♪ Please, please tell me now... ♪
What did I wanna be when I grew up?
I wanted to be adored.
♪ Please, please tell me now... ♪
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."
♪ Girls on film... ♪
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.
♪ Her name is Rio... ♪
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.
♪ No-No-Notorious... ♪
For me, all of our albums
define different stages in our career.
The first album was our game plan.
♪ Only came outside ♪
♪ To watch the night fall with the rain... ♪
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.
♪ Some New Romantic looking for the TV sound... ♪
"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.
♪ Look now, look all around ♪
♪ There's no sign of life ♪
♪ Voices, another sound ♪
♪ Can you hear me now? ♪
- 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.
- ♪ The light ♪ - ♪ Faster than light ♪
- ♪ The light ♪ - ♪ Faster than light... ♪
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!
White riot, I wanna riot ♪
♪ White riot, a riot of our own... ♪
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.
♪ Outside ♪
♪ Is there anyone out 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.
♪ Look out of the window ♪
♪ Baby, you can call by my name... ♪
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.
♪ Da-da, da-da ♪
♪ Groovin' now to X-Ray Spex... ♪
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.
♪ All alone ain't much fun ♪
♪ So you're looking for the thrill... ♪
When he started singing, it was crazy.
It was just one of those
fantastic "Eureka!" moments.
♪ Don't say a prayer for me now ♪
♪ Save it till the morning after ♪
♪ No, don't say a prayer for me now ♪
♪ Save it till the morning after... ♪
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.
♪ Any other day ♪
♪ You might have gone walking by ♪
♪ Without a second look ♪
♪ Any other way ♪
♪ But I'm still mystified ♪
♪ I'm just trying to change my luck ♪
♪ Staring at the world... ♪
I'm going to take you to the church,
'cause we're gonna go and see Mr. Turvey...
my old choir master.
♪ And nobody knows ♪
♪ What's gonna happen tomorrow... ♪
This is the beautiful...
Church of St. John the Baptist, Pinner.
This is where I was a choirboy for four years.
This place had a huge effect on my musical development.
I grew to love church music
and the intricacies of it and the harmonies.
Hello. Long time.
- Nice to see you. - It's been many years.
So this is where I spent a lot of time sitting.
Right here. Yeah.
There'd be somebody there who was better than me.
Until, for a very brief time,
I became the one who sat... here.
So this is myself and you,
performing "O For the Wings of a Dove."
In this particular place.
Yes, right. Right here.
♪ O for the wings ♪
♪ For the wings of a dove ♪
- ♪ Far away ♪ - Yeah.
♪ Far away would I rove ♪
I didn't quite get my breathing right there.
I was running out of breath.
Yes. There's a long note coming up.
- Yeah. Totally out of breath. - Yeah.
- ♪ Far away ♪ - That's it.
♪ Far away would I rove ♪
I'm a little bit ahead of the beat as well,
- I think. - Just a fraction.
That's something that I've worked
for decades to try and overcome, actually.
Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah.
♪ Far away ♪
-That's my favorite note in it.
- That one. - You got it right that time.
-Yeah.
We thought we were so great, didn't we?
We thought that we were gonna take over the world.
But I don't think we were arrogant, though.
Well, at the time, we were young.
We were teenagers. I was 17.
We were a lot more alike then.
We were really birds of a feather, you know,
and we had a... And our dress, really,
I think, helped define us in a way.
Charlie, you had some theatrical things.
There was some gray velvet thing that you had made.
Gray velvet with purple slashing.
It was right out of Midsummer Night's Dream.
Yeah, it was. Oh, my goodness.
- It had bells. - It had bells on it.
You'd hear him coming down the corridor with bells.
That was one of the things
that was great about that period, actually.
None of us were afraid of color.
- Except Roger. - Apart from me.
He just used to wear black.
I was completely afraid of color.
Yeah, yeah.
You look like you should be in Wham!
Very nice, Roger.
Baby, I'm your man.
- Ooh! - ♪ Come fly with me ♪
I don't think we better go any deeper into here.
Music at that time was kind of androgynous.
There was this crossover, you know,
between girls and boys wearing the same...
There were clothes that crossed over,
and we kind of bought into that.
- We found 'em. - Yeah, we did.
We used to trawl the streets of Birmingham
trying to find, uh, bits of clothing.
Ladies' clothes that would fit us.
