Duran Duran: There's Something You Should Know

What did I wanna be when I grew up?

I wanted to be adored.

I was just, like, perpetually excited in 1981.

It was just so much fun.

That's what New Romantic was-- wearing that on the 50 bus.

What teenage girl didn't have a crush

on every single guy in that band?

This one person threw three bras on the stage.

And two pairs of knickers. I thought,

"She's definitely not wearing any underwear now."

Every time you tried to move,

there would be 200 teenage girls trying to rip you apart.

Duran Duran is my life.

Waiting for them outside of BBC...

They never noticed me.

Nobody really wanted to give you credit for the fact

that everybody was a great musician.

I feel like Duran Duran is my second band.

The demands on us had become absurd.

It's like one of those rat wheels isn't it?

And you just gotta be King Rat sometimes and say,

"Bollocks. I'm jumping off."

The atmosphere was completely toxic.

We'd just had a few years of,

like, "'80s band, '80s band."

I think they just saw the boat going the other way

down the river with all their money on it.

Imagine to be in a band like Duran Duran

and have the career that they've had.

That's, like, the ultimate dream.

For me, all of our albums

define different stages in our career.

The first album was our game plan.

The way we are on that first album,

we're all playing the best that we could play,

and we're all just playing every note we know.

"Planet Earth" was the energy of rock music and punk,

and strong melody.

We all loved melodies,

good songs, that was what it was about.

-Ooh, it smells old. -Jesus!

The Decrepids.

Oh-- Oh, come on, Rodge.

Come on. Let's get cozy.

-Snuggle up in the back. -Put your seat belt on.

Well, if you're driving, I will.

-He's actually driving it? -Oh, no.

That's what I said.

I'm in the danger seat. You're fine there.

So it appears that in here...

our very first demo,

in Birmingham, for our first album.

-It's "Faster Than Light." -It is.

Oh, wow.

I think the last time we were in a Citroen was probably,

together, maybe 1982?

I don't know how we came across the first Citroen,

but it was, like, the perfect car for Duran Duran.

It was super fast and it was super comfortable.

I don't remember where we got the first one from.

-We bought the second one. -Buying the second one

was a major commitment to success.

We don't know what else is on here.

Let's have a look.

-Andy's playing was-- -The car's shaking.

Andy's playing was very economical, wasn't it?

Oh, yeah, but that was so great.

-He played essential guitar. -Yeah.

That's a loud vocal. Wow.

I hate-- The vocal's horrible.

-It's so loud. -Horrible vocal!

Stop it!

Aah!

We really became brothers.

We were both single kids. we didn't have any siblings.

We lived a few hundred meters away from each other

in Hollywood, Birmingham.

There was a lot of other kids at school that loved music.

But not as much as we did. Or that's what we thought.

Blondie, Talking Heads,

Patti Smith, Roxy Music...

we saw lots and lots of times.

I took John to his first concert.

It was in April 1974,

and it was actually Mick Ronson.

And it cost us £1.35 each.

Every time we went to a show,

John and I used to count the trucks

outside at the back of the show and figure out

how many lights they had and how much sound, and think

how many we needed to make what we were gonna do happen.

My dad was a manual worker.

My dad worked at the Rover.

So it was very much expected

that I would remain a manual worker.

I didn't think it was a great way of life.

I wanted to do something different.

I had this dream of being in a band.

Birmingham was a very small world in those days,

and anybody who was kind of any good,

you know, you'd hear about.

So I think that John and Nick had heard about me,

and I'd heard about Duran Duran.

We were rehearsing at this...

this squat in Cheapside.

It was kind of like

the armpit of Birmingham down here.

This is really, it's the spiritual home

of Duran Duran right here.

Roger is the most likable person

you'll ever meet in this business.

You know, and right away we clicked.

Just set my drums up and started jamming,

and they said, "Come back next week,"

so I must have got the gig, you know.

So this is really my moment,

is just walking through that door right there.

At 19 years old, it was like walking into a space rocket.

It took me all over the world,

and kind of everything that I have,

really, that's good in life

is a result of walking through that...

through that door there.

Birmingham at that time

might as well have been the center of the world.

I don't feel like--

It was the center of our world, wasn't it?

I don't feel like we ever thought,

"Oh, man, I wish we lived in London."

The Rum Runner was like the sort of premier

New Romantic club

in Birmingham where everybody went.

It had this really big kind of entrance

that was like a big corridor that was almost like a catwalk.

It really was just about showing off.

It was about going out, getting your photo taken.

It was just about getting attention.

This is where we found somewhere to rehearse.

This is where we found our management.

This is where we found Andy.

This is where we found Simon.

This was like our Cavern, in a way.

So I guess within about a month

of having gone to the Rum Runner,

suddenly it's Nick, me and Rodge,

and now we're planning world domination,

although we don't have a guitar player and a singer,

but this is, like, the-- this is the core.

We were looking for a guitar player

that could play, like, Nile Rodgers funk,

but could play, like, Mick Ronson lead,

and there weren't that many who could do that.

Andy came down from Newcastle.

We joke about his style, you know,

'cause that wasn't his thing, but he thought about music,

and he just right away brought-- he took us to another level.

We all had jobs here doing different things.

Nick got the DJ job,

John worked on the door, I worked behind the bar.

and I remember Simon comes walking down one day,

and that was our first meeting.

When he said his name was Simon Le Bon,

we sort of didn't believe that was his real name,

but anyway, turned out it was.

And he had a lyric book with him.

Well, this was the holy grail.

There were things in there, and we started reading through.

Wow! This would be perfect if only he can sing.

When he started singing, it was crazy.

It was just one of those

fantastic "Eureka!" moments.

I thought, this guy's a star.

He was tall, he was well put together,

and he was really smart.

I mean, he's a poet, Simon, you know?

So at that time particularly, he was always writing words.

The gold dust of the music business

is words on paper.

Whatever anybody else will tell you

about grooves or notes, it's all about those lyrics.