Duran Duran

I was at a cocktail party this week and met someone who plays in a gypsy band. I started asking him what the music was like and in the course of my questions I mentioned having seen Gogol Bordello perform on a music show recently. He latched onto this statement and started going on about how great they were live. I admitted I had quickly dismissed them when I saw them perform with Madonna since she is a vampire, latching on to whatever new trend she can find to try and make herself relevant. My work colleague standing near overheard this, laughed and said, “Hold on, she’s my age”. And my response back was, “Yes, but you’re not trying to be a pop star”. What does this have to do with Duran Duran? Probably less than just demonstrating my pessimistic mood these days, but I was going to circle it back around to Duran Duran working with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake for their new album, Red Carpet Massacre.

When I was thirteen I was desperate to go and see Duran Duran in concert. Their non-threatening, sexually ambiguous good looks had won my adolescent heart even with probably the silliest lyrics in history. This probably is why I now take issue with keyboards. One too many a night I watched Friday Night Videos just to get a glimpse of Nick Rhodes pouting like a supermodel behind stacks of them. God help me. When my best friend and I began plotting that my oldest brother would take us to Chicago to see them, his answer was simple, “J-, I wouldn’t take you to see them if they were playing across the street.” In the end, three days before the concert, prompted by his new girlfriend, he took us.

Because of this past infatuation, I am always interested in hearing what they are up to. I was disappointed to hear that they were trying to be trendy. I watched their latest video and was not into it at all. I grabbed a newspaper on my flight back to London this week and there was a review in The Daily Telegraph of a recent Duran Duran concert. Helen Brown states, “While the Spice Girls whip through the campy costume changes and Take That offer up punishing dance routines with a twinkle of self-deprecation, Duran Duran fans must be satisfied with a couple of videos of a naked woman swimming underwater and a 49-year old Le Bon punching the air like a dad winning a pub quiz”. Not good. While memories of their makeup’d faces will always have a special place in my heart, I wish they could remain a bit of 80’s nostalgia. --J

A Moment of Reality

Sunday morning A. and I watched the beginning of The Concert for Diana broadcast from Wembley Stadium. Elton John opened the show with a beautiful rendition of Your Song. After that the two young Princes introduced their mother's favorite band, Duran Duran, also my favorite in my early teens, A. scrunched up her face and said, "Who's that?" I explained to her how John Taylor, pictured here in his young androgynous beauty, was the love of my life. When they moved in for a close up of John, she said, "Ewwwww, didn't he play the Green Goblin in Spiderman?" Seeing his wrinkle resemblance to Willem Dafoe made me realize that my former idol, as I, have aged. I had to laugh. --J

Nostalgia at the Movies

The new Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore movie, Music & Lyrics, is definitely a chick flick and would appeal to anyone who was an adolescent gal in the 80s. While K was a lover of metal in her youth, I embarrassingly gravitated to synth pop, mostly of the Brit variety. Being the baby of the family and always having to listen to my brothers’ music, this music was my own, no matter how crappy and dated some of the songs sound now.

Hugh Grant plays a very Andrew Ridgeley character, the unsuccessful half of Wham!, a favorite of mine back in the day. The character is now a has-been but is still living off of his former glory, playing high school reunions where grown women still flock to see his pelvic thrusts. These scenes were both hilarious and a little sad. There is also some commentary about the importance of a good pop song, has-been reality television shows, overtly sexy young singers, and manufactured versus more organic music. But of course, the scenes that got the most laughs were Hugh Grant’s band’s music video with Duran Duran outfits and 80’s hair. If you love Hugh Grant or that genre of music, you’ll love this. Others, probably not so much. --J