Original subtitles

This programme contains some strong language

What did I want to be when I grew up? I wanted to be adored.

# Please, please tell me now

# Is there something I should know? #

I was just, like, perpetually excited.

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?

There's one person who threw three bras onstage.

And two pairs of knickers, I thought,

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

Every time you tried to move,

there'd be 200 teenage girls trying to rip you apart.

# Girls on film. #

Duran Duran is my life.

Waiting for them outside of BBC, they never noticed me.

Nobody really wanted to give me 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've just got to be king rats sometimes and say, "Bollocks,

I'm jumping off."

The atmosphere was completely toxic.

We just had a few years of, "'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. #

MUSIC: Planet Earth by Duran Duran

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.

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's what it was about.

Ooh, it smells odd. Jesus!

Bit decrepit.

THEY LAUGH

Oh, come on, Roger.

Let's get cosy! 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.

MUSIC: Faster Than Light (Demo) by Duran Duran

It's Faster Than Light! It is.

# White light shining

# You're all alone...

# The light.

# Faster than light!

# Faster than light. #

I think 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.

MUSIC: Anyone Out There (Demo) by Duran Duran

Andy's playing. Car's shaking!

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

Yeah, but that was so great.

He played essential guitar.

# I never found out what made you leave... #

That's a loud vocal. Wow, I hate it, the vocal's horrible!

So loud! Horrible vocal!

Stop it!

MUSIC: White Riot by The Clash

We really became brothers.

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

We lived a few hundred metres away from each other

in Hollywood, Birmingham.

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

Not as much as we did, that's what we thought.

MUSIC: I'm The One by Mick Ronson

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 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 going to do happen.

MUSIC: Anyone Out There by Duran Duran

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 John and Nick had heard about me.

And I'd heard about Duran Duran.

We were rehearsing at this squat in Cheapside.

It was kind of like the armpit of Birmingham down here,

this really is the spiritual home of Duran Duran, right here.

Roger is the most likeable person you'll ever meet in this business.

Right away, we clicked.

I just set my drums up and started jamming.

And they said, "Come back next week."

So I must have got the gig.

So this is really my...moment,

is just walking through that door right there.

MUSIC CONTINUES

# Outside

# Is there anyone out there? #

You're 19 years old.

It's like walking into a space rocket.

It took me all over the world. Kind of everything I have,

really, that's good in life, is a result of walking through that...

...through that door there.

# Look out of the window

# Maybe you can call by my name. #

Birmingham at that time

might as well have been the centre of the world.

I don't feel like... It WAS the centre of our world.

I don't feel like we ever thought,

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

MUSIC: Shadows On Your Side by Duran Duran

The Rum Runner was sort of like the premiere New Romantic club

in Birmingham where everybody went.

It had this really big kind of entrance.

It 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 Rog.

And now we're planning world domination,

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

but we've still got... This is like, 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,

cos that wasn't his thing but he'd thought about music

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

MUSIC: Astronaut by Duran Duran

# Groovin' out 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.

And he said his name was Simon Le Bon.

We sort of didn't believe that was his real name

but anyway, it turned out it was.

And he has a lyric book with him.

Well, this was the Holy Grail.

There were things in there, we started reading through it, "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 til the morning after. #

I thought, "This guy's a star."

He was tall, he was well put together and he was really smart.

And 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 and 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. #

I'm going to take you to the church

because we're going to go and see Mr Turvey.

My old choirmaster.

# And nobody knows

# What's going to happen tomorrow. #

This is the beautiful Church of Saint John the Baptist, Pinner.

This is where I was a choir boy 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.

So this is where I spent a lot of time, sitting right here.

Yep. 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

HIGH NOTE: # Far away... #

Yeah. # Far away would I roam... #

I didn't quite get my breathing right there. No.

I was running out of breath. Yes, there's a long note coming up.

Yeah, oh, totally out of breath.

That's it.

