Mark Knopfler brings together more than 60 musicians on a single piece, and only stars

Whether with Dire Straits or solo, Mark Knopfler has always supported charitable causes. One of them that is particularly close to his heart is the fight against cancer which affects children and adolescents.

He has thus embarked on a project for more than two years to raise funds intended for foundations Teenage Cancer Trust in England and Teen Cancer America in the USA. Released this March 15, the single “Going home” bringing together 60 rock stars.

The biggest supergroup in history

For this project, Mark Knopfler brought together the biggest rock group. It had to be done: bring together 66 musicians on the same song! The list of participants is dizzying.

Joan Armatrading, Jeff Beck, Richard Bennett, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Brown, James Burton, Jonathan Cain, Paul Carrack, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Jim Cox, Steve Cropper, Sheryl Crow, Danny Cummings, Roger Daltrey, Duane Eddy, Sam Fender , Guy Fletcher, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Keiji Haino, Tony Iommi, Joan Jett, John Jorgenson, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Hank Marvin, Brian May, Robbie McIntosh, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Rick Nielsen, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Nile Rodgers, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Connor Selby, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey, Sting, Andy Taylor, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Ian Thomas, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Walsh, Ronnie Wood, Glenn Worf, Zucchero.

And it’s Peter Blake himself, author of the famous cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band who self-parodied by using the same principle of collage and photomontage.

To channel the public and arouse the desire to buy a record with a solidarity purpose, we needed a piece that would leave an impression, and above all with the dimension of a universal anthem. The songwriter with the sharp pen has faded behind the guitarist known for his limpid and instantly recognizable melodies. Mark Knopfler thus chose an instrumental taken from the film’s soundtrack Local Herowhich he composed in 1983. The title track Going Home -Theme from the Local Hero has become emblematic of the musician’s repertoire, already during the time of Dire Straits in the 80s.

An iconic piece

Not only has it served as the closing of all his concerts for over thirty years, but it has also been adopted by the Newcastle football team NUFC (Newcastle United Football Club), who play it at the opening of each of their matches. A refrain with Scottish accents – Knopfler was born in Glasgow – which sticks in your head from the first listen, and which provided a playground for around fifty guitarists over almost ten minutes!

Compared to the collectives that were formed for Live Aid or We are the worldthis supergroup called Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes exceeds all records in number of participants. Certainly, the sixty musicians did not find themselves together in the studio… But producing a piece with the rhythm provided by Ringo Starr and Sting, a harmonica played by Roger Daltrey and six-string parts performed by almost all the great guitarists in the history of rock still alive, is still a challenge.

Jeff Beck’s last recording

Guy Flecther who mixed Going Home carried out a colossal amount of work to compile all these shots taken in the space of two years. We easily recognize the unique style of several great names in the guitar such as: David Gilmour between 1.18 and 1.45, Eric Clapton at 3.01, Hank Marvin at 3.50, John McLaughlin at 00.42 and 00.52 or even Brian May at 7.30.

But the most moving one is undoubtedly the one who opens the dance. This is the late Jeff Beck’s final recording, before he died last year. In a recent interview, Mark Knopfler said that he would have loved to record an album with Jeff Beck. Two guitarists with very distinct musical universes but who share the fact of playing with their fingers, without a pick, a way that is uncommon in the world of electric guitar.

Jeff Beck’s contribution at the beginning of the song is simply magnificent. The guitarist plays the melody which served as an introduction to Going Home during Dire Straits concerts. He is then joined by Mark Knopfler, then other guitarists who each bring a little touch like multiple stars in a sky shining with a thousand lights. A sensation of witnessing an aurora borealis show like we see in the film Local Hero. By giving them free rein, Mark Knopfler let his piece live beyond its original composition. “This project has become much bigger than us”he admits, “I really had no idea what was going to happen.”.

2024, the year of Mark Knopfler?

Since the start of the year, the ex-frontman of Dire Straits has definitely been on all fronts: selling his guitars at auction, announcing a new album One Deep River for April 12, followed a week later by an EP The Boy, a series of six television shows co-presented with Brian Johnson, the singer of AC/DC, and therefore this charity single today which had already been played on March 2 at St. James Stadium in Newcastle for the match League 1 between Newcastle and Wolverhampton. Mark Knopfler and faithful Guy Fletcher attended.

The different physical formats of Going Home are already all sold out! For the moment, no more vinyl or CDs in stock, only the digital version is downloadable. We can bet that the success of this charity will lead to new copies which will soon be available again.

Also keen to see for himself how this money is used, he went to a treatment center in Newcastle, the city where he spent his childhood.

The single order site Going Home