tables in restaurants?

Surely not groupies?

of course, but I understand for young men fame can mean more chance with, er, the laydees. How else would you explain "the stunnas" on the arm of Robbie Williams?

Jealous? Moi?

Unless your Ian Brown.

Better service in many places (hotels for example).

Many members of the opposite sex will find you more attractive famous than not.

You can make some money having a ghost written (auto)biography. No one would read mine.

More doors will open, more often and easier.

maybe...? Fame, power and money seem to make ugly people very attractive.

I think Mrs Merton summed it all up perfectly in her interview with "the lovely" Debbie McGee - "So, just what attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"

More opportunity to be a grumpy arse and moan about the impact of fame and still have people listen to you.

lots of free stuff

tons of it.

and although it's not the be-all and end-all, I reckon a good dollop of fame would probably give you a bit of extra cash, which is always nice.

Also, I'm sure you also get more, ahem, attention from the opposite sex, as best summed up by Peter Crouch...

Interviewer: "Peter, what do you think you'd be if you weren't a Premiership footballer?"
Crouch: "Um... probably a virgin."

...for every person who wants to give you free stuff there are ten who think they can make a fortune out of you.

outweigh the good stuff, resulting in a net negative? i.e. he's not suggesting there's no good sides at all, just that on balance, there's more bad consequences.

Anyway - I don't have a clue either way - but maybe Mr Knopfler doesn't do the queue jumping, grouping jumping, nose ningle etc. so those benefits may not be ones he takes advantage of.

...be a successful musician without the daily annoyance of fame?

Burial has managed it fairly well, but he is, arguably, not enormously well known.
Most of Kiss could probably buy a bottle of milk down their corner shop in the 70s without tripping over gawpers and autograph hunters and I imagine the same is true of Slipknot today.
So perhaps Mark Knopfler should start wearing make up or, possibly a hideous mask.

Has he got a beard these days?

see above

...a good seat in a restaurant,but personally i'd go for the couple of million quid in my bank account and the 10 or so supercars in the garage(s)

that I would hate to be famous. Thankfully, there is very little chance of that happening, so I should be OK.

A few years ago I was walking down Oxford Street after having been taking photographs in the streets of the West End. I have a professional digital SLR. Walking towards me was Leslie Grantham, recently the subject of a tabloid storm. As soon as he saw my camera, he glared at me, his eyes saying "If you dare take my photograph, you'll regret it." As he passed me, I looked over my shoulder and saw that he was looking back at me to see whether I was pointing my camera at him.

Now I am not interested in taking photographs of the rich and famous. But he wasn't to know that. I could have been a paparazzo...

This encounter confirmed everything I ever thought about the fame game... no matter how great the riches, the adulation and the fringe benefits one receives, the invasion of privacy and resultant paranoia just isn't worth it.

Some pals and I ran a big live comedy game show that we toured. We played all the big festivals at the turn of the century. Camping in the artists area and having back stage passes was brilliant. We even budgeted enough for a mate to come along as our chef.
That made us feel famous.
I had a tiddle and was stood between Jarvis and Liam.

and going to incredible places, I know this might apply in part to journos.
But Paul Mcartney has met everyone who's famous elvis, ali, etc. He's been everywhere, if he wasn't famous and was now a retired Liverpool estate agent he'd may hvae been to 10 countries and would be on nodding terms with John Sisssons amd Tarby. To an interested engaged in quistive soul beoing famous must be smart look at Eno he gets asked all over the world to meet interesting people and do stuff if he's gone on to eb art teacher he's have good life I imagine but one with samller horizons. I don't think these opportunities aren't full open to civilians even the media.

Frankly when I was in my 20s I was at it at every opportunity and did alright. If I were a famous person my boots would've been overflowing.

you have right put me off my afternoon yoghourt...

People begin taking your asinine, Sarah Palinesque politics seriously. You attend a soiree at Ten Downing Street where the Prime Minster solicits your opinion on how to best implement debt relief in an African country who’s GDP would barely cover the annual cost of your escalating coke habit.