Yes, but we... Then it was easier, right?
I can see you working the bumper cars in that outfit.
- Yeah, really? Cheers. - I quite like that.
Yeah, so do I.
Italian Vogue. Old habit, you know.
Uh...
We were out at dinner with Andy Warhol once,
and somebody asked Andy,
"Which do you think is the coolest Vogue?"
And at the time, I'd made it as far as Paris Vogue,
and I was really into Paris Vogue, and he said,
"Oh, Italian Vogue, definitely."
And we were like, "Italian Vogue?
Is there one?" You know?
Pictures of girls.
I first met Duran Duran around 1980
when they came into the shop.
We became very good friends. They had the balls to run around
with all the makeup and the hair.
This lot didn't give a damn,
and they'd worked out that women quite liked it.
So when they came along, they were a breath of fresh air.
This is from the year...
- Well, that's probably from... - Well, when you first started.
1981.
I think after the punk thing,
military was still very much...
Military was very happening.
But you, of course, broke the mold for that.
You lot went in waist-deep into it
♪ I saw you at the air race yesterday ♪
♪ April showers get out of my way... ♪
You obviously kept all these over the years.
- How many are there? - There's about 10,000 in all.
This was actually worn in the "Planet Earth" video,
along with one of your suits.
The shirts were like this one, because they had to be.
It's the low arm holes and all of the rest of it.
That's your easy wear.
It wasn't easy wear on the number 50 bus
from Birmingham.
That's what New Romantic was:
wearing that on the 50 bus.
So this one was from 1983,
and that's from the front cover
of the Seven and the Ragged Tiger album.
This fabric's happening now big-time.
It's everywhere on the catwalk.
Well, then, only 37 years ahead of our time.
I remember when you came to the shop.
We came because when we finally got
our advance from EMI records,
and part of it was a clothing budget for...
Which you insisted on, of course.
- Of course. - The first band to do that.
No, the hard work was writing the songs
and getting all of that right.
- We know that. - Finally, when you get to
sort of present it, that's the fun,
sort of saying, "How are we going do this?"
- Put it all in positions. - It ends up like this.
There you go.
Well, perfect for shopping in Oxford Street.
These are the epitome of '80s over-the-top.
- Really? You think so? - Oh, I think so, yeah.
I mean, they're quite panto-y now,
but at the time they were right,
because they fused military with romance.
We've got these corseted-back trousers here
that were all laced up the back,
and then these hanging jackets.
- It's, uh, matador-ish. - Yeah, yeah.
Somehow we managed to make it work
because we all had such individual and personal taste.
We could look at a rail of clothes now and say,
Roger's gonna like that, I'm gonna have that one,
- John's gonna like that one. - Yeah, you could do that.
- Most of the band... - You were pretty right
because you knew all their tastes
even better than I did.
Any band, if you think of anyone you...
Anyone in history that's worth remembering,
they all have an image.
Elvis Presley, Madonna, Prince, Duran Duran.
They were Birmingham's peacocks.
There was this Smash Hits magazine,
and suddenly nobody was reading any of the weeklies anymore.
There were these, like, colored magazines
that came out every week,
and it was, like, perfect for Duran.
It was like, "There's a John cover.
It's a Roger cover. It's Simon and Nick."
There was like an explosion,
and we made ourselves very available to it.
We went on tour behind Planet Earth,
and we played Nottingham,
and that show was reviewed in the NME,
and it was the meanest review.
"A Ripple in a Stagnant Pool" was the headline.
I can still remember it to this day.
And the last line in it was, "Duran Duran are gonna be huge,
and they really don't deserve any of it."
And I remember reading that, thinking,
"That's so mean. Why?"
You know, like, "Why?"
And then we kind of knew that we were part of this,
and that was probably after the Smash Hits cover.
And it was like,
so we were a threat to that institution,
and they weren't gonna be nice to us,
so we just had to swallow it.
But the NME never, never...
And it bothered me up until about a year ago, I think.
The first time I think that
we recognized that something different was happening
was when out of nowhere... It was like a movie set,
and we got completely mobbed.
And we sensed that something had changed.
I'm desperate to know what it's like to be a pop star.
Do you think it's all full of fast cars,
fast women, fast living?
Well, that's probably part of it.
-It is, yeah. But...
I love boats.
I do have a boat a bit similar to this.
