As a member of one of the highest-selling groups of the 80s, founder of Dire Straits John illsley is a modest man.
Sipping wine at the launch of his latest art exhibition in Chelsea, the tall, big-framed bassist says that, rather than pursue the excesses of the rock’n’roll lifestyle, while the band were on the road, he would be visiting art galleries between gigs.
“Every city has an art gallery and some of them are incredible, especially in America,” he says. “I don’t know what the others did, slept probably, but that’s what I did.”
Illsley is playing a one-off show at the 100 Club on 23 June with Greg Pearl, of Irish rockers Cunla, who he met in a pub three years ago. And it appears he has found a kindred spirit in the singer and songwriter.
“I liked their attitude and the fact that, despite the large quantities of Guinness that had been consumed, they could all play very well.”
Illsley enjoys good food and drink himself. He tells Snaz that, as well as playing music and painting, he ploughed some of the money he made being in a mega rock band into owning a London pub and a hotel on the Isle of Wight, as we take a second ponder the pictures hanging on the gallery walls around us – still lifes, rocky landscapes and impressionistic paintings of guitars.
“I love impressionism,” he says passionately. “George Braques, Henri Matisse, and of course Manet, who was a genius.”
Indeed, the pictures recall those great French artists and many were painted France, in Les Baux de Provence where Illsley has a home.
As well as all this, Illsley has a new album out, Beautiful You, which, like his former band, has that bluesy-rock edge with the added value of Pearle’s appropriately gruff, sandpaper vocals. Recorded in Mark Knopfler’s studio the haunting title track is one of the best on the set, with its atmospheric piano and poetic lyrics.
Back in Blighty now and surrounded by his artwork, the affable Illsley certainly seems to be enjoying life.
“I love art and music,” he says. “The processes are different but it’s the end result that matters.”
Snaz will raise a glass or two to that.
‘Beautiful You’ is currently out on Absolute Records
