John Illsley

John Edward Illsley (born 24 June 1949) is an English musician, best known as bassist of the rock band Dire Straits. He has received multiple BRIT and Grammy Awards, and a Heritage Award.

As one of the founding band members, alongside drummer Pick Withers and guitarist brothers Mark Knopfler and David Knopfler, Illsley played a role in the development of Dire Straits' sound. Illsley and Mark Knopfler were the only members of the band to remain across its entire history. Illsley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Dire Straits in 2018.

Illsley has produced two albums of his own, with Mark Knopfler as a guest musician, and has helped with Mark's personal projects and charities. He released two more albums, influenced by the Celtic-based band Cunla.

Illsley was born in Leicester in June 1949, the fourth of four children of Wilfred Illsley and Florence (née Robinson). His mother was the daughter of a schoolmaster; his father was in the Royal Signals Corps in north Africa and Sicily during World War II. Illsley grew up in Market Harborough, on the border of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, "in the heart of Middle England". His parents, "both Leicestershire born and bred", moved there when he was four, and his childhood memories include searching for sticklebacks in the River Jordan in nearby Little Bowden. Illsley attended Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire, and a further education college near Kettering, Northamptonshire, before starting work as a management trainee for a timber firm. He later studied Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and opened a record shop with his girlfriend.

In Deptford, south London, Illsley shared a flat with guitarist David Knopfler and met David's older brother, Mark, whose marriage had broken up. He was playing music in local pubs, and Illsley recalls that he returned home early one morning and "walked into the lounge room and saw this figure lying on the floor... asleep ... with a guitar over his legs, and he'd... fallen asleep on the floor while he was playing... his head was sort of cranked back, and there was an ashtray with cigarette butts and coffee on the floor... "

David Knopfler was keen to start a band, and Illsley played bass guitar and had the same musical interests. Convinced that they could make a success of it, with David's brother Mark as lead guitarist and vocalist, David playing rhythm guitar, Illsley on bass and a friend, Pick Withers, as drummer, the four formed a band, eventually named Dire Straits, which according to rumour is because they gave up their day jobs and were in financial "dire straits" by the time their band became popular. However, David Knopfler denies this on his personal website: "The notion that the band were literally in dire straits is largely retrospective myth making and not really factually supportable. We all had day jobs until we got a whacking big advance from Polygram." In contrast, Illsley himself said that "We were living on next to nothing and weren't even able to pay the gas bill." He added that they "weren't called Dire Straits for nothing".

As well as playing bass on all the Dire Straits recordings, Illsley also contributed backing vocals, with David Knopfler, and both harmonized to Mark's lead vocals and guitar in concert, and on the band's first two studio albums, Dire Straits and Communiqué.

During a period when most major labels expected bands to compose and record one to two albums per year, as well as tour to support them, tensions grew between David Knopfler and his elder brother Mark. Mark wrote nearly every song, was the frontman, and had, in a short time, become a virtuoso on the guitar. During the recording sessions for their third project, Making Movies, David left the band over creative differences with his brother, who had assumed the role of leader.