Strait Talking

AS a founder member of Dire Straits, John Illsley was responsible for one of the biggest bands of the ’80s – a rock behemoth that sold millions of albums and played the world’s largest venues.

The band were the first to be played on MTV (with 1985’s Grammy Award-winning Money for Nothing) and their album Brothers in Arms is credited with launching the CD format, with the title track released as the first CD single.

So what possessed bass player and vocalist John to turn his back on it, and spend more than 15 years hidden away in an artist’s studio, daubing abstract paintings?

“Playing in Dire Straits was so intense,” he explains, recalling those heady days when the band he formed with frontman Mark Knopfler thought nothing of performing a 13-night residency at Wembley Arena – and played for Live Aid and Nelson Mandela’s birthday tribute.

“In the end I wanted to give it up and have a break for a while. Some people might say I’ve been on holiday ever since,” he laughs.

South Londoner John is talking from the south of France, where he is having a break with his kids.

“When the Straits stopped touring in ’92 I took up my other love, which is painting – and that absorbed much of my artistic temperament.

“Dire Straits became a big organisation with its own character. Mark and I were joint partners and it became a bit machine-like, “Suddenly when I was on my own I felt a great sense of freedom.”

And so, the man once known as “the engine room of Dire Straits” and who already had a pair of solo albums to his name (Glass and Never Tell a Soul), embraced art – and concentrated on running his pub, the East End Arms in the New Forest. Until now.

A full 15 years since his last real solo outing, John has released a follow-up, Streets of Heaven. So what’s it like? “A lot of people say it’s very ‘Straitsy’,” he says, “which really shouldn’t be a surprise.”

He’s right. But only partially. Because, while John was an intrinsic part of the Straits sound, he occupied a spot at the back of the stage. Now, however, he is firmly at the front, with not just a lead guitar, but also a microphone.

“This is about me having some fun,” he explains. But also a slice of where I am. I’m at a crossroads in my life, having hit 60 last year.

“There’s a lot of personal stuff. The title track is about my wife, and a song called Young Girl is about my daughter Jessie going to college.”

This month he is dipping his toe back into the water of playing live with a UK tour, which comes to Oxford on June 24.

So what was the secret behind Dire Straits’ huge success? Why did their brand of stripped-back bluesy-rock strike have such appeal since their early days, when the music scene was convulsed with punk and new wave, throughout a decade dominated by electro-pop, indie-rock and house music.

“People found us so accessible. They could relate to what we were singing about – to songs like So Far Away, and especially Money for Nothing – because they could see these rock stars prancing around and hanging out with beautiful women, and thought ‘we could do that… and get the girls too!’”

So why did the band break up? “Well, the band didn’t stop,” he explains. “it just didn’t do anything. There was no big notice saying, ‘We have disbanded’. But Mark did what he did – and I picked up a paint brush.”

Mark, of course, went on to have a hugely successful solo career, formed country-rock supergroup the Notting Hillbillies, and raced fast cars in true rock‘n’roll style.

And while John is plugging his latest solo effort, the question most fans will want to know is, will he be playing any Dire Straits songs?

“Yes,” he says. “I think it would be churlish not to. People expect to hear them. Every gig will have a few Straits songs, and they fit in well with Streets of Heaven.

“I wouldn’t play songs like Romeo and Juliet, which are too personal to Dire Straits and too technical – I’m a reasonable guitar player but I’m still not in Mark’s league – but you can expect songs like Walk of Life, Money for Nothing or So Far Away.”

And the million-dollar question: “Will we reform? Well, I can’t really answer that, but I’d never say never. I would be happy to do it under certain circumstances, but wouldn’t want to recreate the past.”

And, he admits, they were very strange days. “We’d have someone telling us we’d sold 25,000 copies in Holland, but I was still living in a council flat in south-east London on £50 a week.

“But the most important thing has always been playing music. And it’s great fun now being at the front with a guitar and singing – rather than standing at the back!”

John Illsley plays the Oxford O2 Academy on June 24. Tickets are £12 in advance from the venue, 0844 4772000, or ticketweb.co.uk