Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Mark Knopfler – born in Glasgow, Scotland on
August 12, 1949 – is best known as the founder and leader of British rock band
Dire Straits. The son of an English mother and a Hungarian Jewish refugee
father, Mark Knopfler spent his early years in Scotland before his family moved
to Blyth in the northeast of England. Inspired by Shadows' guitarist Hank
Marvin, he took up guitar and joined various school bands before training as a
journalist, a career he abandoned to commit to music. He played guitar with
groups such as Café Racer and Brewers Droop, ...