It lives in a garage in Italy, where she was built.
I think living the life was very much
a sort of a part of the rock star lifestyle.
We were objects of desire.
And people wanted to
have us at their parties.
So there was a lot of that.
♪ See them walking hand in hand ♪
♪ Across the bridge at midnight... ♪
Duran Duran were like... It was glamorous.
It was, like, hot, beautiful locations,
leggy blondes, yachts and the limousines.
It was aspirational, I think.
That's why I think people liked it,
because it was like,
you can come from Birmingham,
you can come from southeast London,
but you can still have a glamorous life.
I was just, like, perpetually excited in 1981.
I mean, it was like... I don't think I slept all year.
I mean, it was just... It was just so much fun.
It was just... just this crazy adventure,
and it never really stopped.
It did become the album
that was the most important in launching our career.
♪ You saw me standing by the wall ♪
♪ Corner of a main street... ♪
I remember really being worried,
just briefly,
that it wouldn't be as good as the first album.
And I used to lay in my bed and listen to the album,
and I rationed myself to two entire listens a night
because I didn't want to wear it out.
But I just loved it. I thought it was so great.
-♪ Don't say a prayer
♪ For me now ♪
♪ Save it till the morning after... ♪
Everyone has that record,
and I think Rio was that record.
It was the sort of thing that seals the deal.
I remember the sleeve.
I remember hearing the songs for the first time.
And I think that Rio was the album
that established Duran Duran as a kind of global super force,
because it was like, "Okay, they can write songs."
Rio was like a masterstroke.
The image on the cover of that album
so perfectly represents
the sounds in the music.
Whether you're Bowie or Kanye West,
it doesn't matter, you're selling a fantasy.
Here we have...
the original Rio painting.
Yes. Still smiling after all these years.
For our second album we thought,
"Why don't we stick a beautiful painting on the cover?"
And actually,
to the credit of Paul Berrow, one of our managers at the time,
who was an avid reader of Playboy magazine,
um, he spotted these beautiful illustrations
done by a Californian artist called Patrick Nagel
and brought them and said, "Chaps, do you like these?"
And we looked and said, "Actually, yeah."
They've got a real energy and a brightness,
and they represented the period so well,
it's become a symbol of that whole decade.
But for us, she's got a very lucky smile
because that period was amazing, and the Rio album
was really what established us around the world.
This was the home to Duran Duran in the '80s,
when we were in Los Angeles.
We've got all The Beatles here.
We've got John, George,
Ringo, and then Paul McCartney.
I know I wouldn't be standing here
without those guys.
Then we go on to Buddy Holly,
but then they probably wouldn't be there
without Buddy Holly, so that's cool.
Moving on. Tina Turner, and Tina Turner's bicycle,
which is a permanent show here now.
I'm getting a warm feeling.
Capitol Recording artists Duran Duran.
It's a big deal in terms of, like,
where you're from, I guess.
I don't think many of my schoolmates have got one.
We got a lot of prizes in the early '80s.
I took them for granted. I was like... you know.
But as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate them,
and display them, even.
And I think to know where you come in the evolution
of, uh, popular music, you know,
contemporary culture, you know, that we've got a place...
We've got a place in that, it feels good.
They were such a seminal band for me as a kid, you know.
Like, I really loved them. They had great pop songs,
great melody, great band.
There's a reason that they sold 18 million records.
They were just attuned to writing
really universal, great songs.
What's your first memory of being in this building?
I'm not sure they ever really knew what to do with us.
EMI in London just kept pressurizing Capitol
into basically making more effort to break the band,
and it was really with Rio that they said,
"Look, you've got to make this happen."
To me, definitely the first album
had a lot of the seeds of what became, like,
the iconic early Duran Duran sound,
but Rio is probably... And also just 'cause
the level of songwriting just went like this.
Do you feel like Rio is where you sort of forged
- the Duran sound? - Definitely.
It was a development from the first...
All the basic ideas... I mean, you just nailed it,
the funky rhythm section, you know,
sort of Moroder-esque synths, you know,
but also that kind of... That chunky rock guitar.
- Yeah, Steve Jones guitars. - Yeah.
And also, the other thing is, like,
probably because your whole, you know, pin-ups
and all this kind of thing at first,
nobody really wanted to give you credit
or the fact that everybody was a great musician.
