Friday, December 4, 2020

EMI signs Birmingham's Duran Duran


Duran Duran : Girls On Film (Air Studios Demo)



In early December, 1980 Birmingham's Duran Duran signed with EMI after a bidding war between The Beatles' old label and Phonogram. Within three months, they'd release the UK#12 hit "Planet Earth". Duran Duran is fronted by Simon le Bon, who was actually the last member to join the band. There are three Taylors in Duran Duran (Andy on guitar, John on bass and Roger on drums) but none are related. Nick Rhodes rounds out the band on synthesizer.

Years away from being dubbed "the Fab Five", the band already seem very conscious of their image and their sound.



Duran Duran caught the attention of record labels while opening for Hazel O'Connor's tour. Before then, they were just another band trying to catch a break. A year earlier at Birmingham University they discovered they had been double booked with a rugby club party.

"It so happened, " Nick Rhodes told Smash Hits," that the rugby clubs first, second and third teams and the reserves and the basketball team all turned up. And they didn't want to listen to Duran Duran, they wanted to sing 'Knees Up Mother Brown'. Paper plates and sausages started flying towards us and then it graduated to ashtrays and glasses"

Eventually Duran Duran had to abandon the stage.

"Afterwards,"John Taylor added,"people came up to us and said 'It's nothing against you personally it's just that we wanted to have a good time tonight'."


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