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Duran Duran, the glamorous British pop band, was like one great,
glowing fantasy float in a perpetual rock 'n' roll Santa Claus Parade
- until disaster struck.
Actually it was double disaster, as if the float's wheels started
to fall off at exactly the same time it began going in the wrong
direction.
The first problem came when its key players - Nick Rhodes, Simon
LeBon and John Taylor - began to seriously disagree on what the
band, one of the early '80s' big commercial successes, was all about.
No sooner had they resolved their differences - but not before temporarily
splitting into two new groups, Power Station and Arcadia - when
two of the other original five members, Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor,
quit. (None of the Taylors is related.)
On top of all this, Rhodes, LeBon and John Taylor parted ways with
their original managers, Michael and Paul Barrow, because as Rhodes
was telling me this weekend, "they wanted to be film producers and
not the managers of a rock 'n' roll band, which is what we are."
The band now manages itself. Its near collapse in the mid-'80s -
"and it almost happened several times" - may be as beneficial as
the near-collapse of Genesis in the mid-'70s, Rhodes hopes.
"There's so much more space to play with now," says the compact,
chatty keyboard player. "There was so much more we have had to do
for ourselves."
Our meeting, at a luxury mid-town hotel, was intended by Capitol,
their record company, to give the band a chance to drum up interest
in their fifth album, Notorious, now making its way to record stores.
Right off though, I sensed much was different from the last time
our paths had crossed, again in a luxury hotel, only that time in
Paris.
Then I felt I was being introduced to royalty. Rhodes and LeBon
reclined in period furniture of dubious authenticity; they seemed
withdrawn, even slightly bored with it all. This time around you
could feel some real energy.
"I don't feel I have to hold things back anymore," Rhodes added.
"I think I did in the past because we got so burned by the press
with the glamour thing they tried to play up. This time I feel different.
Besides, what else can they say? They've said so many things about
girlfriends and wives there's not much more they can do."
Settled down
In truth, they've settled down somewhat. LeBon, after a near-fatal
accident during a yacht race, married model Yasmin Parvenah. Taylor
has moved in with model, Renee Simonsen. Rhodes married Julie Friedman;
the couple recently had a baby girl, Tatjana.
And the word appears to be out about their current settled state.
The hotel lobby was noticeably empty of anxious Duranies and other
fans - an absolutely unthinkable situation three years ago after
they'd scored hits with "Rio," "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Reflex."
"Nightclubs, yachts - I don't want to hear about that anymore,"
Rhodes added.
"I guess everybody's a victim of gossip to a degree but I read things
and I think: 'I hope there's nobody believing that I'm really like
that.'
"Where we were naive early on was that we didn't realize that people
actually read these things and believed them. The general public
has a really distorted view of what we are really like. And maybe
that's a shame.
"It suited the media to perpetuate this image (of a luxury-loving
band) but I guess it didn't suit us. We (now) realized the whole
thing was getting a bit out of hand.
"The fact that I spent four days in Sri Lanka making videos on the
cheapest budget you can possibly imagine suddenly made me this incredible
jet-setter who hangs out in deserts all the time.
"In reality, I'd been slaving for the four months before those videos
in the studio making a record. I was actually put off at having
to go to this awful, hot place and dress up in these clothes to
do this video on the way to a tour. And the only reason we did it
in Sri Lanka was because we were on our way to tour in Australia.
"Suddenly though, I was seen as an MTV video star. Well, forget
about it buddy. It's such a lot of crap. To me a video is great
fun. It's three minutes long and goes with a piece of music and
serves a purpose.
"But all that happened when the big business moved in and it became
an industry. It became really terrible.
"It was only after our experiences on Arcadia (with LeBon and Rhodes)
and Power Station (Taylor) were we equipped to do the album we've
done. We'd reached as far as we could go the other way.
"With Andy and Roger leaving, we're now so much more adaptable.
We can bring in whoever we like. (Guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and
drummer Steve Ferrone will be joining the three on the world-wide
tour expected to bring them to Canada next July.)
"It's so much easier to make decisions."
LOAD-DATE: May 13, 1999
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