# Far away

# Far away... #

I'm a little bit ahead of the beat as well.

Just a fraction. That's something that I've worked

for decades to try and overcome, actually. Yeah.

MUSIC CONTINUES

HIGH NOTE That's my favourite note in it, that one.

You got it right that time. Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

# And remain there for ever. #

MUSIC: Friends Of Mine by Duran Duran

We thought we were so great, didn't we?

We thought that we were going to take over the world.

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. And we had a...

And our dress really, I think, helped define us, in a way.

Charlie, you had some theatrical things,

there was like some grey velvet thing that you had.

Grey velvet with purple slashing.

It was right out of A Midsummer Night's Dream, really. Yeah, it was.

Oh, my goodness. With the bells?

It had bells on it. You'd see him coming down the corridor with bells.

Well, that was one of the things that was great about that period,

actually, none of us were afraid of colour. Except Roger. Except Roger!

He just used to wear black.

I was completely afraid of it.

MUSIC: Skin Trade by Duran Duran

Yeah, punk rock.

You look like you should be in Wham!

Very nice, Roger!

Baby, I'm your man!

I dread to think what mine is. Oh!

# Come fly with me! #

There you go, I don't think we'd better go any deeper into here.

Music at that time was kind of androgynous.

There was this crossover between girls and boys wearing the same.

There were clothes that crossed over and we kind of bought into that.

We found them. Yeah, we did.

We used to trawl the streets of Birmingham, trying to find...

bits of clothing... Ladies' clothes that would fit us.

Yes! Well, we... Then it was easier, right?

I could see you working the bumper cars in that.

Yeah, really? Cheers for saying that.

I quite like that, though. Yeah, so do I.

Italian Vogue. Old habit, you know.

HE LAUGHS

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.

He said, "Oh, Italian Vogue, definitely."

And we were like, "Italian Vogue?

"Is there one?"

HE LAUGHS

Pictures of girls.

MUSIC: Careless Memories by Duran Duran

I first met Duran Duran around 1980, when they came into the shop.

We became very good friends.

They had the balls to whirl around with all the make-up and 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 dot.

Well, that's probably from... Well, when you first started. 1981.

MUSIC: My Own Way by Duran Duran

I think after the punk thing, military was still very much...

Oh, military was very happening.

But you, of course, broke the mould 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.

Well, funny... 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 because they had to be.

It's the low armholes and all the rest of it, that easy wear.

It wasn't easy wear on the number 50 bus from Birmingham!

Yeah, 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.

Oh, well, then only 37 years ahead of our time.

I remember when you came to the shop.

We came because we finally got our advance from EMI Records.

Yeah. And part of it was a clothing budget. Oh.

Which you insisted on, of course. The first band to do that.

Of course. Now, the hard work was writing the songs

and getting all of that right.

Yeah, we know that.

Finally, when you get to present it, that's the fun,

sort of saying, "How are we going to do this?"

Yeah, it ends up like this.

There you go.

MUSIC: My Own Way by Duran Duran

Well, perfect for shopping on Oxford Street.

Well, these are the epitome of '80s over-the-top.

Really? You think so? Oh, I think so, yeah.

I mean, they are quite panto-y now.

But, at the time, they were right,

because they fused military with romance.

We have these corseted back trousers here

that were all laced up the back,

and then these hanging jackets.

It's Matador-ish, isn't it?

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 going to like that, I'm going to have that one."

Yeah, you could do that.

Well, I think most of the band could. You were pretty right,

because you knew all their tastes even better than I did.

Any band... I mean, if you think of any one you...

Anyone in history that's worth remembering, they all have an image.

Elvis Presley, Madonna, Prince, Duran Duran.

They were Birmingham's peacocks.

It was this Smash Hits magazine.

And suddenly nobody was reading any of the weeklies any more,

there were these, like, coloured 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."

It was like an explosion, and we made ourselves very available to it.

