Ed Bicknell Interview

[hunter v2.0]

Fantastic! Thank you, Ed (and Chris and jbaent for making this happen). And how I'd wish it had been you who'd written that DS book, not John ...

[hunter v2.0]

Re books, I think Pavel has a Master's degree in Generalization. Of course people still buy books. Printed ones. Music stores are gone, mostly, but there are book stores everywhere. I just bought Crime And Punishment (Dostovsky), at the airport no less.

[quizzaciously]

Re books, I think Pavel has a Master's degree in Generalization. Of course people still buy books. Printed ones. Music stores are gone, mostly, but there are book stores everywhere. I just bought Crime And Punishment (Dostovsky), at the airport no less.

I'd say, people are masters in missing the point in my posts I agree Ed is the second person to Mark a book about Dire Straits would be worth it, not John. With that said, how popular was John's book anyway? 176 reviews on Amazon are not bad, I suppose. However, Bruce Springstee's book has 13,125 reviews. I'm not sure how popular Ed's book could be, but I doubt it would sell in spades. Hence my doubt about the success of this thing and reasoning for doing interviews/podcasts that are much easier to do. The fact that 10 people on AMIT are going to buy this book won't be enough for Sir Edward to grab a pen I'm afraid!

Congrats on enjoying Crime And Punishment! Mind you, I actually read this thing in original language!

[Robson]

Wow! Lots of important and valuable messages from Ed. I read with great interest. Thank you Ed, thank you jbaent 

[hunter v2.0]

I'd say, people are masters in missing the point in my posts I agree Ed is the second person to Mark a book about Dire Straits would be worth it, not John. With that said, how popular was John's book anyway? 176 reviews on Amazon are not bad, I suppose. However, Bruce Springstee's book has 13,125 reviews. I'm not sure how popular Ed's book could be, but I doubt it would sell in spades. Hence my doubt about the success of this thing and reasoning for doing interviews/podcasts that are much easier to do. The fact that 10 people on AMIT are going to buy this book won't be enough for Sir Edward to grab a pen I'm afraid!

Oh, come on. John's book couldn't have been duller even if he tried to. Ed's wit, sense of humor and 'no-holds-barrred' attitude would have made people who hate DS buy the book.

[quizzaciously]

I'd say, people are masters in missing the point in my posts I agree Ed is the second person to Mark a book about Dire Straits would be worth it, not John. With that said, how popular was John's book anyway? 176 reviews on Amazon are not bad, I suppose. However, Bruce Springstee's book has 13,125 reviews. I'm not sure how popular Ed's book could be, but I doubt it would sell in spades. Hence my doubt about the success of this thing and reasoning for doing interviews/podcasts that are much easier to do. The fact that 10 people on AMIT are going to buy this book won't be enough for Sir Edward to grab a pen I'm afraid!

Oh, come on. John's book couldn't have been duller even if he tried to. Ed's wit, sense of humor and 'no-holds-barrred' attitude would have made people who hate DS buy the book.

Yeah, you know what, it's possible. I wonder why he never thought about writing a book, it's so obvious of an idea in his situation after so many years of a successful and fruitful career, and more than this — he obviously has A LOT to say about these things, and he can barely stop even writing this message to AMIT, so many good words and observations.

Kudos to Ed, by the way, while he admits that we fans, as a group, are a little bit "mad", he's doing it in a very friendly and polite way, not falling into scolding and teaching about life, with the usual sense of humour and humbleness. A delightful experience.

[Brunno Nunes]

An emblematic and historic post, I believe it is the best I could say about Ed Bicknell's participation here on the forum, thank you Ed, Chris and Julio.

 Honestly, I've been dreaming for a long time about a book written by Ed Bicknell talking about his career with Dire Straits, NHB and Mark Knopfler, I have no doubt that it would be very fun and enlightening, without waste, I hope this becomes a reality soon , I would make a point of purchasing my copy, like many here, with the exception of course of Pavel, sometimes he makes me believe that he lives in a parallel reality when he quotes things like: "But with all honesty, who writes books in the year 2024?" or "I'd much rather listen to his voice and look at his reactions than read a book." Anyway... I hope Ed doesn't think that way, it would be a waste and a sacrilege given the wealth of an eyewitness between 1977/2000, stories and information that he could offer through a book of his own, it would be a precise gift for all of us.

[Love Expresso]

"...or the technical studio stuff which Guy has more than covered even though he can’t change a plug."

I found that hilarious. 

LE

[quizzaciously]

Oh my freaking God, I said this line about books only about the fact that I think Ed is a better speaker and storyteller than a writer. Have you seen a lot of books written by Ed? I haven't! Not a single one. If you saw it please let me know. But I saw what he can do in an interview situation, that's all. That is all. I don't want to burn all the books Fahrenheit 451 style.

[Love Expresso]

Well I know where you're coming from with this opinion and I agree about how great his interviews are, but I found this post was brilliantly written, funny, witty, to the point and very refreshing in the way he was open about all sorts of things. In fact it was written exactly as he speaks. If he would write a book in that style, I would even buy two copies. 

LE

[Matchstickman]

Cool post from Ed! One could almost wonder if it's a joke, but the style seems to be his.

So it turns out that Terry plays on Walk of Life, but not John. What little we know, we mere mortals 

[TJ]

Also interesting to me that Mark is the one who thought Walk of Life was a throwaway b-side and Neil and the band (and Ed) had to talk him into including it.  The way I remember hearing it was that Neil hated it and didn't think it fit with the rest of the album and Mark and the boys overruled him.

[quizzaciously]

Cool post from Ed! One could almost wonder if it's a joke, but the style seems to be his.

So it turns out that Terry plays on Walk of Life, but not John. What little we know, we mere mortals 

We are very lucky fans, aren't we?

I'm just amazed that EB found time to react and write down some of the thoughts, and I have to agree with Chris here, most of the stuff discussed on this forum is simply guessing and deducing, and it's great to see actual people actually react to stuff. Mark rarely gives interviews, is not present on social media and couldn't care less about writing books, John's book is not highly detailed, Ed's book does not exist at all (and my money is on the book line being a joke). All we have is Guy Fletcher and old interviews. Nice. So at least Ed now understands the magnitude of the dire straits situation we've got here.

[quizzaciously]

Also interesting to me that Mark is the one who thought Walk of Life was a throwaway b-side and Neil and the band (and Ed) had to talk him into including it.  The way I remember hearing it was that Neil hated it and didn't think it fit with the rest of the album and Mark and the boys overruled him.

Surprisingly, Wikipedia gets this fact right: "Mark Knopfler had not originally intended "Walk of Life" for the album, but rather as a B-side to one of the singles. Dire Straits manager Ed Bicknell heard it when it was being mixed and convinced Knopfler to include it on the album at the last minute"

To be honest, Neil's version is kinda more plausible and makes more sense. From which planet do you need to arrive to think Walk Of Life is a throwaway B-side song? After writing it yourself? Like, what? Probably planet Knopfler. If it was a demo or something then maybe yes. But the way it sounds on the album is obvious instant hit. It could explain the random nature of bonus songs we have today if Mark is so unsure about his hits. That sounds like a good question to Mark.

[kempston_joystick]

What great insights from Ed.

Aside from the DS content, a book from Ed would be a great document about how the UK music industry evolved from the 60s through to the 21st century. There aren't many people still around who worked through that entire era who still have their sanity and/or memory.