I think for all the excitement of the punk rock era,
the post-punk era was really exciting too,
because you had kids saying, "I want to be a bass player."
Roger and I were like, "We wanna be a rhythm section."
That sound, like, when I play "The Chauffeur" in my head,
that sound of Roger's drums on top,
locked into the sequence of whatever Nick was doing,
and then you with that, is such an important part.
I feel like "The Chauffeur,"
sonically and everything about it,
if came out tomorrow and you said,
"Oh, this is a new Killers tune,"
you would believe it.
♪ And watching lovers part ♪
♪ I feel you smiling ♪
♪ What glass splinters lie so deep in your mind? ♪
♪ To tear out from your eyes ♪
♪ With a thought to stiffen brooding lies ♪
♪ And I'll only watch you leave me further behind... ♪
When we first came to New York, I remember our managers
meeting with these guys
that were putting MTV together, and they were like,
"Look, we can't play 'Stairway to Heaven' all day,
"like what happens on the radio.
"We need to get more into new music,
"and it'd be great if you could give us something really
kind of like a James Bond film."
- Right. - And our manager went away,
and that's where the Sri Lanka video idea came from.
♪ In touch with the ground ♪
♪ I'm on the hunt I'm after you ♪
♪ Smell like I sound I'm lost in a crowd ♪
♪ And I'm hungry like the wolf... ♪
MTV was, like, such a big part of my teenage life.
I mean, that's how we got our music.
And I think Duran Duran was such a perfect band
for this new way
that people were getting music, which was through television.
♪ Stalked in the forest too close to hide ♪
♪ I'll be upon you by the moonlight side... ♪
They were really some of the pioneers in music videos.
That was just the age where
we didn't know what to expect, and anything could go.
♪ And your skin it's so tight ♪
♪ You feel my heat I'm just a moment behind... ♪
There was something about it when we were there
that we knew that it was new ground.
It was very exotic.
And we were very lucky to have Russell Mulcahy directing,
because at that time, he was the guy.
He had just done "Vienna" for Ultravox
and all the coolest things that were out there, really.
♪ I'm lost and I'm found ♪
♪ And I'm hungry like the wolf... ♪
With Duran, it was a bit
like being a tourist with a big camera.
♪ I howl and I whine I'm after you... ♪
I had very much a cinematic vision,
they had a vision with their music,
and the managers had a vision about, "Let's make it big
and-and stand out from the rest."
We just wanted to raise the bar.
On first glance,
it looks like a guy chasing a girl.
It's slightly uncomfortable, actually.
But it's us chasing our career,
trying to make it happen, and we were so hungry.
We would chase and we would grab
and we would achieve.
And that is what that song's about.
Then after that, the travelogue continued,
and hence we ended up doing the "Rio" video in Antigua.
That was wild. I mean, we sort of...
That one we actually just made up on the spot.
I would say in the morning, "Okay, I need, um...
"I need a mirror,
I need a bed, I want to put it on the beach."
♪ Moving on the floor now, babe ♪
♪ You're a bird of paradise ♪
♪ Cherry ice cream smile ♪
♪ I suppose it's very nice... ♪
The classic shot eventually ended up being
Simon at the front of the boat with the boys hanging off,
and the cameraman was sitting at the top of the boat,
on the... whatever you call it...
With no harness, hand-held,
hanging on to the thing like that.
Song blasting away,
the boys were all in their sort of tailored suits,
very expensive suits, getting splashed with seawater,
ruining the suits, of course, and we just had a lot of fun.
♪ Down to the Rio Grande... ♪
The yacht was such a powerful image.
With us all with the colored Antony Price suits,
it really worked beautifully.
♪ Doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo ♪
♪ Doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo... ♪
Rio was a very hard record to follow, in hindsight.
We made a classic album with Rio.
And I think it was first time that we really felt
the pressure of having to follow something up.
The Ragged Tiger is that kind of
dirty but incredible...
charismatic animal
that is success.
♪ I knew this was a big mistake... ♪
Hello, good evening,
and welcome to our show.
This is a dressing room,
and by the nature of the word "dressing,"
it means everyone has to change, so fuck off.
What we really want to tell you is we're gonna do this.
Good night.
The demands on us had become absurd
because I think a lot of the business people
had smelled the money
everywhere that they possibly could,
and they just wanted more and more and more and more.