SCREAMING

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 going to be huge

"and they really don't deserve any of it."

And I remember reading that, thinking, "That's so mean!

"Why? Why don't...?" You know, "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 going to be nice to us.

So we just had to, like, swallow it.

But the NME never, never...

And it bothered me up until about a year ago, I think.

HE LAUGHS

The first time I think that we recognised

that something different was happening

was when, out of nowhere, it was if...

It was like a movie set, and we got completely mobbed.

And we sensed that something had changed.

Simon, I'm desperate to know what it's like, being a pop star.

SIMON, AUDIENCE LAUGH

Do you think it's all full of fast cars, fast women, fast living?

Well, that's probably part of it.

It is. Yeah. It's great.

MUSIC: Sound Of Thunder by Duran Duran

I love boats. I do have about 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.

MUSIC: Girls On Film by Duran Duran

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 glamourous.

It was, like, hot, beautiful locations,

leggy blondes, yachts and the limousines.

It was aspirational, I think.

You know, I think that's why people liked it because it was like,

"You can come from Birmingham, you can come from south-east London,

"but you can still have a glamorous life."

I was just, like, perpetually excited in 1981.

I mean, it was like, you know, I don't think I slept all year.

I mean, it was just... It was just...

It was just so much fun. It was just... Just this crazy adventure.

And it never really stopped.

MUSIC: Save A Prayer by Duran Duran

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 couldn't... I used to lay in my bed and listen to the album.

And I rationed myself to two entire listens a night, because I knew...

I didn't want to wear it out. But it was...

I just loved it, I thought it was so great.

CROWD SINGS: # Don't save a prayer for me now

# Save it till the morning after... #

Everyone has THAT record, and I think Rio was THAT record,

that was sort of the thing that seals the deal.

I remember the sleeve.

You know, I remember hearing the songs for the first time,

and I think that Rio was the album that sort of established

Duran Duran as a kind of global super force, because it was like,

"OK, 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.

CROWD CHEERS

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...

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.

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.

MUSIC: My Own Way by Duran Duran

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, and I took them for granted.

I was like... You know. But, as I've gotten older,

I've come to sort of appreciate them.

And display them, even.

And I think to know where you come in the evolution of popular music,

you know, contemporary culture, you know,

that we've got a place... We've got a place in that.

It feels good.

MUSIC: The Chauffeur by Duran Duran

They were such a seminal band for me as a kid, you know?

Like, I really love them, they had great pop songs,

great melodies, a great band.

There's a reason that they sold 18 million records.

They were just attuned to writing really universal, great songs.

What was your first memory of being in this building?

Yeah, I'm not sure they ever really knew what to do with us.

Right. EMI in London just kept pressurising Capitol

into basically making more effort to break the band,

and it was really with Rio that they...

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 because of the level of songwriting went like this.

Do you feel like Rio's where you sort of forged the Duran sound?

Definitely. I mean... I mean, it was a development from the first...

All the basic ideas... I mean, you've just nailed it. You know,

it's like 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 you're all pin-ups and all this kind of thing at first,

nobody really wanted to give you credit for the fact

that everybody was a great musician.

I mean, 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 want to be a rhythm section."

Cool. That sound that...

Like, when I play The Chauffeur in my head, kind of Roger's drums,

like, 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 it came out tomorrow and you said, like,

"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."

Right. "Like what happens on the radio.

"We need to get more into new music, you know,

"and it would be great if you could give us something really...

"kind of like a James Bond film." Right. 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 through the forest, too close to hide

# I'll be upon you by the moonlight side... #

They were really, you know, some of the pioneers in music videos.

I mean, that was just the age where we didn't know what to expect

and anything could go.

# ..On 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.

We were very lucky to have Russell Mulcahy directing,

because at that time,

he was THE guy - he'd just done Vienna for Ultravox

and all the coolest things that were out there, really.

