Mark Knopfler has a flair for understatement.

Worldwide success with Dire Straits was followed by five well-received albums. He describes it "as just turning up".

On his most recent release, Get Lucky, Knopfler explores his early childhood in Glasgow, before the family moved to Newcastle.

The closing piece is the moving Piper To The End, written for Mark's uncle, Freddie, who carried his pipes into action and was killed with them near Arras in May 1940, aged just 20.

"The pipes always made sense to me, and growing up in Glasgow, as well as Newcastle, in my grandmother's home, there were Jimmy Shand records, so the sound of Celtic music always seems familiar to me."

Now, Knopfler and the band are looking forward to hitting the road again. Amid new material, when the audiences call for the songs that became part of all our lives, he will relish it.

"The thing about the old Straits songs is that they are signposts for people's lives," says Knopfler. "Obviously, I'll play them differently to keep it alive and meaningful to me, and away from a cabaret thing.

"But there are times, like the twiddly bits at the end of Sultans, if you don't do your twiddly bits, the world's not right for people."

Mark Knopfler plays the LG Arena, in Birmingham, on Sunday, May 23. We have TWO pairs of tickets for the show. Tell us which band Knopfler made his name with? Send entries, by Thursday, May 13 to

blags@leicestermercury.co.uk