Speaker 1: This is a podcast from Minute Media.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely You Can't
Be Serious Podcast. This week, we are diving into the
history of Duran Duran Yep.
Speaker 3: We're going to go from beginning of the band all
the way through the Rio album, and maybe a few
stories afterwards. We're not talking about the album today. Rio.
We're going to talk about that next time. Jason, if
you need to borrow my CD, you can use it, Okay,
try not to bruise it by time, don't lose it.
I'm sorry, it's just a reflex.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's dive into the history of one of
the most influential bands of early MTV. They shaped the
eighties really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, First, I have to issue a formal apology. In
the past, I refer to them basically as pretty. You
didn't know how to play their instruments, and that was
a gross inaccuracy. They are pretty, don't get me wrong, right,
but these guys are strong musicians, and after going through
these albums and looking at the music on this these
guys knew what they were doing. I mean, they weren't
the studio musicians that Toto were, but these guys knew
how to make some amazing and very very unique music.
Speaker 2: They really did grow quickly as musicians. But when they
started Nick and John decided they were going to make
a band, neither one of them could play, right. I mean,
but that's that's not uncommon. Right ambition before right knowledge.
Speaker 3: They had the whole big picture idea. It was like
we talked about with neph Leppard, Right, Joe Elliott had
the name of the band before.
Speaker 2: He had the band, right exactly.
Speaker 3: So you got to think about what was going on
at the time that these guys are deciding to become musicians. Right,
We've got the seventies music scene. So you've got punk,
you've got glam, you've got funk, you've got disco, and
you've got the birth of this new kind of synthesizer
stylele of music, all of which are impacting these guys'
musical tastes for sure.
Speaker 2: Oh, by the way, you've got a cable channel that's
about to come into fruition called MTV.
Speaker 3: Right, So, these guys were a part of what we
called the Second British Invasion. We talked about it when
we talked about def Leppard. We talked about it with
the police and they were considered what they called the
new Romantic style, and the new Romantic just meant they
were grabbing the glam rock kind of pizazz and then
adding it to this kind of eighteenth and nineteenth century style.
So you think about adamant and the frillly callers and
the right painted face and earrings and leather pants, just
this kind of weird mixture of stuff, which is what
they had. By the time the eighties roll around and
we get these guys here in the United States, they've
left all that behind and they've got their own fantastic style,
which I think had to influence the costumes in Miami
Vice for sure.
Speaker 2: For sure, crocketed tubs are all over the Rio video.
Speaker 3: Now we're comparing these guys to Toto. We're comparing the
Rio album to the four album. We talked about how
Africa is kind of like this outlier as far as
music goes. That song has been downloaded one point one
billion times, right yep. And what's interesting is right now
we just had our Toto episodes come out, and we've
got people going, oh, I just saw those guys in
concert with Journey.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Right. You can also buy tickets right now. To go
see a Duran Duran concert. They had their latest album
come out in October of last year.
Speaker 2: I know our friend Melissa Mingles, she's got tickets already.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The other interesting thing is that these guys are
on the forefront of the fan vote for the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. So a component of the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees is a group
of folks are submitted to fans and the fans vote,
And it was Eminem and the lead for a long time,
but then Duran Durant's slowly built up some momentum past Eminem.
As of last month and this month they're over one
hundred thousand votes ahead of them. So if you're tracking
about a band from the eighties, I mean, I love
that they're still doing music, but their chart topping hits
happened in the eighties and the nineties. That was twenty
five years ago. Yeah, and they now have over the
nearly seven hundred thousand votes for the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: So if you're a Duran Duran fan and you're listening
to this podcast, go vote for them for the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: Time to rock the vote all right, so shall we
get into the history.
Speaker 2: Let's get into history. Okay.
Speaker 3: Our story begins back in the sixties. It begins with
a club called the rum Runner. So the rum Runner
was this club that used to be a casino. It
was on Broad Street in Birmingham. But at the rum
Runner all kinds of actors and musicians would just go
to hang out. You had Black Sabbath hanging out there.
You had Roy Wood from Elo and the two son
of the owner decide, Hey, you know, we're about to
take this place over. We're going to go on a
trip over to New York City and we're going to
go to Studio fifty four. They come back from seeing
Studio fifty four. They're like, we're going to take our
club and we're going to renovate it, and we're going
to do it in the style of Studio fifty four.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: And so they have this kind of disco tech idea
and they're starting to bring new bands in. Well, as
it happens, these rather good looking guys come in with
a demo tape and the two brothers, Paul and Michael Barrow, say, okay,
let me see what you got. They listen to it.
And they say, we want you to be a part
of our club, not only that, we want to manage you.
And so they form a management company for the purpose
of managing this band that becomes the house band, and
they are basically the other two members of the band
the album seven and the Ragged Higher. The reason that
it's seven and nine five is the other two are
Paul and Michael Barrow, the owners of the Runner, right, and.
Speaker 2: The Ragged Tiger is success. Yeah, seven and the Ragged
Tiger Right.
Speaker 3: So these guys that call themselves Duran Duran, Where did
they come from?
Speaker 4: They come from Hollywood, Well, Hollywood, Hollywood, England, Yeah, yeah, Birmingham,
Albert No, yes, So Nick and Nigel were good buddies
back in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Nigel Nigel.
Speaker 3: I didn't grow up with anyone named Nigel me either.
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 3: A very British name it is.
Speaker 2: And so Nigel actually changed his name back to his
middle name, John.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So Nick Rhodes born in sixty two. His original
name was Nicholas James Bates. The last name like Bates.
