Alan Clark: Brian Johnson, Dire Straits, Tina Turner, Dire Straits Legacy Band and More…
Exclusive interview by Karen Beishuizen
Alan Clark joined Dire Straits from the very beginning as a keyboard player and stayed until the very end. He worked with so many Legends in his career: It is mind blowing. He is on tour with the Dire Straits Legacy Band which consists of former members. He recently released a piano solo album called “Backstory”.
KB: How old were you when you started playing keyboards? Did you always want to be in music?
I started playing the piano when I was 6yrs old. I was spotted plonking on my grandmother’s piano, and I was sent to piano lessons, which I hated and which I stopped when I was old enough to say “No!” From then on, I taught myself. My first gig was playing piano for a stripped-down version of Hello Dolly with my mother’s Woman’s Institute colleagues. I was 7. Up until my early teens, I was more interested in becoming a commercial artist than a musician, but I started earning money, aged 13, playing in clubs, and… well, here I am, 57 years later, still at it. I’m the only musician I know who has never had a “day job” or relied upon government assistance. I wanted to be a pop star because I grew up harbouring a desire to turn up at my mother’s house in an E-Type Jaguar and wearing a fur coat. Some years later, I kind of fulfilled that dream when, some 20 years later, I found myself pulling up at her house in a Porsche 911, wearing a sheepskin flying jacket.
KB: I read that you played together with AC/DC’s Brian Johnson in a band?
I did, for a year or so. Brian had his first success with a band called Geordie, which came and went. I think Brian was selling cars for a living when I met him. I was briefly in a reformed version of Geordie, with him. The next time our paths crossed was in Sydney, Australia, when I went along to an ACDC gig, who were playing at the venue that Dire Straits were playing the following day.
KB: How did you meet Mark Knopfler? Did he ask you to join Dire Straits?
Although Mark and I grew up just 20 or so miles from each other, our paths didn’t cross until I joined Dire Straits in 1980. He/they needed a keyboards player, I was recommended, and I was headhunted. We gelled, musically, immediately and the rest is history.
KB: If I am correct, you were with the band until the end and produced the final album? How was it to perform at Live Aid?
I joined as their first keyboards player and stayed until the band broke up in 1992 (Wikipedia says 1994 but the last stage gig was 1992). I co-produced the last studio record On Every Street. I had a lot to do with the records before that, but I wasn’t credited as a producer. Live Aid was and still is the biggest gig anyone has ever played. There’s a comprehensive piece about that day on the news page of my website.
KB: In 1983 you collaborated with Bob Dylan on 2 of his albums? How was it working with him?
The word “spontaneous” comes to mind. Bob works in the moment, which is great. I liked/like him a lot. He has a great smile.
KB: You were Tina Turner’s musical director and arranged “Private Dancer”? How was it working with her?
I met Tina while recording Private Dancer; she walked into the studio while we were running the track with the band. We (Dire Straits) had recorded the song, which was written by Mark Knopfler, during the Love Over gold sessions, and the band in the studio that day with Tina was Dire Straits without Mark Knopfler (Jeff beck played the solo). Tina and I hit it off and she asked me if I’d tour with her on her forthcoming US tour supporting Lionel Ritchie. Her Private dancer album topped the charts in the US and around the world during that tour, so it was an exciting time for her. Tina is everything you’d hope she would be. And more.
KB: You worked with so many famous artists. The list is endless. Anyone you have not worked with, but you would love to?
Stevie Wonder
KB: You are part of the Dire Straits Legacy with former members: Who started this and are you touring?
It all began on top of a mountain in Northern Italy… A chap called Marco Caviglia who is perhaps the world’s leading authority on Mark knopfler’s music and a fine guitarist, asked myself and John Illsley (Dire Straits bass player) if we would play with his Dire Straits cover band in northern Italy to open the ski season. The gig was literally on top of a mountain and the access was by cable car. It was fun but cold. A few weeks later, we played in a club in Rome and after that various other Dire Straits members joined us (Pick Withers, Phil Palmer, Danny Cummings, Mel Collins, Jack Sonni). We also recruited my friend and godfather to my children Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) on drums, and my pal and ace producer Trevor Horn asked if he could be our bass player, and here we are, still having fun. We all love playing Live, and the Dire Straits catalogue is fun to play. We’re touring in several countries this year; find out where in the DSL Dire Straits Legacy website.
KB: If you were to make an album with 7 of your most favorite songs (No Dire Straits): which songs would you pick and why?
I wouldn’t, but I have made a piano solo album recently called Backstory, which includes songs by artists and bands I’ve played with over the years and which I perform Live occasionally, and I’m toying with the idea of making another with all original music.