November 24: Album Update | Read it carefully 'cause this is not a take of this Roger Taylor's blog on the official site.This is a transcription of the most interesting part [about 13th] from the recent KatyKafe, online on ddm from november 19th. Roger says: "We'll probably back in the studio as a band in the new year. Simon is writing lyrics, he is just sorting the final vocals. I know that he'll back in the studio next week and I know that he has got around six songs and they are all pretty much finished so I think we really start moving again from there" [...] There will be a tour for sure, we hope to get some dates for the second quarter of next year" [...] I'll probably deejay in a couple of weeks in London, at the Met Bar, it's kinda like my resident, I kinda play there when I want.
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November 19: On sunday november 15th, Yasmin Le Bon with husband Simon and their three daughters joined other celebrities in raising money for charity by manning stalls at the Really Really Great Garage Sale fundraising event at Selfridges in London. Here is a fan/fun experience from our London reporter Silvia [known for being the fan who lent her voice to speak the italian words in Venice Drowning]. |
"My friend B and I arrived at Selfridges at about noon, when the event was actually supposed to start! Big mistake! We should have known better! Tons of celebrities selling their own clothes for charity, certainly a very attractive event! The nice police-officer I talked to estimated 4 hours queue. We decide to go for the Jimmy Choo sale at H&M which was quite a big deal as well to be honest! We go back at around 2pm! We were lucky! Barely half hour in line! We walked right away towards Yasmin’s stall! She’s already sold almost everything. She welcomed us warmly, she started talking with us saying that she’s been there since 9am but she’s very proud of what she accomplished so far! We asked if she had eaten at all… she said: ”not really!”. The 3 girls are all there with their aprons and horns helping mom!! Simon arrives 5 minutes later in a very good mood! He tries right away to sell us one of his jacket, light grey/white XL and stained! We really were laughing very hard thinking about our husbands wearing it… they would have most likely thrown it in our faces! We didn’t ask anything about the work they’re doing with the band because he seemed very excited about the event and wanted to show us more clothes! I go back to Yasmin and spot a very sexy black dress… I guess I couldn’t resist and besides the money will go to charity! She tells us that she partied very hard on it, it’s a Versace dress. She sells it to me for 15 pounds and Saffron put it the shopping bag for me! We spoke about the Wallis collection and boobs... Right! Boobs! Which she confessed: ”I never had!”. We decided to wander around and check out the other stalls! Simon is always somewhere around us very excited! We meet again and I decide to ask for a picture… it’s been 20 years that I don’t take a picture with Simon, it seemed a good occasion! He looks very happy and proud of what Yasmin was doing and he’s keeping on saying:” this is so fucking cool! Some people recognized him and ask for autographs! At some point some tv journalist interviewed him! That’s pretty much it! Very funny and exciting experience! Certainly a little different from the usual ones where Duran Duran are involved!"
| From the Indipendent: Sunday is a holy day for bargain hunters, who flock to car parks and playing fields around the country to rummage through stalls of second-hand clothes, toys and bric-a-brac in the hope of finding a hidden gem. But while boot sale-goers wouldn’t spend hours queuing for the privilege, a fashion-conscious crowd arrived at the car park of London's Selfridges early yesterday morning in the hope of bagging a bargain and spotting some celebrities at a charity jumble sale. Famous names including Gwyneth Paltrow, Lily Allen, Yasmin Le Bon [with Simon and their three girls] donated items, with many choosing to man their own stalls. |
November 19: On November 14th John Taylor, wife Gela Nash and daughter Atlanta attended The Museum of Contemporary Art [MOCA] 30th Anniversary Gala in Los Angeles. The gala and auction of new artworks will benefit the museum's exhibition and education programs.
Above some unusual pics of Simon shopping in Casablanca. The pics were taken in the early days of November when Simon and his family attended the launch of the Mazagan Beach Resort in Morocco. Credit goes to the very informative forum All for Simon Le Bon
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Last
but not least... when Spandau Ballet came to Milan
last week for a quick promotional tour, during the press conference
they were asked about Duran Duran and their historic rivalry. Spandau
said: "They are very nice guys and we are friends. The night of
our London debut they sent us a very big bottle of Dom Perignon, some
of them also attended the show. With the bottle there was also a wishing
card... they didn't write the typical english good wish "break
a leg", they just wrote ‘We’ll break your legs’!
