Ed Bicknell Interview

[Chris W]

I have always thought that the style and feeling of Walk life was quite different compared to general atmosphere of the album and thus the consideration for a B side.

One of DS' biggest early hits was 'Twisting By The Pool', a record they seem to have wanted to distance themselves from since. I see Walk Of Life in the same mould as 'Twisting...' albeit a lot better. Again it was a big hit. Strange that Mark kept writing obvious hit records in that 'rock and roll' style, but wasn't that confident about them.

[JF]

many thanks again Ed ! 

[the visitor]

Just catching up on this, thanks to Ed for his insights and to CW and Julio for facilitating. Amazing stuff.  I'd definitely buy a book written by Ed!

[quizzaciously]

That's why I'm so offended when I get told I live in fantasy. If anything, I steer AWAY from fantasy as much as possible.

I think Ed's first message was to clear up a lot of discussion on the forum that was wide of the mark regarding the facts.
I feel I have corrected a lot of misinformation in my time at the forum, from the perspective of someone who was there for 1.5 years.
I think you can celebrate Ed's contributions this week without seeking to gloss over some past missteps.
Fact is, fans do a lot of guess work, especially when there is a dearth of fact available.

Another fact is, even by reading your and Ed's messages you can tell fans often get a lot of facts straight despite the lack of information and first-hand evidence, and frankly, given how little fans truly have, a whole bunch of stuff IS known and correctly observed. I think this miracle should be as celebrated as the fact Dire Straits' manager and drummer stepped up into the discussion.

We are all human beings and we are all making mistakes sometimes, and dare I say it — I don't think even you and Ed are 100% right all the time, it's just a perspective. A valuable, first-hand, indisputable, but still a perspective. We have a mutual enemy which is misbelief, and we're all brothers in arms here to fight it with all we've got so as not to end in dire straits. So why worry?

[Chris W]

It's just sad when guess work is used to lambast people....often quite abusively.
If you weren't there, it's not a crime to post positive guesses and positive thoughts.

[quizzaciously]

"Dusty Springfield’s comment"

Ed, if I die out of laughter, it will be your fault.

[Jules]

It's just sad when guess work is used to lambast people....often quite abusively.
If you weren't there, it's not a crime to post positive guesses and positive thoughts.

Chris, you have to understand that what you would read in a fan forum is a mix of opinions and "facts" that we've read or listen in articles or interviews, and most of that opinions are influenced by those articles and interviews, and many times is needed more than one side of the story to know what are accurate facts and what not.

I understand that you still feel hurt by some of our opinions about your time in the band, and you're right as we knew very little or almost nothing about your time in the band until you came here and enlighten us with everything regarding your period in the band, and we're thankful about it. Fans we are always looking for facts so when we discuss in the future we can base on that more than about rumours and opinions based on false facts.

Again, thanks for help us to understand better your period in the band, and everything related about you, with the band, before and after. We can be more positive now as we know facts we didn't when we only related to our opinions. We own you gratitude.

There's a million things all of us we would like to ask Ed specially after John Illsley's book that have a lot of facts quite contrary to things we've read in articles or interviews during all this years, most of them probably for the past of time that mix memories. Specially about Terry Williams not being in the OES record, only at the beginning of it, and not being considered for the tour, being known for being a great rock drummer for the band, and also all that happened between MK and Jack after the BIA tour, that we know from Jack Sonni podcast and made us feel so sad about how MK treated him. I'm sure someone could point to that podcast, I can't now as I'm on my phone and it's hard to have multiple tabs at the time, lol

[ds1984]

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.

WOL was first issued as SFA flip side.

It was a surprise to me to see it re released as a main single later.

And I quite understand that WOL wasn't the kind of song Mark was focusing on during that time.
Let's do a little uptempo country song and have some fun time.

BTW BIA seems to be an album without song recorded and left out from the CD.
 

[enrkaton82]

Thank you Ed B and Chris W

Have been a member forum for 12 years, since Privateering was launched. Reading time after time, enjoying debate, posts and news

When i registered, this was only a chat space between fans

But now, we are the luckiest fans in the world

Thank you Ed and Chris

[Robson]

Yes, it's a great joy to read posts by musicians of your beloved band. Amazing time. Thanks again Ed and Chris.

[Matchstickman]

Very glad to have another entertaining and enlightening post from Ed.

