December 24: Have a look at Simon at Yves St Laurent Store on London famous Slone street, maybe shopping for Christmas presents for the Le Bon family?!
In the last postcard that Simon wrote for duranduran.com he said: "We are winding down, ready to take a small break before kicking off 2008. Me I'm off to the sun. Thanks for all the support, you must know by now what it means to us. See you in a couple of weeks."
the John Taylor picture on the right is taken by Karen Black [aka JTRioGirl]
John just confirms how good will be 2008 for us in this message posted today on duranduran.com: "To those of you who have been following the progress of the band this year, G-d Bless ya and thanks for staying interested. I hope you had a great year and I have a feeling that next year is going to be even better for you, I just know it, don’t ask me how I know!…John x"
So, friends of Duranasty... the Duran Duran machine will start again its run in january 2008 going on with the new album promotion that includes some special events not yet announced from the official sources... so keep on checking www.duranduran.com!
Just like Simon I'll bring my family to some sunny places so there will be no updates untill january 7th. I wish you all a Merry Xmas and a wonderfull 2008 full of joy and great Duran Duran music and emotions.
I Want to leave you with a flashback of the very early years, so here you can dowload this rare and exclusive 1981 picture. Enjoy!
December 22: It's time to open my old boxes full of Duran memories, pictures and tickets from the latest two decades... so i decided to upload a quick gallery of randomly choosen pictures from the latest 10 years. Those boxes are actually full of honey so i promise to open them more often for the website. Enjoy the 24 picture gallery here
December 21: There's a two pages article on John and Gela on the current issue of italian Vanity Fair magazine. The article talks about Juicy Couture and it mentions the famous testimonials that the young fashion label has got in its list [such as Tom Cruise and James Blunt]. John and Gela answers to the same Q&A, they talk about their love story their favourite movies, books and songs. When John is asked about what he thought of Gela when he first met her he says: "she's the woman of my life. At the time I wasn't looking for adventures, I only wanted a woman who could wait me, who could pass on the distance problem". John also says about their love song: "We love all the music, it's difficoult to pick up just one. I could say Light My Fire of the Doors or White Rabbit by the Jefferson Airplane". When Gela is asked to tell what John always brings with him she says: an I-Pod and a book... my husband is a big reader... one of the books he really liked is "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen. About the best travel they've ever done, they both agree on the time they spent in Kyoto during their honeymoon. If you want to download the article [in italian] click here for page one and here for page 2. The pics are taken in Milan at the opening of the Juicy Couture shop in Via della Spiga on April 19, 2007 [the Q&A was probably done during those days in Milan]
December 20: Pictures of the guys performing in Chicago [to raise funds for La Rabida Children’s Hospital] at Miracle on State Street and at the after-party at the Underground are now up on darkroomdemons.com [authors of the photos], on theundergroundchicago.com and on suntimes.com
December 19: It just been released in Italy the new issue [28] of the dvd-magazine Roxy Bar edited by Red Ronnie, journalist and long time friend of the guys since the very early years. The issue is an homage to Luciano Pavarotti and it's mainly concentrated on the Pavarotti and Friends years. Ronnie followed Big Luciano in Italy, Uk and Ireland when meetings with the stars [including Bono, the Edge and Brian Eno] started and of course he was there as media reporter when Pavarotti was supposed to meet the Duran guys at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Pavarotti was contacting and meeting stars to organize the 1995 Pavarotti and Friends concert for the Children of Bosnia [held on september 12, 1995] and he personally invited Duran Duran in their 1995 lineup incarnation [Simon, Nick, John and Warren]. Ronnie in the booklet of the videomagazine says: "on july 1st we documentated the meeting with Simon Le Bon in London in a suite of the Dorchester Hotel. The full band was supposed to be there, but they were living a very bad moment inside the group, so John Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo didn't come. Only Nick Rhodes arrived for dinner. In the end the project to bring Duran Duran in Modena [Italy] shipwrecked and only Simon came to the show to sing the wonderfull Ordinary World". If you want to purchase a copy of the dvd click here [not sure if they ship worldwide]. If you want to get a bigger version of the above picture collage click here, to dowload two nice stills from the video of Simon and Nick posing with Pavarotti click here and the picture of Simon and Big Luciano is here in a slightly bigger size... Duran Duran's history always reserves surprises and revelations, it's just the life and times of Duranasty...
