfler has no intention of reforming Dire Straits.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51That would be getting back into the massive event thing,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54and you'd be doing it for money.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58I suppose. And you'd probably feel much more duty-bound
0:49:58 > 0:50:02to trot out all of those records, all of those songs, and you'd have to...
0:50:02 > 0:50:07I mean, I don't play Money For Nothing, at least I don't think I've done it for a while.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11I might do it - I might feel like doing it, I might not,
0:50:11 > 0:50:15but I would hate to have to think that I'd HAVE to do it.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20It's not really for me to say, but perhaps his writing has changed
0:50:20 > 0:50:23and his feeling has changed along with it.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26And he's in a position where he can do what he wants.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31I mean, why should he go back if that's not how he's feeling?
0:50:42 > 0:50:49For his most recent musical projects, Knopfler has been drawing heavily on his roots in folk music.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53Having the folk musicians
0:50:53 > 0:51:00in there is just, it gives me a little bit of an extra luxury palette to do things with.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04I suppose for us, it's not like the token folkie.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07You're not coming in and just doing a small bit.
0:51:07 > 0:51:08What I find is that
0:51:08 > 0:51:12Mark's an amazing artist and he has a real interest in traditional music,
0:51:12 > 0:51:17whether it's Irish traditional, or Scottish traditional or bluegrass or Appalachian.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20I think there's an amazing amount of thought goes into it
0:51:20 > 0:51:22from Mark's point of view.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25Even putting a band together. The eight of us on stage just now,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28that's a really difficult thing to do.
0:51:28 > 0:51:33You've got people from the Dire Straits days, and people from Nashville bluegrass scene
0:51:33 > 0:51:38and Nashville rock scene, and then you've got a couple of folkie guys from Manchester and Glasgow.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46# Southern bound from Glasgow town
0:51:46 > 0:51:49# She's shining in the sun
0:51:49 > 0:51:51# My Scotstoun lassie
0:51:52 > 0:51:54# On the border run
0:51:55 > 0:51:57# We're whistling down
0:51:57 > 0:51:59# Tearing up the climbs
0:51:59 > 0:52:01# I'm just a thiever
0:52:03 > 0:52:06# Stealing time in the Border Reiver
0:52:10 > 0:52:12# 300,000 on the clock
0:52:12 > 0:52:15# Plenty more to go
0:52:15 > 0:52:17# Crash box and lever
0:52:17 > 0:52:19# She needs the heel and toe
0:52:20 > 0:52:22# She's not too cold in winter
0:52:22 > 0:52:25# But she cooks me in the heat
0:52:25 > 0:52:28# I'm a six-foot driver
0:52:28 > 0:52:31# But you can't adjust the seat
0:52:31 > 0:52:32# In the Border Reiver. #
0:52:34 > 0:52:36He draws from such a broad palette
0:52:36 > 0:52:38and he covers such a broad palette,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42that he can absorb all these different influences
0:52:42 > 0:52:46and they don't feel out of place, because it fits right into the music.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55Knopfler's love of being on the road is undiminished.
0:52:55 > 0:53:00His recent Get Lucky tour saw him performing to sell-out audiences across Europe and North America.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12During the early stages of the tour, Knopfler sustained a back injury.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15This meant he was unable to perform standing up.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17Rather than cancel the tour,
0:53:17 > 0:53:21Knopfler elected to play the remaining concerts sitting on a stool.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23I don't think it's affected the show in any way.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26It's certainly not affected his performance or playing,
0:53:26 > 0:53:31he just happens to be sitting down as opposed to standing up doing it.
0:53:31 > 0:53:37So I think as long as it's not had an impact on the show itself,
0:53:37 > 0:53:38on we go.
0:53:38 > 0:53:45It's OK, I've been playing on this sort of revolving stool, like a dummy.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50But it's fine if people seem to mind if I don't dance!
