# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran) on Facebook Watch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Duran Duran - Come Undone (Official Music Video)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Reflex - Single Version; 2010 Remaster

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.title
The Reflex - Single Version; 2010 Remaster

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Duran Duran - The Wild Boys (Official Music Video)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Duran Duran - Rio (Official Music Video)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Duran Duran - Save A Prayer (Official Music Video)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Duran Duran () are an English new wave band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band were one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, but by the end of the decade, membership and music style changes challenged the band before a resurgence in the early 1990s. The group were a leading band in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US in the 1980s. They achieved 14 singles in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the US Billboard Hot 100, and have sold over 100 million records worldwide.

When the band emerged they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene, along with bands such as Spandau Ballet and Visage. However, Duran Duran would soon shed this image by using fashion and marketing to build a more refined and elegant presentation. The band have won numerous awards throughout their career: two Brit Awards including the 2004 award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, two Grammy Awards, an MTV Video Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a Video Visionary Award from the MTV Europe Music Awards. They were also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The video age catapulted Duran Duran into the mainstream with the introduction of the 24-hour music channel MTV. Many of their videos were shot on 35 mm film, which gave a much more polished look than was standard at the time. They also collaborated with professional film directors to take the quality a step further, often teaming up with Australian director Russell Mulcahy for some of their most memorable video offerings. In 1984, the band were early innovators with video technology in their live stadium shows.

The group was formed by keyboardist Nick Rhodes and bassist John Taylor, with the later addition of drummer Roger Taylor, and after numerous personnel changes, guitarist Andy Taylor and lead singer Simon Le Bon. (None of the Taylors are related.) These five members featured the most commercially successful line-up. The group have never disbanded, but after the departures of Andy and Roger Taylor in 1986, the line-up has changed to include former Missing Persons American guitarist Warren Cuccurullo from 1989 to 2001 and American drummer Sterling Campbell from 1989 to 1991. The reunion of the original five members in the early 2000s created a stir among the band's fans and music media. Andy Taylor left the band once again in mid-2006, and guitarist Dominic Brown has since been working with the band as a session player and touring member.

John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed Duran Duran in Birmingham, England, in 1978, where they became the resident band at the city's Rum Runner nightclub. They were doing jobs at the club, John working the door and Nick deejaying for £10 a night. They began rehearsing and regularly playing at the venue. There were many nearby nightclubs where bands such as the Sex Pistols and the Clash played gigs; the most significant was called Barbarella's. They went on to name the band after "Dr. Durand Durand", Milo O'Shea's character from the sci-fi film Barbarella.

The band's first singer was Stephen Duffy. Simon Colley soon joined Taylor, Rhodes and Duffy. Colley was the band's original bass player, as John Taylor was the guitarist at this point. This was the first complete line-up of the band that played live shows. For percussion, an electronic drum machine belonging to Rhodes was used. After Duffy left Duran Duran early in 1979, a few guitarists were auditioned, mostly unsuccessfully, as well as a handful of vocalists. Andy Wickett, brought on in 1979 as lead vocalist, had a major part in the writing of " Girls on Film" during his tenure with the band, according to Andy Taylor's autobiography. Wickett is featured on the demos that were presented to EMI in 1980. According to both Wickett's and John Taylor's websites, Wickett co-wrote an early version of the song that came to be known as " Rio". Upon Colley's and Wickett's departures, the band enlisted singer Jeff Thomas and guitarist Alan Curtis, each for only a relatively brief period.

The meeting of drummer Roger Taylor in 1979 with John Taylor, Rhodes and Wickett at a party, as well as the departure of Colley, led John Taylor to switch to bass. Roger Taylor then became their original (human) drummer. It was this line-up (John Taylor on bass and guitar along with Rhodes, Wickett and Roger Taylor) that made the first-ever Duran Duran studio demo tapes. In April 1980, guitarist Andy Taylor came from Newcastle upon Tyne to audition after responding to an advertisement in Melody Maker. In May 1980, London vocalist Simon Le Bon was recommended to the band by an ex-girlfriend who worked at the Rum Runner. The owners of the club, brothers Paul and Michael Berrow, became the band's management, paying them to work as doormen, disc jockeys and barmen when they were not rehearsing.