I can see how you might get teased, Yaster Bates. Yes,
in England. Yes, his parents owned a toy shop. I
thought that was kind of cool. Okay, he became childhood
friends with John Taylor. They formed a group, like you said,
even really before they were able to play their instruments,
called RAF or RAF.
Speaker 2: Stands for Rural Air Force. Another one of the bands
that Nick and John participated in was this band called
Shock Treatment. And so Shock Treatment actually played for John's
senior class. Okay, so you're up there in front of
your classmates, and he said, he here's what I learned
about shock Treatment. Number one, shock Treatment was awful. Number
two I couldn't wait to do it again.
Speaker 3: So Nigel John Taylor had been born in sixty He
was a couple of years older than Nick, and he
had these thick glasses and he was this goofy kid
who was into playing war like James Bond.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they both loved James Bond.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but he was also into roxy music, uh huh.
And they decided, hey, we want to be big rock
and roll stars. And he enjoyed the funkiness of Sheikh's
bass player Bernard Edwards. You know, Chic was a Nile
Rogers venture. Yes, it was, Well, that would be interesting
for them later on because he.
Speaker 2: Goes on to play on notorious and produce them, and
he's a big part of Duran Durant.
Speaker 3: Yes, he always calls them Durant. He just says it.
I love it when he does that.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So John and Nick get together with this guy named
Stephen Duffy and they decide to form a band. Okay,
Steven's going to be doing the lead singing. John is
going to be playing guitar, and then Nick is playing
the keyboards, right yep. And then they get this guy
named Simon Coley to play the bass. But something that
important that we've got to talk about is the name.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely so. In addition to the Rum Runner in Birmingham,
there were a few different clubs. Right. One of the
clubs that these guys played at was called Barbarillas. Yeah,
named after a movie that starred Jane Fonda.
Speaker 2: Yes, and in the movie there's a character's name is
durand durand good annunciation. Make sure I get the last
d's there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they durand Durand, which I'm sure as you're
listening to it watching it on the telly, if you will,
this sounds like Duran Durant. And so John Taylor is
watching Barbarella because you know, why not watch a movie
about they got the club named after it, and he's like,
Duran Durant. Mom had a good name for band. Sounds
weird to me. Okay, good name for band.
Speaker 2: Then that's exactly right. Yeah, that's what happened. Barbarella produces
the name Duran Durant.
Speaker 3: So John and Nick are playing with Steven and Simon
and then something happens in there. They leave.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well the singer and the other guitar player, the
other guy you don't recognize. They ghost him like they
just never show back up.
Speaker 3: Like practice tomorrow. Okay, where are the guys? I don't know?
Speaker 2: I never saw him again, just vanished. How'd you like
to be the guy that was in Duran Durant and
then decided that we're going into the grocery store as matter.
Speaker 3: Well, To be fair, Steven Duffy has gone on to
some success in the music industry. He is not It
hasn't been Duran Durant's success, but he has been a
successful musician. He has played with Robbie Williams, He's played
with the guy from Bar Naked Ladies. These produced albums.
He's he is not a failure as a musician, but
he's not Duran, Duran's success.
Speaker 2: He's not Simon lebaughn No, right, Simon Lebon.
Speaker 3: So John and Nick are in this situation where they're
down to just them again, and so they're like, okay,
well we need to try to find a singer. And
they find this guy named Andy Wickett. Now there's a
case to be made that Andy Wickett is responsible for
a large part of the music of Girls on Film
and of Rio. And this is this is backed up
by Roger. I mean, this isn't just you know, like
I was on that. No, Like literally, Roger Taylor is like, yeah,
that was a large and a large part him. And
so they've got and they've got a bass player, a
bass player, and they've got a keyboardist. They meet this
guy at a party who is a drummer.
Speaker 2: Roger Taylor, you go. So they bring him in and
they like the rock aspect, the edge that he brings
to their band, and so they wanted to have synths.
Nick was very Nick's a strong personality, absolutely, and he's
a great song builder. Yep, they want a rock and
they won a synth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay. So Roger Taylor also born in nineteen sixty.
He had been drumming since he was about twelve years old,
self taught, would just play along with the records. His
dream was to be a goalie for Aston Villa Soccer.
Speaker 2: And he's a big soccer guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. He and his dad went to every single game
at Villa Park. Unfortunately, you know, he didn't make it,
but he did get to play there as a drummer
when they played their charity Coneen eighty three Very good.
He also was influenced by the Roxy music. His big
influence was Paul Thompson, Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones,
and Tony Thompson of Chic. Yeah, so we got Roxy
music and Chic as a commonality. For John Taylor and
Roger Taylor, they're just like, oh both Taylor's okay, Well,
people are gonna think we're brothers, but whatever else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly right. When they added Roger to the lineup,
you got niicros, you've got John Taylor and you've got
Andy Wickett. When they add Roger Taylor, they're like, oh,
you're great man, Come on board. What's your last name?
He's like Taylor, all right, all right, fine, no big deal.
Speaker 3: I think they said they had been playing together for
like a few weeks before they were finally like, what's
your last name?
Speaker 2: Well that becomes even funnier here.
Speaker 3: In just a second, right. So Roger Taylor, before he
had joined Duran Duran was a member. He was a
member of a band that he had formed called the
scent Organs.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: They ended up being regional finalists for the Melody Maker
Young Band of the Year, So this isn't a no slacker.
Speaker 2: They make a demo tape four songs Girls on film
Enigmatic Swimmers see meat Me, which we talked about kind
of is the building blocks for Rio and then breaking away.