With Duran, it was a bit like being a tourist with a big camera.

I had very much a cinematic vision,

they had a vision with their music

and the manager had a vision of, like,

"Let's make it big 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.

MUSIC: Rio by Duran Duran

That was wild. I mean,

that one we actually just made up on the spot.

I would say in the morning,

"OK, 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 closing shot eventually ended up

being Simon in 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 a thing like that.

Song blasting away, boys were all in their sort of tailored suits,

very expensive suits,

getting splashed with sea water and 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 coloured Antony Price suits,

it really worked beautifully.

# Do do do-do do-do

# Do do do-do do-do... #

Rio was a very hard record to follow, and in hindsight,

we'd made a classic album with Rio.

I think it was the 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.

HELIUM VOICE: Hello, good evening and welcome to our show.

LAUGHTER

SCREAMING

This is a dressing room. By nature of the word dressing,

it means everyone has to change.

What we really want to tell you is we're going to do this. goodnight.

The demands on us had become absurd

because I think a lot of the businesspeople

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 going to pay all this tax."

So we decamped to the south of France and we end up

in this chateau in the middle of nowhere.

It was wonderful.

The scenery was fantastic and they had a 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... with their pocket money.

They were up very, very, very late at night

but not in the studio so much.

It's, like, nobody was a saint in that band.

I mean, why would you be?

With 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 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 really relished sleeping alone

if it could be avoided.

MUSIC: The Reflex by Duran Duran

# You've gone too far this time

# And 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.

AUDIENCE SCREAM

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 aeroplane.

And everybody was 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 we tried to leave the hotel,

there'd be 200 teenage girls trying to rip you apart.

MUSIC CONTINUES

It's absolutely incredible, there's tons of people here.

I think there's about 2,000.

3,000. 4 million, you never know.

Did you think they'd have to bring in police horses to keep them quiet?

Have they got police horses out there? Oh, God, where are they?

The fans had began to realise that all they had to do was phone all the

top hotels, wait for my name and they'd know the band were staying.

I'd get the phone call at two 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.

It was...wild.

I had somebody in a wardrobe in my room.

I checked into my room and I opened the wardrobe and 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... I mean, you know.

I think, by the end of the US tour,

we'd literally been deep-fried daily for months on end.

Of course, the 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 want 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 kind of had one leg on one boat and one leg in the other.

And I got kind of stretched in between, actually.

Which is 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 going to 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.

MUSIC: Save A Prayer by Duran Duran

The atmosphere was completely toxic.

Nobody wanted to be together at that point.

It's 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.

It just got to the point where I couldn't deal with it any more.

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 going to walk away from this.

I remember when Roger left the band,

just thinking, "What a weird thing to do."

Just, who leaves a band when they're that successful?

Because I sort of knew him, I just thought he's obviously gone mad.

MUSIC: New Moon On Monday by Duran Duran

MUSIC: Notorious by Duran Duran

We were fighting for our lives.

You know, because the band had had its moment.

We realised that this was a real crisis, it was survival.

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.

It was so galvanising,

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.

Things have always seemed to happen with us,

as 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 say Luther Vandross makes music.

When you meet an artist...

..and there's that kind of connection right away...

you know that big things are going to happen.

Three, four...

He's fantastic to be round, he has a great energy, a joy,

a joyfulness about the way he plays and the way

he approaches song writing 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, "Oh, we've got a problem.

"We can't put this out, it doesn't sound like Duran Duran,

"it's, it's... 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 know,

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's office in New York City,

looking at 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 the next time it happens it's not so bad.

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.

MUSIC: Come Undone by Duran Duran

# 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.

MUSIC CONTINUES

You know, 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 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 any more.

I think Nick was really important at that moment,

to help us realise first the cover and then the Ordinary World video.

MUSIC: Ordinary World by Duran Duran

# 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 just like,

we'd got a foot into another decade, because we were just,

we'd just had a few years of

"'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. Right.

