The previously announced European trek begins June 25 in Wroclaw, Poland, and concludes with the English rock band’s July 27 performance at the Olympic Opening Ceremony Celebration Concert in London.

New shows are scheduled July 7 in Skopje, Macedonia, at the Skopsko Kale and July 9 in Istanbul, Turkey, at Maçka Küçük Çiftlik Park. Tickets for Istanbul went on sale today and Skopje’s onsale begins May 21.

The North American tour kicks off with two nights in Saratoga, Calif., Aug. 8-9 and includes appearances at the OC Fair in Costa Mesa, Calif., Aug. 11 and the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Ill. Aug. 29.

Now the tour features two Canadian gigs – Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 in Rama, Ontario, at the Casino Rama Entertainment Centre. Tickets go on sale May 15.

Duran Duran is touring in support of its thirteenth studio album, All You Need Is Now. A digital version of the album was released in December 2010 and the physical edition hit stores in March 2011.

Courtesy Pollstar

Japan
Release date June 20, 2012
DVD+Blu-ray+Live 2CD+Studio 2CD (deluxe edition)/DVD/Blu-ray/Live 2CD

UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Benelux & South Africa
All formats July 2, 2012 *

Ireland, Germany, Switzerland & Austria
All formats June 29, 2012

France & Italy
All formats July 3, 2012

Australia
All formats July 6, 2012

North America, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau & Singapore
All formats July 10, 2012

New Zealand
All formats July 13, 2012

South America
All formats July 16, 2012

Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia & Taiwan
All formats July 17, 2012

* All formats = [ Standard DVD/Blu-ray/ Triple-pack Deluxe Edition containing all three formats (Blu-ray, DVD & CD) in an 8 panel digipack with bonus features, and an expanded 20 page booklet, all inside a foil blocked slip-case]

John Freeman , May 8th, 2012 11:08

It’s the winter of 1982 and I’m having an argument with my father about music. We are discussing which is the better band – The Beatles or Duran Duran. My dad, having lived through the 60s as a young man, is maintaining that the Fab Four are the greatest group ever, due to an unrivalled cannon of classic songs and their cultural impact across the globe. However, my 12-year-old self has spotted a weak point in his line of reasoning. Duran Duran had better videos. The Beatles never made an Indiana Jones-style promo video like Duran’s ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’, or pissed about on yachts in the Caribbean à la ‘Rio’. I delivered my counter-argument with rapier speed. My dad just sighed and muttered something about how he’d remind me of this discussion “when you are 18 and trying to be a too-cool-for-school.”

My old man was always onto a loser with that particular debate. Back then I was heavily into Duran Duran. While their early singles ‘Planet Earth’ and ‘Girls On Film’ had spiked my attention amid my developing relationship with Japan, The Human League and, cough, Visage, it was Duran’s Rio album that had truly won my pre-teen heart. Thirty years on, Rio encompasses all anyone needs to know about Duran Duran. A cursory listen might actually cause the holier-than-thou Olympic gig snobs to reconsider. In 2012, records like Rio are herded away into the hinterland of arty indie backwaters (the likes of Clock Opera, Simian Ghost or Theme Park would sell their grandmothers to write a song like ‘Save A Prayer’). In 1982, Rio ruled the world.

Duran Duran were, perhaps, the UK’s last proper pop group. They were not a manufactured boy-band or the by-product of a marketeer’s spunk-filled brainstorming meeting. Duran Duran wrote their own songs, played their own instruments and decided – rather thrillingly – to see what might happen if someone mixed the sounds of Blondie, Gary Numan, disco and punk. Indeed, in 1979, on hearing Sex Pistols and Chic back-to-back on a pub jukebox, John Taylor’s immediate thought was “I love both these songs, why can’t we fuse the two?”

Formed in Birmingham in 1978 by Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, Duran’s classic line-up took a few months to align. The two friends were eventually joined by drummer Roger Taylor, Wearside-born guitarist Andy Taylor and, after a number of short-lived vocalists including Stephen Duffy, the gregarious and cocksure Simon Le Bon. By then, Duran were effectively the house band for Brum’s legendary Rum Runner nightclub, which rivalled London’s Steve Strange-hosted Blitz during the New Romantic era.

