Photo credit: Judy Totton
John Illsley is an English musician who rose to fame as the bass guitarist of the critically acclaimed band Dire Straits. With Dire Straits, John has been the recipient of multiple BRIT and Grammy Awards and a Heritage Award. As one of the founding band members, with Mark Knopfler, his brother David and drummer Pick Withers, John played a major role in the development of the Dire Straits’ sound.
Throughout it all, John and Mark were the only founding members to remain in the line up of Dire Straits right through from 1977 until they decided to call it a day in 1995. They still remain close friends and recently produced a programme “Guitar Stories” for Sky Arts. During their time together as Dire Straits they sold over 120 million albums and toured extensively across the world. When Dire Straits took a couple of well earned breaks John released two albums; Never Told a Soul (1984) and Glass(1988). Both featured Mark Knopfler as a guest musician.
When Dire Straits finished touring in 1993 John became heavily involved in the Art world. Having carved a reputation for himself as a painter, John had solo exhibitions in London, New York, Sydney and across Europe. He also co-founded the children’s charity Life Education in 1987 which recently was integrated into Coram, one of the oldest UK charities. His book ‘My Life in Dire Straits’ was published by Transworld in 2021.
John also owns a pub, the East End Arms in the New Forest.