They shot that demo to companies around London. Yep, they
get a little interests, not much, but they run into
the Burrows and the Burrows are like, yeah, we are interested.
We want to manage a band. We've got this club.
Why don't you come be the house band? So that's success.
I mean they're like, hey, you're good enough to become
the house band. And as soon as they get in there,
Andy Wickt quits. So the rum Runner is no insignificant thing.
I mean, being the house band there, the rum Runner
is a big deal, right, they had rehearsal spaces that
other bands would play at Dexi, and the Midnight Runners
played there. Ub forty play there. If you've seen the
video for Mirror in the Bathroom by the Beat, that's
the rum Runner, okay, And so it's kind of a
big deal that they're the house band there.
Speaker 3: But that's not the only job that they have, right,
They all work there in other capacities. Roger was a
glass collector, John was a bouncer. Nick was the DJ,
and each night the rum Runner had different styles of
music that would play, and so they kind of were
exposed to all of these different styles. Nick is obviously
being the DJ, is getting all kinds of musical input,
and they're actually moving him from different from night to
night so that he's getting different musical styles that way
as well. And so they're like, Okay, we need a guitarist.
Let's put an ad out in the Melody Maker.
Speaker 2: Yes, so Andy Taylor had been playing cover bands for
American soldiers, okay, so he had learned to kind of
play for a crowd and stuff like this. He responded
to the ad. He called the secretary for the rum
Runner and he's like, hey, my name's Andy. I'm interested
in auditioning as the guitarist. And she said, okay, come
on down British accent, and he said, what's the name
of the So he says, what's the name of the band?
And she goes Dren Dren and he's like, I'm sorry,
what was that. She's like jurnne Jurynne. He said, okay.
He had no idea what she was saying, so he
didn't know until he showed up. He's like, okay, Duran, Durant, Okay,
I'm with it now.
Speaker 3: So Andy'd been playing guitar since he was sixteen. One
of the guys that taught him how to play guitar
is a guy named Dave Black who was in the
Spiders from Mars, which was the backing band for David Powie.
Speaker 2: And the Insane It's Crazy Yeah, So.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he gave him tutoring and get the guitar. And
like you said, he had toured England and Europe with
several bands before he answered this ad and as he said,
and I took that faithful train ride down to Birmingham
in nineteen eighty. So April of nineteen eighty Andy joins
the band Andy starts working at the drum Runner as
a cook and like a fix it man, like fixing
the interior stuff.
Speaker 2: Yes, he's a rock and roll guy.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And here's what he said. He says, I'm a rock fan,
but the girls hung out at the disco. I recommend
a large portion of both.
Speaker 2: You know, he's a very blue collar. They called him
the balls of the band. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Then they're like, okay, we need to have a singer.
And there's this waitress at the room Runner named Fiona
camp yep, and she's like, you need to be my
ex boyfriend.
Speaker 2: Yeah. She's like, my ex boyfriend is an actor and
a poet. I think he'd be good as your singer.
And they're like, okay, I mean, you know, if you
is a detractive girl, freem in. As soon as he
walked in the door, they're like, please, God, let this
guy be able to sing. Simon's a good looking dude.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he's got pink lepper print pat that's exactly right.
So Simon Labon. He was older than these guys by
a couple of years. He's born in fifty eight, born
on his father's birthday.
Speaker 2: Oh that's nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had been acting and singing since he was
a little kid. His mom got him into TV commercials,
advertisements for washing products and such, and he had been
a part of the boys choir and so he understood
harmonies and melodies. He had even been a part of
a punk band for a little while called Dog Days.
That one I did not all right, But just before
he makes this grand entrance into the rum Runner in
his pink leopard print skin tight pants. Yes, he had
gone down to Israel to work as a tree surgeon
in a kibbutz in the negive desert. Okay, I mean what, Yeah,
it's just bizarre. And so even while he was down there,
he had written in this book that he had of
poetry and songs, some of which the became songs in
the album we're going to talk about in our next episode.
Speaker 2: One of those songs became the Chauffeur. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So he comes back from the negive Desert doing whatever
awesome work that he was doing down there, and he's like, ah,
I'm so thankful there's no more sand. Let's go have
a beer. And he goes to the club.
Speaker 2: So when he meets them, they know he's the guy
Suzy walk in. They're like this guy's a star. He's
great looking, he carries himself, well, he's got style. Fianna
Kimp was absolutely right, this is our guy. And they
say what's your name, and he goes, my name is Simon,
and they go, let me guess Taylor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I forgot so. So when they had gotten their
fourth member, it was their third.
Speaker 2: Tailor, Andy Taylor. Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3: And in the eighties I was one hundred percent sure
that these guys were brothers. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean it's confusing, right, yeah I did.
Speaker 3: I mean they all have a cinimilar look, their last
name is Taylor. Obviously they're they're related, of course, not
not one of them related.
Speaker 2: Once Simon was on board, John wrote in his diary
the star has arrived.
Speaker 3: So they get together, they start playing music. Simon hasn't
done a thing, but he hears the first song that
they play and he goes, oh, hold on, I think
I've got something that'll go with that. And he pulls
out this book that we were talking about, flips to
a pay and starts singing his own lyrics in his
own melody to the music that they're doing. And they're like,
it is time we have we have arrived. If you.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's incredible. You know they talked about how early on,
you know, Nigel, John and Nick they had this massive ambition, right,
and Simon was actually impressed by their ambition. He was
told by John and Nick that Deran Duran would play
London's Hammersmith Odin by nineteen eighty two, Wembley Arena by
nineteen eighty three, and Madison Square Garden by nineteen eighty four.