From the start, Duran Duran wanted to be mightily, unapologetically successful. They dreamed of playing gigs at Madison Square Garden in New York and craved being the biggest pop band on the planet. In 2012, such naked ambition is frowned upon by serious music fans. But, perhaps, people should be careful what they wish for – we live in a world in which One Direction rule the pop roost and earnest chamber-rockers Arcade Fire sell out huge arenas as the planet’s Most Proper Band – with very little in between. Personally, I think there is still room for a mountain of cocaine, a smattering of supermodel wives and Duran’s ‘The Chauffeur’ blaring out as a beacon for Planet Pop.

Rio was released on May 10th 1982. At that point, Duran Duran were well on their way to superstardom, but it was the album’s trio of super singles that jettisoned them into the major league. ‘Hungry Like A Wolf’ was, perhaps, the perfect concoction of the sonic harmony at play within Duran. Andy Taylor’s fiercely-taught guitar chops are neatly betrothed to Nick Rhodes’ rollicking synth line, while Simon Le Bon delivers a typically eager-beaver vocal. And, if the title-track was pure pop containing a hook as wide as their “cherry ice-cream smiles,” it was ‘Save A Prayer’ that marked Duran Duran out as musicians with serious intent; over a gorgeous swirl of electronica, a lush proto-ballad developed into a seminal pop song.

Duran Duran’s cultural timing was also bang on. With MTV beginning to flex its muscles, the band ensured each song came with a lavish promotional video. I grew up in the Old Trafford area of Manchester and in 1982, while not exactly a Lowry landscape, it was hardly a hotbed of global sophistication. Some of our back streets were still cobbled and the most exotic place I’d encountered was the local Chinese restaurant. One Saturday morning, I caught sight of the ‘Hungry Like A Wolf’ video on a children’s TV show. It blew my mind.

The video had been shot in Sri Lanka but could have been made on frigging Jupiter for all I knew. It looked incredible. The subsequent ‘Save A Prayer’ promo included clips of the band riding elephants and the ‘Rio’ video looked like the best fun I was never going to have. It was all escapist nonsense, but I’d lived a mile away from the 1981 Moss Side riots and while The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’ was a magnificent monochrome soundtrack, I was desperate for some garish, fun-riddled colour.

The music on Rio was birthed with a minimum of fuss. Largely recorded in the early months of 1982 at Air Studios in London, and with Colin Thurston wearing both producer and engineer hats, the main body of songs had been preceded by the spiky New Wave pop of ‘My Own Way’, a track that was subsequently remodelled for inclusion on the album. The iconic cover artwork was a Patrick Nagel cartoon of a Latin model with her own cherry ice-cream smile and reeked of effortless style.

While the hits on Rio blasted Duran Duran into the hearts of American teens, the album also includes the band’s best known non-single – and, perhaps, finest ever song – ‘The Chauffeur’. With lyrics taken from poems Simon Le Bon had written at the time of auditioning for the band, ‘The Chauffeur’ is a sublime mix of plucked melodies set to an almost orchestral arrangement. It’s an incredibly grown-up song for a supposed pop band and remains steadfastly timeless. Elsewhere, John Taylor’s Bernie Edwards-inspired bassline propels the white-funk of ‘New Religion’, while ‘Hold Back The Rain’ picks a perfect path between post-punk, New Wave and stadium-ready pop. Even better was the downbeat, guitar-driven ‘Lonely In Your Nightmare’, which showcased Andy Taylor’s rapidly developing technique.

Post Rio, Duran Duran’s became truly global superstars. Both ‘Is There Something I Should Know?’ and ‘The Reflex’ reached the top of the Hit Parade, but tensions were already beginning to creep into the band. Spiralling drug use, a ludicrously lavish rock star lifestyle and the pressure of topping the success of Rio, meant 1983′s Seven And The Ragged Tiger was an awkward, overblown beast. After the brilliant ‘The Wild Boys’ single, Duran Duran split into two side-projects; Le Bon and Rhodes formed the faux art-pop of Arcadia, while John and Andy Taylor joined forces with Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson to form the rockier Power Station. Roger Taylor, perhaps hedging his bets, drummed for both. At my school, you were encouraged to take sides. I chose Arcadia and swore never to admit such folly. Not in writing, at least.