In 1980 they recorded two demo tapes and performed in clubs around Birmingham and London. Later that same year, when touring as an opening act for Hazel O'Connor, the band attracted critical attention, resulting in a bidding war between the record companies EMI and Phonogram. "A certain patriotism" toward the label of The Beatles led them to sign with EMI in December.

Duran Duran were amongst the earliest bands to work on their own remixes. Before the days of digital synthesisers and easy audio sampling, they created multi-layered arrangements of their singles, sometimes recording entirely different extended performances of the songs in the studio. These "night versions" were generally available only on vinyl as b-sides to 45 rpm singles or on 12-inch club singles until the release of the compilation Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran in 1999.

From the beginning of their career, all the members had a keen sense of visual style. They worked with stylist Perry Haines and fashion designers such as Kahn & Bell and Antony Price to build a sharp and elegant image, soon outgrowing the ruffles and sashes of the pirate-flavoured early New Romantic look that had been popularised by Adam Ant during 1980-81. They have continued to present fashion as part of their package throughout their career. In the 1990s they worked with Vivienne Westwood and in the 2000s with Giorgio Armani. The band retained creative control of their visual presentation having worked closely with graphic designer Malcolm Garrett and many others over the years to create album covers, tour programs and other materials.

All five members of the band were photogenic. Teen and music magazines in the UK latched onto their good looks quickly, and the USA soon followed. It was a rare month in the early 1980s when there was not at least one picture of the band members in teen magazines such as or . John Taylor once remarked that the band was "like a box of Quality Street [chocolates]; everyone is someone's favourite" Duran Duran later came to regret this early pin-up exposure, but at the time it helped attract national attention. In an interview with Rock Fever Superstars Magazine in early 1988, John Taylor stated:

We used to be a very chi-chi name to drop in '79, but then the Fab Five hype started and something went wrong. Something went really wrong. That wasn't what I wanted. [...] Not that I didn't like being screamed at. At one point I really did".

The band's first album, Duran Duran was released on the EMI label in 1981. The first single, " Planet Earth", reached the United Kingdom's top 20 at number 12. A follow-up, " Careless Memories", stalled at Number 37. However, it was their third single, "Girls on Film", that attracted the most attention. The song went to Number 5 in the UK. The video featuring topless women mud wrestling, pillow fighting and stylised depictions of other sexual fetishes, was made with directing duo Godley & Creme in August. The video was filmed just two weeks after MTV was launched in the United States. The band expected the " Girls on Film" video to be played in the newer nightclubs that had video screens or on pay TV channels like the Playboy Channel. Kevin Godley explained the thinking behind it:

We were very explicitly told by Duran Duran's management to make a very sensational and erotic piece that would be for clubs, where it would get shown uncensored just to make people take notice and talk about it.

The video was heavily edited for MTV (Music Television). The album peaked in the UK top twenty at number 3. Later in 1981 the band embarked on their first United States club tour followed by more dates in Germany and the UK. This second tour of Britain coincided with a wave of riots sparked by unemployment and racial tension, including those of Moss Side and Toxteth. The band played Birmingham the day after the Handsworth riots. Duran Duran began to achieve worldwide recognition in 1982. In May they released their second album, , which scored four UK Top Twenty singles with " My Own Way", " Hungry Like the Wolf", " Save a Prayer", and the title song " Rio". A headlining tour of Australia, Japan, and the US was followed by a stint supporting Blondie during that band's final American tour. Diana, Princess of Wales declared Duran Duran her favourite band, and the band were dubbed "the Fab Five" by the British press, comparing them to the Beatles whose nickname was the Fab Four.

At first, the Rio album did not do well in the United States. EMI in the UK had promoted Duran Duran as a New Romantic band, but the New Romantic movement was barely known in the US, and EMI's American subsidiary Capitol Records was at a loss about how to sell them. After (an EP of Rio's dance remixes) became popular with DJs in the fall, the band arranged to have most of the album remixed by David Kershenbaum. In June 1982, Duran Duran appeared for the first time on American television, performing "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Rio" on Dancin' On Air, the forerunner to the national hit show Dance Party USA.