The BBC flies you to Africa so that you can be filmed in the presence of malnourished AIDS orphans for Comic Relief. The following day you make an appearance on Top Gear where you argue with Jeremy Clarkson over which Ferrari is the best. A poll in the Radio Times, asking readers to name the celebrity they would most like to lead the country, places you 3rd after Sir Alan Sugar and Kerry Katona. Meanwhile readers of the NME vote you “Wanker of the Decade”, ahead of Pete Doherty.

You are now so famous that J.K. Rowling asks you to autograph her original manuscripts of the Harry Potter novels. The law cannot touch you. In East Anglia they worship you as a God. The comedian and impressionist - Rory Bremner - issues a public apology after you threaten to have him locked-up in a small windowless room in the Tower of London, with a naked Jonathan Ross. You punch former Boyzone frontman - Ronan Keating – in the face and are awarded the keys to Dublin as recognition of your services to music.

Google employs you as the face of their new search engine. You use their generous endorsement money to employ Bryan Ferry as your personal valet.

That's a luxury only afforded to them.

I hate this age-old whinge. If it's such a bind why did they choose to do what they do in the first place? Only a deaf mute doesn't know what goes with the territory.

If they say 'I'm just a jobbing actor/musician/whatever - fame is a by-product that I can live without', then it begs the questions:

a) Why go in for this in the first place if it wasn't to reach a wider audience?,
and
b) Would you honestly be happier still strumming away to six people in a pub/playing to to half empty houses in the windswept, rundown seaside towns of England in A Slice Of Saturday Night with Caroline Munro, Jim Dunk and Patti Boulaye?

No. So suck it up.

OK Jamie Redknapp was probably not quite as good a footballer as Beckham but he was considered a bit of a male model type (er, not by me I hasten to add...) and he married a far better looking and certainly far more talented singer.

They seem to have handled the celebrity couple thing quite well and appear a pretty well grounded couple.

hasn't Mark Knopfler answered this himself see below, also isn't it about time Youtube changed it's tag line "broadcast yourself" to "usefully post pop videos nicked of norwegian telly to settle arguments"

... bloody popstars, whinge about fame then cling to it for dear life for the rest of their lives. Advantages of being famous?
- lots of shallow members of the opposite sex throwing themselves at you
- free drugs
- free drinks
- ton of money
- access to a lifestyle which 99% of planet earth can only dream of.
- If the shallow things in life dont appeal to you then wealth and fame gives you the time and money to do whatever you like. Who wouldn't want to be Brian Eno frankly? He does as he pleases and appears not to be a pillock.

Disadvantages?
- people like me insulting you online and in the streets if I see you (but only if I am not a fan of your work. I saw that Terry Jones from Monty Python the other week and let him go about his business unmolested)
- tabloid papers splashing about you (but only if you act like a pillock it seems)
- ummm, very little else unless you are an idiot.

Mark Knopfler could walk down the street and not be recognized by most people, lets be honest. I've got a couple of his albums but unless he chased after me while wearing a headband, waving a guitar and yelling "I'm Mark Knopfler, look on my works ye mighty and despair!" I'd never recognize him. Buts he's probably extremely wealthy and in a position to do whatever the hell he wants. He has money and not fame. So what's he unhappy about? Here endeth the rant...

I would imagine, is having the chance to air your opinions under the possibly false but nevertheless reassuring impression that people are listening or care. I'd love to be asked my opinion on my favourite films, or be asked for my iTunes celebrity playlist, or be a guest on the Word podcast or something. I'd imagine the rest of it's pretty hellish: not being able to shop in peace, etc.

I imagine the kind of fame that Tim Berners-Lee has might be bearable, in that if he ever does get recognized it's probably by someone who knows enough about what he does for an interesting conversation to be had.

I don't know if it helps with the casual sex thing though.