When Roger Taylor decided to quit in 1986, the Fab Five lineage was broken. Duran went through a number of incarnations with moderate success and scored a global hit in 1993 with ‘Ordinary World’. In 2001, the classic line-up reformed and enjoyed the fruits of their legacy, with artists such as Beck and Franz Ferdinand frothing about Duran’s influence. It’s hard to listen to The Killers debut album and not believe Brandon Flowers must have studied Rio long and hard.

However, as the snobbery directed towards the band in light of the Olympic gig announcement demonstrates, the success of Duran Duran in the early-to-mid 80s has since been denigrated by the neatness of cultural revisionism. The band’s image was interpreted in certain quarters as a vulgar flash of Thatcherite greed and being Princess Diana’s favourite pop group didn’t exactly help Duran Duran distance themselves from the establishment.

Personally, I always believed the view of Duran as ostentatious rich kids was both factually incorrect and sociologically naive; this was a band made of largely working-class lads who all, except Simon Le Bon, had grown up experiencing the social deprivation common to Northern cities at the time. Le Bon claimed that all they wanted to do was make music “to dance to when the bomb dropped” and however cheese-laden his choice of words were, it epitomised their mission statement. Duran Duran were a band who wanted to reach out to as many people as possible and provide them with a few minutes of escape. Christ knows how much we could do with such an ideology in 2012.

Courtesy TheQuietus

The band is still confirming exact details for a number of dates, but wanted to list the cities they will be visiting since DD.com has been getting so many requests for details. Member only Pre-sale details, as they become available, will be posted on the front page of The Duran Duran VIP Fan Community page.

We will continue to update this page as the band confirm more dates. For full ticketing and on sale information, please visit the TOUR section on Duranduran.com.

Apr 28 Centro de Convencoes Brasilia, Brazil
Tickets on sale!

Apr 30 Citibank Hall Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Tickets on sale!

May 02 Credicard Hall Sao Paulo, Brazil
Tickets on sale!

May 04 Buenos Aires, Argentina at Luna Park
Tickets on sale!

May 05, Buenos Aires, Argentina at Luna Park
Tickets on sale!

May 08 Santiago, Chile at Teatro Caupolican
Tickets on sale!

June 25 Rynek – Wroclaw Strefa Kibica, Poland at MUSICART in cooperation with Music Pool Wessels GmbH & Co KG
Tickets on sale!

June 27 Prague, Czech Republic at O2 Arena
Tickets on sale !

June 28 Budapest, Hungary at the Papp László Budapest Sport Arena
Tickets on sale !

July 06 Thessaloniki, Greece at Earth Open Air
Tickets on sale!

*July 07 Skopje, The Republic of Macedonia, Skopsko Kale Open Air
Tickets on sale May 21 at 10am local time via Tickets.rs

*July 09 Istanbul, Kucuk Ciftlik Park
Tickets on sale May 11 at 10am local time via Biletix

July 12 Novi Sad, Serbia as part of the Exit Festival
Tickets on sale!

July 14 Ljubljana, Slovenia at Gospodarsko Razstavišče
Tickets on sale !

July 16 Verona, Italy at the Verona Arena
Tickets on sale!

July 18 Rome, Italy at the Foro Italica
Tickets on sale!

July 20 Cattolica, Italy at the Arena Della Regina
Tickets on sale!

July 21 Lucca, Italy at the Piazza Napoleone
Tickets on sale!

July 23 Carcassonne, France at the Festival de Carcassonne
Tickets on sale!

July 25 Monte Carlo, Monaco at The Sporting Club
Tickets on sale!

*July 27 London, England Hyde Park, 2012 Summer Olympics/BT London Live Opening Ceremony Celebration Concert
Tickets On Sale !

August 08 Saratoga, CA at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA
Tickets On Sale !

August 09 Saratoga, CA at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA
Tickets On Sale !

August 11 Costa Mesa, CA at the Pacific Amphitheatre/OC Fair
Tickets On Sale !

August 12 Tucson, AZ at AVA Amphitheatre/Casino Del Sol
Tickets on Sale!

August 15 Tulsa, OK at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Tickets on sale July 5th at 10am via Tickets.com

August 17 Memphis, TN at the Memphis Botanical Gardens
Tickets on sale !

August 18 Biloxi, MS at Hard Rock Casino and Resort
Tickets on sale !

*August 19 Atlanta, GA at Chastain Park
On Sale TBA

August 21 Durham, NC at the Durham Performing Arts Center
Tickets on sale !

