This is a nice three page article from italian magazine Donna Moderna. For some reasons I didn't get a copy for my archive back in July 2012, I recently got one, so here are scans and a translation of the most interesting parts of the interview.
"The wildest fans? No doubt the Italians. They did some crazy things for us, in the eighties and nineties, but they were wonderful and still today we have a special relationship with them."

"I can finally be a tourist in your own country: I think I visited the Coliseum in Rome for the first time in my life two years ago. At the time of The Wild Boys we toured the world, but we could only see hotel rooms, escorted by the police in our limousines. Outside, just flash and screams. I have to admit, that was fun though.

"I have just discovered Puglia in these days [Ed. July 2012], an incredible region. I went to Bari in 1987 for a concert, but I had only seen the stadium going around on a Carabinieri van. This time was different, I went to the beach and ate in a lovely place." His family remained in England, but dad Le Bon found time for a trip home. "I'll be back for one night only, Tallulah does his speech as representative of the students'.

The Italian tour was highly anticipated after last summer's cancellation due to Simon's vocal cords problems . "We had to stop and re-start and it was hard. However, now is much better," he says. "I learned to take care of my voice, I straightened my posture and I figured out how best to move the neck. To be clear: I have learned how not overdo it and not singing like Liam Gallagher."

"At 50, I realized that the ability to look back, to admit that you did wrong and learn from your mistakes is very important. This is what turned me in a better man... today, more than ever before, I'm the one marry!"

Click on the thumbnails to get big scans! >

On February 25, 2011 Duran Duran, were rewarded by the Milan Major Letizia Moratti as innovators in music in the costume and fashion. As we reported here Mrs Moratti said: Duran Duran is a group that loves our city and who is closely following the developments and prospects of the Universal Milano Expo in 2015. Today, we have delivered an award to pay tribute to their ability to arouse emotions, to interpret the new trends, with their extraordinary talent."
Well, 2015 is almost here and there will be also a new Duran Duran album, so I had to ask Nick if they still wish to play at the Milan EXPO. It seems that there's no chance at the moment. Not sure if Nick actually recalls all about that particular event and what has been said, I had to remind him what was all about: he asked if Mrs Moratti was still the Major of the city, of course I said no but I explained that the EXPO will be a huge international event. The theme chosen for the 2015 Milan Universal Exposition is Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. It will take place in Milan, between 1 May and 31 October. Who knows, maybe this input has put the EXPO back in the guys's mind?

There's a rumor circulating online about a possible "reunion" with Brazilian singer Milton Nascimiento. We have already reported about Simon meeting Milton in London last October during the brazilian singer's show in London. Our friend Paula, in Brazil, says: "What we saw here was a gossip website saying that Milton would have mentioned that he was going to play with DD again..."
The title of article says: "Milton Nascimento volta a cantar com Duran Duran, mais de 20 anos depois", Milton Nascimiento plays with Duran Duran after 20 years". In that article Milton says: "Duran Duran and I we'll be playing together again in 2014."
The reporter asks: "Will you play your music or theirs? He answer was "General." He didn't give more details ... but he added that he'll be doing the same with Herbie Hancock, Esperanza Spalding and a lot more."

I know my fear [...]
I bear no shame [?] [...]
and now I have no one [...]
moral power [...]

but the notes in the page unveils also the cinematic nature of the song [Wood define this version "Cinematic Version - Bond Film"]. The song's orchestration see the use of harp, strings but it doesn't feature guitars. No need to say that the "Bond Film" phrase written in the sheet is quite intriguing! Click here to get the full picture.

Simon has been involved with Syn from the very start. Nick and Simon met in London in 1984 through Yasmin and the two quickly became good friends and started to collaborate on Simon’s solo single “Grey Lady of the Sea”.
When Nick announced he wanted to live in Japan and to set up a studio that would produce a wide range of music including song writing and scoring movies, Simon agreed to become a partner in the business and even came up with the name Syn [Simon, Yasmin, Nick].
Simon continues to write and produce music for Syn as well as providing creative ideas and acting as a global ambassador. He loves the chance to hop over to Tokyo and work with Nick in the studio. It’s very different from the way he works with Duran Duran. He explains that it’s more free for him and there are no boundaries at all. Nick might come up with lyrics and melodies, Simon might come up with bass lines, chord patterns, etc. It’s something they both look forward too very much.
Music aside, Simon has also introduced sponsorship deals, collaborated on events and come even provided creative advertising ideas.
When he’s dreaming, he says, “I see Syn producing a movie, I think that would be a great manifestation of all the creative energy and talent in the company”.