Guess what they met those deadlines?
Speaker 1: They said, Zaks, Wow, nice.
Speaker 3: I mean, do you understand the quickness? I mean we
talk about overnight successes here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Andy Taylor joined the band in April of nineteen eighty.
Simon Labond joined the band in May of nineteen eighty
and by nineteen eighty one they're recording their first album
I know, and touring the United States.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Before even Andy and Simon had joined the band, they
had sent out those demo tapes that we were talking about, right,
And they're so good and so good looking that there's
a bidding war that starts between EMI and Phonogram, and
ultimately they're like, well the Beatles were with EMI, they
need to go with them.
Speaker 2: That's great. So their first official gig with the classic
lineup was July sixteenth, nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: In addition to putting together an album, they are forming
a corporation, right, They have a brand identity that they
want and that includes style. They did something that almost
no other bands were doing at this time. The fashion
industry in the rock and roll industry were enemies.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: You had the sex pistols out there, given you the fea.
You had guys who were poking holes in their face
just to look ugly, right, right, But these guys went
the entire opposite direction, and they said, we want to stylist.
So they get Harry Haynes their stylist, and they get
fashion designers con and Bowl and Anthony Price to design
their clothes, which defines their look for the beginning part
of the eighties. Wow.
Speaker 2: On March fifth of nineteen eighty one, they were invited
to play on Top of the Pops and they performed
Planet Earth.
Speaker 3: So Planet Earth is off their debut album, Deurandering.
Speaker 2: So here's the interesting thing about Planet Earth. So Planet
Earth is a moderate success, but it fails to chart
in the top forty in America, right, and they really
want to conquer America, and so they go to the
record company and there's a fight over which single is
going to be released next. They all believe that Girls
on Film is the strongest song on the album. The
record company is like, no, We're going to release Careless Memories.
And Nick is like no, like Nick is ready to
die on the Hill. No, Girls on Film, Girls on Film,
and the record companies they nope, Careless Memories. So they
release Careless Memories. And that one sputtered and they had
kind of lost that momentum. So the next the third
single was like do or Die, right, and that's when
they dropped Girls on Film July of nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 3: They had already appreciated the power of the music video,
and this was before MTV. Right MTV came out in
August of eighty one, they knew, hey, we need start
making videos. They had a video for Planet Earth that
was interesting.
Speaker 2: That they played on at discos and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but they said, okay, for Girls on Film, we
want to get as rough and dirty and raunchyet as
we can. And so they hired a couple of guys
who were also musicians to direct this video for Girls
on Films. The guys were called Godley and Creede, Elen
and Green Yeah, and they put together a film that
was not just rated R, it was probably rated NC seventeen.
It had strippers making suggestive movements on holes covered with cream.
There was ice on certain areas of the body. And
it was the first video to be banned by MTV
and by the BBC. How about that talk about making
a name for yourself that it instantly made the song
a mega hit.
Speaker 2: It's legendary. I mean they had topless mud wrestlers right right,
and it made the song a hit. This song was
played late at night on like Cinemax and stuff like
like you couldn't get this on regular TV. It was
on like cable.
Speaker 3: You had to watch skin Amax to see a Duran
Duran Vivie.
Speaker 2: How about that? Wow? So the song becomes a huge hit,
reaches number five in the UK. Right. They open their
tour June twenty ninth, and there's nothing but screaming girls,
like screaming so loud that they can't hear themselves play.
It's like the Beatles. It's like the Beatles. In fact,
they're called the Fab.
Speaker 3: Five Yeah, as a throwback to the Fab four, which
is what they call the Beatles, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right, list of this. One girl brought scissors in order
to steal a lock of hair from Simon's head, and
when she lunged, she almost hit him in the eye.
No word on whether she actually got a lot of
care or not. So on their tour of the US,
they're in New York for the first time. Like you said,
they're really interested in conquering America. So where do they
go when they arrive in New York? First Studio fifty four, right,
So they showed up, They soaked up the night live.
Nick mentioned that he really wanted to meet Andy Warhol.
Speaker 3: Oh right, Okay.
Speaker 2: They're like, well, we Andy comes in here all the time.
We'll let him know. Put a pin in that. Okay.
They move on to the Midwest, where John says they
scored their very first Playboy Bunnies in Chicago.
Speaker 3: Okay, so it's.
Speaker 2: Not entirely unsuccessful tour.
Speaker 3: Okay, Right.
Speaker 2: They go to La they play the Roxy. Okay, so
you know they're doing these legendary places venues. Yes, they
go back through New York, he.
Speaker 3: Said, doing these legendary places.
Speaker 2: They're playing these legendary venues like you said. They go
back to New York and this is where they meet
Andy Warhol for the first time. And guess what. Andy
Warhol decides that he is in love with Nick Rhodes.
Speaker 3: Well, I can see that. So Andy was very very
gay and Nick likes to wear makeup a lot.
Speaker 2: Nick straight, but he does like the feminine look.
Speaker 3: He has the glam thing and it has I mean,
he he was consistent. He didn't give that thing up.
I don't know that he still doesn't wear makeup, probably.
Speaker 2: Right, that's right, that's right. In fact, when Nick got married, yeah,
like two years later, the tabloids made the comment that
the groom more and more makeup than the bride.
