Mark Knopfler has rallied over 60 artists, including Bruce Springsteen, David Gilmour, Slash, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Sting, Brian May, Joan Jett, Nile Rodgers, and Zucchero. The goal: to reinterpret the instrumental “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero),” the theme from his 1983 soundtrack for Bill Forsyth’s film, as well as a closing piece for many Dire Straits concerts.
The song will be released on March 15, with proceeds going to the English Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America. The piece, of which there is an excerpt below, also contains one of Jeff Beck’s last recordings before his death just over a year ago.
It’s not clear what role so many musicians have played. The supergroup is called Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes, and the piece is produced by Guy Fletcher, Dire Straits keyboardist and often Knopfler’s musical right-hand man.
In addition to the mentioned musicians, Joan Armatrading, Richard Bennett, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Brown, James Burton, Jonathan Cain, Paul Carrack, Ry Cooder, Jim Cox, Steve Cropper, Sheryl Crow, Danny Cummings, Duane Eddy, Sam Fender, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, Keiji Haino, John Jorgenson, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Hank Marvin, Robbie McIntosh, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Rick Neilsen, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Connor Selby, Slash, Andy Taylor, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Ian Thomas, Keith Urban, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Walsh, Glenn Worf have contributed.
In the 2024 collective version, the drums are played by Ringo Starr and his son Zak Starkey, the bass by Sting, and the harmonica by Roger Daltrey of The Who. It was recorded at British Grove Studios. Most of the musicians recorded their parts in person, some remotely.
“I would like to thank everyone,” Knopfler writes in a statement. “Guy and I immediately realized that we had to somehow expand the piece to accommodate everyone’s contributions.”
The cover is a collage by Peter Blake, the artist behind the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s.
