![]() The current group, which takes its name from a character in the 1968 film Barbarella, became complete in 1980 when Simon Le Bon, a drop-out drama student, showed up one day in pink, leopard-skin leotards and said he wanted to sing in the band. ”ĭuran Duran began coming together in 1978 (some sources say 1977) in the Midlands city of Birmingham, where Rhodes and guitarist John Taylor started performing with a variety of bandmates. But Duran Duran, now they were something else. These girls had little use for the Clash ’s left-wing politics, or the ranting and raving of that weird-looking Elvis Costello. And “serious music ” is not necessarily for everyone as Rolling Stone ’s James Henke realized when he referred to Duran Duran ’s eager fans as “young girls who were glued to their television sets watching MTV every waking hour. Success in pop music has always depended upon image at least as much as the music itself. While the conservative rock press liked to downplay the success of Duran Duran because of their obvious vanity and lack of attention to “serious ” music, it should be noted that some of rock and roll ’s most time-honored heroes, such as Elvis Presley and even a few members of the Beatles, were never accused of being serious musicians. Performed in the Birmingham area, 1980-84 toured the U.K., 1980 - toured internationally beginning in 1984 Number 1 album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, in 1984 split into two groups: Power Station and Arcadia in 1985 reformed, 1986 -.Īddresses: Record company -Capitol Records, 1750 North Vine St., Hollywood, CA 90028. ” For the Record …īand formed in 1978, in Birmingham, England members include vocalist Simon Le Bon (born October 27, 1958, in Bushey, England) guitarist and keyboards player Andy Taylor (born February 16, 1961, in Dolver-Hampton, England) keyboards player Nick Rhodes (born June 8, 1962, in England) bassist John Taylor (born June 20,1960, in Birmingham, England) drummer Roger Taylor (born April 26, 1960, in Birmingham, England). ![]() “Video to us is like stereo was to Pink Floyd, ” said Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes. Screaming, record-buying, television-watching teen-age girls everywhere ate it up -and nobody could have predicted it better than the band members themselves. But what set them apart immediately were their videos: somewhat surreal escapist fantasies that took the self-styled playboys to such far-flung locales as Sri Lanka and Antigua. Combining the sounds of 1970s British punk and the more upbeat, danceable rhythms of disco, Duran Duran began producing clean, sparkling (if not critically acclaimed), pop tunes. The five-member band of young, sculpted faces often adorned with make-up and frilly, expensive clothes, saw in the music video the perfect vehicle for propelling them beyond obscurity and their musical abilities to fame, fortune, and good times. ![]() When MTV, the 24-hour music video network, dawned in the early 1980s, it changed the face of popular music forever, and the British rock group Duran Duran was the first act to take full advantage of its possibilities.
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