December 18: We like to report about the media attention Durans gets all around the world, the good and the bad one. After so many good concert and album reviews here is a bad one from the Chicago Tribune. The journalist Andrew Downing says: "More than anything, though, these songs [he refers to the old hits] were a reminder that Duran Duran is capable of writing great pop choruses - an element mysteriously absent in much of its new material." Read the full article here and if you want to write to the joutnalist: ctc-tempo@tribune.com
December 17: there's a great article on todays Showcase supplement from the Chicago Sun-Times. The journalist says: "Simon sounds fantastic even if the high lines at the end of Ordinary World are now sung in a cautious falsetto. He dedicated that song to anyone missing someone this holydays season (awww)..." Scans are up here and here. Have a good read! .
December 17: Simon talks openly about John's drugs addiction in the 80s [and 90's actually] and about Hold Back the Rain wich he wrote thinking about John's problems. It's a very indepth interview with a very expressive and comunicative Simon Le Bon. Here you can see part one. keep on checking Mirror.co.uk for the second part.
December 17: Some pics of the Duran Duran Meet and Greet at Best Buy are now up on wtmx.com
December 17: Watch the guys talk about their songs and explain their videos: 'Falling Down', 'Planet Earth', 'Girls on Film' and 'Hungry Like The Wolf'. Click here to get all the videos. You'll discover a very talkative Roger Taylor who answers to many questions. Below some more still from the interview set.
December 15: there's a photogallery now up on Mix 102.9 with fans meeting the band backstage in Dallas. click here [ps: what is Roger looking at in that pic?! ;) ]
December 15: It's always good to see our favourite band on the front cover of a magazine, so here is todays Weekend magazine from the Chicago Sun-Times. download the front cover here and the full page article here.
December 15: I Got this magazine on my cheap flight to London to attend the Lyceum gig but i didn't have time to scan it untill now, so here you have a scan from the from Ryanair magazine's interview to Mr. Nick Rhodes about his travel experiences around the world... and guess where he prefers to go for pleasure hollydays? Click on the thumbnail to read and download the article.
December 15: Click on the thumbnail to read and download a great interview to Simon from the current issue of Uncut magazine [january 2008]. Enjoy!
December 14: Duran Duran played at the Nokia Theater on december 12. It was a radio station event [organized by Mix 102.9 from Dallas]. There were four acts one of them was James Blunt. Duran took the stage around 10:30 p.m as reported by redmumba on the ddboard. They played: Red Carpet, Nite-Runner, Notorious, Planet Earth, Falling Down, Skin Divers, Rio, Ordinary World, View To A Kill, Sunrise, Wild Boys, Girls on Film. I want to thank you Michele Frame for these nice photos taken on and off stage in Dallas: thank you for sharing them with us at duranasty.com! Read a review from Dallas news's guidelive here
December 14: now available a proper scan of the article from Wine Spectator, Enjoy the read here
December 13: Check out the december issue of Performing Songwriter magazine with a special interview to Nick! He says: "I don't see myself as a pianist. I'm synthesist who play with piano ccasionally". Credits for the scans goes to tgliberty. Click on each thumbnail to read the get the pages.
December 12: A new photograph of John features on the front cover of the january issue of Bass Player magazine. There's a 8 pages spread and an very indepth interview about our talented bass player. Here is a quote from the article that I liked... John says: "Whenever I play with this band, I feel empowered... i never have a sense of being "over it", or of our best work being behind us. I always feel optimistic, positive about possibilities. Playing music awakens the best of me, and that part of me is a believer". To read the article go to the fully dedicated John site www.tigerbeat.nl wich originally posted the scans. if you want to download the above visual [without the front cover picture] to use as desktop theme just click here and enjoy.