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 know, you're not quite sure what they are,

that's what make them so interesting,

but it kind of felt at this point,

like maybe we just need to start writing songs about emotions,

and, 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.

MUSIC: Chains by Duran Duran

We've got Andy Taylor back as well tonight.

I spoke to somebody this morning

and they thought we'd got back together to party.

Find another wife or whatever.

Fucking rockin' show, dude.

Simon, in the way he came in the crowd,

I just wanted to lick you, all over.

People had been asking us for 20 years by then, "Are you,

"when are you ever going to put the original band back together?"

And we didn't know that we would.

But nobody had ever ruled it out.

MUSIC: Astronaut by Duran Duran

LAUGHTER

I just thought if we ever get a ball in a pocket,

this massive cheer's going to go up.

Apparently, it was 18 years in between

the last show that we were all on stage together

and the first show of The Astronaut Project.

Wow. It was a gamble, you know,

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.

D minor.

HE SINGS

# Does anybody know... #

I like that bit. What's that chord?

It wasn't going to be all about what happened in 1983,

this was going to be about what we could do now.

Play it from that first chord.

I've got to say, getting the different personalities to work

again was probably more challenging than the music, I think.

That was the tough part.

OK, clear the room. 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 exactly the conversation that we were having

in sound check.

You know you said that before, but I can't figure out what you mean.

You go to the last...

No, 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 ultimate "shut the fuck up and play your guitars."

SCREAMING

And that was really what we needed, because then, all the politics,

just...shtum, and then we go out and we play and we remind each other,

"Oh, when we do this together, this is what we get."

MUSIC: (Reach Up For The) Sunrise by Duran Duran

# 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 it ended up being around two years.

Tomorrow night we'll do like tonight.

Tonight we'll do like last night.

And then 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.

No!

# Her name is Rio and she dances in the sand! #

Right?

SIMON CACKLES

That was a great song.

I'm feeling job insecurity!

The last time we were at the wheel, we just drove it off the cliff,

you know 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 en...

We all dug back in,

our relationships with each other

and our feelings for the band, you know.

That was classic. That was worth the work.

That was worth a year.

That was. It was like everything was set.

Do you know what? Not a moment too fucking soon.

All the British gigs, all the gigs we've done, to get here,

just the press the on button, boom.

Aren't we smug? Yeah.

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.

MUSIC: Planet Earth by Duran Duran

Then we started a pretty good two-year run of working together.

It was difficult, though, you know,

because everybody'd had a different experience and was carrying different stuff, baggage,

there were sort of different things in everybody's suitcases,

and honestly I didn't really want know what was going on.

But it would just, it would just come out.

It's a really big one for the fans.

It's a very exciting...

It is, and I think... Roger and I were just saying that we thought you

watched the reaction plummet. You're joking!

The front three, four rows, watch it all the way back.

It just...

You're telling me you can see people at the back?

Of course I can.

They were singing.

ALL TALK AT ONCE

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...

Well, Andy was all or nothing.

You kind of knew 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 burned, I get a bit dark after ten 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.

I mean 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 family, it's your children and so you know,

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've just...

got to 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 line-up 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.

We haven't been on Radio 1 for decades.

And we do another album with Nile Rodgers, with Mark Ronson,

and Ben Hudson and it goes top ten.

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 It's up to you... #

And it was 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 time to take the pressure off... #

And 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, "They're done"

you know and we have this sense,

that there's a, that staying together...

Because we've all worked apart from each other, we've all tried that.

Meh, you know. There's something that we have when we're together

that is worth showing up for.

We accept 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.

# Bow to the paper gods

# In a world that is paper-thin... #

Getting to a 14th album is a milestone.

That's a moment, you know,

it's not something you even think about when you start your career.

Think about anyone now who's going to like 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

# Money for head shots

# Fools leading

# Who needs it? #

Yes!

Charlie's first pot.