John Taylor Year End, 2017

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Event of the Year -

I think one of the most significant things that happened was when the Swedish Church removed gender identification out of their teachings. I thought that was extraordinary, especially in light of everything that has been said about sexual politics. It didn’t get a lot of attention in the media as I would have liked.

Movie -

I am an old English boy and so I did love “Dunkirk.” It moved me to tears, I loved “Blade Runner 2049,” another “boys” movie. I didn’t see a whole lot of movies, to be honest, and I haven’t seen many of the films being talked about in the Award season. I have a bit of catching up to do.

Book(s)

"History of Wolves" by Emily Fridlund from Minnesota. It is her first book. It was amazing. I also read “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy book. I always like to have a few books on the go

TV Show(s) -

There were so many fantastic TV shows. To me, that’s where the creativity is right now. I thought that “Mindhunter,” was amazing, one of my favourites. “Godless” was amazing and “The Crown” was perfection on every level. Those are the three shows that left me speechless.

Music

I have to go back, I haven’t heard anything recently that rocked me. I liked The Weeknd’s album, "Starboy," though it didn’t come out this year. He played at Lollapalooza in South America with us and it felt kinda new. I like Jay Z’s album too, but not a great year for me with music and contemporary music, but that’s probably my fault.

Favourite Duran Duran Moment

From a touring point of view, the Buenos Aires Lollapalooza show was massive for us. Most of the shows we played this year were great. We went through a period where we were on the road, and Simon lost his mum, and she was all of our mum. Simon was just so brave and he brought those feelings to the stage every night. That was a difficult time, and we’re not really the kind of band that does that, and it inspired us. I felt most of the shows we played this year were kind of great – so sue me! Had a great time in Japan, hadn’t been there in a long time. Nile came out for that, which was above and beyond. And going to Japan, and bringing Atlanta with me, it was one of the best weeks of my life. If you have kids, you relate. I’ve been going to Japan since I was 21 but to get to go with her was like doing it for the first time all over again.

Personal Highlight

I am so thrilled Zoe is now in the music business. She has a single that came out called "Rather Die," and a feature on the G-Eazy track “The Beautiful & Damned.” It has been a great year for me, personally. I have no complaints.

Looking Forward to in 2018

I have an open mind about 2018. The past few years, we have had a fairly well-defined idea of what we have been doing …. Mine and Nick’s musical is really starting to come together, and we’re quite excited about that. I am excited about getting back in to the studio with the band and creating new material. I really want to do that. We are talking about it, in a causally fluid kind of way, it’s going to happen, but I am not sure when.

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