♪ The union of the snake is on the climb... ♪
Our accountants were saying,
"You can't stay in England
because you're gonna pay all this tax."
So we decamped to the South of France,
and we end up in this château in the middle of nowhere.
It was wonderful.
The scenery was fantastic.
And they had swimming pool
and tennis courts,
and we didn't get a lot of work done.
I get up and...
have a bath and a wee-wee.
Have lunch.
- Play a bit of tennis. - And then I wake up.
I mean, I was all into the swimming pool
and the tennis courts.
John was bringing his girls down.
Andy was getting a bit high.
John and Andy were funding
South American countries with their, uh...
with their pocket money.
They were up very, very, very late at night,
but not in the studio so much.
It was like, nobody was a saint in that band.
I mean, why would you be?
There's so much being served up,
being offered to us.
You've got drugs, you've got alcohol...
You know, there's a whole load of things.
It's a... It's a minefield, really.
And even in amongst all of the fraternal
kind of fun and games,
there was loneliness as well.
So, you know,
I don't think anybody relished
sleeping alone if it could be avoided.
♪ The reflex, fle-fle-fle-fle-flex ♪
♪ You've gone too far this time ♪
♪ But I'm dancing... ♪
The tour for that album
in '83-'84
was the height of everything coming together.
All the insanity from every single place
just came to meet us in America.
We couldn't hear what we were playing most of the time
because the noise of the audience
was just overwhelming.
And they were all teenage girls,
so it was all this certain pitch.
It was like hitting...
very heavy weather in an airplane.
And we were just looking at each other, going,
"Whoa, whoa! Hang on! Hang on!"
I have photograph upon photograph
of girls screaming and crying.
I wasn't prepared for the fact
that it was the Beatles, effectively.
It was madness, carnage, everywhere we went.
We were hemmed into the hotels. We couldn't move at that point.
Every time you tried to leave the hotel, there would be
200 teenage girls trying to rip you apart.
♪ Finding treasure in the dark ♪
♪ And watching over lucky clover ♪
♪ Isn't that bizarre... ♪
It's absolutely incredible. There's tons of people here.
I think there's about 2,000,
3,000, four million, you never know.
Did you think they'd have to bring in police horses
to keep the people quiet?
Have they got police horses out there?
Oh, God, where are they?
The fans began to realize
that all they had to do was phone the top hotels,
wait for my name, then they'd know where the band was staying.
And I'd get the phone call at 2:00 in the morning
asking how John was, or the fire alarm would go off
and the whole hotel then had to evacuate.
And that's how fans got to meet the band.
♪ Who's waiting by the park ♪
♪ The reflex Is in charge of finding... ♪
It was... wild.
I had somebody in a wardrobe in my room.
I checked into my room,
and I opened the wardrobe when I was unpacking,
and there was a girl in there.
It was like losing your virginity, you know.
We were never the same again. It was like... You know?
♪ What a game, he's hiding all the cards ♪
♪ The reflex is in charge of finding... ♪
I think by the end of the U.S. tour,
we'd literally been deep-fried daily
for months on end.
Of course, pettiness
and misunderstandings
had started to set in within the band.
We really for the first time had had enough of each other
We all kind of went...
John and Andy
wanted to be more rock, and they did Power Station.
Me and Nick decided we wanted to be more arty,
and we started Arcadia.
Roger didn't know which bloody camp
to be in, so he did a bit of both.
It was kind of like two boats
were sailing off in different directions,
and I kinda had one leg on one boat
and one leg on the other.
And I got kinda stretched in between, actually,
which was a bit painful.
I know you've been here all day,
but if you've got any energy left,
we'd like to see you dancing!
When Bob Geldof calls you and says, you know,
"I'm doing this project.
It's gonna save millions of lives in Africa,"
you can't say, "No, we're on a break."
When we got together in Philadelphia,
we were really in two camps.
The atmosphere was completely toxic.
Nobody wanted to be together at that point.
Which was quite sad, really,
because we'd been so close a few years ago,
and suddenly it was like we could hardly bear
to be in the same room as each other.
Just got to the point where I couldn't...
I couldn't deal with it anymore.
I got up every morning
feeling unhappy with what I was doing.
I was sensible enough at the age of 25
to think, you know, I'm gonna walk away from this.
I remember when Roger left the band just thinking,
"What a weird thing to do." It just...
Who leaves a band when they're that successful?