Speaker 3: Did you know he married an heiress? Like she was like,
it's some iow girl whose family had this department store
called Yonkers or something. Yes, and there was the I mean,
there's this huge chain and she was the heir to
the fortune. So he could have his yacht parties where
the wows docked and he just got to drink Coctor.
Speaker 2: So after they tour the US, they go back to
the UK, back to their parents' houses.
Speaker 3: Right it Like my dad was telling me I couldn't
watch what I want to do on TV.
Speaker 2: This is when they work on and produce the song
My Own Way really so as a single as a
bridge right between the first album in Rio.
Speaker 3: Girls in Film is hot and they want to maintain
the momentum.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: So it's eighty one. They're back from their US tour.
There's riots going on in their home country, civil unrest.
Their parents won't let them watch what they want to
on TV. They're like, ah, I guess we need to
write an album.
Speaker 2: The record company wants hits, so they moved to the
south of France to finished their second album. That album
is Rio. Rio produces some of the biggest hits for
the MTV generation. Absolutely, you've got Rio, You've got Hungry
like the Wolf, You've got Save a Prayer, You've got
the Chauffeur, My Own Way. You have all these great,
great songs and the videos that come with them. Follow
us next week as we go track by track.
Speaker 3: Through Rio, where we will have our special guests as
to mingle with us.
Speaker 2: Listen Mingle Mega Duran Duran Finn.
Speaker 3: Russell mulcahey is from Australia.
Speaker 2: YEP.
Speaker 3: Australia is where Duran Duran had their first number one hit.
Speaker 2: The planet Earth Okay.
Speaker 3: They were wildly, wildly successful in Australia. That was where
the ninety nine percent women screaming their heads off part
began for them. They realized that things were happening once
they hit down Under, right. And so they've got this
guy that's made this movie called Razorback, which is interesting
and weird. Yes, who's just hungry to do more movies
and not getting any opportunities, and so they're like, how
about you come make some music videos. He's like, so, what, well,
short movies with our songs in them. Okay, if you've
got money, I'll come do it. And what we end
up with is what five different videos by mulcahe which
helped define what videos are. I mean, there were no
rules at the time. This is literally as MTV is
being born, and we've got this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They spent eight days in Sri Lanka, got three
videos out of it, and then after that they had
a trip to Antigua. Yep, I'd like to say it
the British Wave, although I've said it Antigua in my
whole life.
Speaker 3: Antigua, and that's where they film the Rio video. So
they're having success in the UK. They're having massive success
in Australia. Rio comes out and it fizzles in the US.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little bit discosynthpop too much for the
American audience.
Speaker 3: So EMI had promoted Duran Duran in the UK as
this new romantic band, but the new romantic movement wasn't
a thing in the US, and so the US audiences
didn't know what to do with it. They didn't know
where they were going to sell them. And so Capitol
Records is the subsidiary of EMI that's in the US,
and so they say, okay, let's try to remix some
of these songs in a more dance friendly kind of way.
And so they get their guy, David Kershenbaum to remix
few songs ep worth of songs, Hungry like the Wolf, Rio,
Planet Earth, and Girls on Film, all like the Night
version the dance mixed style. Once that came out, these
dance clubs started to play it. Once the dance club
started to play it, then Capitol record said, why don't
we remix the entire album, and the Darien Duran was like,
that's great, We'll go for that. And so David Kirshbaum
remixed the entire Rio album in a US Style remix,
and at that point it started to climb the charts.
These guys were influenced by glam rock and punk and disco,
which I mean, those three things are groups that the
people hate each other in, right, sure, but these guys
are willing to say I like them all right.
Speaker 2: John Taylor was quoted as saying when the juke box
would play songs, He's like, hey, Anarchy in the UK.
I love this song sex Pistols. And then the next
song was good Times by Chic. He's like, this song's awesome.
Speaker 5: Too, Yeah, and it's it's kind of me I kind
of identify with that, sure, And I think, just to
kind of go off topic here a little bit, that's
kind of the way the world is now.
Speaker 3: People our age still. You've got your heavy metal adherence,
you've got your you know, new wave adherence and pop adherence.
But for our kids, with streaming music, they can literally
it's like the jew box in their pocket where they
can hear sex Pistols, followed by Casey in the Sunshine Band,
followed by Metallica, and can love all of it or
not be running a foul of some click or something,
you know, So it's interesting that we're in this stage
where people are exposed to all of these different kinds
of music and all new music sounds the same. Yeah,
it's kind of disappointing. Right, It's okay, there's a revolution coming,
We're going to see it.
Speaker 2: Let's go see it happen. We're waiting on it.
Speaker 3: Come on, young musicians out there, start doing the club
scene again, start doing the dance clubs. I don't care
how the revolution happened, but bring us goodness.
Speaker 2: So Rio takes off. With the marriage of MTV Duran
durand these catchy songs, it turns them into superstars. Once
Rio is done, which we'll talk about in detail next week.
So we're going to kind of dodge RIO right now.
Come back next week. As we go track by track
through that one, pressure's on to come up with new
stuff because they are scorching hot and so in between,
as they did with My Own Way, they have a
song that bridges the two albums. That song is called
is There Something I Should Know?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Mega hit it, Oh, huge hit. Right. So in March
of nineteen eighty three, they guessed VJ on MTV. They
debut this no song. They are the darlings of MTV absolutely,
so I thought this was interesting. Their advisors at that
time told them, hey, listen, rock and roll is pretty fickle.
You guys might want to stabilize your finances for the future.
Because the page turns quick, and they're like, what are
you talking about, dude. We're the best, We're the hottest thing,
and so I'm gonna.