According to the italian singer's official website, Morgan [songwriter, former member of Blu Vertigo and long time Duran Duran fan] wants to release a tribute album of covers dedicated to Duran Duran. The press-release on his website says:
Morgan launches a contest aimed at producing a Duran Duran tribute album: "Send me your Duran Duran cover, in video or an audio format, recorded in a proper studio or even at home, alone or with your band.
I will carefully listen to all the tracks and I'll choose the best versions!

The songs will be included in the upcoming album produced by myself called "This Time La Luna". Send your tracks in mp3 format to the following email: thistimelaluna@inartemorgan.it
We assume the contest is also open to foreign fans/musicians as even Morgan suggest [in the same press-release] the partecipation of the english band Gaudi.
We hope Stephan LeClair's great cover of Winter Marches [pic on the left] will be included in the project!

Manimal is about to release the 4th official tribute record in a series which has included a list of tributees like Madonna, The Cure and David Bowie. The latest is our Duran Duran. This record takes focus on their deep cuts and obscure early catalog rather than taking the obvious route with their hits which are burned into the conscious of the world.

This collection of covers takes a deeper look into their early album catalog as well as their more experimental tracks that have been covered by contemporary artists who may not wear the Duran influence on their sleeves but definitely appreciate what Duran Duran brought to pop culture.

According to the nme.com the 'Making Patterns Rhyme: A Tribute To Duran Duran' the tracklisting is quite eclectic and includes:

Warpaint – 'The Chauffeur'
Little Dragon – 'Save A Prayer'
Barbarian – 'Late Bar'
Service Bells – 'Anyone Out There?'
Louise Burns – 'Land'
The Holiday Crowd – 'Friends Of Mine'
Beliefs – 'Sound of Thunder'
Moby – Rio
Halo Circus – 'Do You Believe In Shame?'

Since that NME article has been published changes and additions have been made and we know that the album has more than 15 tracks [covers by Liars's and Juliette Lewis didn't made the final tracklisting while it has been added Luxxury's Planet Earth - this band also made their own edit of Girls On Film, not included in the album]

Above the five artworks designed by Patty Palazzo, inspired by Duran Duran's original videos + the cover of Luxxury's remix of Girls On Film.

Six Degrees Records is releasing a new album by Warren Cuccurullo and the Indian sarangi master Ustad Sultan Khan called "The Master" on July 22nd. There is quite an interesting back story to the recording. It is a beautiful piece of work.

The record company has also started an official twitter page twitter.com/WCuccurullo and Facebook page for Warren, where they are posting new information on the album, as well as stories from his history. Feel free to join up and spread the word: facebook.com/warrencuccurulloofficial

If you want to listen a 60-second YouTube clip of "The Holy Man's Plea" from Warren's new album with Ustad Sultan Khan, "The Master" just click here

Warren Cuccurullo and Ustad Sultan Khan’s Long Lost Masterpiece, The Master
Former Duran Duran and Frank Zappa guitarist teams up with India’s sarangi legend

Lost tapes always raise an eyebrow. Unexpected sessions by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Marley and the Beatles suddenly emerge to great fanfare. When dealing with India’s greatest sarangi player of modern times, Ustad Sultan Khan, an entire planet of classical Indian music fans are certain to turn up the volume.

Khan’s collaboration with former Duran Duran and Frank Zappa guitarist Warren Cuccurullo weren’t exactly lost, just put on hold since the 1998 recording session in London. Recorded during a predominantly spontaneous weekend, The Master (Six Degrees Records) features Khan’s inimitable sarangi playing and singing with a lushly textured ambient guitar soundtrack provided by Cuccurullo. You’ve never heard either of these musicians in such a context.

‘My first exposure to Indian music was the Ed Sullivan show with Ravi Shankar via George Harrison,’ says Cuccurullo from his home in Venice, CA. ‘I was 10 years old. When that sound came over here, I was instantly attracted to it—just the Indian classical music itself, forget about ‘Within You, Without You’ and the stuff on Revolver.’

While Cuccurullo was entranced by Shankar’s hypnotic sitar playing, it was Alla Rakha’s tabla that truly seduced him. The young musician threw himself into the world of classical Indian sounds being introduced to America by the Beatles and Shankar’s tireless efforts.