Because I sort of knew him.
I just thought, he's obviously gone mad.
♪ The new moon on Monday ♪
♪ And a fire dance through the night ♪
♪ I stayed the cold day... ♪
♪ Notorious, notorious ♪
♪ No-No, notorious... ♪
We were fighting for our lives, you know?
Because the band had had its moment.
♪ I can't read about it... ♪
We realized that this was a real crisis.
It was survival.
♪ I'll do fine without it... ♪
Andy kind of, you know,
dicked us around for about six months, actually.
We didn't know whether he was coming or going.
Maybe he wasn't getting his rocks off,
the music wasn't speaking to him,
he was getting frustrated with the style of the music
and the direction the music was taking.
The three of us came together in such an insanely...
Like, with our backs to the wall...
But it was so galvanizing.
The desire to prove ourselves
was more powerful than it had been at the beginning.
Whereas we were in two camps at Live Aid,
six, eight months later,
the three of us were in a new camp,
and it was our camp, and it was the trio camp.
♪ I heard you promise but I don't believe it ♪
♪ That's why I did it again... ♪
So as things have always seemed to happen with us,
it was one door closed, another door opened.
And standing in that doorway
was Sir Nile of Rodgers,
who came in and really oversaw
the Notorious project.
As soon as we met each other,
it was...
goddamn, like love at first sight.
We had so much fun. We were making music
the same way Chic makes music,
the same way Luther Vandross makes music.
When you meet an artist,
and there's that kind of connection right away,
you know that big things are gonna happen.
Three, four...
He's fantastic to be around.
He has a great energy,
a joy, a joyfulness about the way he plays
and the way he approaches songwriting and recording.
That sounds like music to me, man.
When we'd finished it, and we were all pretty pleased,
we were just doing the mixes, and we'd sent
an almost complete version to the record label,
and they'd come back, and they'd said,
"Uh, we've got a problem.
"We can't put this out.
"It doesn't sound like Duran Duran.
It's-It's... Um...
It's far too urban."
But we just told them we were changing direction,
and that was that.
I think they just saw the boat
going the other way down the river
with all their money on it.
When your record's not as successful
as the one before, nobody wants to talk to you.
The press don't want to talk to you,
the music press aren't interested
because it's other things.
"You can't get on the radio because
"you're old stuff, man. You're old news.
We've got new stuff we're playing here on Radio 1."
So you sit there
in your business manager' office in New York City,
looking at the pictures of all the other acts he's working on
and talking about, "What can we do to save this?
What can we do to make it work?"
The first time it happens, it's really scary,
because you thought it would carry on forever.
But it happens. You get through it.
And the next time it happens, it's not so bad.
And then you just get to a point where you think,
"You know what?
"Let's just relax and do what we do.
"Do we believe in the music we make?
"Yes, we do.
"Can we go in and write new stuff?
"Have you still got stuff inside you
"that you want to say?
Yes, I have. Yes, we can." And you do it.
♪ Notorious ♪
♪ No-No, Notorious ♪
♪ Hey, child... ♪
At that time, we were looking to move
into a new phase of the band
and what that band looked like.
We'd gotten away from the early '80s,
and we were looking to sort of redefine ourselves.
♪ Who do you need ♪
♪ Who do you love ♪
♪ When you come undone? ♪
We knew there was this guy, Nick Egan,
and he did lots of cool stuff.
He's got that same interest
in art and music and fashion.
I've worked with the Clash,
I've worked with Bob Dylan,
I've worked with Malcolm McLaren.
My first cover I did was for the Ramones.
The greatest achievement and the proudest achievement
of my working career is actually working with Duran Duran,
because I find the fact they stay relevant
and keep ahead of the game,
there's not many bands that can do that anymore.
I think Nick was really important at that moment
to help us realize first the cover
and then the "Ordinary World" video.
♪ Came in from a rainy Thursday ♪
♪ On the avenue ♪
♪ Thought I heard you talking softly... ♪
"Ordinary World," the song itself,
the thing that was the catapult back into phase two,
if you like, when I heard it,
I just thought, "This is a hit record."
And you don't often think that. How did you guys feel as a band?
We'd had the biggest flop of our careers
with the album before, with Liberty.
We were kind of a bit lost, really,
but I remember hearing "Ordinary World" on the radio
and thinking, "Thank you, God."
