There's another name to add to the list of cantankerous, reunion-quashing rock-stars. Just as Dave Davies nixed a reunion of the Kinks and Robert Plant refused a Led Zeppelin tour, Mark Knopfler is the man standing in the way of a Dire Straits reunion.
Bassist John Illsley, for one, desperately wants to get back together. When Dire Straits broke up in 1995, he and Knopfler were the only remaining original members. And, he suggested this week to the BBC, they could be the two members who lead a return.
"I think we've definitely got one more tour left in us, and probably another record too," Illsley said. "I'm very open to doing whatever's suggested."
Knopfler, it seems, is not so game. Though Illsley speaks to him "from time to time" about reuniting the British rock band, Knopfler is content with his solo career. "He says 'Oh, I don't know whether to start getting all that stuff back together again'," Illsley complained.
At the Hay Literary Festival last year, Knopfler said that Dire Straits "just got too big". "If anyone can tell me one good thing about fame, I'd be very interested to hear it," he said.
Knopfler's last solo album was Kill to Get Crimson, released last year. It peaked at number 9 on the UK charts. Illsley is meanwhile about to release a second Celtic-influenced rock album with singer Greg Pearle.
"[Knopfler is] doing incredibly well as a solo artist, so hats off to him," Illsley said. "He's having a perfectly good time doing what he's doing," he said.
That makes one of them?