December 12: the band on december 9 played a live show at the Sports Arena in San Diego for the annual Jingle Jam concert organized by Star 94.1 radio. Pics are now up on the star 94.1 website [you can see 22 photos of the guys on and off stage here] Above pics the guys during the Meet&Greet, below pics of the show.
December 11: beautifull picture and quick interview on Complex's magazine section "Individuals". Click here to read and download the one page article!
December 11: Todays Metromix magazine from the Chicago area has got this nice Duran article headlined "Letting go". Click here to read and download it.
December 11: Click here to download a nice article from the Herald Sun dated december 6 2007. Nick also mention Warren and Tv Mania in the interview. have a good read!
December 10: There's a very nice interview on the current issue of American Way magazine wich include a cool caricature of the band.
American Way caught up with LeBon and Rhodes in England to talk about Timberlake’s role as well as wolf whistles and salty popcorn. More than a few critics in the 1980s thought Duran Duran wouldn’t survive the decade, much less be releasing a new album in 2007. What do you think about such naysayers? RHODES: It’s very tempting to just make a loud raspberry sound, isn’t it? I think it’s very hard for anyone to tell what’s going to happen. Artists themselves never have any idea. That’s why we’re always nervous wrecks. LEBON : We’re lucky, because we’re still doing what we want to do. We’ve managed to maintain our career without a break, so it would be very easy to look at the people who were in the same class, so to speak, and feel superior. But I don’t. Speaking of staying current, how did it come about that you ended up working with Justin Timberlake on this album? LEBON: We’d met Justin and Timbaland on the night of the [MTV Video Music Awards] in 2003, when we received our Lifetime Achievement Award. I think Timbaland was having a chat with Justin over a pint of ale and mentioned that he was doing the Duran Duran project. Justin said, “You’re not doing it without me!” RHODES: Clearly, he’s a successful international artist right now. And he’s from a completely different generation, so his musical references are completely different than ours. Justin grew up listening to different things. One of the fortunate coincidences was that he grew up listening to Duran Duran. He loved “Come Undone” and “Ordinary World” [from 1993’s The Wedding Album], and that is what attracted him to the band in the fi rst place. I suppose it would be like us wanting to work with a lot of the people we grew up listening to. It’s perfectly natural. Some might also think it’s natural to draw connections between Justin Timberlake’s early work and your band’s early work. You know, the whole boy-band thing. LEBON: We were cited as one of the founders of boy bands, but that’s not quite how we feel about it. Well, were there any ego issues in working with a producer who is so much younger than you? RHODES: Often, older artists are wary of working with younger artists, thinking, What are they going to teach me that I don’t already know? But with us and Justin, that simply wasn’t the case. We thought it was a really interesting match. We loved his first solo album. It had killer grooves, and his sensibility was quite close to all the things we’ve always liked — a crossover of dance music, rock music, and electronics. So why does Justin do only guest harmonies? Why not have him sing out front? LEBON: I think that’s part of his approach to the whole project. He didn’t want it to necessarily be “featuring Justin Timberlake”; he wanted to do it on the terms of a producer. He hasn’t done any great big solos or been featured in that way, and it wouldn’t be right for us to try and say he had. He was very clear about that. Where does the title come from? LEBON: It’s just a bit of a fantasy. I think we all fantasize about chicks in cocktail dresses handbagging each other on the red carpet. We have a pretty normal view of these kinds of events. On the one hand, we’re fascinated by them, and on the other hand, they’re so contrived and ridiculous, you can’t help but laugh about it. Duran Duran is back. The ’80s are back. So when will Arcadia — that short-lived, Duran Duran splinter group — come back? RHODES: EMI is going to do a special version of that album [So Red the Rose]. I want to restore some of the tracks that were edited because there was [not enough] space on the vinyl. There is another instrumental that was untitled; I would like to restore it so that the full body of the Arcadia project is on one album. We are talking about potentially playing a song or two from Arcadia and Power Station on the next tour. Duran Duran recently played at the Concert for Diana. Simon, I heard the late Princess of Wales checked you out at a gym years ago? LEBON: She wolf whistled. I was bending down to tie my shoes, and she said, “I’d recognize those legs anywhere.” It made me laugh. She was a funny girl. What would your fans be surprised to learn about you? LEBON: I like salty popcorn when I go to the movies. RHODES: When my [high school] chemistry teacher, who used to go and put bets on horses for us, left the classroom, it was not a good room to be in, because people lit up paper darts on Bunsen burners and threw them around the room. I’m amazed that the school never burned down. And I used to get left in charge.
