John Illsley

English > Biographies

John Edward Illsley (born 24 June 1949) is an English musician, best known as bass guitarist of the rock band Dire Straits. With it, he has received multiple BRIT and Grammy Awards, and a Heritage Award.

As one of the founding band members, with guitarist brothers Mark and David Knopfler, and drummer Pick Withers, Illsley played a role in the development of Dire Straits' sound. By the time the group disbanded in 1995 changes in personnel meant that Illsley and lead singer Mark Knopfler were the only two original band members remaining. Illsley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Dire Straits in 2018.

Illsley has produced two albums of his own, with Mark Knopfler as a guest musician, and has helped with Mark's personal projects and charities. He released two more albums, influenced by the Celtic-based band Cunla.

Illsley's childhood memories include searching for sticklebacks in the River Jordan in Little Bowden (near Market Harborough), with friends. Illsley attended Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire and a Further Education College near Kettering, Northamptonshire, before starting work as a management trainee for a timber firm. He then studied Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London and opened a record shop with his girlfriend.

While in London, he roomed with David Knopfler. Illsley was introduced to David's older brother, Mark, who had just undergone a marital breakup and was playing music in the pubs nearby. Illsley recounts returning home very early one morning, and "walked into the lounge room, and saw this figure lying on the floor... asleep ... with a guitar over his legs, and he'd... fallen asleep on the floor while he was playing... his head was sort of cranked back, and there was an ashtray with cigarette butts and coffee on the floor... ", and that was how the two first encountered one another.

David Knopfler was keen to start a band and approached his roommate. Illsley already played bass guitar and had the same interest. Convinced that they could make a go of it, with David's brother Mark as lead guitarist and vocalist, David playing rhythm guitar, Illsley on bass, and Pick Withers, a friend, as drummer, the four set about forming a band, eventually named Dire Straits which according to rumour is because they gave up their day jobs and were in financial "dire straits" by the time their band became popular. However, David Knopfler denies this on his personal website: "The notion that the band were literally in dire straits is largely retrospective myth making and not really factually supportable. We all had day jobs until we got a whacking big advance from Polygram."

Illsley now lives in Hampshire, with his second wife Stephanie and his four children. He owns a local pub, the 'East End Arms', located in the hamlet of East End between Lymington and Beaulieu, and which has been listed by critics as one of the "Fifty Best Pubs Around Britain". He is also a partner in two nearby hotels: The Master Builder's House Hotel near Beaulieu and The George Hotel on the Isle of Wight. Illsley is a keen painter and the first exhibition of his work was shown at the Nevill Keating McIlroy Gallery, Pickering Place, London in 2007.

In August 2014, Illsley was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Solo discography

1984 – Never Told a Soul
1988 – Glass
2007 – Live in Les Baux de Provence (with Cunla and Greg Pearle)
2008 – Beautiful You (with Greg Pearle)
2010 – Streets of Heaven
2014 – Testing the Water
2014 – Live in London
2016 – Long Shadows

2019 - Coming Up for Air