Duran Duran
A Birmingham band of the New Romantic era who made the 1982 album Rio and a run of videos that suited the arrival of MTV; their closing track on Rio, "The Chauffeur", has been called their best deep cut.
Birmingham and the Rum Runner
Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, friends since childhood, formed Duran Duran in Birmingham in 1978 with the art-school friend Stephen Duffy. The name came from Dr. Durand Durand, played by Milo O'Shea in Barbarella (1968), and was chosen the day after the film aired on the BBC. Their first show was on April 5, 1979, at Birmingham Polytechnic, and the line-up settled in May 1980 as Simon Le Bon on vocals, Rhodes on keyboards, Andy Taylor on guitar, John Taylor on bass and Roger Taylor on drums, playing their first show in that form at the Rum Runner club on July 16, 1980. Their managers, Paul and Michael Berrow, owned the Rum Runner. They signed to EMI in December 1980.
Duran Duran (1981, produced by Colin Thurston, number three in the UK), Rio (1982) and Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983, their only UK number one album) made them stars, along with videos by Russell Mulcahy for "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Save a Prayer" and "Rio". In 1983 they had five US top 20 hits from three albums; in 1984 Le Bon sang on Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?"; they played Live Aid in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985; and "A View to a Kill" (1985) was the first James Bond theme to top the US chart. In 1985 John and Andy Taylor formed the Power Station, and Le Bon and Rhodes Arcadia (So Red the Rose); Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor left in 1986.
After 1986
Notorious (1986), Big Thing (1988), Liberty (1990), the 1993 album known as The Wedding Album, with "Ordinary World", which won an Ivor Novello award, and Thank You (1995, covers), Medazzaland and Pop Trash followed, with Warren Cuccurullo on guitar from 1989 to 2001. The five original members reunited in 2001 and played together live in July 2003, and made Astronaut (2004), Red Carpet Massacre (2007), All You Need Is Now (2010, produced by Mark Ronson), Paper Gods (2015), Future Past (2021, number three in the UK) and Danse Macabre (2023). Andy Taylor left again in 2006, and Dom Brown has played guitar since.
They received two Brit awards, the second a 2004 outstanding contribution award, two Grammys in 1984 in the first video categories, MTV's Video Vanguard in 2003 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 5, 2022. Billboard credits them with more than 100 million records sold, and Wikipedia counts 30 UK top 40 singles, fourteen of them top ten. Their influence has been named by the Dandy Warhols, the Bravery, Goldfrapp and Brandon Flowers, among others.
Albums
- Rio 1982 · EMI
Their 1982 second album: nine songs recorded in six to eight weeks at AIR Studios, number two in the UK and six in the US.
Songs
- The Chauffeur Rio · 1982
The closing track of Rio: an electronic piece built on a drum machine and an ocarina, from lyrics Le Bon began in 1979, never a single and a long-standing cult favorite.
Sources
- Duran Duran, Wikipedia
- Duran Duran, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Rio (Duran Duran album), Wikipedia
- The Chauffeur, Wikipedia