The Notting Hillbillies

After the mega-platinum success of <a href="spotify:artist:0WwSkZ7LtFUFjGjMZBMt6T">Dire Straits</a>' 1984 Brothers in Arms LP, the group's frontman, guitarist extraordinaire <a href="spotify:artist:0FI0kxP0BWurTz8cB8BBug">Mark Knopfler</a>, opted to temporarily shift gears by forming the Notting Hillbillies, a one-off country side project. Among the band's first recruits was Steve Phillips, a fellow guitar player whom <a href="spotify:artist:0FI0kxP0BWurTz8cB8BBug">Knopfler</a> had first met in Yorkshire in 1968 when both men interviewed a local country and blues musician (also named, curiously enough, Steve Phillips). Soon, the two aspiring journalists formed the two-man Duolian String Pickers and continued performing together until <a href="spotify:artist:0FI0kxP0BWurTz8cB8BBug">Knopfler</a> entered college in 1970; after graduating three years later, he moved to London to start <a href="spotify:artist:0WwSkZ7LtFUFjGjMZBMt6T">Dire Straits</a>.

Phillips, in the meantime, formed a rockabilly outfit, the Steve Phillips Juke Band. In 1976, he met <a href="spotify:artist:5VrDE7x3ECwJMoSGllkqYg">Brendan Croker</a>, a onetime member of the Juke Band, and the pair began performing as Nev and Norris. By 1980, Phillips had left the music scene to focus on an art career, leaving <a href="spotify:artist:5VrDE7x3ECwJMoSGllkqYg">Croker</a> to form Five O'Clock Shadow. In 1986, <a href="spotify:artist:0FI0kxP0BWurTz8cB8BBug">Knopfler</a> came calling, and in May of that year the Notting Hillbillies played their first gig at a tiny Leeds club with a lineup featuring <a href="spotify:artist:0FI0kxP0BWurTz8cB8BBug">Knopfler</a>, Phillips, and <a href="spotify:artist:5VrDE7x3ECwJMoSGllkqYg">Croker</a> as well as drummer Ed Bicknell (moonlighting from his day job as <a href="spotify:artist:0WwSkZ7LtFUFjGjMZBMt6T">Dire Straits</a>' manager), guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:5pTcbHb4jbxUhUtblY7aS8">Guy Fletcher</a>, pedal steel guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:2d5aRKZTJgcuetYRNzKDrA">Paul Franklin</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5VrDE7x3ECwJMoSGllkqYg">Croker</a>'s fellow Five O'Clock Shadow Marcus Cliffe on bass. A tour followed, although the group's lone album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time, didn't appear until 1990, at which point the members of the Notting Hillbillies had already returned to their main projects. <a href="spotify:artist:5VrDE7x3ECwJMoSGllkqYg">Brendan Croker</a> died on September 10, 2023, at the age of 70. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi