April 26: On April 21 Nick Rhodes has attended the Vanity Fair party during the 8th annual Tribeca Film Festival at the State Supreme Courthouse in New York. He has been seen arriving at the party in company of Andre Balazs [pics below], the owner of 8 hotels in New York and many others luxury hotels in the Usa. The photos above have been taken on April 22 while Nick was out in the Soho area of New York in company of Katy Krassner and a Mr.x [a record company meeting maybe?! Just wondering...]
Get into the scene! Watch the above photos in bigger size: Nick Rhodes in Soho April 22 09
April 26: Katherine Bernhardt is an emergent artist, she paints portraits of women and still life based on well-known consumer symbols using acrylics, specialty paints and glitter, all in an expressionistic, almost abstract style. She has also something in common with us Duran fans, she's has been fascinated by Nick Rhodes personality. I'm talking about her work here 'cos some of her recent paintings have been highly influenced by Duran and Nick. Based In New York, Bernhardt has toured the world and her works can currently also be found in the Saatchi Gallery in the UK.
Katherine Bernhardt says to The National: "The paintings that I made in London were directly related to this city: particularly punk and Duran Duran - in fact after meeting Nick Rhodes, I ended up naming all of my London work after lyrics from their new album. For example, Alice Dellal becomes “you will always be my queen of falling down”, or other titles include “is she flirting with me now?” She continues: "Last year, at the Saatchi Gallery opening in London, she was introduced to Nick Rhodes, the Duran Duran keyboardist.“He was, like, the most amazing person I’ve ever met,” she says. “He came to my London opening, came to my studio, took pictures” – she laughs suddenly, as if the pleasure of the encounter is still too much to hold inside – “and then they came to New York and invited me to their show and then their after-party for their world tour. It was awesome!”
Artillery Magazine says of Bernhardt's work: "Up next for Bernhardt is a series of Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran. She met him last year in London, at the opening of her show at Ransom Gallery, and the two hit it off. "He's perfect," she says, showing me some of the images she'll be working from. "After all, he wears make-up." And, in a departure from her usual subject matter, she plans to do a series of paintings of Swatch Watches. Asked to explain, she just shrugs: "I love the eighties," she says with a giggle. Rhodes, she says, gave her his e-mail address, and they were corresponding for a while, “but I didn’t want to bug him”, so she scaled it back.
From the Jewish Chronicle: "Charles Saatchi bought some of Bernhardt's painting when she had a residency in East London's Hales Gallery. And Duran Duran keyboard player Nick Rhodes attended the opening of a new exhibition of her work in London. His presence delighted Bernhardt who says she used to be "totally obsessed with him" and has painted his portrait".
I got in touch with the Carbon12 gallery in Dubai Marina, Bernhardt's representative in the middle-east, 'cos I really wanted to see the portraits paintings that Katherine Bernhardt made of Nick. Kourosh Nouri, my contact at Carbon12, was kind enough to get from Katherine a pic of one of her amazing paintings and also some personal pics of Nick and the painter taken at the exhibitions and in her studio last year.
Exclusive Pics: Katherine Bernhardt and Nick Rhodes 1 Katherine Bernhardt and Nick Rhodes 2
Katherine Bernhardt and Nick Rhodes 3 Katherine Bernhardt painting
Katherine Bernhardt's ‘Wonder Women’ collection, an observation of the world’s top fashion icons, is currently showing at The Carbon 12 art gallery in Dubai.
April 19 *update* | More press coverage in the Uk about the Le Bons at Patsy Kensit's wedding. The couple features also on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph! As usual you can get all these scans on duranasty.com! So here we go: Sunday Telegraph, Daily Express Weekend, Daily Star, SundayMirror and also a web screencap of the Timesonline's tidbit: "The name's Le Bon". Enjoy!
April 18: Above pics of Yasmin and Simon Le Bon have been taken today at the arrivals of Jeremy Healy and Patsy Kensit's wedding at The Royal Horseguards hotel [more pics are up in the main photo-agencies websites]. An article about Patsy's wedding to Jeremy Healy, who was a member of the early 80s pop group Haysi Fantayzee, can be read on the telegraph.co.uk.
April 17: Wonderful interview to Nick Rhodes [mainly] and Roger Taylor in the current issue if Roland's magazine PowerOn. Nick speaks out about his new Roland gear and the upcoming Duran Duran album. “I love getting into the studio", says Nick Rhodes during a short break from songwriting with the rest of the band. "I‘m so thrilled with the stuff we’ve got, this will be a totally different-sounding album for us. But then, we’re not interested in doing the same old thing". Rhodes is using the latest Roland V-Synth GT on the new Duran Duran album. "The new album will have new songs, a new sound and a new groove” says Rhodes, remaining enigmatic about what to expect. There’s a sense that anything could happen. “It’s not about the perfect pop song, it’s about what we can do. It’s chaotic when we write together but we’ve become very good at editing - choosing the best bits and developing them. So what’s the key to pop longevity for Duran Duran? it’s pulling order from chaos - and maybe using the most exciting technology along the way. “We‘re recording in a tiny room”, says Roger Taylor, "and the best tracks come out out of that environment - it’s great to feel the pressure.” If you want to read it all just get the scans [thanks to Alita at Roland] I uploaded for you: page one and two and page three and four. Enjoy!
April 14: Exclusive | Jeffrey Bryant has been Duran Duran's Wardrobe Designer since late 2003. The nice guy over the years became part of the big Duran Duran tour-family. He's funny, artish and he has a unique vision of fashion! He's also a really down to earth guy who really loves his work. He really enjoy the hard work he does for the band staying always behind the scene. I decided that I wanted to know more about him and his role in the band during the Songbook performance back in january, when I saw him on stage helping out Simon with his jacket. Jeffrey has been kind enough to accept an interview with duranasty.com. When I initially got in touch with him he was working with the Pet Shop Boys, for their Brit Awards performance but he was kind enough to keep in touch and release this funny and informative interview, providing also pics from his personal archive. So if you ever wondered what's the job of a Wardrobe Designer or you simply want to know more about the man behind Simon Le Bon & Co. perfect trousers here you go! You will also discover what happens to the Duran Duran clothes on tour, so check it out!
April 12: Duranasty.com wishes everybody a happy Easter! I take the chance to pass along this little Duran Duran news, not very significant but I hadn't seen it posted anywhere else... Last week, over the week end, the boys played a corporate show in Dubai. As usual when they play these kind of gigs they take minimum crew, no tour manager or production manager, just the boys and their music gear.
April 4: On duranduran.com there's a great new picture of the mega-band working on the new DD album! Go to the official site and get it! John dreams about his fantasy band on the Independent's Arts&Books magazine from april 3. Dowload a scan here.
April 4: After James Taylor-Cantone and Andy Taylor Junior who are enjoing success with the band Electric City, following their father's example, seems that the not so little Duran girls are also trying to follow their mothers footsteps! Amber is already a little star and she features in the current issue of the italian magazine Style [april 2009] with a 10 pages article. Atlanta Taylor-DeCadenet features in the new French Vogue [download a scan here - Thanks to the french forum and M.] while Saffron Le Bon has enjoyed a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, with her mother for the Grand Opening of the new One&Only Cape Town resort on April 2.
April
2: The recent split from Sony Corporation has brought
the Duran Duran fans to re-examine the recent history of the band. Some unclear
happenings and choices of the latest years comes to mind becoming subject
of discussion. Some fans in particular had enquired about the split with legendary
music business manager Miles Copeland back in 2002. On November
6th, 2001 the official Duran site reported the news: "Duran
Duran have teamed up with legendary music business manager Miles Copeland.
He will be overseeing all aspects of the band’ s reunion project including
the forthcoming album and the subsequent world tour". Only two months
later they actually parted ways.
The band didn't actually comment much on the happening and kept working on
the yet untitled reunion album, they just said that after a brief "trial
period" together, the group has split with the manager and he wasn't
a part of their management team any longer. Well, I have been searching for
some more info about this news and I found, in my huge Duran Duran archive,
an official answer from Copeland's side. It's an article published by the
Sunday Mercury from january 27th 2002, just
few days after the split announcement. This is a revealing article with some
interesting quotes from Copeland. I won't anticipate much here, you can read
it all on the scan I just uploaded for you here.
I will just say that a Duran Duran spokesman was reported to have labelled
the music manager a "Control Freak"... well, wasn't Nick who wrote
a piece of music titled "Control Freak"?!
*Copeland feared tour could be a flop and they couldn't sell the Madison Square Garden, but Duran Duran actually played the Madison Square Garden during the 05 Astronaut tour and most of their 2003/05 shows were sold out in minuets!*