Now promoted as a dance album, Rio was re-released in the US in November, and began to climb the American charts six months after its European success. MTV placed "Hungry Like the Wolf" and several other Duran Duran videos into heavy rotation, pushing the single and album into the US top twenty in early 1983. The ballad "Save a Prayer" also did well. "The band was a natural for music television," noted Rolling Stone magazine. "They may be the first rock group to ride in on a video wave." The album ultimately peaked at number 6 in the US and remained on the charts there for 129 weeks. In 2003 Rio was listed at number 65 in the 100 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

The band began 1983 by playing the MTV New Year's Eve Rock 'n' Roll Ball with "Hungry Like the Wolf" still climbing the charts in the US, and the American reissue of the "Rio" single to follow in March. To satisfy America's appetite for their music, the band re-released their eponymous first album in the US in the middle of the year with the addition of the new single " Is There Something I Should Know?". Upon its release, this song entered the chart at number 1 in the UK (a rarity then and their first chart-topper in their home country) and reached number 4 on the American charts. During the promotion of this album, Rhodes and Le Bon were MTV guest VJs for a show, during which artist and admirer Andy Warhol dropped by to greet them. "Our first gigs in the United States were crazy and culty", Rhodes said later, "But when we came back after 'Hungry' was a hit, it was mayhem. It was Beatlemania. We were doing a signing of the 'Girls on Film' video at a store in Times Square. We couldn't get out of the store. The cops sealed off the streets." Also in 1983, keyboardist Nick Rhodes produced the UK number 1 and US number 5 hit "Too Shy" for the English band Kajagoogoo and Andy Taylor became the first member of Duran Duran to get married.

The band spent the next year as tax exiles, writing songs at a chateau in France where with Jools Holland filmed a documentary with the band in May 1983 before they flew to Montserrat and then Sydney to record and mix their third album. During the summer, they returned to the UK to perform two concerts, the first on 20 July in front of the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Dominion Theatre, and the second, a charity concert at Aston Villa's home ground. The band were under pressure to follow up the success of Rio, and the recording process took over six months as different band members went through bouts of perfectionism and insecurity. A newly decadent lifestyle and substance abuse issues for some members added complications. In the documentary film Extraordinary World, filmed a decade later, Rhodes described the effect on their sound as "barely controlled hysteria, scratching beneath the surface".

The new album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, included the late 1983 hit " Union of the Snake" (with the soprano sax solo by Andy Hamilton). With "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Rio", "Save a Prayer" and "Is There Something I Should Know?", Duran Duran now had five US Top Twenty hits from three different albums in a single year. The band made music headlines by deciding to release the "Union of the Snake" video to MTV a full week before the single was released to radio. They followed up with " New Moon on Monday", which reached Number 9 in the UK. Their next single " The Reflex", taken from Seven and the Ragged Tiger and given a significant remix overhaul by Nile Rodgers of Chic fame, became their first number one hit in the United States. "The Reflex" was also their second and final UK number one and was successful in numerous other countries around the world.

The band embarked on a global tour that continued throughout the first four months of 1984 including their first major stadium dates in America. A film crew led by director Russell Mulcahy followed the band closely, leading to the documentary film Sing Blue Silver and the accompanying concert film . The live album was also recorded during the tour and was released with the new studio single " The Wild Boys", which went to number 2 on both sides of the Atlantic. In February 1984, the band appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and won two Grammy Awards in the brand-new Long Form and Short Form music video categories. Meanwhile, " Save a Prayer" gained momentum in North America, and a special US remix of the song became a single in January 1985. It peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March. A live version of the song was used for the single's B-side, taken from the concert video footage for Arena / As the Lights Go Down.

During this period, all of the band members became heartthrobs for many of their young teenage fans. After the tour, Roger Taylor was married in Naples, Italy, and Nick Rhodes wed in London, wearing a pink velvet tuxedo and top hat. At the end of 1984, the group were featured on the Band Aid benefit single " Do They Know It's Christmas?" along with other popular British musical acts. Simon Le Bon sang between contributions from George Michael and Sting.

Even with Duran Duran on hold, band members were soon anxious to record new music, leading to a supposedly temporary split into two side projects. John Taylor and Andy Taylor wanted to break away from the Duran Duran sound and pursue hard rock material; they collaborated with Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson to form the rock/funk supergroup the Power Station, which released two Top 10 singles. Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes wanted to further explore Duran Duran's atmospheric aspect and formed Arcadia, who released one LP ( So Red the Rose) from which the single "Election Day" was released. Contributors to that album included guitarist Masami Tsuchiya, bassist Mark Egan, percussionist David Van Tieghem, drummer Steve Jordan, Sting, Herbie Hancock, and David Gilmour. Roger Taylor was a drummer for Arcadia as well as contributing percussion to the Power Station album. Duran Duran were never the same after this break. According to Rhodes, the two side projects "were commercial suicide... But we've always been good at that." The band was still off balance when they regrouped to contribute " A View to a Kill" to the 1985 James Bond movie of the same name. This single was the first Bond theme to go to number 1 on the US charts, and was at the time the joint highest-placed Bond theme on the UK chart where it reached number 2. It was the last single the band recorded as the original five-piece for close to twenty years.