Speaker 3: Have to let you go. My coke dealers here.
Speaker 2: Does bag two playmates. So then they go back to
the studio to work on their third album. That third
album is a little bit harder than the first two.
Simon talks about how they had a build up of songs,
so they got to start from scratch a right. So
Seven and the Ragged Tiger comes out. That produces the Reflex,
New Moon on Monday, and Union of the Snake.
Speaker 3: So here's something interesting that happens. Nick Rhodes also becomes
a producer at this time, and he discovers this band
called Kicha Goo Go. Yeah, he discovers Kwija Goog and
he's like, I want to produce a song of yours.
So he co produces a song called Too Shy, which
hits number one in the UK before Duran Durant ever
has a number.
Speaker 2: One da Wow. Well that's interesting because Nick is having
success as a producer. So John's a very competitive guy.
We talked about this, and so he sets out to
produce somebody. So who does he want to produce? His girlfriend,
baby Buele, baby Buell and yeah, good looking lady. Not
so much in the vocals.
Speaker 3: Department, right, we'll talk about that one next episode.
Speaker 2: That's right. At this point, though, the cocaine use and
drinking and drugs start.
Speaker 3: To escalate, right, and they're starting to few.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, So Andy is engaged, Nick is engaged.
Nobody likes Nick's fiance, right, and so Nick brings her
on the tour. They start referring to her as Yoko Ono,
as everyone does, and problems start to set in. Egos
are big, money is huge, Drugs are everywhere, drinking is everywhere,
and they start to dislike each other. They also start
to take a dislike to the Burroughs. Yeah, they noticed
that the car that John had was really, really a
cool Ferrari and theirs was even nicer, which seems kind
of petty. Yeah, but they started to think, why are
these guys so rich? Yeah, we're the ones doing all
the work making the money.
Speaker 3: The Burrows and Simon Lebond continued their friendship.
Speaker 2: They loved to yacht together.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, that's the thing. They went on a big
yacht race. Like, what are you going to do if
you're ultra wealthy and one of the biggest stars in
the world, You're going to go on the across the
world boat race? Right, And so they're in third place
and all of a sudden, the keel falls off, the
boat turns upside down. Yes, there's a guy trapped down there,
like in the sales and the chains and stuff, and
Simon Labon is jumping in with a couple of other
guys and tearing the sails away to try to save
this guy's life. Yes, it's a tense and so obviously
done with sailing after that, right, wrong? Yeah, Okay, let's
do this again. And they do it again, and they
still get their place, but at least they finished this
time right third place? What do you do?
Speaker 2: So in June of nineteen eighty three, is there something
I should know? HiT's number five on the Hot one hundred.
There's still scorching hot. Listen to this. John escorts his
girlfriend now no longer baby buble. Okay, Janine Andrews, who's
a Bond girl. Okay, she has a small part in
the movie Octopussy.
Speaker 3: Okay. And by the way, by the way, listener Shirley
fan out there, if you haven't heard it yet, please
go back and check out our Battle of the Bonds
episodes where we compare Connery and Moore and Octopussy and
Never Say Never Again.
Speaker 2: Yes, love that episode.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of girl parts in Octopussy. That
was a lot of girls in it.
Speaker 2: Yes, you said girl parts.
Speaker 3: There were a lot of those two.
Speaker 2: Okay, So she has a small rule. Princess Die was
the guest of honor at this screening.
Speaker 3: Princess Die, if we haven't mentioned this, said Duran. Duran
was her favorite band, not one of Yes, but her favorite.
Speaker 2: Yes. Princess Die was a huge and she was about
the same age, so she loved these guys. She thought
they were great, and she was the guest of honor.
But when John watched the movie, he heard the song All.
Speaker 6: Time High, which.
Speaker 2: We've talked about in our Octopusy versus Never Say Never
Again episode. We did and we did not care for it,
John said. John agreed with us and said that song sucks.
That's right, sucks. So at the post party, who's there
other than Princess Die Kubby Brockley.
Speaker 3: Kubbe Brockley, the producer and owner of all of the
James Bond songs.
Speaker 2: Yes, and so John's like tells his girlfriend Jeanine. He's like, hey,
introduce me to Kubby Brockley. I've been a James Bond
fan my entire life. And so she's like okay, sure,
so she brings him over to Kubby Brockley says, Cobby,
this is John Taylor. He is a member of Duran. Duran,
You've got the number one song in the world right
now with the reflex, And Kubby's like, I know exactly
who you are. And John's like, when are you going
to go back to having good songs in James Bond movie?
And the guy's like, oh, you didn't like that one.
He's like, no, that was terrible. He's like, well, maybe
you should do the next one. He's like I will,
okay then, so Kubby's like done. Deal right, So it's
like this handshake deal right there. Right, you got the
hottest band in the world. James Bond producer Kebby ruck
is like, we got to make this happen. So he
goes to John Berry, who's the Bond composer who's in
his fifties, and he's like, guess what, I just hired
Deuran Durant to do the theme song. And John Berry's
like eh, Kebby Rock is like no, you're going to
make this work. So they come up with arguably the
greatest Bond song of all time, in a View to
a Kill. So while they're tourings, they get a call
they've been invited back to London to do a charity
performance for Charles and Lady Diana. We talked about Lady Die.
They loved Lady Die, so they're like, yeah, we're in right.
