Synopsis

A lone roller skater glides through city streets, weaving past traffic and pedestrians while listening to a portable radio through her headphones. The video follows her carefree journey as Dire Straits perform in a studio setting, creating a contrast between the band's restrained rock performance and the skater's fluid, athletic movement. Her confident style gives the song a distinctly visual identity, turning Mark Knopfler's cinematic portrait of an outsider moving through the city into one of the band's most recognizable early music videos.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video features Jayzik Azikiwe as the roller skater, credited on screen as Jay Carly. Azikiwe was the daughter of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria's first president.

• "Skateaway" appeared on Dire Straits' 1980 album "Making Movies" and was released as a single in the United States in December 1980 and in the United Kingdom in March 1981.

• The video became popular on MTV, helping establish the song's lasting association with roller skating and giving Dire Straits an early link to the music-video era that would later define the band.

• The track is unusual within the early Dire Straits catalog for its prominent keyboard part. Roy Bittan of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band played keyboards on the album.

• Mark Knopfler later grouped the roller-skating character with several other figures from "Making Movies," saying that the album's characters transform disadvantage into advantage.

• The single reached No. 58 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 37 on the UK Singles Chart.