Duran Duran

Freebird

Flippin 'eck they could play, they were no Take That!

merlin

Duran Duran? Seriously? Barbarella was far sexier.....

axisus

When they were 'big' I had no interest at all. A few years later I realised that they were actually pretty good, a much better band that I gave credit for.

RustySpanner

Not my thing at the time, but yep, they could play. Some great tunes too. 

Big Si's voice is terrible though. Flatter than Norfolk and a tone like a calf being strangled with an elastic band. 

viz

One of the best bands ever, seriously!

Bellycaster

viz said:

One of the best bands ever, seriously!

Absolutely true.

One of my faves below, an almost forgotten classic, the proper version that was released as a Single before the butchered re-arranged version they released on the Rio Album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUrIDz6L5vc

.

Roysterdoyster

Ordinary World. That is all 

RandallFlagg

axisus said:

When they were 'big' I had no interest at all. A few years later I realised that they were actually pretty good, a much better band that I gave credit for.

Same here, I hated Simon Le Bon with a passion when they were prancing about on TOTP. The way he bounces out onto the stage in the clip above brings it all back.

But yes they could play and had some really good pop songs. Ordinary World is also my favourite.

pintspiller

By being pop, I guess they were dismissed by many of us. I liked a lot of pop with the cooler alternative music. I only bought what I thought was cool though.

poopot

They never stopped releasing albums or touring. Just fell out of favour over here... massive still in the states!...

prowla

Rio is a great bass workout.

ICBM

Really great band - I was laughed at by my mates at school for liking them, but I didn’t care. A lot of the girls liked them too .

There was an interesting documentary about them on the BBC a while back - the biggest surprise was that Simon Le Bon was a former choirboy, and quite good - I always thought his pitching was a bit dodgy too!

John Taylor was a seriously good bass player - my first bass was an Aria SB-1000 like his... I wish I’d kept it, they’re worth big money now. His autobiography is also well worth a read - it’s a typical tale of success, excess and recovery but he comes out of it as a nice guy.

tone1

prowla said:

Rio is a great bass workout.

My favourite ever Bass part under the sax solo... I don’t hear the sax, only the Bass

edit... Duran Duran are my main Guilty pleasure...

octatonic

"Japan" were always more my thing.

ian

Check out their 2010 album, "All you need is now". I discovered it a couple of months ago via Amazon Prime Music. Wonderful, IMO. And if only I could sing as well as Simon does on that album. (Reminds me that some people used to diss Madonna's vocals, but she goes far beyond carrying the tune.)

EricTheWeary

More proof, as if needed, that all the best things are from the West Midlands. 

Freebird

An insightful retrospective .. Duran Duran 'The early days'

equalsql

Eeeech.. To me they were the musical equivalent of scraping your fingernails down a blackboard. 

monquixote

Learned a few of their baselines for a cover band and got a lot of respect for them.

Worked with Nile as well so that gets you points.

JerkMoans

To this day I cannot understand what TF ‘The Reflex’ was all about.

ICBM

JerkMoans said:

To this day I cannot understand what TF ‘The Reflex’ was all about.

A lonely child waiting by the park, in charge of finding treasure in the dark, and watching over lucky clover. Simples.