Duran Duran are returning to Madrid for a concert at the Movistar Arena on Friday, November 6. Founding member Nick Rhodes, 64, spoke in a video call about a band that has sold 100 million records and, decades after its 1980s peak, is still being claimed by new generations. He said he was looking forward to the Madrid show.
Rhodes said the set will include the hits, because 'that is no longer ours, it belongs to the memory of many people, it is almost more theirs than ours.' But he added that they will also play more recent songs: 'We are not a tribute band to Duran Duran. We are together, we are alive, it's incredible.'
The interview revisits the band's turbulent history. In 1984, during the shoot for the Wild Boys video, Duran Duran came close to breaking up. Directed by Russell Mulcahy and inspired by Mad Max and William S. Burroughs, the clip had a £1 million budget. Simon Le Bon was tied to a rotating mill over a water tank; when it stopped, he was left submerged and had to be rescued by divers. A year later, John and Andy Taylor left to form a rock band with Robert Palmer, tired of being the image of the 1980s' excess.
Reduced to a trio, the group released Notorious in 1986. It was widely expected, including by its label, to be a swan song, but the title track became a huge success. They had thought Skin Trade would be the real single, but it failed to connect.
In 1993, the self-titled Duran Duran album revived them. It contained Ordinary World, which remains their most-streamed song on Spotify. Sterling Campbell played drums on the record; his relationship with Marta Sánchez opened the door to the Spanish tabloid press for the band. In 2004, back as a quintet, they released Astronaut, an album that returned them to the centre of the scene and set quality standards that, the interview notes, almost none of their generation has maintained—perhaps only Depeche Mode or The Cure.
Rhodes was less optimistic about charts and the industry. He said charts are for younger artists and that Duran Duran's audience and success are not there, although the US remains a huge market for them.
He argued that the 1980s continue to work because it was a decade of individualism. In music, he said, Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Smiths, Prince, INXS and Madonna each sought a distinct identity, and sounding different was a merit. Today's charts, he said, remind him of the 1990s, when everyone wanted to be the same, with the same white T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. 'It seems something is good because it reminds you of other things. It should be just the opposite,' he said. 'I only feel comfortable with music that makes me uncomfortable, at least a little.'
He described the music business as 'diabolical' and said it is getting worse. It was already bad when they started, he said, but now it is almost impossible to be authentic. Labels, he argued, behave as if they were selling cans of soup or biscuits and do not understand artist development. 'Everything is a product and everything is about making money quickly,' he said. When someone at the label asks, 'But what are the numbers on social media?', Rhodes said, 'I feel like vomiting.' He added that he does not care about any artist's social-media figures, not even Duran Duran's. 'Show me a good song, not that you have 37 million views in South America,' he said. He lamented that much of the business now revolves around that, the producer of the moment and recording with a reality star.
Duran Duran were among the first to release a video made with AI, for the song Invisible in 2021. Rhodes said he will not use AI to compose because he does not need it. 'If you have talent you should not fear AI,' he said. The machine can do things, but a human must tell it what to do. He also suggested that much of what exists is AI junk, so there is no need to feel threatened.
Sources: El País Cultura.