"All I wanted in life was to be famous. I've tried for so long, it's all gone wrong. I'll tell you why. You just haven't earned it yet baby, you just haven't earned it my son...you must suffer and cry for slightly longer..."

Limited relevance I know, but can never resist shoehorning in a good Morrissey lyric!

Fame as a by product of success can't be too bad, especially if you are in a position not to bother trying too hard once you are a success.

Fame for its own sake must be appalling. Imagine getting on a bus and being recognized? I reckon that would be horrible, but then again I'm not daft enough to try and get on Big Big brother or anything like that.

If you're not an idiot and you're not chasing fame for the sake of fame I doubt it's all that bad. Tim Berners Lee is a good example. I have no idea what he looks like so I'm unlikely to mob him. If he called a restraunt (sic, my spelling is awful, sorry) I happened to be a waiter at he'd get the best table because I know his name.

it's always good to assume a pen-name on the blog, would you not agree gangle? For all they know we might by Daniel Craig & Halle Berry. Or The Krankies.

...cars and girls. that´s all it is ...Cars and Girls

...and I can say with some authority that very few things hurt much more than cars.

out of East 17? I've seen you in Chingford Sainsburys before now, sometimes accompanied by a "lady" (I use the term in its vaguest means) friend. On one occasion, you were having a right old barney in the salads aisle. You'd made up by the time you reached the dairy products, though.

... I didn't entirely mean that girls were therefore removed entirely from the equation you know. And the one you refer to has a nice personality.

still gotta shave if yer a 50+ Rawk Mil, and it is a drag
"Get off me bitch! I've got my 7 razor Gillette™ on the go."

The other three members of Coldplay - all the money and success, none of the hassle. Kerching, job's a good 'un!

Stephen Fry has written extensively on fame, the good and bad sides, and who are we to argue with him?

http://stephenfry.com/blog/?p=19

Surely the best thing about fame must be the opportunities it offers (besides the endless sex and free things). I imagine that fame allows you to meet more interesting people, and go to more interesting places, with better service, than mere mortals.

But having been close to a former Big Brother contestant while he was shopping in Next, only to be roundly abused in the strongest (and I do mean STRONGEST) language by a gang of teenage yobs, I'm not sure if the plusses make up for some loss of privacy. Although anybody who volunteers for Big Brother is so unfathomably vain and self-obsessed that they practically deserve brickbats from the common herd, what could be worse than to be followed from shop to shop by total strangers as you do your everyday shopping? I seem to remember the police having to be called when thousands of people flocked to watch David Bowie buy a couple of CDs in HMV in Oxford Street.

A friend of mine is a millionaire businessman whose face is fairly well-known in our neck of the woods. Going to the pub with him was an insight into fame, even on a small scale: a fair number of people introduced themselves, angling for a free pint. If he bought a pint for everyone, some would think he was showing off his wealth. If he didn't, they'd think he was Scrooge. Either way, his quiet night at the pub was spoilt by total strangers looking to get something for nothing.

Better to be anonymous (but rich), thanks.

I overheard two children talking about being rich and famous, and which was better. One said to the other, "Why would you want to be rich without being famous? That's just, like, crazy!"

Innit do?

If i was famous I’d think about people who looked like me abusing their power and getting free things, The thought of that and the wheel barrows of cash and countless ladies* on your arm.

*Ladies not included if Mark Knopfler

There's a weird thing when you're famous that people think they can relate to you even when you have nothing in common with them - in my job, I've met quite a few famous faces, and seen some of the stuff they have to put up with. Even if they're generally nice people (and most of them are), the pressure must be enormous. And that's not even for people who court the media.

I've not got much sympathy for those celebrities who turn their entire lives into a media circus - to some extent, they bring a lot of hassle on themselves. But in most cases, famous people are famous because of their job, and when they're not doing that job, they're entitled to be left alone, I think.

Not particularly answering David's initial question, though. Sorry. :)