*August 24 Mashantucket, CT MGM Grand Theatre at Foxwoods
On Sale May 18th at 10am via Foxwoods

*August 25 Atlantic City, NJ Revel Ovation Hall
On Sale TBA

August 28 Kettering, OH at Fraze Pavilion
Tickets on sale !

August 29 Highland Park, IL at the Ravinia Festival
Tickets on sale !

*August 31 Orilla, ONT Casino Rama Entertainment Centre
Tickets on sale On Sale May 15th at 12pm via Ticketmaster

*September 1 Orilla, ONT Casino Rama Entertainment Centre
Tickets on sale On Sale May 15th at 12pm via Ticketmaster

Please visit Duran Duran’s Tour Page for all on sale and ticketing information!

* – new date // all on sale times are LOCAL MARKET TIME

** NOTE: Stay tuned for information regarding additional shows as they are confirmed.

Recorded At Manchester’s MEN Arena

Stand-alone DVD, Blu-ray and CD
Deluxe Edition with all three formats and bonus features
Set for Release 02-07-12
Eagle Records & Eagle Vision

Following the phenomenal success of their recent “All You Need Is Now” UK arena tour, and the announcement that they will be representing England as one of the headliners at the BT London Live Opening Ceremony Concert in Hyde Park, to celebrate the London 2012 games, iconic British rock band, DURAN DURAN, are shortly set to release “A DIAMOND IN THE MIND” – a stunning recording of one of the band’s live concert performances on DVD, Blu-ray and CD.

Slated to hit stores on Monday 2nd July 2012, through Eagle Vision and Eagle Records, “A Diamond In The Mind” was filmed and recorded at Manchester’s MEN Arena in December of last year, where the band garnered some of the finest reviews of their career.

Shot in high definition by long-time Duran collaborator, director Gavin Elder, the recording of the show will be simultaneously released on multiple formats: standard DVD (Cat. No. EREDV941), Blu-ray (Cat. No. ERBRD5156), CD (EAGCD487), and the triple-pack Deluxe Edition, containing all three formats (Blu-ray, DVD & CD – Cat. No. ERBRD5158) in an 8 panel digipack with bonus features, and an expanded 20 page booklet, all inside a foil blocked slip-case.

The band’s first live release in almost a decade, “A Diamond In The Mind” bristles with classic hits alongside new tracks taken from their critically acclaimed album “ALL YOU NEED IS NOW”, which was produced by Grammy award winner Mark Ronson and hit the #1 spot on Download Charts in 15 countries (including the UK).

Known for their epic productions, amazing visuals, ground-breaking stage sets and iconic style, this is only the second time in ten years that the band have recorded one of their concerts in glorious high definition sound and vision, giving fans a rare and unique opportunity to relive the experience.

In addition to the songs themselves, both the DVD, Blu-Ray and Deluxe Edition releases also feature interviews with the band, alongside behind-the-scenes footage of the 2011 tour, together and bonus tracks ”Come Undone” and “Is There Something I Should Know.”

Talking from Brazil, where the band are currently on the South American leg of their world tour, keyboardist, NICK RHODES said “We wanted to create a dynamic, interactive show, combining new technology with edgy design. The brief for our lighting designer was ‘Pixel Punk’. This manifested itself in the convergence of hi-tech screens with a powerful, asymmetrical lighting rig. The primary aim was to re-invent our songs visually and introduce material from the new album as a unique sensory experience. With this in mind, the screens were populated by science fiction, supermodels, anime, psychedelic patterns and graphic design. Four massive mechanical arms were programmed to swoop down over the stage, firing beams of light, like the aliens in War of the Worlds. And the audience was integrated with the show, as live cameras were turned on them, projecting their images behind the band. Hanging high above the stage, four giant heads presented another dimension to the production, as they came alive as band members, skulls, robots and a girl transforming into a leopard.

The show is a journey. It was already our movie, but the challenge loomed to translate this into a film that tells the same story for those who were not there on the night. In this case we used many cameras, to ensure no detail escaped. We deployed both slow motion, animation and various stylized film grades, which give the performance a dreamlike quality in places; but most of all, I think A Diamond in the Mind truly captures the widescreen energy and vibrancy of what really transpired that night, when Duran Duran played live in Manchester.”

