In 2000, Lindisfarne released a cd titled "BT3" with rare covers, demos etc etc, and one of them was a track recorded by Mark Knopfler with Rod Clemments around 1973 - 1974 if I recall correctly, in the Lindisfarne site you can read the story about the song they used from that sessions with MK:
More promising, however, was the possibility of one or two tracks from Rod's 1974 recordings with Mark Knopfler. We never really got to these in '92 for some reason, but for me, the idea of putting them out eventually never really went away. Clearly - wearing my label 'hat' - I wanted very much to have the 'Knopfler' name involved with the project. Of the four tracks - two acoustic, two electric - Ray favoured one of the acoustic . It was certainly more complete as a song, although I felt one of the electric tracks had potential, too.
Ultimately although this second track was so frustratingly, so NEARLY a coherent vocal, we stuck with our first choice. Still, the prospect of using a Mark Knopfler track was tempting, particularly with his instantly recognisable tones married to his distinctive electric picking style so clear - even in this 'work-in-progress' state - but it didn't 'fit'.
Right from the 'off', Mark's out-going Manager, Ed Bicknell, was very supportive. Though Mark was in the middle of a months holiday ( prior to the promo activity around his new album), I was put in touch with his p.a. The tape I sent to Ed had been forwarded to her and she passed it Mark. He had no idea what was on there. There were not even any titles. He must have been intrigued.
As promised, a few days later, a positive reply came back from Mark. I then pointed out to his p.a. that there was no title; after another phone call, she came back to me to say: " Mark says give him a couple of days". Sure enough, he came up with the title in a couple of days. Thanks very much for that, Mark. He didn't HAVE to bother - but he did.
