May 24: Glamorous couple: while Nick Rhodes is busy in the studio [check out latest post on dd.com] a couple of nights ago Yasmin Le Bon in company of husband Simon hosted an eighties-themed party at the trendy Raffles nightclub in London. The Raffles is one of Chelsea's best-known private members club and a landmark on the King's Road for more than 40 years. You can read more at dailymail.co.uk
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May 16: Los Angeles | In this very short candid video [shot on april 30] of John in LA you can hear him revealing to the Paparazzi that Mark Ronson is producing Duran Duran's new album! Check it out! thenewsroom.com Many Thanks to M. for passing along the link.
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May 12: On Saturday, May 9th, Simon Le Bon has been interviewed on Lauren Laverne’s show - BBC6 radio. During the interview he confirmed that Duran Duran will be back in the studio with Ronson this week starting on monday. Simon said that the band has already spent 20 days in the studio over two periods of time and the second time they got Mark in. This new session is the second with Ronson; we assume that they'll stop for a while then since the band has to rehearse for their russian show on June 4th and they'll also be away in july to play some shows in Usa and Uk. We can only agree with Simon: "It's time to get serious about recording". According to Mr. Le Bon the band at the moment has written mostly music and some lyrics. You can still listen the interview here bbc.co.uk [from 1.05]
May
12: You should know by now that I love to go back to the early years
of Duran Duran's history and if possible add some details to it. This post
is about Perry Haines, an influential face on London's hipsters
circuit. A graduate of St Martins fashion college he had dived head first
into the cities post punk club scene just as the focus of musical experimentation
was shifting from the traditional rock gig onto the dance floor. A new generation
of one-nighter events fronted by street wise kids had created legendary club
nights such as Blitz and a new establishment of DJ's, taste
makers and promoters were making waves. As a co-founder with Terry
Jones of the fashion bible i-D magazine,
it was Haines who had coined the term 'New Romantics' to describe his fellow
socialites and along with former Blitz doorman Steve Strange,
he had smartly collected his own social register of contacts to help fill
his own i-D club night at Gossips. In 1980 Duran Duran's management
turned to Perry Haines for assistance in styling their new romantic Brummie's
and even trusted him with budget for his video directorial debut on
Durans 'Careless Memories'. Multi tasking as magazine editor, club
promoter and fashion stylist, Haines shot the video in Soho.
[thanks to King] "Careless Memories" is the second single by Duran
Duran, released on 20 April 1981. The band's debut single
"Planet Earth" had been a Top 20 hit, so it was regarded as a major
setback when "Careless Memories" stalled at #37 in the UK charts,
particularly as it was to herald the June release of the debut album Duran
Duran. It has since come to light that the decision to release the single
was not the band's but EMI's. After its failure, executives decided to let
Duran Duran choose their own single releases. The band's first selection was
"Girls on Film" and it duly became their first Top 5 hit in the
UK. If you want to know more about Girls on Film you have to read this
recent interview to Andy Wickett, Duran Duran's singer for
a very short period before Simon joined. "Before
going their separate ways, Duran Duran still needed Andy’s help, with
song-writing and performance. Wichett says: “When Simon Le Bon joined
the group, their manager used to pay me ten pounds to give him singing lessons.
I’d give him twenty minutes, getting him to sing Girls On Film. He used
to try and copy me, because the band liked my style.”
May 8: duranduran.com launches the band's official YouTube channel with an exclusive sneak peak of Duronson playing in the studio with Nick Hodgson. Very cool stuff, check it out! |
Traces of John Taylor’s friendship with the Ronson family in the Andy Warhol Diaries
The cover of Warhol's Diaries and Mark with his mum Ann Ronson |
The band have known Ronson’s parents for years and remember meeting him aged 9. John said last year [bbc news] "I love Mark, I've known Mark for a long time. I've known his mum and dad and I'm very proud of what he's achieved. Mark Ronson won best British male at this year's Brit Awards Ann and [stepdad] Mick Jones - from Foreigner, who raised Mark - are two of the most wonderful people you could ever know. It was always on the cards that Mark was going to be a very special fellow. He's always been a really hard-working super-nice guy, and he deserves everything that he's getting". Even Andy Warhol, in his Diaries, give us proof of John's old friendship with Mark's family. I typed for you the paragraph about a party at Ann Ronson’s fifteen-room apartment that Warhol attended with John Taylor, Michael Douglas and Nile Rodgers! [thanks Camillo] |
from The Andy Warhol Diaries
Thursday, January 9, 1986
Worked all afternoon. left at 5:00 to go to Sabrina Guinness’s birthday party at Ann Ronson’s fifteen-room apartment at the San remo on Central Park West --she’s married to Mick Jones of Foreigner. Each room was done in different style. One room English, the other room was Art Deco, the next room was trompe l’oeil. There was no food. Just three piececes of chicken sushi. I found some caviar on tray in the corner of a room where you would never look. And there was a black girl there who was one of those over-bubbly girls that I can’t stand from Africa, she said, but then she said it was so good to be out with people because she lives so shut up in Greenwich with her family, so what do you suppose that means? She said she went to the best London schools. And I guess Michael Douglas likes black girls because he said, “Listen sweetheart, give me your number before you leave,” and when he got up to do something he told her, I’ll be right back.” Earl McGrath was there, sour untill he finally got a joint from John Taylor of Duran Duran. And then he introduced me to Randy Hearst, Patty’s father, and then it turned out Patty was there with her cop husband, and I met him, and then Patty came over and was very friendly and sweet, she looks great. And Nile Rodgers was there, the record producer. He’s a fashion plate, his hair’s cut square like Grace Jones’s, and he’s really nice.
May 6: Galaxy of stars: Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute's 'Model as Muse' gala | On May 4th the halls of one of New York’s finest cultural institutions has been filled with stunning a-listers, including Simon and Yasmin Le Bon. The exhibition "Model as Muse" can be visited at the Metropolitan from May 6 through August 9, 2009. Pics in all the main the photo agencies.
May 6: According to the official sources Nick and John's recent trip to New York City had as main object some business meetings. While the two founding members were in the Us they got time to attend the opening night of Houston Grand Opera's Rigoletto at the Wortham Theater Center [blogs.chron.com]. Nick also found some spare time to pose for a new photo session [above some pics from the photo-shot apparently taken the same night he attended the Tribeca Film Festival - see news from april 26 below - Thanks to Catherine for the pics].
Some more
quick news from Usa, the above picture, kindly sent by Jean-Christophe, was
taken at the De Young Museum in San Francisco
a few days ago. It was part of an Andy Warhol special exhibition. It could
be one of the million pics of Nick Rhodes we have in our collections but this
is much more, it's one of the few polaroids of Nick taken by Andy
Warhol!
May 1: Just published the official results of the 42nd Antigua Sailing Week: Rio is first! The regatta has begun on Saturday 25 April, six full days of competition! Among the early entrants for Antigua Sailing Week there was Charles Dunstone's Transpac 52 Rio with a largely professional crew - including many members of Team Origin America's Cup squad - and rock and roll celebrity Simon Le Bon. Above the first pics of Simon in Antigua on board of Rio! Congratulations Rio Crew [cool name!] and Simon Le Sailor!
Pdf - Results All classes - overall only