For many, John Illsley will always be the imposing figure standing next to Mark Knopfler as Dire Straits left the London pub circuit behind and achieved worldwide domination via their fifth album ‘Brothers In Arms'. The band almost singlehandedly convinced every household they needed a shiny little 5” silver disc to replace all those old and antiquated black slabs of 12" vinyl. Approximately 30 million of us did just that (which, in 2022, is pretty ironic considering the perceived cool factor of LPs these days). Alongside Mark Knopfler, John Illsley was the only other band member to do a full tour of duty with Dire Straits on their almost twenty-year run before the band slowly faded away in the early 1990s. John’s solo career actually began during his time in Dire Straits with the ‘Never Told A Soul’ LP in 1984. John has continued to release albums on a semi-regular basis, with VIII being, unsurprisingly, his eighth studio album.