You know, that we'd just, like,
we'd got a foot into another decade, you know?
'Cause we'd just had a few years of, like,
"'80s band, '80s band. They're done. They're done."
I think the success of the single
took an enormous amount of pressure off us.
So I think Simon's lyrics were fantastic on that.
Most of Simon's lyrics from the early albums
are kind of quite oblique.
You're not quite sure what they are.
That's what makes them so interesting.
But it kind of felt at this point like,
maybe we just need to start writing songs about emotions
and-and, uh, and see how that works out.
♪ But I won't cry for yesterday ♪
♪ There's an ordinary world ♪
♪ Somehow I have to find... ♪
"Ordinary World" is a song
about trying to get over
the death of a best friend.
And putting it in words freed me, absolutely.
It really worked for me emotionally and mentally.
Everybody who heard it
could apply it to something in their life,
and it meant something to them,
but for a totally different reason.
And it became such an important song for us.
And I think it only had that power to touch people
because it meant so much to me.
♪ In my world ♪
♪ I will learn to survive... ♪
♪ I put my hand ♪
♪ Into the flame ♪
♪ Burning but I feel no pain... ♪
We get Andy Taylor back as well tonight.
- ♪ Don't speak my name ♪
♪ Hold onto... ♪
I was talking to somebody this morning,
and they thought we got back together to party...
or find another wife or whatever, but...
Fuckin' rockin' show, dude.
Simon, the way you came in the crowd,
I just wanted to lick you all over.
People have been asking us for 20 years by then,
"When are you ever gonna put the original band back together?"
And we didn't know that we would,
but nobody had ever ruled it out.
I just thought,
if we ever get a ball near a pocket,
this massive cheer's gonna go up.
♪ 'Cause where I stop that's where you begin... ♪
Apparently, it was 18 years
- Wow. - In between...
the last show that we were all on stage together
and the first show of the Astronaut project.
It was a gamble,
but we didn't have a record company,
and we didn't have a manager.
I think we went in pretty much with nothing to lose.
We've got this super hooky vocal on the chorus.
-To D-minor.
Down.
- ♪ Does anybody know? ♪ - I like that bit.
What's that chord?
It wasn't gonna be all about
what happened in 1983.
This was gonna be about what we could do now.
So, play it... play it from that first chord.
But I've gotta say, getting the different personalities
to work again
was probably more challenging than the music, I think.
That was the tough part.
Okay, clear the room, please. Including you. Out.
You guys sang it differently.
- No, we didn't. - Yeah, you did.
Absolutely, you did. And we all noticed it.
You sang it... It was exac...
It was exactly the conversation
that we were having in sound check.
You said that before,
but I can't figure out what you mean.
You go to the last...
No, no. You're wrong. You are wrong.
I don't think ever
was there a more important "Lights!"
than that first show in Osaka on the reunion tour.
Because that was the ultimate
"Shut the fuck up and play your guitars."
And that was really what we needed, because then,
all the politics just "doof, schtum."
And then we go out and play, and we remind each other,
"When we do this together, this is what we get."
♪ Reach up for the sunrise ♪
♪ Put your hands into the big sky ♪
♪ You can touch the sunrise ♪
♪ Feel the new day enter your life ♪
♪ Reach up for the sunrise ♪
♪ Put your hands into the big sky... ♪
After the Budokan shows,
we decided to do a tour to support Astronaut,
and I think it was planned to be
about three to six months,
but in reality ended up being around two years.
Tomorrow night we'll do like tonight.
Tonight we'll do like last night.
And tomorrow we'll do like the night before.
We've got to shorten "The Reflex."
Second show, "Tiger Tiger's" out. Right?
What do we play "Bedroom Toys" instead of?
We want to play that next to "Notorious," don't we?
We could play "Night Boat," then "Chauffeur."
♪ Her name is Rio ♪
♪ And she dances in the sand ♪
Hey, that was a great...
I'm feeling job insecurity, Bill.
The last time we were at the wheel,
we just drove it off the cliff.
And this time, you know,
wanting to make sure that doesn't happen again.
I mean, we're all quite driven now.
I think what the time did was that it...
We all dug back in our relationships with each other
and our feelings for the band, you know.
I love you.
- That was worth the work. - That was worth a year.
It was like, everything was set.
You know what?
Not a moment too fuckin' soon.
