Dear everyone,

First of all, hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year, and thanks to all of you who sent cards and presents.

A lot of you have written to say how much you enjoyed the December shows, and I'm glad you had a good time. It was nice to meet some of you Manchester, Shepton Mallet and London. The group probably won't be playing in the UK for quite some time now, as after the world tour ends in Australia at the end of April they will be taking a fairly lengthy (and well-deserved) break, and it is likely that they will do another record before doing any more live work. They are currently in Australia rehearsing for the tour. Australia is one of their best markets in the whole world, and tickets for the shows there sold out so fast we could hardly keep track of them! In New Zealand, the Brothers In Arms LP has gone eleven-times-platinum, and is the top selling record of the last decade. Their tour itinerary there now includes a massive 14 nights in Melbourne and 16 nights in Sydney, as well as shows in most other major towns in Australia, plus huge shows in New Zealand and Tasmania. In all, about 800,000 people will see the group there. I don't know yet whether or not I will be going over, but if I do it will be in March, so if there's a delay in answering your letters then, you'll know I've gone!

Back on this side of the world, as you are probably aware, the LP is back at number 1 (it has not dropped below number 9 since its release...), and Walk Of Life got to number 2 (it has now dropped to 3). A few of you have written to say it was not value for money to release this song as a single as it was on the B-side of So Far Away, and anyway you have it on the LP. Also there is no new material on the B-side of Walk Of Life. Well, please remember that the band have been on the road for almost a year now without a break, and, of course, have not had the opportunity to record anything new. Walk Of Life is attracting a lot of new fans who have not previously bought any Dire Straits records, and that was one of the reasons we put it out. Many of these new fans have bought the LP on the strength of the single and that's probably why it's back at the top of the charts, as most of the band's 'long-time' fans will have bought it ages ago! Hope you enjoyed the video that went with the single and that you managed to tape it off Top Of The Pops.

Talking of videos, a lot of you have written to ask if there will be a video of the Live In '85 tour: Well, the answer is no, as the set the band played as fairly similar to the Alchemy set. I hope you all managed to video The Tube on January 3rd, which was a recording done at the band's Wembley show in the summer. I know in the last newsletter I told you it would be shown on December 27th, but The Tube changed the date yet again the day after I'd sent the newsletter out, and as I was about to go on the tour, I just didn't have time to send another letter out telling you of the change. I trust you found out from TV Times. We have also had a lot of requests for a compilation video to be put out. This is something we are considering, but we wont be doing it for a little while yet. I will let you know more in a future newsletter. Those of you who have been on the mailing list for a while will remember that in a newsletter last spring, I mentioned that Mark had been recording with Chet Atkins in Nashville... and I've just realised I never told you the outcome! Chet Atkins' LP is called Stay Tuned and is available on CBS Records (catalogue number CBS 26265) and Mark plays on two tracks. The album also features George Benson, and although I haven't heard it myself, from all reports, it is worth getting.

Terry Williams from the group was born and brought up in Swansea, and still lives there. Swansea City Football Club are in 'dire straits' financially, and to help them raise money, Terry, who is a keen football supporter, donated one of his platinum discs to the Club. They are holding a raffle, and I have arranged with the Football Club for people on the mailing list to have the opportunity of purchasing raffle tickets through the post.

For the benefit of those new on the mailing list (we've added nearly 900 people so far this year!) here are the answers to some questions I am frequently asked:

GROUP BIRTHDATES: Mark Knopfler 12th August 1949, John Illsley 24th June 1949, Alan Clark 5th March 1952, Terry Williams 11th January 1948, Guy Fletcher 24th May 1960, Jack Sonni 9th December 1954, Chris White 13th July 1955.

A lot of you are, for some reason, asking questions about me: Where was I born, how old am I, how did I get this job, etc. I'll compile a list of the most-asked questions, and answer them in the next newsletter, OK?

I thought you all might like to know what awards the band have won or been nominated for in the past few months, so on the next page you will find a list of all the major ones. As you can see, 1985 has been a really amazing year for them. That means 1986 will probably be quiet, but don't think that just because there isn't a new LP/single or a tour, they've given up and retired. Nothing is further from their mids at the moment, but they do need a break so please be patient...

That's about it for now, next news due April/May.

Best wishes,

DIRE STRAITS - AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS FOR 1985

ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE	Best LP
DAILY MIRROR	Best LP
LONDON STANDARD	Best LP
SOUNDS	Best LP
MELODY MAKER	3rd best LP
DAILY EXPRESS	5th best LP sleeve
BRITISH PHONOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY (BPI)	Best LP nomination
GRAMMY	Best LP nomination
GRAMMY	Best engineered recording nomination

MONEY FOR NOTHING

ROLLING STONE	Best single
LONDON STANDARD	5th best single
MTV (USA)	Best video
FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEO (USA)	Best video
AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS	Best single nomination
BRITISH PHONOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY (BPI)	Best single nomination
GRAMMY	Best single (artist/producer) nomination
GRAMMY	Best single (composer) nomination
LONDON STANDARD	3rd best video
DAILY EXPRESS	5th best video

OTHER AWARDS

LONDON STANDARD	Best band
MELODY MAKER	4th best album artists
ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE	Best guitarist (Mark)
BRITISH PHONOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY (BPI)	Best band nomination
GRAMMY	Best producers nomination (Mark and Neil Dorfsman)
GRAMMY	Best rock performance by a group with vocals nomination (Mark and Chet Atkins)
GRAMMY	Best music video nomination (for Tina Turner's Private Dancer, which of course Mark wrote)

Dire Straits received the most Grammy nominations of any single act. The BPI Awards will probably have been on TV by the time you get this, so you will know whether or not they actually won any of the above categories. Of course, the band can't be there to collect any awards as they're in Australia, but three of us from the office are going... The band have won, or been nominated for, hundreds of other awards world-wide, but I just can't list them all here...