So after the performance they meet her. She shakes their
hand and as they're introducing themselves, she's like, well, I
know you. You're a John, you're Roger, you're Simon. She
knows them. She's a fan, like a legit fan, and
the world knows that Deran Duran's her favorite band. Okay. Now,
later on they learn that there was a plot by
the Irish Republican Army to bomb and assassinate Prince Charles
and Lady Diana. At that concert. WHOA. So it turns
out a double agent. This is no joke in the
Irish Republican Army foiled the plot.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: The agent said that Duran Durant had no idea how
lucky they were, right, Wow, And because Deuran Durant was
known to be Lady Guy's favorite band, the bomb was
believed to have been set to go off during their performance,
thereby assuring that they would kill her. Wow foiled by
a double agent. So while they're on tour, the Reflex
hits number one in America. But at the end of
the Seven and the Ragged Tiger tour, this would be
the last time the original lineup tours together for twenty years.
Once they've completed seven of the Ragged Tiger, they need
another song to bridge the gap. So what do they
come up with? Huge song called Wild Boys. So, going
on that success, they get a call from Bob Geldoff
from the Boomtown Rats.
Speaker 3: From the Boomtown Right among others.
Speaker 2: Yes, and he wants to do a song called Do
They Know It's Christmas. At this point, the band is
going in different directions. Right. We talk about how Andy
is wanting to be more rock, John is wanting to
do more rock. Nick is stained firm as mister synth
Roger is trying to play the middle, Simon's playing in
the middle. So John and Andy decide they're going to
work on a side project. They'd always loved Tony Thompson
from chic They were good friends with Robert Palmer from
Addicted to Love Fame, right, and they said, hey, let's
get together and let's let's do the song bang a Gong,
And so they create the power Station. The power Station
does pretty well. They go on tour in nineteen eighty five,
they have some hits, they have Bangagong and they have
some like it Hi. This is when the band like fractures, right,
So the leftover members of Duran Duran they form the
band called Arcadia. Right, and now you have competing factions
within the band. So when live Aid comes around, Bob
Geldoff says, hey, I got a great idea. Why doesn't
the power Station play first and then Duran Duran can
play later.
Speaker 3: You're competing with themselves.
Speaker 2: They're competing with themselves. So under this pressure cooker, that's
when they shoot the video for a view to a kill.
At that moment, they all could not even look at
each other in the eye.
Speaker 3: There's points in the video where one of them's trying
to kill the other one, and it was like, this.
Speaker 2: Is real life, right. So in nineteen eighty five, The
power Station is touring, but Robert Palmer drops out because
the album that he's been working on called Riptide, which
produced Addictatilov right and I didn't mean to turn you on.
His record company is like, dude, you've got to hit
album here. You need to drop out of this side
project and get busy with this.
Speaker 3: We'll get some supermodels that'll play music for you.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. So we talked about how the
power Station played at six forty five during Live Aid
and Deran Durand plays at eight forty five. By the way,
they played four songs, if You Do a Kill and
you Know, the Snake, Save a Prayer and the Reflex
two billion viewers, and when Simon hit the high note
on a View to a Kill, his voice broke. It's
kind of an embarrassing moment. And that was the last
time they would all play together for twenty five years
wow Live Aid. So shortly after Roger quits retires to
the farm, Andy takes off, he makes a solo album.
He actually does a great song in the summer of
eighty six called take It Easy. It was the theme
for American Anthem. And when he did that, he goes
through the band like Andy quit returning phone calls. He
wouldn't show up, even though he was contractually obligated to
play on the next Randre album.
Speaker 3: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: Like they're writing songs, they're doing stuff. Where's Andy. We
don't know, you can't find Andy, so he's out. That's
when they hire Warren Kukruleo.
Speaker 3: Right, who had played previously with Frank Zappa.
Speaker 2: Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 3: If you'll remember back in our Toto episode, we talked
about how Steve Lukather had tried out for the Frank
Zappa band and Frank Zappa had humiliated him in front
of all of the other guitarists as a technique to
get rid of the crappy players and just get the
cream of the crop. Well, Warren was like an obsessive
Frank Zappa fan, so like when he played, he knew
every single song that they had done, not for notes,
so he was flawless. He might have been the guy
who won that competition. I don't know he played with
them in the seventies, but yes, he ends up being
the guitarist for Duran Duran. So that's one circle to
tie in Toto and Deranduran. We get another one coming.
Speaker 2: That's cool. Warren. Actually after Frank Zappa was in Missing
Persons with the Bazios, so he joined Deranduran and iineteen
eighty six, they come out with the album Notorious. The
song hit number two on the Hot one hundred. The
album reached number twelve. But they're starting to kind of slide.
Not as many hits, not as impactful, not as much
rotation on MTV. In fact, this is the heyday of
hair metal. So in nineteen eighty eight they come up
with the album Big Thing, which has a couple of
great songs on it, I Don't Want Your Love and
All She Wants Is. But Dran Duran is no longer
the darlights of MTV. They're starting their slide.
Speaker 3: It's a different era of antik.
Speaker 2: Yes, so when ninety one comes around, like the nineties
hit grunge happens. It's not just grunge, but it's like
pop culture shuts the door on the eighties and bolts
it shut with a locke and proclaims every eighties band
dead yep, And they're like, crap, we're dead in the
water here. And so they had money, pro albums, they
had it.
Speaker 3: Wait, wait, they had money problems. They had money thought
somebody warned him and told them to invest their money.