The young guitarist proved to be an open-minded musician: enamored with the music of Frank Zappa, he went from loving fan to the man who played all the rhythm guitar and some vocals on the Joe’s Garage albums, as well as touring the world with Zappa.

A few years later, when Zappa stopped touring, Cuccurullo co-founded the new wave band, Missing Persons, alongside Dale and Terry Bozio, before joining Duran Duran in 1987. He went on to co-write some of their most famous songs, including ‘Ordinary World’ and ‘Come Undone.’

One of the top pop songwriters in the world, Cuccurullo never forget his passion for Indian music, especially the one sound that kept playing in his mind: the sarangi, a bowed, short-necked stringed instrument that figures prominently in Hindustani music.

‘The first time I ever saw the actual instrument played live it was on stage in 1991 at Royal Albert Hall,’ says Cuccurullo. ‘Duran Duran was doing a benefit concert, and Sultan Khan and Zakir Hussain were performing at the same show. It was him sitting there, the guy playing on all those records with George Harrison in the Dark Horse period. I was able to see who makes that noise.’

Khan was legendary in India until his passing in 2011. He single-handedly kept the sarangi tradition alive, awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2010, India’s third highest civilian award. Like Shankar, his outreach efforts were ambassadorial: he composed for Hollywood blockbusters, joined Bill Laswell’s East/West supergroup Tabla Beat Science and cut a record with Swedish bassist Jonas Hellborg.

Cuccurullo remained a fan after the benefit concert. In 1996 while working on the Duran Duran song, ‘Buried in the Sand,’ he remembered an alap by Khan that he thought would fit perfectly. Cuccurullo secured a contact at Navras Records and cleared the sarangi line, perhaps the first time that instrument was heard in American pop music.

A year later Khan’s management contacted the band when they were in New York, wondering if they wanted the maestro to perform with them. Cuccurullo was floored; suddenly the sound of his youth was being performed with him at the Roseland Ballroom live on stage. Thus began their friendship.

A few months later Khan visited Cuccurullo’s house in London; his living room doubled as Duran Duran’s recording studio. Cuccurullo previewed an album of acoustic and ambient guitar music that he was about to release, when Khan told him he had to play and sing over it.
The guitarist was about to call his engineer when Khan informed him that it was Ramadan. There would be no playing that day. He returned in July 1998.

The piece that Khan referred to is now ‘The Holy Man’s Plea,’ the album’s gorgeous, cinematic opener. What follows is ‘4D Suite,’ an epic, sweeping 12-minute landscape of guitar and sarangi. ‘We only had one day to do that one,’ Cuccurullo reminisces. ‘We did all the other tracks on Saturday. There was a lot of drama. The mridagnam [cylindrical double-head drum] player couldn’t do it—the time signatures looked like phone numbers.’

The bass and drums were added in 2014, after Cuccurullo had dug out the tapes. Yet no changes exist to the guitar or sarangi playing. It was written as a duet; Cuccurullo had no intention on changing the magic that occurred over those two days. Sixteen years is a long time, though. When asked why it took so long for The Master to be released, the guitarist turns reflective.

‘One day I typed in my name and Sultan Khan’s name to see where he was at,’ he says. ‘We had that Chicanery album [Khan played on ‘Cut Me From the Mirror’] on a label with a dodgy deal so it never came out. A Times of India article came up with an obituary. I had no idea. Then I realized I have to get these tapes, I need to make his family aware of them, and I had to finish 4D.’

Recorded on outdated 24-track Tascam tapes, Cuccurullo was able to retrieve the three cassettes from a stack of boxes marked ‘WCSK.’ While he remembered the music as sweetly as the weekend it was recorded, the first pass of ‘4D’ was initially shelved, now released as the five-minute ambient ‘The Lost Master.’ The cinematic masterpiece, ‘Mirror Margana,’ is also close to Cuccurullo’s heart, his shimmery guitar playing buoyant above Khan’s earthy intonations.

Since he was given his first sitar when visiting Frank Zappa in 1977, Indian music has circulated throughout Warren Cuccurullo’s life, predominantly as a fan, occasionally as a player. With the release of The Master, Cuccurullo is the same age that Khan was when they sat together in his London apartment sixteen years ago. The rest, as they say, is history…one that we can listen to now, for the first time.

‘The growth in your forties and fifties is incredible,’ Cuccurullo says. ‘There’s a curiosity factor built into musicians that helps you get through these levels. By the time you reach my age, 58, you realize you’re going to be learning until you die. You’re going to enjoy the wonderment of it until you drop.’