Adding to this, lead singer SIMON LE BON said; “The 2011 UK tour was particularly significant for all of us on a number of levels. In the early part of the year, I lost my voice and we were forced to cancel several months of touring, including all of our British dates. It was a really difficult time for us as a band as we had a new album out that we were just breaking in and loving playing live. When I blew my voice out in Cannes, at the film festival in mid-May, we weren’t sure when we would be able to resume and the summer wait was long and full of anxiety – especially for me. The UK shows which were finally rescheduled for December, proved to be some of the best we’ve ever done – so the year that had been rather a roller-coaster, ended on a really high note.”

Track listing for the DVD, Blu-ray & Deluxe Edition includes:

Return To Now 2) Before The Rain 3) Planet Earth 4) View To A Kill 5) All You Need Is Now 6) Blame The Machines 7) Safe (In The Heat Of The Moment) 8)The Reflex 9)Man Who Stole A Leopard 10) Girl Panic! 11) White Lines 12) Careless Memories 13) Ordinary World 14) Notorious 15) Hungry Like The Wolf 16) (Reach Up For The) Sunrise 17) Wild Boys/Relax 18) Rio 19) A Diamond In The Mind

Bonus tracks are: Come Undone and Is There Something I Should Know?

Track listing for the Live CD includes;

1) Before The Rain 2) Planet Earth 3) View To A Kill 4) All You Need Is Now 5) Come Undone 6) Blame The Machines 7) The Reflex 8)Girl Panic! 9) Ordinary World 10) Notorious 11) Hungry Like The Wolf 12) (Reach Up For The) Sunrise 13) Wild Boys 14) Rio

DURAN DURAN have become one of the most iconic British bands of the last three decades. Widely recognized as THE band that defined the MTV Video generation, Duran Duran single-handedly transformed music videos from a gimmicky marketing tool into one of the music industry’s most valued assets. Fusing pop music with art, fashion and technology, exotic locations, beautiful girls and stunning special effects, they took the visual imperatives of the New Romantic movement to another level.

Today with over 80 million records sold, 30 UK Top 30 hits and 18 American hit singles, they are an unstoppable force, with no fewer than six prestigious ‘Lifetime Achievement Awards’ under their belt in the last few years from MTV VMA’s, the BRITS’s, the IVOR NOVELLOS, Q Magazine, the Spanish Ondas, and GQ Magazine.

“A DIAMOND IN THE MIND”

Released 2nd July on Eagle Vision and Eagle Records
www.duranduran.com & www.eagle-rock.com

But keyboard player Nick Rhodes – the one with the floppy Warhol hair, Tippex-white complexion and panda-like eye make-up – remained blissfully unaware of the storm. For one thing, he’s in South America, Rio to be exact (where else?). But he is not the sort of man who is fazed by the constant nag of new media.

‘I don’t do Twitter or Facebook or anything like that, so I haven’t read anything,’ he says, sounding as aloof, camp and studiedly mid-Atlantic as ever. ‘I like to think my attention span is far too long for that kind of thing.’ I explain to Rhodes something of the ‘Twitterstorm’ that broke as soon as the line-up for the BT London Live concert on July 27 was released.

Comedian Al Murray tweeted: ‘Duran Duran to headline 2012 Olympics gig? Far more worrying than rooftop missiles’. And newspaper columnist Tony Parsons, the ex-husband of writer Julie Burchill, pitched in with: ‘Duran Duran to headline Olympic gig? Who is running the 1500 metres – Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett?’

My sharing that comment prompts a brief pause in our conversation. I decide to help him out by identifying Parsons: ‘You know .  .  . the top writer?’ ‘Oh that Tony Parsons,’ says Rhodes, archly. ‘Didn’t he used to be married to a top writer?’ It’s a typical Nick Rhodes quip – spiky, arid, off-the-cuff and skilfully deflecting.

‘Really, there’s only one thing worse than being talked about, isn’t there… and that’s not being talked about,’ he adds, echoing Oscar Wilde.

‘The fact that after more than three decades in this business we can still whip up a bit of controversy gives me enormous pleasure. I can’t think of anything worse than being average, or not provoking a polarised, opinionated response from people. That would be so boring, wouldn’t it?’

In Britain, Duran Duran have long been under-appreciated. But in the rest of the world they still have kudos – as popular now as in the Eighties when they were flag-bearers of the ‘Second British Invasion’ of America. They led a charge of bands whose glamorous image, cutting edge music and extravagant videos made them darlings of the new MTV channel.

