John Illsley at Bush Hall

I haven't seen John since the Lyceum Ballroom in about 1979 when Dire Straits were just becoming enormous. So, i arrived at Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush, West London and was escorted through to the dressing room to see John. When we met he said I looked vaguely familiar, well, I have changed quite a lot, but there you go, maybe he did see something of the old bastard in me. We reminisced about the early days of Dire Straits when they were playing every Monday night at the Marquee in Wardour Street, in Soho, London. I was asked to shoot the shows by Bob Nolan who worked on the vertigo label at Phonogram Records. Anyway, it was nice catching up with John and chatting about the good old days. We then took some photos in the corridor and in his dressing room.
John Illsley
Copyright 2008 Danny Clifford













Then shot the show. He hadn't performed for 15 years apparently. Anyway, someone had forgotten the lights. There was hardly any light at all, pretty bad. The music was brilliant though.