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The worst thing about meeting your idols, they say, is that they
always disappoint - especially when they used to be plastered all
over your bedroom wall, as Duran Duran were over mine. These days,
the band consists of frontman Simon Le Bon - who to me was once
the greatest thing since leg-warmers - keyboard player Nick Rhodes
and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, and they want to be taken seriously.
Surprisingly, they are holding court at a West London hotel rather
than aboard a yacht sipping Martinis while having their eyeliner
touched up. Clad in conservative designer-suits, they huddle around
a fire in an old- fashioned oak panelled room drinking mineral water.
After I girlishly reveal that I am looking forward to seeing them
in concert, Simon, once voted the sexiest man on the planet, can't
resist trying to re-ignite my teenage passions. Giving me a look
which would have caused me to faint on the spot 13 years ago he
says mischievously, "You'll have to wear a shorter skirt than that
if you come to Wembley.
"On this tour I expect to get at least one pair of knickers," he
adds hopefully. "We used to get suitcases full."
"Well, I'm keeping mine firmly on, thank you," I tell him.
Nick raises an eyebrow behind his highlighted blond fringe - one
of the few things reminiscent of their heyday, and is clearly not
amused. He doesn't want to talk about the old days when the band,
who had a string of hits with songs such as Planet Earth, Girls
On Film and Hungry Like The Wolf, used to run from mobs of screaming
girls.
Nick's also not entirely keen to mention that they rose to be one
of the '80s most successful bands with 60 million records sold and
13 Top 10 hits, as well as being Princess Diana's favourite group.
"We have moved on since then," says Nick, 36, curtly. "You have
no idea how much I hated that boat in Rio. Yes Simon enjoyed it.
He likes boats. It was great for, what, three hours? For us it was
about work."
These days they will only be interviewed as a band to promote their
recently released Greatest Hits album and video, plus to publicise
their UK tour starting in Birmingham on Monday.
They are also halfway through a new album, provisionally titled
Hallucinating Elvis, but it is the early days I'm keen to talk about.
I want to know about the girls, the drugs, the drink and the partying
for which they were notorious.
Nick doesn't even attempt to hide his contempt for my line of questioning.
"You can't deny you did a lot of partying," I ask Simon.
Nick immediately butts in, "Probably more bands did more partying
than us. We were working most of the time. Of course, we had some
great parties, but most of it is a myth."
But you were always pictured out and about as a band, I insist.
"Out and about! What does that mean? Have you ever been to parties?"
Nick asks me aggressively.
Simon jumps to my defence, "I think I know what you mean. We would
be going to what was our local which might be a bar or a nightclub.
Photographers would take a picture of you stumbling - your one stumble
of the night - and they would have proof. Suddenly your lifestyle
was so public."
Eventually, Nick grudgingly concedes that the band did manage to
socialise now and again. "We were very good on kitchens. We know
which hotel you can and can't eat in. We always used to go into
places through the kitchens."
Simon, obviously the biggest party animal of the lot, starts to
warm up. "I bumped into Elton John one night and I told him about
Duran Duran's parties and he said, 'Yes, I used to have them too
but we called them orgies'."
Nick is getting quite angry now. "It is not relevant to our music,"
he says.
Simon, who shoots Rhodes a disapproving look, continues, "I do go
out partying - I am a social person."
He insists, however, that family life with his three daughters -
Tallulah, now four, Amber, nine, and seven-year-old Saffron - is
now his top priority.
"Going out, you are going to miss out on the whole part of your
life - that other side," Simon says.
"Having children and being there for them and seeing them every
day... It's no good if your dad turns up pissed every morning when
you are getting ready for school. That's awful."
He pauses, "But on the other hand I don't want to say that's all
in the past - because I enjoy it."
Duran Duran play Wembley Arena on December 21.
COPYRIGHT 1998 MGN LTD
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