Indeed, the band last week flew to the Caribbean to be reunited with the 70ft ketch Eilean, which featured in their Rio video and has now been rescued and restored. ‘We went to the Antigua regatta for the re-launch of Eilean,’ Rhodes says. ‘It was wonderful to see it looking in such good condition, even though I hated every minute of filming that video and once we’d finished it I vowed to never set foot on a sailing boat again. Somehow, the rest of the band persuaded me.’

The Rio video flew the flag for British music during the Eighties. A British band on a beautiful British-built boat painted a picture of glamour, style, sophistication and effortless class. For a generation too young to relate to The Beatles or the Rolling Stones, Duran Duran and their contemporaries personified Britain. Which is one reason why they have been chosen to headline the Hyde Park concert.

‘For us, being asked to do this concert is a great honour,’ Rhodes says. ‘We are an extremely British band and we are proud to be British. Patriotic? Well, perhaps not in the combative, football-terrace way that some people are. But because Duran Duran has always been based in the UK, I think we all understand how this beautiful country ticks.’

‘For such a small place, Britain has given the world so much art, design, architecture, literature, music, fashion, cinema and eccentricity. We feel very much part of that.’

Rhodes is bullish, too, about what sets his band apart from the current pop mainstream. ‘We might have been together for more than 30 years, but we strive to be a modern group,’ he insists.

‘We have personality and charisma, glamour and excitement – elements that are sadly lacking in a lot of the homogenized, TV-generated music around now.’

‘I’ve never watched the X Factor or any other reality show, and I don’t intend to start. I am just not interested.’ And why would he be when his own life is, even at 49, far more entertaining than any television show could ever be?

I last encountered Rhodes a year ago in the Savoy Ballroom in London, taking photos of Cindy Crawford playing Scrabble and Yasmin Le Bon squirming around on the newly laid carpet as they shot a video for the band’s single Girl Panic!
It was as if the unapologetic excesses of their glamorous heyday were happening all over again as Birmingham-born Rhodes had flown in five supermodels to take over the roles in the band: Helena Christensen on drums, Naomi Campbell doing lead vocals, Eva Herzigova on keyboards, Cindy on bass, and Yasmin, wife of Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon, on lead guitar.

‘We’ve been involved in some pretty elaborate projects,’ Rhodes explained ‘But trying to get five supermodels in the same place was like some intricate military manoeuvre.’

You have to admire the tenacity of the band, who surely deserve their place representing Britain in the Olympic spotlight.
Who else would fit the bill? Dreary Coldplay? Cheesy Take That? Steps? The dazzling statistics of their hits, awards and export figures – not to mention the glamour – make them a class act appreciated everywhere except in their own land.

After we speak, their current world tour leaves Brazil for Buenos Aires, where they play two nights at the Luna Park; the 7,000-capacity grand ballroom where Eva met Juan Peron. It says something for their appeal that a British band who were at their peak at the time of the Falklands War should sell out as tension over the sovereignty of the islands mounts again.
From the moment their first single Planet Earth became a hit in 1981, Duran Duran (named after a character in Jane Fonda’s Barbarella movie) lived out their rock ’n’ roll fantasies to the full.

‘We were all kids when we formed the band,’ says Rhodes. ‘I was only 16 and had this beautifully naive vision of what my life as a rock star was going to be like. It turned out to be utterly exhausting.’

It was the start of a career in which they have sold more than 80 million records and had 21 hits in the US alone. Their breakthrough in America was, as Rhodes recalls it, ‘like Beatlemania’ – and the band broke records ‘for the loudest pre-show concert noise’.

By 1986, the gruelling schedule and ‘drugs diet’ of some band members caused cracks to appear. One by one, key members left. Guitarist Andy Taylor and bassist John Taylor (no relation) quit to form Power Station. Drummer Roger Taylor retired to go and live on a farm.

Rhodes says: ‘That was the lowest ebb for me – the closest we came to giving up Duran Duran all together. I knew John had to clean up his act and that Roger needed to bring up his kids and be with his wife, but suddenly it was just me and Simon left.’

‘But even during those dark years, we never really fell out. I would bump into Roger at the odd party and I’d see John when I was in LA.’

