Duran Duran by ACC Art Books

DURAN DURAN

CARELESS MEMORIES Photographed by Denis O’Regan

S I M O N LE BON Wh at’s n i c e a b o u t b e in g in a b a n d is yo u d o n ’ t h a ve a s cr ip t ; you don ’ t h ave s omeb ody els e’s words t o s ay. Yo u c o m e u p w it h yo u r ow n id e a s , a n d it ’s all you – you don ’ t h ave t o p lay a p ar t . 1984

We ’re a ll d iffe re n t n ow. H a s n ’ t v ir t ually ever y cell regen erat ed s in ce t h en ? I d o n ’ t re a lly t h in k yo u grow as a p er s on on t our, b u t in 1 9 8 4 o u r wo r k e t h ic b e c a m e c e m e n t ed, an d we defin it ely b ecame more p rofes s ion al. We l ove d fa m e a n d t h e hy s t e r ia we c re a t e d , b u t a s t h e mon t h s rolled by t h e fame b ecame more of a h in dran ce a n d it wa s d iffic u lt t o e s c a p e an d s t ep out of t h os e s h oes .

INTRODUCTION: WENDY LAISTER, NEW YORK CITY The year was 1984 and the five members of Duran Duran were in their early twenties. It was a leap year, and across the two sides of the Pond, Reagan and Thatcher were in power. The political backdrop was one of unrest, with high unemployment in much of the developed world and a global economic recession that saw 70 banks fail in the US alone before the year was out. On British shores the coal miners’ year-long industrial action dominated the news, with the Union’s eventual defeat both weakening the country’s trade union movement overall and consolidating the Conservative Party’s stronghold. Further afield, in Ethiopia, the political conflict left the country devastated by widespread famine, with more than 10 million people facing starvation. And in the Middle East, the Iran-Iraq war continued. It was a year in which five space missions were launched as part of the Space Shuttle Program, and for the first time, man walked untethered 170 miles above the Earth. The now ubiquitous Macintosh personal computer was introduced. Donald Duck turned 50. Princess Diana gave birth to her second son, Prince Harry. Nelson Mandela saw his wife for the first time in 22 years. Virgin Atlantic took its inaugural flight; and the first commercial CD players were released to market. Over the summer months, Los Angeles played host to the 23rd Olympic Games, that were boycotted by much of the Eastern Bloc and their allies, including the Soviet Union. In October, Indira Gandhi was assassinated, and over the days that followed thousands of Sikhs were killed in retaliation. As the year drew to a close, Bob Geldof gathered together a charity super-group, featuring almost all of the leading British and Irish artists of the day (including members of Duran Duran), to record Do They Know It’s Christmas? – which became the fastest selling single in history, raising millions for famine relief in Ethiopia, and staying at the top of the charts for five weeks. Finally, after many months of intense research, in 1984, the AIDS virus was identified, quelling some of the widespread media panic and speculation that had followed the disease’s discovery three years earlier, but, at the same time, revealing the true horror and devastating effect it was beginning to have around the world. In music, the British album charts were peppered with a mix of international and domestic artists, the most successful being Bob Marley and the Wailers, who enjoyed a nine-week stint at the top. On the other side of the ocean, Michael Jackson’s Thriller continued its US chart success, staying in the #1 slot for 15 weeks and becoming the best selling album for the second year in a row. In June, Prince and The Revolution stepped into the spotlight with the Purple Rain soundtrack, which dominated the charts for the last 22 weeks of the year, selling more than nine million copies. But Stateside, there were major changes afoot, and with the advent of MTV came the Second British Invasion. In the UK, music videos had begun to infiltrate television programming over a period of several years, from the late ’70s, through shows like Top of the Pops, which would occasionally feature a clip if a song became popular and the artist was either not available to perform, or they wanted to show just a portion of the song during the countdown. In line with this, there were

