The pair's first band was the Cafe Racers with the four members "playing for love" and living "hand to mouth" as they struggled to survive on around five pounds profit from each gig. Mark Knopfler performing at a concert in Vienna in 2010. "So it's not just the finger-picking style he did but it's also the fact that he had a very strong left hand and if you listen to the music with that in mind you can tell that he's not just bending one string at a time he is bending two or three at the same time which is quite difficult to do."
"If you're left handed your left hand is very very strong so this is the reason why he can actually do vibrato with his left hand on the fret board probably in a fairly unique way. He said the latter is an unusual guitarist possibly because he is left-handed but plays the guitar right-handed. Illsley once worked in a timber yard and during this time he met Dave Knopfler who introduced him to his brother, Mark. "Those moments just hit you, hit you very hard and you don't forget them." He puts the Beatles' Please Please Me and the Who's 'Can't Explain' in the same category. He said the vast majority of great songs have only got three or four chords but "it's a question of how you play them". His musical epiphany was the Kinks' song 'You Really Got Me' which appealed for its simplicity and power. "They were cheap and cheerful basically and not only did you cut your teeth on those things but you really hurt your fingers as well." His first guitar was a Rosetti Lucky Seven - the same choice as Beatle George Harrison and Rolling Stone Keith Richards. This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.