As a follow-up to the Christmas 1984 Band Aid single, Duran Duran performed in front of 90,000 people (and an estimated 1.5 billion TV viewers) at the Live Aid charity concert at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 13 July 1985 while their Bond song held the top spot on the American charts. It was not intended to be a farewell performance-the band planned only to take a break after four years of non-stop touring and public appearances-but the original five did not play live together again until July 2003. During their Live Aid set, Le Bon inadvertently hit an off-key falsetto note in the chorus of "A View to a Kill", an error that was trumpeted by numerous media outlets as "The Bum Note Heard Round the World" (in contrast to Freddie Mercury's "Note Heard Round the World" at the Wembley Stadium Live Aid show). Le Bon later described the moment as the most embarrassing of his career.

After releasing three studio albums and one live album in five years, each accompanied by heavy media promotion and lengthy concert tours, the band lost two of its core members to fatigue and tension in 1986. After Live Aid and Arcadia, drummer Roger Taylor retired to the English countryside, suffering from exhaustion. This was originally announced as a one-year sabbatical, but it soon became clear that he would not be returning to the band. An official press release was issued in April 1986 confirming his departure. In a 2004 interview with Live Daily, Roger Taylor confirmed his reasons for leaving: "I was burned out. I think I was just exhausted. It was a very intense five years. We didn't stop. It was constant touring, constant writing, recording. We broke internationally, as well-instantly, pretty well. It's a nonstop schedule, really. I had lost myself somewhere."

Guitarist Andy Taylor led the remaining members to believe he would return to work on a new Duran Duran album even as he was signing a solo recording contract in Los Angeles, eventually releasing a solo album in 1986 called . The band resorted to legal measures to get him into the studio, but after numerous delays, they let him go at last. He played on only a few songs on the next album while the disagreements were being settled.

Without a guitarist or a drummer, the three remaining members, Le Bon, Rhodes, and John Taylor had producer (and former Chic guitarist) Nile Rodgers play a few tracks on guitar, and hired Steve Ferrone to play drums while they searched for replacements. Finally in September 1986, Warren Cuccurullo (formerly of Missing Persons and Frank Zappa's band) was hired as a session guitarist. With Le Bon, Rhodes, and Taylor, he recorded the rest of the album, which was released in October 1986. The black-and-white documentary film Three to Get Ready chronicled the recording of the album, legal tensions, and preparations for the tour.

Although the song " Notorious" went to number 2 in the US, number 7 in the UK, and album sales were strong, the band found they had lost much of the momentum and hysteria they had left behind in 1985. In the three years between the release of Seven and the Ragged Tiger and Notorious, many of their teenage fans had grown up, and the music was funkier, more mature, and less "pop", given the added experience of their work on Arcadia and Power Station and with other musicians. " Skin Trade" and " Meet El Presidente", the two subsequent singles, made the charts but fared poorly compared to the band's earlier successes. Finally in late 1987, Sterling Campbell was hired as a session drummer.

Subsequently, Duran Duran struggled to escape the teen idol image and gain respect among critics with more complex music. The new serious image was not accepted at first and their popularity began to wane. Rolling Stone said, "In their search for musical maturity, the surviving Durans have lost a good deal of their identity." In contrast the New York Times said, "Duran Duran's newfound disillusionment may mark a step toward maturity...they managed to catch a trend on the upswing, perhaps "Notorious" suggests that for late 1980s grit and pessimism is coming into style." Another factor was the band's dismissal of early managers, the Berrow brothers. There was no announcement of the reasons for the decision, but disagreements over money, and the brothers' involvement in Le Bon's yachting adventures (they were co-owners of ) were thought to have played a part. Whatever the reason, Duran Duran switched managers frequently and undertook periods of self-management in the later stages of their career. In addition, EMI fired its president and went through a major corporate restructuring that summer and seemed to have lost interest in promoting the band.