From rockol.it |
November 13: Review | Originally released in 2003, the Single Box 81-85 gets new life with the a new release. If you have purchased this compilation in the form of 13 cd singles you won't be disappointed getting this wonderfully designed new podouct by Duran Duran under Emi! Not only is this 3cd version considerably cheaper, you're also spared the irritation of having to constantly swap discs over in order to hear all the tracks. The box set contains so many great remixed/extended versions of classic Duran Duran tracks, such as the 'nite versions ' and the 'dance mixes' [in the early days, the band would actually re-record the extended versions of their singles]. You'll be able to listen to Khanada, Fame and Secret Oktober without the hassle of changing disc: a real full immersion in the Duran Duran b-sides world. I just hope that Emi Catalogue will reissue soon the 'Singles Box 86-95' in a similar manageable and usefull format. [the box is available on amazon.co.uk for only £7.98]
Press release: 2009 three CD set from the New Wave quintet containing all of their singles [A and B-sides] released between 1981 and 1985. From their debut single 'Planet Earth' to their James Bond theme, 'A View To A Kill', Duran Duran could do no wrong and were one of the most sucessful Pop acts of the '80s. This triple box features all 13 singles released during their first four years including seven inch single mixes, extended mixes and b-sides. Features the hits 'Rio', 'Hungry Like The Wolf', 'The Wild Boys', 'Girls On Film', 'Save A Prayer', 'Is There Something I Should Know', 'The Reflex' and many more. Emi.
November 13: Duran Duran has recently inspired a musical in Australia and a movie still in production in Uk. From the Sydney Morning Herald | Section: Spectrum | "Musical theatre is undergoing a metamorphosis as plot-driven epics make way for nostalgic fantasy. Listen up, theatreland, have I got a show for you. Rio! – The New Romantic Musical!© is the heart-warming story of an apprentice in a run-down suburban hair salon who enters an international hairdressing competition in Brazil because she’s searching for her father, a man that her mother – now tragically deceased, but still available in humorous ghost format – allowed her to believe is Vidal Sassoon. Stay with me, people. There’s a hilariously bitchy gay character, a wedding [maybe two!], a haircut gone seriously wrong and, best of all, it’s stuffed full of retro-fabulous ’ 80s pop anthems including Duran Duran’s Rio for the spectacular beach finale".
The film Elevator Gods has been in preparation for eight years and is being directed and produced by Tadcaster man Peter Hunt, who is starring in the film alongside comedians Trevor and Simon and Ralph Brown, who played drug dealer Danny in Withnail And I. The film, which has a budget of just £100,000, is being billed as The Full Monty meets The Commitments, and tells the story of a Bradford poseur who must persuade his friends to reform their Duran Duran tribute band to enter a contest and win the cash prize to save their nightclub. The budget is so tight that Mr Hunt’s family and friends are helping to get the film made. Writer and Director Pete Hunt and the crew hope the film will be released early in 2011. |
November 8: The Le Bon family were among the celebrity guests who attended the launch party of the Mazagan Beach Resort in Morocco. The luxury property is located in the Mazagan region south of Casablanca. According to Dean Piper [Celebrity & Showbiz Expert and currently the celebrity and entertainment columnist for The Sunday Mirror] guest were also invited at the Birthday party for Simon Le Bon, Hollywood actor Gerard Butler and Naomi Campbell’s millionaire boyfriend Vladislav Doronin. The threesome celebrated their birthdays at Mazagan’s Sanctuary Club. Yasmin and Naomi had pre-planned the entire evening around their men and a huge cake was brought out for each man! And part of the celebrations included Simon and hotel owner Heather Kerzner taking to the mic for some impromptu karaoke! Meanwile Simon and Dean Piper engaged in a ‘dance-off’ in the middle of the Sanctuary club. Simon wandered over to the DJ booth and yelled: “Got any MGMT. Please play it.” Unfortunately the DJ had no idea an eighties pop legend was before him and said he ‘didn’t take requests’. Blasted!