Glad to hear about John's playing on BIA. It seems hard to understand why they would go with another player for BIA rather than YLT, but there it is. Hard to guess. And Neil Jason's comments on playing on other songs turn out to be misleading ultimately.

As for WOL, I have come across the idea of the band overruling the producer to include it many times, so that was an old established myth. Glad to learn the facts.

Chris, not sure that Twisting was a hit, but it was the single from the EP. Two Young Lovers remained a staple live though (BIA and your tour of course), and was definitely the better choice.

[quizzaciously]

It's just sad when guess work is used to lambast people....often quite abusively.
If you weren't there, it's not a crime to post positive guesses and positive thoughts.

Chris, you have to understand that what you would read in a fan forum is a mix of opinions and "facts" that we've read or listen in articles or interviews, and most of that opinions are influenced by those articles and interviews, and many times is needed more than one side of the story to know what are accurate facts and what not.

I understand that you still feel hurt by some of our opinions about your time in the band, and you're right as we knew very little or almost nothing about your time in the band until you came here and enlighten us with everything regarding your period in the band, and we're thankful about it. Fans we are always looking for facts so when we discuss in the future we can base on that more than about rumours and opinions based on false facts.

Again, thanks for help us to understand better your period in the band, and everything related about you, with the band, before and after. We can be more positive now as we know facts we didn't when we only related to our opinions. We own you gratitude.

There's a million things all of us we would like to ask Ed specially after John Illsley's book that have a lot of facts quite contrary to things we've read in articles or interviews during all this years, most of them probably for the past of time that mix memories. Specially about Terry Williams not being in the OES record, only at the beginning of it, and not being considered for the tour, being known for being a great rock drummer for the band, and also all that happened between MK and Jack after the BIA tour, that we know from Jack Sonni podcast and made us feel so sad about how MK treated him. I'm sure someone could point to that podcast, I can't now as I'm on my phone and it's hard to have multiple tabs at the time, lol

I must confess I do have a bias towards some people or things, and all of them have provided reasons for me to have a bias which I can always elaborate on, rarely do they do something to get rid of this bias, as people generally do not change much, and I feel happy each time this bias gets destroyed when it seldomly happens. I do not feel good about having a bias in the first place, but I can't stop it from appearing either. Most importantly, I realise I'm an easy target for biased attacks myself just because I'm so straightforward and active, so I do my best to address any complaints and clear out any misconceptions about me.

Getting a bit philosophical here, my point is there's always a person behind ones and zeros and forum posts, a person behind a tribute band, a person behind legendary hits and classic lines, and people aren't perfect. Far from perfect, in fact. It's important to call people out when they are wrong and praise them when they are right, it's something the AMIT forum has gotten very good at lately thanks to all of us, CW and EB included. Ed's message is nothing but calling us all out, and there's nothing better than a healthy doze of quality, just-what-the-doctor-ordered criticism, everybody's happy about that.

[Jules]

Sometimes I don't understand a single word that I read.

[KnopfleRick]

Wow, it's pretty hard for me to keep up with all the new information.
Thanks Ed and Chris for all your contributions that keep me on my toes. 

[quizzaciously]

Sometimes I don't understand a single word that I read.

I'm not sure it's an answer to my post, as it doesn't contain any quotes and names, just in case here's a simplified (haha) map of my thinking for you (I'm truly sorry):

Chris said he's upset when people guess stuff and "quite abusively" lambast somebody they never knew and commit a crime (apparently) by writing negative thoughts about them if you "weren't there" —> You (jbaent) wrote a polite answer explaining it's not about offending people but expressing opinions —> My addition to that is I do sometimes tend to criticise a person based on what they said, did or never did, their ACTIONS affect my attitude, it's not guessing. Actions speak louder than words.

Actions speak louder than words even when Chris and Ed find time to write messages on this forum, work on clearing misconceptions, getting facts straight. They care about Dire Straits, they care about fans, they care about truth, they care about legacy. You can't take this away from them just like you can't take away the fact Mark was able to pull off an entire 1.5-year world tour without a flinch while being in probably the shittiest place in his life since becoming famous. It's an ACTION.

I wonder what I need to guess if a misleading name of a tribute band misleads fans into thinking it's the real deal. They did this action, they got a response. Where guessing is involved here? Where exactly guessing is involved in any of the "controversial" topics for that matter? People do bad things, people get bad responses. People do good things, people get good responses. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton's third law. It's not rocket science!