Post by BassEcho on Jul 9, 2008 12:58:49 GMT -5
Duran Duran at the 02 Arena
Still here... and making grown women giddy girls
Lisa Verrico
Never a band to play down their own importance – even this long after their heyday – Duran Duran began their UK tour with several minutes of foreboding music, dramatic claps of thunder and searchlights sweeping over the crowd. Finally, posing on a short stretch of red carpet, in front of a Gothic, Gotham-like backdrop, appeared a solemn-looking Simon Le Bon, hair still rocking those silver-blond streaks that were only ever hip in the 1980s, bondage straps hanging between the knees of his custom-made black suit.
The fans, of course, had come for a party, a singalong to beam them back to their carefree schooldays, when Duran epitomised pop’s peak of aspiration – yachts, supermodels, money to burn. Instead, they got a trio of tracks from last year’s largely panned, electro-rock album Red Carpet Massacre. Some stood and danced to the buzzy, bassy, unexpectedly tasty opener The Valley, but most were back in their seats for the speedy, silly title track and the not-too-bad Nite-Runner.
You can understand why Duran Duran consider their celebrity stock to be soaring, despite disastrous sales of their album. The previous evening they had played in Paris, accompanied by the producer-du-jour Mark Ronson, in front of a crowd that included Eva Mendes, Philippe Starck, John Galliano and Ellen Von Unwerth. Red Carpet Massacre was as audacious a comeback as any pop act has attempted and featured the twin might of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.
As a nostalgia act, however, the glamorous Brummies still have it in spades. Hungry Like the Wolf turned the 02 Arena into a deliriously cheesy disco and Planet Earth turned grown women into giddy, lovestruck girls. That four original members remain – including the impossibly pretty Nick Rhodes and the improbably slimline Taylors, John and Roger – was a bonus, but couldn’t mask the growing gulf of excitement between old songs and new.
Just after Duran had pulled off a stuttering, sax-accompanied re-re-remix of The Reflex and convinced the crowd that A View to a Kill could be the best Bond song bar Bassey’s, they perplexed punters with a techno interlude, delivered Kraftwerk-style, the quintet side by side behind electronic equipment. Suddenly, the bars outside were doing brisk business.
The final act, however, couldn’t be faulted. A glorious Girls on Film and an epic Rio were the highlights of a run of hits that could keep Duran Duran selling out arenas for the rest of their lives.
Tour continues
Saturday 5, Liverpool Echo Arena
Sunday 6, Nottingham Arena
Monday 7, Birmingham NIA
entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article4272901.ece
Still here... and making grown women giddy girls
Lisa Verrico
Never a band to play down their own importance – even this long after their heyday – Duran Duran began their UK tour with several minutes of foreboding music, dramatic claps of thunder and searchlights sweeping over the crowd. Finally, posing on a short stretch of red carpet, in front of a Gothic, Gotham-like backdrop, appeared a solemn-looking Simon Le Bon, hair still rocking those silver-blond streaks that were only ever hip in the 1980s, bondage straps hanging between the knees of his custom-made black suit.
The fans, of course, had come for a party, a singalong to beam them back to their carefree schooldays, when Duran epitomised pop’s peak of aspiration – yachts, supermodels, money to burn. Instead, they got a trio of tracks from last year’s largely panned, electro-rock album Red Carpet Massacre. Some stood and danced to the buzzy, bassy, unexpectedly tasty opener The Valley, but most were back in their seats for the speedy, silly title track and the not-too-bad Nite-Runner.
You can understand why Duran Duran consider their celebrity stock to be soaring, despite disastrous sales of their album. The previous evening they had played in Paris, accompanied by the producer-du-jour Mark Ronson, in front of a crowd that included Eva Mendes, Philippe Starck, John Galliano and Ellen Von Unwerth. Red Carpet Massacre was as audacious a comeback as any pop act has attempted and featured the twin might of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.
As a nostalgia act, however, the glamorous Brummies still have it in spades. Hungry Like the Wolf turned the 02 Arena into a deliriously cheesy disco and Planet Earth turned grown women into giddy, lovestruck girls. That four original members remain – including the impossibly pretty Nick Rhodes and the improbably slimline Taylors, John and Roger – was a bonus, but couldn’t mask the growing gulf of excitement between old songs and new.
Just after Duran had pulled off a stuttering, sax-accompanied re-re-remix of The Reflex and convinced the crowd that A View to a Kill could be the best Bond song bar Bassey’s, they perplexed punters with a techno interlude, delivered Kraftwerk-style, the quintet side by side behind electronic equipment. Suddenly, the bars outside were doing brisk business.
The final act, however, couldn’t be faulted. A glorious Girls on Film and an epic Rio were the highlights of a run of hits that could keep Duran Duran selling out arenas for the rest of their lives.
Tour continues
Saturday 5, Liverpool Echo Arena
Sunday 6, Nottingham Arena
Monday 7, Birmingham NIA
entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/live_reviews/article4272901.ece
