This is what Iron Maiden's The Trooper would sound like if Dire Straits wrote it

Close-up of a guitar being played — (Image credit: Laszlo Buring)

Laszlo Buring is a songwriter, guitarist and producer from the Netherlands who's slowly making a name for himself on YouTube. In May 2021 he hit the jackpot, releasing a video in which he played the solo from the Dire Straits' classic Sultans Of Swing, reimagining Mark Knopfler's fleet-fingered original part as it might have sounded had Pink Floyd written it.

A million views later, and Buring is still churning out the videos, taking one song and performing it in the the style of another. He's done a version of All Along The Watchtower, performed as if it was written by John Mayer. He's played What a Wonderful World in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan. He's even performed an eight-minute jam that imagines the sonic splendour that might occur if David Gilmour and Mark Knopfler jammed together.

He clearly likes Knopfler, turning in Dire Straits-ish versions of Wonderful Tonight, The Sound Of Silence and Smoke On The Water, and for his latest trick he's covered Iron Maiden's The Trooper. The end result is akin to Sultans Of Swing, but still very much identifiable as The Irons' 1983 classic.

"Figured this little lick could be Knopflerified," says Buring. "Played on my Fender Vintera 50s mod Strat through a Fender Blues Junior."

"Whenever I click on one of those videos I know I'm gonna get a music masterpiece," writes commenter QuaX, while Davo Arriaga says, "That was sick, you should try to Knopflerify [Steve Vai's] Tender Surrender. I think it could work.

To check out more of Laszlo Buring's finger-picking wizardry, we suggest you tune into his YouTube channel.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.