Musical Musings | Forty years on, Brothers in Arms still rocks the chart

At the time, the group were one of the biggest bands on the planet.

While the pressure the success created would have torn apart other groups, Dire Straits were able to navigate successfully the move into global superstardom.

“We were fortunate to have sold many albums before Brothers, and had a global audience, so we were already used to navigating being successful,” recalls the group’s co-founder and bassist John Illsley today to Musical Musings.

“While Mark and I enjoyed this, but not so much the fame element, we always tried to put that to one side.

“We were a bit older, too, so I think that helped to avoid the pitfalls that some bands fall into.”

The success of the album was further spurred on when the English group undertook a massive 52-date tour of Australia in support of the album in 1986.

“We did 23 shows at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, and it rather felt like clocking in and clocking off every night,” Ilsley says.

“We had some people come so many times to the show that it was one long party.”

Brothers In Arms was also one of the very first albums to be recorded on digital equipment, and due to the high quality of the recording, and being one of the first albums to be released on CD, it became the go-to CD for testing high-end stereo gear.

“Digital was just gaining traction at the time of recording,” Ilsley says.

“The recording was done digitally, as CDs were the new way to go.

“And to hear such quality going global, and used to test high-quality gear, it was an exciting moment.”

It took another six years before the follow-up album On Every Street appeared in 1991.

But by then, with the changing musical climate and with the sounds of grunge incoming, the group would play their last ever show in 1992.

“We were naturally sad, but we had made the decision, we had achieved more than we could have ever imagined,” Illsley says.

“Mark was looking for a break from all the attention and wanted to take another musical path, and I wanted to become a painter”

After the group’s demise, Knopfler moved forth into a prolific solo career, a route that Illsley also took and which saw him release a number of solo albums over the years.

“It is a different challenge going solo,” he says.

“But I loved testing myself as a writer and producer.”

Having achieved success on such a global scale, what has been the most important lesson Illsley has learned from his time in the sun?

“When you start out, you have no idea what’s going to happen,” he says.

“And when it happens you have to love it because it’s tough keeping one’s head in the right space and not getting ahead of yourself.

“So be humble, but be happy.”

For more on John Illsley, check out: johnillsleymusic.com

Music news

Led Zeppelin fans will be pleased to hear that to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their iconic sixth album, Physical Graffiti, the group are releasing a new four-track live EP on September 12 on a 180-gram 12” vinyl, CD and digital formats. The EP features live recordings of In My Time Of Dying and Trampled Under Foot from the group’s Earl’s Court, 1975 show, and Sick Again and Kashmir from their Knebworth, 1979 show.

Members from famed R’n’B pop group Destiny’s Child reunited onstage last weekend for a surprise one-off performance during Beyonce’s concert in Las Vegas. Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams joined Beyonce to perform some of their well-known hits in front of surprised fans.

Ed Sheeran recently announced an Australian tour for 2026 that will kick off in late January. Named the ‘Loop’ tour, the shows will see Sheeran performing with a loop pedal, a device that allows musicians to record pieces of music and play them in a continuous loop. Sheeran has said the Loop tour will feature a new stage set featuring both new and old songs.

Nineties alt-rockers Everclear are also returning to Australia this coming November and December. The tour will see the group perform material off their second album, Sparkle and Fade, which brought the group commercial success and cemented their name into music history. It is also the 30th anniversary of the album’s release.

The view from here

Ever wanted to learn a musical instrument? It’s never too late to learn.

The benefits it brings to the individual are not only one’s wellbeing and enjoyment, but also, as a recent study has found, it’s highly beneficial to your brain health.

A study published in PLOS Biology, a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal, found that playing a musical instrument potentially protected the brain against age-related decline.

Researchers from Baycrest Academy for Research and Education in Canada and the Chinese Academy of Sciences gathered 25 older musicians, 25 older non-musicians and 24 young non-musicians together.

Each were then asked to identify syllables masked by background noise, a task that typically becomes harder with age, as the brain works harder to compensate for decline.

The researchers then compared the MRI scans of their brain activity.

The results showed that brain patterns of older musicians appeared more youth-like, while brain patterns of non-musicians consistently deviated from young non-musicians.

Also, the older musicians demonstrated a connectivity strength in the right hemisphere of the brain, the side that is home to creativity, spatial ability and the artistic, that resembled those of the young non-musicians.

This week’s global music charts’ No.1s

Australia: Daisies — Justin Bieber

Germany: Ordinary — Alex Warren

Italy: A Me Mi Piace — Alfa & Manu Chao

UK: Daisies — Justin Bieber

USA: Ordinary — Alex Warren

Fun fact

Despite sounding like a live recording, Elton John’s 1974 hit Bennie And The Jets was actually recorded in the studio.

The applause, whistles and other audience sounds were added later after the recording was done and were taken from a previous Elton John concert in 1972 and from a Jimi Hendrix 1970 live concert at Isle of Wight.