The original line-up reunited in 2003 and the band (minus guitarist Andy Taylor who quit, apparently for ever, in 2006) continues to record and tour. Last year they released an album All You Need Is Now, which was produced by Mark Ronson, and a new live DVD is out this summer.

‘Being in this band is like being married,’ says Rhodes. ‘That’s hard enough when there’s just two of you, but when there’s five, it’s even harder. Yes, sometimes we scream our heads off at each other, but we still manage to inspire each other and play off each others’ strengths.’

I remind Rhodes that 2012 will not be the first time Duran Duran have performed an Olympics gig. In 1987 they were part of a concert in Ibiza alongside Freddie Mercury and Spandau Ballet to launch the 1992 Barcelona Games.

But when I tell him the next time we will meet will be at the Hyde Park concert, he replies, mischievously: ‘We’ll put Tony Parsons on the guest list, shall we?’

Courtesy Daily Mail

The series for wooden classic boats goes from strength to strength, and this year the organisers expect more than 500 entries over a year of racing that in 2012 will include 10 rounds. The Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta was the first round, and the finale will be the Régates Royales, in Cannes from 25 to 29 September.

British classic sailing enthusiasts can look forward to the Panerai British Classic Week in Cowes, from 7 to 14 July.

Under the stewardship of Panerai CEO Angelo Bonati, the famous Italian watchmaker rescued the 70ft Thirties ketch Eilean from a mouldering fate in a mangrove creek in the West Indies, where she had lain since an accident befell her after starring in the ‘Rio’ video by Duran Duran.

ilean was built by the famous British boatbuilders William Fife & Son on the Firth of Clyde, in 1936. After the War, it was owned by the famous British lawyer William (later Lord) Shawcross. After a complete restoration at a yard in Genoa (the hull and all remaining spars were sent by container ship to Italy), the totally refurbished Eilean now sails the seas again.

And it was back to Antigua that the Eilean voyaged, to be reunited with the remaining members of Duran Duran, including sailing enthusiast and lead singer, Simon Le Bon. The local Nelson’s Dockyard put on an exhibition of the story of the boat and its connections with the island.

After five days of fierce competition, the Winner of the Panerai Prize for First Overall Classic Class was Saphaedra. Winning 1st Place in the Spirit of Tradition Class A was Rebecca. The winner of Vintage Class A was Mariella, helmed by Carlo Falcone with Dennis Conner.

Eilean, helmed by Andrew Cully – and, for several races, Simon Le Bon – won the Woodstock Restoration Trophy in Vintage Class A for Best Restored Yacht. Dorade won First Place in Vintage Class B, and was also the Overall Winner for the Concours d’Elegance, with Eilean receiving a special mention from the jury.

Eilean will now return to the United Kingdom where she will participate in the 3 June Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, a formal river procession in honour of Her Majesty The Queen in her Jubilee year.

Courtesy Classic Driver

Last night’s show at Lunar Park indoor arena, in Buenos Aires, was one such occasion. In the bus back to the hotel from the venue, as we sat in our soaked stage clothing, we all agreed it was possibly the best show that we’d ever played, and it certainly was the best audience we’ve played to in our career.

The crowd last night were Extraordinary. From the moment that we walked on stage, until well after the final curtain, when we could still hear them from the street where we stood outside the venue, the crowd were singing, chanting, dancing, jumping and generally making as much noise, and having as much fun, as is humanly possible.

It has left me feeling a little empty this morning, so roll on tonight’s show, although last night’s will be a hard act to follow.

whooosh
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The resurfacing of Eilean is only the latest chapter in the boat’s curious history. It was built in 1936 for the Fulton brothers, Scottish steel merchants, and owned briefly by Hartley Shawcross, the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal. Shawcross sold the yacht in the 1960s to an enterprising sailor who took it to Antigua’s English Harbor, at the southern end of the island, where Horatio Nelson lived in the 1780s. There it served as a charter for, among other customers, a glitzy band of pop pinups from Birmingham, England. Of all the members of Duran Duran, Le Bon, age 53, is the most seasoned mariner by leagues. In the following interview, he talks about being reunited with Eilean and the origin of his interest in sailing.