0:53:50 > 0:53:53He's been in a lot of pain, very intense pain.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56But I have yet to see it really get his spirit down.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58He loves being out here.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01He loves doing this. And I think everybody knows we come out
0:54:01 > 0:54:04and we do these things for four or five months
0:54:04 > 0:54:06and then everybody goes their separate way,
0:54:06 > 0:54:12and we always hope we'll reconvene and do another record and another tour after that.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14But the fact that we don't do it all the time
0:54:14 > 0:54:17makes it all the more precious, and I know it's that way with him.
0:54:17 > 0:54:23When he's out here, this is what he's all about, that's what his entire focus is on.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28It's like being the captain of a little action ship. It's actually a great feeling.
0:54:28 > 0:54:33You know, you respect the guys in the crew an awful lot and you respect the other guys in the band
0:54:33 > 0:54:39and this is just something that comes with getting older, I suppose, and getting a little bit wiser.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48Eventually leading to an A minor.
0:54:48 > 0:54:49I suppose so.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52We all learn so much from each other,
0:54:52 > 0:54:55and we realise there is always so much to learn,
0:54:55 > 0:54:58there's no point stopping and thinking, "That's it".
0:54:58 > 0:54:59It just doesn't work like that.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02We're all as eager to learn as we ever were.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07The beginning of Border Reiver needs to be a little quicker than we're doing it.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09He is prolific, he just keeps on writing,
0:55:09 > 0:55:15and as long as he does that, he'll keep wanting to record, and long may it continue.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18What I try to do with a song is craft it.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22I try and craft a song with...
0:55:22 > 0:55:26with pride, and I try and make something that's going to last.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32So many of his melodies sound like,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37ancient, like something you can't put your finger on what it was,
0:55:37 > 0:55:40but the first time you hear 'em, you feel a kinship with 'em.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42At least that's how it hits me.
0:55:44 > 0:55:49Sometimes you're not even sure what it is you're writing - it only becomes clear afterwards
0:55:49 > 0:55:52what it is you were doing, and don't you love that?
0:55:54 > 0:55:56People make their own pictures.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58They have their own ideas of what a song is,
0:55:58 > 0:56:03and the explanation is... not really necessary.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05It's just going to spoil things.
0:56:07 > 0:56:12# When I leave this world behind
0:56:13 > 0:56:17# To another I will go
0:56:18 > 0:56:22# But if there are no pipes
0:56:22 > 0:56:24# In heaven
0:56:25 > 0:56:26# I'll be going
0:56:26 > 0:56:29# Down below
0:56:31 > 0:56:35# If friends in time be severed
0:56:36 > 0:56:41# Some day we will meet again
0:56:42 > 0:56:45# And I'll return
0:56:45 > 0:56:47# To leave you never
0:56:48 > 0:56:53# Be a piper to the end. #
0:56:55 > 0:56:58I'll go home in an hour or two, whatever it is now,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02I'll take a look at the songs, probably, at some point.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06I'll just take a look at them and see how they're getting on.
0:57:06 > 0:57:08Chop a bit out, stick a bit in.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10I love it.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32When your dreams are come true, as it were,
0:57:32 > 0:57:35they never come true quite the way that you think that they will.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38Reality is never
0:57:38 > 0:57:39what a dream is.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41But it's better than nothing,
0:57:41 > 0:57:45and I would still rather be trying to make my dreams come true.
0:57:45 > 0:57:50I think that's still something to go for.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57# Now I'm a-rambling through this meadow
0:57:57 > 0:57:59# Happy as a man can be
0:58:01 > 0:58:05# Think I'll just lay me down under this old tree
0:58:05 > 0:58:08# On and on we go
0:58:08 > 0:58:11# Through this whole world a-shuffling
0:58:11 > 0:58:14# If you've got a truffle dog
0:58:14 > 0:58:17# You can go a-truffling
0:58:17 > 0:58:20# And you might get lucky now and then
0:58:23 > 0:58:25# You win some
0:58:25 > 0:58:28# You might get lucky now and then
0:58:31 > 0:58:32# Yeah, you win some. #