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CTV Television, Inc.
SHOW: CANADA AM June 20, 2000 06:30:00 - 09:00:00 Eastern Time
LENGTH: 1110 words
HEADLINE: Interview with Band members of Duran Duran
ANCHOR: VALERIE PRINGLE, JEFF HUTCHESON
GUEST: NICK RHODES, SIMON LEBON, WARREN CUCCURULLO [Band Membersof
Duran Duran]
BODY:
VALERIE PRINGLE: Well, it's been about 20 years since Duran hit
it huge. What did Rolling Stone Magazine call them? The Fab Five.
Enormously successful. Walk of fame. They have sold, like, 60 million
discs. Have come out with them year after year after year. And they
don't look a day older. It just is amazing how well they wear. Anyway
Duran Duran, the three members here have a new disc called Pop Trash
and we're so thrilled that you could make it.
NICK RHODES [Duran Duran]: We're so thrilled that we made it.
PRINGLE: Nick, Simon and Warren.
RHODES: Very sorry we're a little late.
PRINGLE: No problem. I should have known, perhaps, because I have
been buying them. You have had, through the 80's, you had a disc
almost every year, but even in the last five, six years.
RHODES: Yeah, well, we've made quite a few records now. Obviously
some do better than the other ones, so more people are aware of
them.
PRINGLE: It wasn't actually a shot at that. It was about the work,
and the interest in the work and the continuation of the work.
RHODES: Well, when you're in a band that's the thing that you want
to do. You just go on. You carry on and you try to discover something
new. You write some new songs, go out on tour, try and connect with
your audience and sometimes they take a while.
SIMON LEBON [Duran Duran]: When you first start, there's a lot,
you get excited by all kinds of different things, just going to
a recording studio. It's a very exciting experience. And then you
kind of get, you know, you get used to those things. But the one
thing that still excites us is the songs. The music. Being able
to have new music actually happen right there in front of you, coming
out of you. It's a very exciting thing.
PRINGLE: Well, one of the people I guess, I was told, was the inspiration
for you, David Bowie. I mean he's still just loves it. He's writing
songs with people over the internet. He loves using technology.
But he's been at this as long as you. A bit longer. And you think,
no, I like doing this. That's why I keep doing it.
WARREN CUCCURULLO [Duran Duran]: It's a total expression. Once you
start writing music, you're expressing yourself to the fullest.
Why stop.
PRINGLE: One of the things that you were better at expressing yourself
at, faster than most people, was videos. It's interesting that very
early on, you got very smart about that.
CUCCURULLO: It was the timing.
LEBON: It happened pretty much as we started happening. And it just
seemed very obvious that if we weren't going to get left behind
we would have to get into it. And it wasn't difficult for us because
we hadn't done anything before. It wasn't as if we got used to a
life without video, and it was a big mental shift for us to stop
doing it. It suddenly appeared in front of us. We'll have a go at
that, sure.
PRINGLE: Are you amazed at how powerful a force that's become, or
are you just, it was obvious to you?
RHODES: When we started, it was actually more of a little art form.
It was oh, we'll make these little strange films to go with our
songs. Then I think it turned into an industry. I mean with the
advent of all the video channels and also mainstream TV playing
rock videos. When we first made them, there wasn't very many places
that you could actually put them on. I mean in England, for example,
you could only get 30 seconds of it shown on Top of the Pops. That
was it. It's changed a lot.
CUCCURULLO: It's changed film making a lot, too, because a lot of
these young filmmakers who could only maybe make commercials for
products that had to be very strictly done, now have, now they're
able to interpret songs and do anything creatively that they like.
PRINGLE: Well, so many, even Spike Jones, people like that...
LEBON: Well, yes, exactly. Straight out of video, into films. Fantastic.
PRINGLE: It's huge success.
RHODES: It was a great movie.
PRINGLE: It was a great movie.
LEBON: Don't get started on movies. Stick to the records.
CUCCURULLO: There's a song called pop trash movies.
PRINGLE: I know you've got Pop Trash. And this, you've got Elvis,
you've got Liberace's car on the cover.
LEBON: Isn't that a great car?
PRINGLE: Who is the one obsessed with Liberace?
RHODES: Well I went to the museum and I saw the car. How could one
not be?
PRINGLE: Must have?
RHODES: Yeah. I'd urge everyone to go to the Liberace Museum in
Los Vegas. It's quite something.
LEBON: You know, to try and sort of like make repartations [inaudible],
I think Nick's going to go and play Woolly Bully on the piano. Go
on, Nick.
CUCCURULLO: No, there's no candelabra.
PRINGLE: We'll find one! Actually I was thinking of getting one
of you to read Hallucinating Elvis, because it's interesting, just
the lyrics and how you write the songs and how you come up with,
and how you figure that out. Seeing as we can't get you to perform
or sing Woolly Bully.
LEBON: I was hallucinating Elvis on the way to Las Vegas. Special
treatment all the way. Hallucinating Elvis, missing eighteen hours.
Losing oxygen to the brain. Lying on the floor. There's a limit
to how much more I can take. Rhinestone inside my shoe because I'm
turning into you. I was hallucinating Elvis. I had this suit, this
gold suit made for the video that we did for Perfect Day which was
off of our covers album. And this suit was made out of upholstery
plastic. And it had a mind of its own. I could actually stand it
in the corner. When I put it on, it never felt like it was doing
what I had wanted it to do. It always felt like it was doing what
it wanted it to do. And I kind of got into that whole mentality,
and people would say, what's happening to you? And I would say,
I'm hallucinating Elvis, with this suit on. And it became a sort
of catch phrase, really. And I thought, that would be a good idea
for a song. And then I left the studio for about a week, and disappeared
somewhere, and these guys thought...
CUCCURULLO: Let's write hallucinating Elvis.
RHODES: He came in, and it was nearly done. Well, I like that.
PRINGLE: Where's the suit? Is the suit in the video?
LEBON: It's walking around outdoors somewhere.
PRINGLE: Well, I'm delighted to see you. You've got, your shoes,
are you comfortable now. And I still would love to hear Woolly Bully.
We may have to get a private performance.
RHODES: Perhaps if we have time before we go.
PRINGLE: Well we are. This is it. We'll have to report back to you.
Anyway, Pop Trash is the new disc. And it's very nice to see you.
CUCCURULLO: Thanks a lot.
LOAD-DATE: June 21, 2000
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