Q.
How did the band fare in the regatta? What’s your opinion of the sailing skills of the other members of Duran Duran?

A.
Well, Nick is really good at sitting at the back of the boat as long as it doesn’t tip over too much. That is the extent of his sailing skill, in its totality. Roger is quite a competent sailor, he’s very good with small boats. He had a laser that he was taking out on the water at English Harbor, which he was quite good at sailing. But I was actually the only band member on board the Eilean in the regatta and while we weren’t particularly competitive this time, I think as the boat does more and more racing she will become more competitive. … She was built to cruise, she’s not a racing boat.

How long had it been since you saw Eilean?

I first set eyes upon Eilean in 1982 when we went down to Antigua to film the video for “Rio.” She was sitting in the middle of English Harbor. We came out onto the beach where we were staying and I looked at this boat sitting right there in front of us and she was so beautiful, I thought, “That can’t possibly be the boat that we’re going to film the video on. It must be an uglier one than that.” It was just so incredibly beautiful and huge and amazing and lovely.

Did your interest in sailing originate long before the video for “Rio”?

When I was about 11 years old, a local vicar — who I think had a bit of a thing about my mum — said to me: “Every year I take six kids — three boys and three girls — down to the Norfolk Broads, where we take a big boat and sail around for a week. And I’ve got a space for another boy. Would you like to join us?” Frankly, my thoughts at that time had not anything to do with the Norfolk Broads or about the boat. My thought was, “Three girls?! Yes please! Mum, I got to go, you got to let me go!” And so I did and he actually took a dinghy along with him. In the 1960s, the Mirror newspaper group decided to make sailing accessible to all classes of people, as previously it had been a rich man’s sport. So they designed a very easy-to-build boat to be built out of wood. You could just buy the kit, the plans, and it was possible for anybody with basic woodworking skills to put it together. People built them in their garages and sheds, and there were thousands upon thousands of these boats all over the U.K. So this vicar had one of them and towed it down behind his Morris Traveler, then towed it on the back of a boat that we hired. It was a little sailing boat and he took me out for a sail on it one day. When we got back he said, “Look, you seem pretty good at this. You can take it out any time you like.” For me, this was an amazing thing. It was freedom, it was transport. Transport that I didn’t have to pedal! So from age 11, I thought sailing to be just fantastic, the most amazing thing, the most amazing opportunity. That’s when I started sailing.

And your interest became more serious over the years?

Then when I was 14, I joined a local sailing club, a local sailing team and did a bit of that. But once I got more into music, I focused on playing the guitar, got really into David Bowie and T. Rex and then punk rock, and the sailing took a back seat and really went by the wayside, to be honest with you. Then of course I joined a band, and I really didn’t get back on a boat until we filmed the video for “Rio.” But getting back on a boat, on Eilean, ignited something in me which carried on right to the present day. I do a lot of sailing now and the spark really was going on Eilean for the “Rio” video.

Tell us about the past few days you’ve spent in Antigua? That’s where the video was shot, of course. Is it a special place for you?

Going down there in ’82 was the first time I’d ever been in the Caribbean, and I think your first experience always remains in your head as something very special. So I have a great affection for Antigua. … Its recent history is quite tough; they’ve suffered economically because of the financial problems the Western world has been going through. But the people are getting on with things, getting on with life, and it’s still beautiful. It’s got an incredible natural resource in its stunning coastline as well as a rich history. It was Nelson’s island for protecting the British trade route, which I guess was mainly the sugar trade in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries when France was at war with England — which is why the routes needed to be protected. So there are these beautiful old buildings down there which are just spectacular. We didn’t film just one video down there, we filmed two — the video for “Rio” and another one for a song called “(Waiting for the) Nightboat,” in a dry dock in Nelson’s Dockyard. We went there during this last trip, and it’s exactly the same as I remember it. It hasn’t changed in 30 years.

Courtesy The New York Times

Built in 1936, the Eilean ketch sadly fell into disuse in later years but has recently been bought and resurrected by Italian luxury watch brand, Panerai. After three years of restoration, Eilean is happily back at home in Antigua, where she competed in the country’s Classic Yacht Regatta on April 24th. In celebration, Panerai nabbed Duran Duran to take part in the festivities, engineering a glamorous visual flashback moment for Duran Duran fans, Regatta enthusiasts, and those who appreciate the finer things in life.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/blogs/thread-count/duran-duran-toast-to-the-glamour-of-rio-30-years-later-20120503#ixzz1trJOiOvs