December 9: just got todays Herald on Sunday from New Zeland with a very nice full page article with some interesting quotes from the band regarding the tour, the future and Andy's departure. Click here to read and download the scan! enjoy.
December 8: Here some scans of the not so good press Duran had in Uk the day after the Lyceum gig. Most of the critics moaned the lack of Greatest Hits on a 2 and half hour show... the fans were actually very happy with the unusual tracklist and with the New Music from RCM... maybe only the journalists wanted to hear Wild Boys and Save a Prayer! Click on the thumbnails to get the 4 scans
 |
December
8: there's a 4 pages article on the band titled "Boys on Film"
with some very artish and exclusive pictures on the new Mallife magazine
[only distribuited on the Mall Design Hotels]. On the left some pics
taken from the article. Thanks to Millo for the news. |
December 6: Just got back from a great London experience and i can only say that the Lyceum show is a gem for all the fans who have been loyal since the early days as it touched 3 decades of great Duran music. The band played for 2 hours and half, the gig was awesome, the sound was fantastic and the projection... wow! just great, Gary did just a great job with them. It was basically the same show they did at the Barrymore Theatre, with intervals and the cool electro set, i think people enjoyed the new album [still can't understand why the Uk press slammed the band for not playing many hits] and i actually had the impression that the crowd were loud also during the RCM performance... the guys had to perform Skin Divers twice because the Timbaland video didn't work the first time but in the end we can say that all worked fine [they didn't have a chance to try all that projection stuff untill the day of the show - in the afternoon - that's what Nick told me, so they didn't rehearse the projection untill just few hours before the show started]. It was good to hear Do You Belive in Shame after so many years [Simon was moved while singing it, check out the gallery to see a pic of that moment!]. Tricked Out and Tempted are my favourites and they really rocked on these. John was really in the mood and everytime he could take the mic to say something he did! most of the times he said funny things, and he did a lot of interaction with Simon and Dom as usual.
Seen many Vips walking the red carpet to get into the theatre. The band did the red carpet aswell and posed for photographers and did some quick interviews [here and here you can see reports from Itn and vrtnieuws]. I met Andy Hamilton and Denis O'Regan who was the official photographer of the event, he told me that the Duran book they are working on will take one more year to be released, as it's a huge project - he said it's a big coffee table book- with many many pics from the early days to the most recent days. After the show the band and their families [their parents too] went to party at the Cuckoo Club and i was lucky enough to see them there. I was amazed to see how nice and tall the Le Bon girls are. Well, it was just a great concert, as i said before a gem! An experience that every Duran fan should do so i really hope the guys will bring this show/set/projection around the world soon [Nick said they hope to play live in Italy!].
Click here for a gallery with over 60 photos i took [all photos taken by Salvo copyright 2007]
The Valley
Red Carpet Massacre
Nite Runner
Falling Down
Box Full O’Honey
Skin Divers
Tempted
Tricked Out
Zoom In
She’s Too Much
Dirty Great Monster
Last Man Standing
Electro Set
Showroom Dummies
Last Chance on the Stairway
All She Wants Is
Warm Leatherette
I Don’t Want Your Love
Skin Trade
Rio
Notorious
The Reflex
Ordinary World
Do You Believe In Shame?
Planet Earth
View To A Kill
Sunrise
Girls On Film
December 1: Great Duran Duran's 'Massacre' video report by Cnn's Denise Quan on the set of a photo session for Q magazine. have a look here