The next album (1988) yielded the singles " I Don't Want Your Love" (number 4 in the US), and " All She Wants Is" (the last top ten hit in the UK until 1993). The record was experimental, mixing influences from house music and raves with Duran's atmospheric synthpop and the creative guitar work of Cuccurullo (now a full band member), as well as more mature lyrics.

1989-1991: Five again, Decade and Liberty

By the end of 1989 and at the start of the 1990s, the popularity of synthpop was fading a bit and losing fans to other momentum-gaining music genres at the time, such as hip hop, techno and alternative rock. After touring for the album finished, the band regained a five-man membership as guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and tour drummer Sterling Campbell were made full members of Duran Duran.

The compilation album was released late in 1989, along with the megamix single " Burning the Ground", which consisted of woven snippets of the band's hits from the previous ten years, created and produced with John Jones, who began working with the band after Big Thing. The single came and went with little fanfare, but the album became another major seller for the band. However, the 1990 release (a retreat from the experimentation of Big Thing) failed to capitalise on any regained momentum. The album entered the UK album chart in the top ten, but faded away quickly. The singles " Violence of Summer (Love's Taking Over)" and " Serious" were only mildly successful. For the first time, Duran Duran did not tour in support of an album, performing on only a handful of club dates and TV shows. Sterling Campbell left the band early in 1991, going on to work with Soul Asylum and David Bowie. The quartet of Le Bon, Rhodes, Taylor, and Cuccurullo would remain intact for six more years. In December 1991, John Taylor (then 31) married 19-year-old model/actress Amanda De Cadenet, and she gave birth to his daughter in March 1992.

In 1993, the band released a second self-titled album: this Duran Duran album is known as The Wedding Album (for Nick Egan's cover art featuring the wedding photos of the band members' parents) to distinguish it from the 1981 release, and was produced and recorded with John Jones. The release of this first "comeback" album was delayed, with then manager at Left Bank, Tommy Manzi, later telling HitQuarters that this was due to industry resistance to the revival of the band, whom he said would rather focus on "the next hip band". Listener demand for leaked single " Ordinary World" forced it onto radio playlists months earlier than planned; it reached number 3 on the US chart and number 6 in the UK and won a prestigious Ivor Novello Award for song writing.

" Come Undone", primarily written by Cuccurullo, with lyrics by Le Bon, made number 7 in the US and number 13 in the UK. Both the band and the record label seemed to be caught by surprise by the album's critical and commercial success (No. 4 in the UK, No. 7 in the US). Bassist John Taylor had been considering leaving the band but changed his mind. The band's largest tour ever, which included stops in the Middle East, the then recently de-embargoed South Africa, and South America, was halted after seven months when Le Bon suffered from strained vocal cords. After six weeks' recuperation, the band performed intermittently for another five months, including appearances in Israel, Thailand, and Indonesia.

In 1995, the band released the cover album . Songs from Thank You included covers of Lou Reed's " Perfect Day" and Melle Mel's " White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" (with backing vocals from the original artists). The album also marked the temporary return of former drummer Roger Taylor, who joined the band in studio to play drums on "Watching the Detectives" and "Perfect Day" (as well as a cover of "Jeepster" by T. Rex that did not appear on the album). In a video interview provided with the album's electronic press kit, Reed said he considered Duran Duran's version the best cover ever done of one of his songs, and they received praise from Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for their cover of Led Zeppelin's " Thank You".

After the promo tour for Thank You was completed, John Taylor co-founded the B5 Records label, recorded a solo album, founded and toured with the supergroup Neurotic Outsiders, and reunited the Power Station, though the project proceeded without him when he had to withdraw to deal with his divorce from De Cadenet. Finally, after struggling for months to record the next album, Medazzaland, in January 1997, Taylor announced at the DuranCon fan convention that he was leaving the band "for good". His departure reduced the band to two long time members (Le Bon and Rhodes) and Cuccurullo, who decided to continue recording under the name Duran Duran.

