It must have been in the late eighties or early nineties when Gibson was our US distributor, and my dear friend Robi Johns, then in charge of our guitars, sent us a photograph of a smiling and happy Mark Knopfler with his brand new Ramirez C86 CWE guitar. Considering that Dire Straits was one of my brother José Enrique’s and my favourite bands, you can imagine that we were pleased to know that Mark Knopfler was enjoying himself with one of our guitars.
It was a warm night in May 1992 when I went to a Dire Straits concert with friends. When Mark Knopfler came on stage in his jeans, white shirt with a black ribbon tied around his forehead and his Ramirez guitar, the audience – some sixty thousand people as I later learned – greeted him with an overwhelming ovation as he began to play Calling Elvis. Next, the other members of his band came out with an explosion of lights and impressive sound.
The truth is that I enjoyed the concert so much and saw that he was playing his Ramírez with that marvellous and very personal way of playing, that when it was over I tried to go to the dressing room to congratulate him, but I was informed that he had already gone to the hotel. So I found out which hotel he was staying at and sent him a bouquet of red roses with a note expressing my admiration and joy.
The matter forgotten, the summer passed, and in October Dire Straits played again in Madrid. I didn’t go to that concert, but several friends of mine did, and they told me that when Mark Knopfler came on stage, he raised his Ramirez guitar above his head and proudly displayed it in front of the audience. I understood it to be a response to my red roses, and I really thought it was a lovely gesture that I treasure among my favourite memories.
Article written by Amalia Ramírez