All the British gigs, all the gigs we've done.
You know, to get it here:
just press the "on" button. Boom!
- Aren't we smug? - Yeah, right!
I hit a horrific bum note
on the guitar in "Astronaut."
Oh, someone had to spoil it, didn't they?
Just when you thought it was perfect.
♪ Bop, bop, bop, bop bop, bop, bop, bop ♪
♪ Calling Planet Earth ♪
♪ Bop, bop, bop, bop bop, bop, bop, bop... ♪
This is Planet...
And then we started a pretty good two-year run
of working together.
It was difficult, though, you know,
because everybody had had a different experience
and was carrying different stuff, baggage.
There was different things in everybody's suitcases,
and honestly, I really didn't want to know
what was going on,
but it would just come out.
It's a really big one for the fans.
- It's a very exciting tour. - Yes, it is.
Roger and I were just saying that we thought...
You watched the reaction plummet.
Are you joking?
The front three, four rows. Watch all the way back.
They just went...
You're telling me you can see people at the back?
- Of course I can. - Bullshit.
This is really when it all started going wrong
for Andy on that project.
I remember just seeing how much he put into a show,
or rather, how much it took out of him.
Andy was all or nothing.
You kind of knew
that he wouldn't be able to keep it up.
If I don't come off, and I haven't had a good show
or I haven't got enough, I'm a bit burnt,
I get a bit dark after 10 weeks on tour.
I'm a performer, first and foremost,
and anything else for me
is a secondary incident in life.
I think he really missed his family, as well.
Andy was, and still is, a real family man.
When you're younger, you don't have a home to call.
When you're our age,
home isn't just a house, it's a...
It's a family, it's your children.
And so you can get stretched very thinly,
and those stresses can also take their toll.
You can get very homesick, in a nutshell.
We wanted to do everything.
We wanted to do more work and more shows,
and we were happy
with the way that the management was working,
and Andy wasn't.
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."
And finally, the guitarist with the pop group Duran Duran
has left the band halfway through a world tour.
Andy Taylor, one of the original members,
rejoined the lineup five years ago,
after a 15-year absence.
The rest of the band
has described the relationship with him
as "unworkable" and one which couldn't be resolved.
♪ Steppin' out steppin' out ♪
♪ Steppin' out and jumpin' up and ♪
♪ Steppin' out steppin' out ♪
♪ Steppin' out and jumpin' up and ♪
♪ Steppin' out Steppin' out ♪
♪ Steppin' out and jumpin' up... ♪
We haven't been on Radio 1 for decades,
and we do another album
with Nile Rodgers, with Mark Ronson,
Ben Hudson, and it goes top-10.
It's extraordinary.
♪ Everybody everywhere ♪
♪ Feel it in the air oh, yeah ♪
♪ It's time to take the pressure off ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, it's up to you.... ♪
And it was just such an uplifting experience.
When you see Nile playing his guitar like that and grinning,
there's nothing quite like it in the world.
♪ It's up you, girl, it's time to take the pressure off... ♪
The four of us have
this extraordinary belief in ourselves.
You know, we still believe we've got important music to make.
You know, when everybody else is going, "Pfft! They're done!"
You know? And we... we have this sense
that there's a... That staying together...
'Cause we've all worked apart from each other.
We all tried that.
Eh. You know. There's something that we have
when we're together that's worth showing up for.
We accept, um,
who we are as people now, who we've grown into,
including everybody's faults and quirks.
I don't even know what's...
I don't know what's in the future for us.
You know, I just know it'll be interesting.
- ♪ Oh ♪ - ♪ Bow to the paper gods ♪
♪ In a world that is paper thin ♪
♪ The fools in town... ♪
Getting to a 14th album is a milestone. That's a moment.
It's not something you even think about doing
when you start your career.
Think about anyone now who's gonna make a 14th album.
On one hand.
Maybe not. One finger.
I actually think we've proved the detractors wrong
in the last decade.
The fact that we're still here
40 years after we started,
that... that's the real proof.
♪ Bow to the paper gods ♪
♪ In a world that is paper thin ♪
♪ The fools in town ♪
♪ Are ruling now ♪
♪ Bleeding from paper cuts ♪
♪ From money for head shots ♪
♪ Fools leading ♪
♪ Who needs it? ♪
- Yes! - Yes!
- Charlie's first pot! - Finally! Well done!