As soon as Simon returned to London he was busy doing quick rehearsals to play live with Mark Ronson and the Kaiser Chiefs at Brixton Academy for Care. Proceeds from the show went to Care international – one of the largest international relief and humanitarian organizations in the world. Simon sang an interesting rendition of Planet Earth with Mark Ronson and the Kaiser Chiefs. Something funny [?] happened that night to Mark Ronson: David Walliams a comedy actor played a joke on him earlier that night. He did a sketch and got Mark up on stage where they played a game called 'find the sausage' anyway it ended up with him pulling Marks pants down! By all accounts Mark didn't know it was going to happen and had his pants ripped in the process. Those funny pics appeared in the papers the next day. [thanks to snr79 for reporting about the Ronson bad joke and to Daniela for the Simon picture above-right]
in the Media
Simon, Kaiser Chiefs and Ronson's performance from Youtube. On the right two papers from last week about Casablanca and the bad Ronson joke. |
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November 7: Phillips de Pury & Company, one of the most innovative forces in the art world, has introduced a new series of theme auctions of Contemporary Art and culture which will be held at their headquarters in London and New York. Two lots of photos from Nick Rhodes are available for auction [view them here], "Selected images from the Flag" and "Selected Images from American TV". Both photos come from the Interference project dated 1984. The MUSIC theme sale will be offering four key components to the sale: art and design by contemporary artists that has a reference to music; art by contemporary musicians; portraits of contemporary musicians by top photographers; plus music memorabilia. Auction starts Saturday 21 November 2009 5pm London with Simon de Pury and featuring DJ Matthew Herbert. Viewing 9 – 21 November. You can order a copy of the MUSIC catalogue featuring pics of the two Rhodes artisitic polaroids right here. |
Here is a nice photo of Nick at the book launch party for Nicky Haslam's autobiography - 'Redeeming Features' on November 5, 2009
November 6: Last week, during the 40th Anniversary of the Internet celebration, John Taylor revealed some juicy details about the still embryonic Apple-Itunes collaboration for the future Duran Duran album and products. At the end of the conference John answered a couple of questions that don't appear in the video posted by UCLA in the webcast site. This is an exclusive transcription of the most interesting part of the chat that John had with the audience after his official speach. John was asked to talk about the recent meeting of the band with the Apple-Itunes representatives. Here is what he said: " [back in July] We went up to Apple, we met quite a few people there, we talked to Robert Gondrick at Itunes about how we could expand, we talked about packaging [I'm obsessed about that kind of stuff! John says]. I was finding the [dowload] experience actually buying music, 'cos I'm an old-timer... I find that downloading experience a bit of a let-down, I'm looking to an answer and get a little bit more out of it and he [Robert] is of that mind also. So we got to see a little bit what they were doing with a view to a new project, we talked about an Anthology project and how we could release it, maybe not all in one go, or just releasing it. I suppose asks questions of how the prodouct show be presented, you know I'm used to very much like a recording with a beginning and an end and maybe with the online services is not like that. We even talked about releasing an album that maybe hadn't a fluid running order... that maybe everybody that downloaded the album ain't got it in different order..."
"I like the idea of selling my music directly to people out there"
November 3: Just some Taylor Made news and tidbits! On October 15th Cindy Crawford [in the small pics with Roger] launched a new Omega advertising campaign commemorating 10 years of the brand’s Co-axial technology. The evening party - attended by celebrities - was held at the exclusive Almada bar in Mayfair and music was provided by DJ Roger Taylor.
Andy and James Taylor, sons of Andy Snr and Roger, are launching their new band Nitevisions. Listen a bit of their song Fire here.
Since I haven't seen these pics posted on the usual boards I take the chance to show them to you... Roger with his wife Gisela at the Neville Hair And Beauty - Salon Relaunch Party [taken on June 22, 2009]
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More Taylor Made news. Our correspondent Alexandria visited the Eastside Project Abstract Cabinet Show [Taylor/Toledo's exhibition in Birmingham]. Here is what she has to say: "It's a small gallery in the middle of what aptly felt like an industrial estate, there are various pieces on show and as I meandered around towards the rear I thought I could hear a familiar voice. Behind a black curtain is the looping short film show with the words of John and Laureana. Interesting thoughts about cities, architecture and what was home, nostalgia. If you get a chance I would recommend seeing it, for those who can't I took a snap of the amp and the paper." Check out this great document of the multitalented and creative John Taylor right here |
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Last but not least Taylor Made tidbit... if you missed this revealing interview to Andy Taylor [published in september], well here is a chance to read it again ... Andy says about Nick Rhodes! [...] "to his credit or discredit - and it’s a very subjective sort of thing, y’know - all he’s ever known is Duran Duran. That it! All he’s ever known. So, you can forgive him for screwing up sometimes. Q: So you don’t hate him? AT: [Laughs] No, not at all. But y’know, me and Nick can push each other’s buttons like nothing else and it’s one of the most productive things when it works and one of the most destructive things when it doesn’t, and that’s what bands ought to be. Not those homogenised fuckers from Pop Idol. |
Since we are talking about the keeper of Duran Duran's flame, aka Nick Rhodes, I want to close this post with this priceless picture of him, Mark Ronson and his girlfriend [French model and actress] Josephine de la Baume [taken at the Pringle of Scotland fashion show at the Sacchi Gallery on 21/09]. It's your turn now! Caption this pic, email me your captions at salvo@duranasty.com The funniest caption will be published!
*Updated on December 9*: The best caption is from Bev Smith [thanks!]:
"Yes
Mark, of course you can be the fifth member of Duran Duran, now put the gun
down theres a good chap!