It's almost embarrassing, you know, and John gets splattered. The show's always a bit leaden at the start, then the adrenalin pulls you through. Not enough time to have a shower and stop shiverin.' It's exhausting. 'What got really knackering,' Knopfler continues, 'was two shows a night. 'At the end of last year we were getting a bit pickled,' put in Knopfler. 'We played 300 shows in less than two years and never pulled out,' offers Illsley in a completely matter of fact tone. On last year's European tour with two trucks, two buses and 20 people, they spent $16,000 a day without trying. Money and music don't really go together. 'We don't go out to play to make money-you don't make any money. 'There's nothing like an American club you can rock the hell out of the place.' 'The clubs here are marvelous,' raves Knopfler and Illsley nods emphatically. They're not only studio nimble, they love to tour-at least this half does. The Straits are an eccentric lot among megabuck band peers. There're few rhythm sections I like-Fred Smith and Willie Nile, maybe, and Tom Verlaine's Television, they're good. I don't feel I've come on like they have.

'Pick (Withers, drummer) and John've become my favorite rhythm section. 'There's difference in the rhythm now,' songwriter Knopfler says of the album. Coffee is thrust into their hands radio stations phone incessantly, demanding over-the-phone interviews. They're on holiday from the making of Making Movies, their third album, recorded in a scant few weeks at Nassau's Compass Point studios. Looking sleepy, friendly and Englishman-pale alongside the beach-sunned office workers, Mark Knopfler, centrifugal force of Dire Straits, and bassist John Illsley are wandering the corridors of Warner Bros.

Make movies dire straits album sleeve