Speaker 2: Well, apparently they didn't listen. So they're they're at their
lowest point. So Warren Cocilli is the one who kind
of took the lead. He's like, hey, guys, get up
off the deck and let's go. So he was watching
MTV and he started realizing that the tide had sort
of shifted on MTV. He's watching grunge, He's watching the Nevada,
the Pearl Jams and all this type of thing. And
the recent fad on MTV was to go unplugged, and
so he's like, guys, let's do something softer. Let's introduce
acoustic guitars. Let's go that route. And that Winter Simon
writes the lyrics for the song that becomes Ordinary Well
and the Ordinary World has written about his best friend
from the Rum Runner, David Miles, who died from an overdose.
Nick said this song came from space or the air.
You know, we've talked about how some people downloaded it
right from God. It was that kind of moment for
the band.
Speaker 3: Great song, it's a wonderful song. I had washed my
hands with Duran Duran by the mid nineties, and I
could not argue that that was not a new song.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. It was so huge, and it was
one of those deals where when they completed it, the
record company leaked it to radio stations because they knew
how awesome it was, and so there was a demand
for the video before they had even created it.
Speaker 3: Fantastic.
Speaker 2: Sting told John that he wished he would have written nice.
I love it. So the wedding album that contained The
Ordinary World rose to number four, their best since seven
in the Ragged Tiger, and their second single, come Undone
was unbelieve as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, another great song.
Speaker 2: The nineties reintroduced themselves to a generation, but.
Speaker 3: It wouldn't last. So ultimately, in nineteen ninety seven, John
leaves the band. Yeah, he decides he wants to pursue
an acting career, which I mean for the pin up guy. Sure,
why wouldn't you want to do that? Sure? So the
first movie that he's in called Sugartown Okay, co starring
Roseann Arquette.
Speaker 2: Get Out. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yeah so fall circle flashback to the Toto four episode. Yeah,
once again, these these albums are these bands at least
are intertwined.
Speaker 2: Such a great triumphant story for these guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now in two thousand and three, the Fab Five get
back together Andy Dunn's Day for very long now, but
they're still making music today.
Speaker 3: YEP released an album October of last year, Future Past.
I've heard it's great. Melissa told us it was great.
I don't have to go check it out.
Speaker 2: We go to go see them a cussert.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay, guys, we're going to take a quick break
and give you our surely showcase. This week. We have
a special guest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is David from guy Fans of Duran. He
has his own special Duran Duran podcast and here's what
he had to say about the Rio album.
Speaker 7: This is David Oh from the d Side podcast. Thanks
to the Shirly Podcast guys for asking me to share
my thoughts on Duran Duran's Rio. So when someone asks
you for something like this, I figure it could go one.
Speaker 2: Of two ways.
Speaker 7: You could do a deep dive and really analyze things,
or you could just go with your first thoughts off
the top of your head. I've gone with that latter
approach today. First of all, it's kind of important to
know my experience with RIO is a very American one,
as in, we got it a good six months after
the original release, just as its time was sort of
winding down in most places. The US label gave it
a remix and one last big push, and the US
finally noticed. Late eighty two saw the re release of
Hunger Like the Wolf, then the RIO single in the
spring of eighty three. The biggest thing about the Rio
album in my mind is that the music was nearly
inseparable from the videos. Six of the nine tracks eventually
got videos. Two of my favorites did not hold Back,
The Rain and The Last Chance on the Stairway. The
videos were groundbreaking. If you look at the other videos
made in nineteen eighty two, you'll see how incredible something
like Save a Prayer look to us back then. The
music is nearly flawless, the Redo of My Own Way
being maybe one of the less interesting but not particularly
bad tracks on the album. Rio is now mostly regarded
as one of those works of staggering genius, but it
definitely wasn't always that way. For non fans, they were
pretty boys with no substance. The music press were rarely kind,
and even in spans it was it was hard to
get too obsessed with that one album because in the
space of a year the US got Hunger Like the Wolf, Rio,
Is There Something I Should Know? And Union of the
Snake as radio singles, Hunger Like the Wolf, Save a Prayer,
Rio Planet Earth and Girls on films still from the
first album, is There Something and I Should Know? And
Union of the Snake We're all over MTV, And once again,
in the space of a year, we got the Reo
re release, the first album, repackaging re release and seven
in the Rag At Tiger. So as good as Rio was,
it was one part of a Duran onslaught for me
at the time. My main memories come down, like I said,
to the videos, and I don't think that's a bad thing.
I think it adds not to tracks in this case,
and just a general Durhan domination that sort of moved
quickly through multiple looks and styles and sounds around that time.
If we look at it's legacy It's a monumental album
from the music that now at least partially defines a decade.
And in any survey I do on my Twitter page,
any song from Rio beats any other song ever, always guaranteed.
So those are the top of my head thoughts on
Duran Duran's Real album. Thank you again for asking me
to share this with you, Guys.
Speaker 3: I can't argue with a super fan man, he's I
love it that. There is some serious love for this
album and it is well deserved. This is an incredible album.
Back cannot wait to get into a track by track,
but that was a great.
Speaker 2: Analysis, David. Thank you for doing that. Guys. Go check
him out on his Duran Duran podcast.
Speaker 7: The d Side Podcast.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody, come back next week as we dive
in track by track for the Rio album released in
nineteen eighty two, turn and forty this year.
Speaker 3: Yep, guys, be sure and hit that follow button on
your podcast app. Please tell your friends about us, and
if you are so inclined, please give us a five
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We will give you a shout out on the podcast.
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customing Great up with Shirley. You can't be serious and
your name, so be sure to come back next week
join us. We'll be with Melissa Mingle, ultimate Duran Duran
expert talking about Rio track by track.
Speaker 2: Come back next week, guys and we come