1985–1986: Brothers in Arms and international success
At the end of 1984, Dire Straits began recording tracks at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat for their upcoming fifth studio album, to be titled Brothers in Arms, with Mark Knopfler and Neil Dorfsman producing.
The recording sessions saw further personnel changes. Taking the place of Tommy Mandel, Guy Fletcher had joined Dire Straits full time so that the band had a permanent second keyboardist. Fletcher had previously worked as a session musician with Roxy Music and on Aztec Camera’s second album (released in 1984 and produced by Knopfler), and he had also worked with Knopfler on the Cal and Comfort and Joy soundtracks. While Clark mostly concentrated (although not exclusively) on piano and organ, Fletcher specialised in the additional broader synthesizer tones which Knopfler's expanding arrangements now favoured and demanded.
Although he was present during the early weeks of the sessions, Hal Lindes decided to leave the band early on during the recording of Brothers in Arms following social disagreements, with Knopfler once again taking on all guitar duties. Six weeks into the sessions, Terry Williams was sidelined and temporarily suspended from duties following disagreements and dissatisfaction with his drum approach. A feel-based drummer, Williams did not enjoy having to work with a click track, and neither Knopfler nor Dorfsman were happy with his playing in relation to the sound they wanted for the record. For recording purposes, Williams was temporarily replaced by jazz and session drummer Omar Hakim, who re-recorded almost all of the album's drum parts during a two to three day session before leaving for other commitments. Ultimately, Williams would be retained for future touring, while Hal Lindes was eventually replaced in December 1984 by Jack Sonni, a New York-based guitarist and longstanding friend of Knopfler (although Sonni's eventual contribution to the album would be minimal).
Released in May 1985, Brothers in Arms entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1, spent a total of 228 weeks in the charts, and sold over 4 million copies. It went on to become the best-selling album of 1985 in the UK. Brothers in Arms was similarly successful in the US, peaking at No. 1 on Billboard 200 for nine weeks, going multi-platinum and selling nine million copies there. The album spent 34 weeks at number 1 on the Australian ARIA Charts, and it remains the longest-running number one album in Australia.
The album featured a more lavish production and overall sound than Dire Straits' earlier work and spawned several big chart singles: "Money for Nothing", which reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 4 in the UK Singles Chart, "So Far Away" (No. 20 UK, No. 19 US), "Brothers in Arms" (No. 16 UK), "Walk of Life" (No. 2 UK, No. 7 US), and "Your Latest Trick" (No. 26 UK). "Money for Nothing" was the first video to be played on MTV in the UK and featured guest vocals by Sting, who is credited with co-writing the song with Mark Knopfler, although it was the inclusion of the melody from "Don't Stand So Close To Me" that triggered the copyright credit, as no lyrics were written by Sting. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in February 1986.
Some sources cite Brothers in Arms as the first album recorded entirely digitally, but the history of commercially released all-digital recordings goes back to the early 1970s, and multitrack digital recorders were used for popular music albums by the late 1970s. Written during Britain's involvement in the Falklands War of 1982, the album's title track, "Brothers in Arms", deals with the senselessness of war. In 2007, the 25th anniversary of the war, Knopfler recorded a new version of the song at Abbey Road Studios to raise funds for British veterans who he said "are still suffering from the effects of that conflict." "Brothers in Arms" has become a favourite at military funerals. Reported to be the world's first CD single, it was issued in the UK as a promotional item distinguished with a logo for the tour, Live in '85, while a second to commemorate the Australian leg of the tour marked Live in '86. "Walk of Life", meanwhile, was nearly excluded from the album when co-producer Neil Dorfsman voted against its inclusion, but the band members outvoted him. The result was Dire Straits' most commercially successful hit single in the UK, peaking at number two.
The album is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first compact disc (CD) to sell a million copies, and it has been credited with popularising the CD format. The Guardian ranked the Brothers in Arms CD number 38 in their list of the 50 key events in rock music history. The album featured the full version of the "Money for Nothing" cut, rather than the LP version, and it also includes extended versions of all tracks on the first side of the LP, with the exception of "Walk of Life".
The 1985–1986 Brothers in Arms world tour which followed the album's release (with Sonni now fully in place as rhythm guitarist and Williams back on drums) was phenomenally successful, with over 2.5 million tickets sold. The tour included dates in Europe, Israel, North America, and Australia and New Zealand. The band, joined by saxophonist Chris White, played 248 shows in over 100 cities. The tour began on 25 April 1985 in Split, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia). Following the opening show in Split, the band performed concerts in Israel, appearing at Sultan’s Pool in Jerusalem on 30 April 1985 and at Park HaYarkon in Tel Aviv in early May, before continuing the European leg of the tour.
While playing a 13-night residency at Wembley Arena in London, the band moved down the road to Wembley Stadium on the afternoon of 13 July 1985, to appear in a Live Aid slot, in which their set included "Money For Nothing" with Sting as guest vocalist. John Illsley states, "It was a very special feeling to be part of something so unique. Live Aid was a unique privilege for all of us. It’s become a fabulous memory." The tour ended at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Australia, on 26 April 1986, where Dire Straits still holds the record for consecutive appearances at 21 nights. The band also made an impromptu attempt at the Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda". With 900,000 tickets sold in Australia and New Zealand, it was the biggest concert tour in Australasian music history, until it was overtaken in 2017–2018 by Ed Sheeran.
Additionally, in 1985, a group that set out from London to Khartoum to raise money for famine relief, led by John Abbey, was called "The Walk of Life". Dire Straits donated the Brothers in Arms Gold disc to the participants in recognition of what they were doing.
The band's concert of 10 July 1985 at Wembley Arena, in which they were accompanied by Nils Lofgren for "Solid Rock" and Hank Marvin joined the band at the end to play "Going Home" (the theme from Local Hero), was partially televised in the United Kingdom on The Tube on Channel 4 in January 1986. (Although never officially released, bootleg recordings of the performance entitled Wembley does the Walk (2005) have been circulated.)
In 1986, Brothers in Arms won two Grammy Awards and also won Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards. Q magazine placed the album at number 51 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever in 2000. The album also ranked number 351 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003. Brothers in Arms is also ranked number 3 in the best albums of 1985 and number 31 in the best albums of the 1980s, and as of December 2017, the album was ranked the eighth-best-selling album in UK chart history, and is the 107th-best-selling album in the United States. In August 1986, MTV Europe was launched with Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing".
