Duran Duran by John Swannell
Duran Duran is a band with many lives, starting as a new-wave outfit in late ’70s Birmingham, England — a perfect time and place, as it turned out, to be immersed in the whirling dervish of radical artistic ideas and British political turmoil.
The new wave, of course, that Duran Duran embodied came from putting punk into a digestible form that many critics of the day derided as throwaway. But so much for foresight: Singles from this era, time and place go for serious cash online today, and it seems like pretty bands making opportunistically “trashy” art were playing the long game. Very much a product of their time, Duran Duran evolved into the elder statesmen avatars of adult contemporary new-wave awesomeness that they presently are.
Every time one could count them out, a new record or single would drop, and the dial would be reset for a new generation of people to discover dashing frontman Simon LeBon and his fashion-plate mates Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor.
This was no sure thing for a band lacking the critical acclaim of New Order and Depeche Mode, the rabid base of Morrissey and The Smiths (though Duranies do exist) or the posthumous staying power of The Clash.
Duran Duran have become their own thing, a pastiche of ’80s new wave (“Rio,” “Girls On Film”) and ’90s arena pop (“Come Undone, “Ordinary World”) attaining adulthood, middle age and senior status — and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame berth — with smoothness and a positive outlook. A band named after an R-rated sci-fi villain who wields an orgasm-inducing death machine has outlasted peers and outwitted critics just by doing what they do, thus proving that any misconceptions anyone had about Duran Duran were misplaced and based on internal biases.
That’s quite a lot of living, struggling, creating and doing for a bunch of scrappy New Romantics from an English steel town. Put that biography in front of a skeptical kid today and they might say that’s pretty punk-rock.
Duran Duran play 7pm Sunday, June 18 at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise with special guests Nile Rodgers & Chic and Bastille. duranduran.com ~ Tim Moffatt