a growing number of forward-thinking British artists creating compelling visuals to accompany their music, Duran Duran amongst them. In America, however, radio still reigned supreme, and few acts were making anything other than live concert clips, because traditionally there had been so few outlets for music videos on television. When MTV launched it seized the opportunity to play the innovative style of videos that were being created overseas, and welcomed the new wave of British musicians with open arms. At its inception, MTV was only available in a few small towns and suburbs, but soon, the industry realised how quickly and effectively it drove sales among a younger audience, who actively pushed radio to play the songs they were seeing on the small screen. As the new crop of British artists started to gain momentum their impact coincided with a creative slump in American music, that was partly the result of an ever-further fragmented marketplace, and partly due to a growing fatigue with classic rock. The New Pop was seen to bring energy and colour back to the forefront, even though the established rock press was often disapproving of the phenomenon, claiming that the radical approach being taken by these modern artists mostly represented style over content. Against a fairly bleak economic canvas, groups such as Duran Duran offered a glamorous alternative. The band’s videos were aspirational and exotic, and their image adventurous and unique. Whilst they had begun their career attracting an avant garde audience, building up a cult following on the club scene, things changed unexpectedly and rather dramatically when they came to the attention of a younger generation, the five band members rapidly becoming heart-throbs, and driving teenage girls to the kind of mass hysteria that hadn’t been witnessed since The Beatles had first set foot on American soil, some twenty years earlier. Outside North America, Duran Duran was already well established, having first released their eponymous debut, and then its follow-up, Rio, a year later. These two albums collectively spawned a series of hits, both at home and overseas, starting with Planet Earth, which charted in the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia; and followed by now classic titles such as Girls On Film, Hungry Like The Wolf, Save A Prayer and Rio. In the US, the band had a slower start, initially touring extensively in clubs across the country at the end of 1981, before returning twice to the market in support of Rio – first headlining small venues, and later opening for Blondie, during what became their last tour together for seventeen years. On the charts, their debut album had little impact, and even when Rio came out, despite its enormous popularity everywhere else in the world, it didn’t create any waves in the US until they re-released Hungry Like The Wolf, six months after its initial European success. The song broke through, resonating with the rapidly expanding alternative radio format, then spreading across mainstream America, becoming a substantial hit on the Billboard Hot 100. By 1984, Duran Duran were touring in support of their third studio album – Seven and the Ragged Tiger – which had been released in November the year before, shooting straight to Number One in the UK album charts, and achieving platinum status both sides of the Atlantic by the following January. The record had been made in studios in the South of France, Montserrat and latterly Sydney, with producers Ian Little and Alex Sadkin. The video for the album’s first single, Union Of The Snake, had been delivered to MTV a full week before the song was taken to radio – a first in music history and a nod to the power of the channel as the year rolled around. The second single, New Moon On Monday, was released in January 1984, accompanied by an equally ambitious clip that was soon in heavy rotation. In February, the band members appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and were proclaimed by the publication to be The Fab Five. A few weeks

It took us a long time to break through in America, and the reason is that people couldn’t hear our music. It was extremely hard, we were trying to change things musically and radio was very resistant to playing new music. Fortunately, as soon as MTV started to play our videos, radio stations decided to follow suit. America is driven by radio, so this was undoubtedly a pivotal moment for us, the doors broke open wide. Hungry Like The Wolf became a massive hit and we knew everything had changed. Nick Rhodes, 1984

The ’80s was MTV’s golden era. They were true pioneers. I am happy that we were a part of that story. It was a period when the launch of a new video was a real event and MTV was all about music. It was dynamic and eclectic. They featured artists of many different genres who all co-existed side by side. It was the enlightened period before sponsors, game shows and corporations ruined the dream. Nick Rhodes

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Photographic restoration: Denis O’Regan Editors: Denis O’Regan, Wendy Laister Text: Duran Duran, Gabrielle Sneddon-Pike, Denis O’Regan, Wendy Laister Design: John Warwicker, tomato Original DD logo designed by Malcolm Garrett, Assorted Images

© 2022 Denis O’Regan World copyright reserved ISBN: 978-178884-178-8 The right of Denis O’Regan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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