Mark Knopfler

The Notting Hillbillies was a country music project formed by Mark Knopfler, who was then lead guitarist and singer of the Dire Straits, with Brendan... Croker, Steve Phillips, and Knopfler's bandmate Guy Fletcher. They made just one album, MissingPresumed Having a Good Time. This album was released on Vertigo in the UK in 1990, before returning to concentrate on their primary musical outlets. The Notting Hillbillies have reunited several times for charity gigs. In May 1997 the Hillbillies went on an 11 show tour in the UK. The Town & Country Club in Leeds on 3 July only featured the Knopfler-Croker-Philips trio. The set list included the only known live performances of two Dire Straits songs : "Ticket To Heaven" and "How Long". The Notting Hillbillies had previously performed "When It Comes to You" in 1990, before it was actually recorded and issued by Dire Straits on their final album On Every Street, in 1991. The concert at The City Hall in Newcastle on 6 July featured Alan Clark on keyboards, his only appearance with the band. Ed Bicknell and Marcus Cliffe were also present. This was the last time that Clark played with Knopfler within a full band.
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Brewers Droop is the name of a Southern English band in which Mark Knopfler played for a few months in 1973. Knopfler split his time between... teaching part-time, and playing with the band. Later, the Dire Straits song "Industrial Disease" mentions a malady which shares its name with that band. The name is a reference to a slang expression for erectile dysfunction brought on by heavy drinking.
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Vertigo Records today is a UK-based record label operated by Universal Music UK. Vertigo Records was the name Philips Records chose in the late 1960s for its record sub-label to counter the progressive labels of its rivals EMI with Harvest Records and Decca Records with Deram Records. Some of the... first artists to sign included Ian Matthews, Black Sabbath, Rod Stewart, Mike Absalom, Dr. Z, Catapilla, Cressida, Colosseum, Gentle Giant, Jade Warrior, Metallica, Nirvana , Kraftwerk, Ben, Keith Tippett Group, Tudor Lodge, Streetwalkers, Lucifer's Friend and Magna Carta. After Philips Records was renamed to Phonogram Records in 1972 and released albums in Europe by bands including, Streetwalkers, Status Quo, Beggars Opera, Switzerland's Flame Dream, Thin Lizzy, Dire Straits and Tears for Fears. Vertigo later became the European home to various hard rock bands signed to Mercury in North America, such as Bon Jovi and Kiss. Now part of the Universal Music Group, Vertigo is a division of Mercury Music Group , which in turn is a frontline music group operation of Universal Music UK.
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Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies. For three decades the conglomerate was known as WEA, which stood for Warner Bros.-Elektra-Atlantic Records; three major record companies... that signed and developed musical acts and, in turn, distributed product for subsidiaries and other record labels. The current incarnation of the company as Warner Music Group was formed in 2004 when it was spun off and made completely separate from Time Warner; as a result Time Warner no longer retains any ownership whatsoever in the Warner Music Group, despite its name. WMG also has a music publishing arm called Warner/Chappell Music, which is one of the world's largest music-publishing companies. In May 2011, the company announced its sale to Access Industries Inc. The purchase of the company was completed on July 20, 2011. Stephen Cooper - CEO Lyor Cohen – Vice Chairman and Chairman and CEO, Recorded Music  – Americas and the U.K. David H.
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Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the... United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound. The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles.
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Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy... and southeastern American folk music. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments such as banjoes, electric and acoustic guitars, fiddles, and harmonicas. The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to the earlier term hillbilly music. The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres. In 2009 Country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, and second most popular in the morning commute. Immigrants to the Maritime Provinces and Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of the Old World along with them for nearly 300 years.
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