Duran Duran
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Duran Duran are an English New Wave band notable for a long series of catchy, synthesizer-driven hit singles and vivid music videos. They were a leading band in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the United States, and the most commercially successful of the New Romantic bands. They are still often identified as an "Eighties band" despite continuous recording and chart success over their twenty-eight year history.
The band has sold well over 70 million records worldwide, and has had eighteen singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and thirty in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, including "Rio", "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Is There Something I Should Know?", "The Reflex" and the James Bond theme "A View to a Kill" in the 1980s, "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" in the early-1990s, and "Sunrise" and "What Happens Tomorrow" in the 2000s.[1]
Duran Duran was created by Nick Rhodes (keyboards) and John Taylor (bass), with the later addition of Roger Taylor (drums), Andy Taylor (guitar), and Simon Le Bon (lead vocals); none of the Taylors are related. Guitarist Warren Cuccurullo was also a member of the band from 1989 to 2001, and drummer Sterling Campbell was a member from 1989 to 1991.
Although the group never disbanded, it went through several line-up changes over the years. The reunion of the original five members in the early 2000s created a stir among music media and the band's fans. Duran Duran released Astronaut from the reunited line-up in 2004. Andy Taylor dropped out of the band in October 2006, but the band will continue recording. The next new album is expected to be released in mid-2007.
History of Duran Duran
1978–1980: Origins
John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed the band in Birmingham, England in 1978, envisioning a group with the raw do-it-yourself energy of the Sex Pistols, the dance grooves of CHIC, and the elegant style of David Bowie and Roxy Music. Other influences the band have mentioned include Mick Ronson, The Clash, Kraftwerk, Japan, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground, Blondie and Visage. The band took their name from the evil character "Dr. Durand Durand", played by Milo O'Shea in Roger Vadim's sexy science-fiction cult film Barbarella. Their first singer was [[Stephen Duffy