Islandear Music Blog

John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed the band in Birmingham, England in 1978, envisioning a group with the raw do-it-yourself energy of the Sex Pistols, the dance grooves of Chic, and the elegant style of David Bowie and Roxy Music. Other influences the band has mentioned include Mick Ronson, The Clash, Japan, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground, Visage and Blondie. Inspired by one of their favourite Birmingham clubs, Barbarella’s, the band took their name from the evil character “Dr. Duran Duran”, played by Milo O’Shea in Roger Vadim’s sexy science-fiction cult film Barbarella. Their first singer was Stephen Duffy, who went on to lead Tin Tin and The Lilac Time. John Taylor, originally on lead guitar, switched to bass after original bassist Simon Colley left. Several drummers and guitarists were subsequently tried, as well as a handful of vocalists after Duffy left Duran Duran early in 1979.

Finally, drummer Roger Taylor fell in with them at a party, Andy Taylor came south from Newcastle to audition after responding to a magazine advertisement, and Simon Le Bon was recommended to the band by an ex-girlfriend who worked at the Rum Runner nightclub, where the band rehearsed. The owners of the club, brothers Paul and Michael Berrow, became the band’s management, and paid them to work as doormen, DJs and glass collectors when they weren’t rehearsing.

The up-and-coming group were considered part of the New Romantic scene, along with other style-and-dance bands like Spandau Ballet and ABC. Over the course of 1980, they recorded two demo tapes and performed tirelessly in clubs around Birmingham and London. Touring in late 1980 with Hazel O’Connor, the band attracted critical attention that escalated into a bidding war between the major record labels. “A certain patriotism” toward the label of The Beatles led them to sign with EMI in December. Nick Rhodes has since said, in a 1998 interview with Deluxe magazine, that the band was “appallingly ripped off”.

Like Depeche Mode, Duran Duran were among the earliest bands to work on their own remixes. Before the days of digital synthesizers and easy audio sampling, they created complex, multilayered arrangements of their singles, sometimes recording entirely different extended performances of the songs in studio. These “night versions” were generally available only on vinyl, as b-sides to 45 rpm singles or on 12-inch club singles, until the release of the Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran compilation in 1998.

From the very beginning, the band had a keen sense of style, and worked with stylist Perry Haines and fashion designers like Kahn & Bell and Antony Price to build a sharp and elegant image, soon growing beyond the ruffles and sashes of the pirate-flavoured New Romantic look.

They may have suffered from the typical hair spray and mullet excesses of the 1980s, but have maintained a focus on presenting fashion as part of the package throughout their career. In the 1990s, they worked with Vivienne Westwood, and in the 2000s with Giorgio Armani. (One of the band’s advertising taglines adopts journalist Linda Ellerbee’s phrase “Styles change, style doesn’t.”) In addition they retained creative control of the band’s visual presentation, and worked closely with graphic designer Malcolm Garrett and many others over the years to create album covers, tour programmes, and other materials.

Teen and music magazines in the UK latched onto their good looks quickly, and the US soon followed; it was a rare month in the early eighties when there was not at least one picture of the band members in teen magazines like Smash Hits or Tiger Beat, even if the sugary coverage was at odds with the band’s titillating videos and sometimes dark lyrics. It helped that each member had a distinctive look and personality. John Taylor once remarked that the band was “like a box of Quality Street [chocolates]; everyone is somebody’s favourite” – an effect that is now strategically planned in more recent boy bands. Duran Duran would later come to regret this early pin-up exposure, but at the time it helped gain them the national attention they sought.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2005 at 9:40 am and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.