If Duran Duran ever come to the Netherlands again, I will be first in the digital queue to buy a ticket. The song Come Undone is by far my favourite Duran Duran track.
Duran Duran
Duran Duran is a British pop band that was part of the new romantic movement and was one of the most popular exponents of that movement. New romantic is a subgenre of new wave from the 1980s. The band name is taken from the character Dr. Durand Durand from the cult film Barbarella.
The group was founded in 1978 in Birmingham by Nick Rhodes and John Taylor. After a short period with some line-up changes (including Stephen Duffy on vocals), the band eventually consisted of Simon le Bon (vocals), Nick Rhodes (keyboards), Roger Taylor (drums), Andy Taylor (guitar) and John Taylor (bass guitar), none of whom are related. Their debut album Duran Duran from 1981 contains a successful mix of disco, new wave and pop influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music. This immediately broke the group through in England, partly thanks to strong singles like Planet Earth and Girls On Film. In 1984 the group scored another big hit with the song The Wild Boys, after which the group took a short break. John and Andy Taylor formed the rock group The Power Station in 1985 together with Robert Palmer and Chic drummer Tony Thompson (hit: Some Like It Hot) and LeBon and Rhodes founded the group Arcadia (hit: Election Day), which also included drummer Roger Taylor and chose a more artistic approach. On the album So Red The Rose, Sting and Grace Jones sang along. In the meantime, Duran Duran had a hit with the James Bond theme song A View To A Kill and performed at the large-scale Live Aid concert in Philadelphia.
In September 2015 the album Paper Gods was released, which was generally well received. This album featured collaborations with several guest artists, including John Frusciante, Kiesza, Lindsay Lohan, Janelle Monáe and producer Mr Hudson. Nile Rodgers played a prominent role, producing several tracks and featuring his distinctive guitar sound on the single Pressure Off. In 2016 the band began the Paper Gods Tour, which lasted until 2019 and mainly took place on the American continent and in Asia, with the exception of a handful of festival appearances in Europe. In 2018 the group released the live album Budokan on vinyl, featuring a number of tracks from their performance with Nile Rodgers in Japan in 2017.
In 2019 the band worked with producer Mark Ronson and ex-Blur guitarist Graham Coxon on new songs for a possible new album and made plans for their 40th anniversary in 2020.
Top 2000
In the Top 2000 of 2020 Duran Duran (rising) is listed with three entries:
Sunday Morning Classic: The Wedding Album
On 7 March 2021 Duran Duran was our Sunday Morning Classic with The Wedding Album.
'The Wedding Album', released on 11 February 1993, is Duran Duran's seventh studio album. It quickly climbed the charts and reached number four in the UK Albums Chart.
'The Wedding Album' opened with the cheerful, wailing and heavy guitar 'Too Much Information', which expressed the natural and understandable reaction of the other band members to the fierce competition in the music industry. This was immediately followed by the wistful "Ordinary World", which became a phenomenal hit and was considered by many fans as the second of Duran Duran's trilogy of greatest ballads; the other two being "Save a Prayer" from 1982 and "Someone Else Not Me" from 2000.
The R&B-flavoured "Love Voodoo" then rolled in with its funky groove, swelling synth and disco beat. This paved the rhythm for the following "Drowning Man", which took the listener back to Duran Duran's old territory, the neon-lit dance floor.
Duran Duran then launched the other successful track from the album, the sensual "Come Undone".
"Breath After Breath" showed Duran Duran's excursion into progressive music, particularly Worldbeat with a touch of Samba, as the song was a collaborative composition with Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist Milton Nascimento, who also sang a duet with LeBon. Another foray into Funk Pop followed in the form of "UMF."
After a rocking version of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale", the album led the listener back to the dizzying disco with "None of the Above”.
"Shelter" was a subtle return to the cinematic atmosphere of Duran Duran's James Bond track, "A View to a Kill." The penultimate track, "To Whom It May Concern" is an uptempo Pop Rock ballad.
'The Wedding Album' closed with the seven-minute 'The Sin of the City', a foreshadowing of many of the band's songs on their later albums. Finally, Duran Duran adorned the album cover with wedding photos of their respective parents.
Source: Jan Liebregts and Wikipedia Photo: Jason Persse and album cover
http://duranduran.warnereprise.com/