Freed from some internal writing conflicts, the band returned to the studio to rewrite and re-record many of the songs on Medazzaland. (Taylor's work remains on only four tracks.) This album marked a return to the layered experimentation of Big Thing, with intricate guitar textures and processed vocals. The track " Out of My Mind" was used as the theme song for the movie , but the only true single to be released in the United States was the quirky " Electric Barbarella", which was the first single ever to be sold online. The video for this single, featuring a sexy robot purchased and played with by band members, had to be censored before airing on MTV, but there was little of the controversy that had surrounded "Girls on Film". "Barbarella" peaked at No. 52 in the US in October 1997. Although Medazzaland was released in the US in October 1997, the album was never released in the UK. "Barbarella" was later released in the UK as a single from the 1998 compilation album and peaked at No. 23 on the UK chart in January 1999. The group played a set at the Princess Diana Tribute Concert on 27 June 1998 by special request of her family.

Duran Duran parted ways with Capitol/EMI in 1999, although the label has since used Duran Duran's back catalogue to release several compilations of remixes and rare vinyl-only B-sides. The band then signed what was intended to be a three-album contract with Disney's Hollywood Records, but it lasted only through the poorly received 2000 album . This slow-paced and heavy album seemed out-of-keeping with earlier band material. Rhodes' intricate production and Cuccurullo's songwriting and experimentation with guitar sounds and time signatures were not enough to hook the public, and the album did not perform well. The dreamy single " Someone Else Not Me" lasted barely two weeks on the radio, although its video was noted as the first to be produced entirely with Flash animation. While supporting Medazzaland and Pop Trash, Duran Duran toured with bassist Wes Wehmiller and drummer Joe Travers.

In 2000, Le Bon approached John Taylor with a proposal to reform Duran Duran's classic line-up. They agreed to part company with Cuccurullo after completing the Pop Trash tour. Cuccurullo then announced on his website that he was leaving Duran Duran to resume work with his 1980s band Missing Persons. This announcement was confirmed the next day by Duran Duran's website, followed a day later by the news that John, Roger, and Andy Taylor had rejoined. To fulfill contractual obligations, Cuccurullo played three Duran Duran concerts in Japan in June 2001, ending his tenure in the band.

Throughout 2001, 2002 and 2003, the band worked on writing new material, initially renting a house in St. Tropez where sound engineer Mark Tinley built a recording studio for their first serious writing session. They then returned to London to do some self-financed work with various producers (including old friend Nile Rodgers) and search for a new record deal. It proved difficult to find a record label willing to gamble on the band's comeback, so Duran Duran went on tour to prove the drawing power of the reunited band. The response of the fans and the media exceeded expectations. The band played a handful of 25th-anniversary dates across 2003, starting with two arena dates in Tokyo filled to capacity. Tickets sold out for each show within minutes, and celebrities turned out en masse for reunion dates. Amongst these were a number of shows at smaller venues that the band had played on both sides of the pond when they first got together in the early 1980s. In August, the band were booked as presenters at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, only to be surprised with a Lifetime Achievement Award. They also received a Lifetime Achievement award from magazine in October, and the equivalent Outstanding Contribution award at the BRIT Awards in February 2004.

The pace picked up with a sold-out tour of America, Australia and New Zealand. The band played a full concert at a private tailgate party at Super Bowl XXXVIII, their performance of "The Wild Boys" broadcast to millions during the pre-game show. A remix of the new track "(Reach Up for the) Sunrise" was released on many TV shows in February while magazines hailed (the modern "Fab Five") Duran Duran as one of the greatest bands of all time. Duran Duran then celebrated their homecoming to the UK with fourteen stadium dates in April 2004, including five sold-out nights at Wembley Arena. The British press, traditionally hostile to the band, accorded the shows some very warm reviews. Duran Duran brought along band Goldfrapp and the Scissor Sisters as alternating opening acts for this tour. The last two shows were filmed, resulting in the concert DVD Duran Duran: Live from London which was released in November.

Finally, with more than thirty-five songs completed, the band signed a two-album contract with Epic Records in June, and completed the new album, now entitled . The album was released in October 2004 and entered the UK charts at number 3 and the US charts at number 17. The first single was "(Reach Up for the) Sunrise", which reached number 1 on the Billboard US Dance chart in November and peaked at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, Duran Duran's highest chart position since "A View to a Kill" in 1985. A second single, " What Happens Tomorrow", debuted at No. 11 on the UK chart in February. A 5.1 mix of was created by Jeremy Wheatley for the dual-disc release of . The CD side contains the album as-is and the DVD side contains the 5.1 mix of the album in DVD Audio format along with some DVD footage and videos.

After a world tour in early 2005, Duran Duran were presented with the PRS Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the 2005 Ivor Novello Awards. Later that summer, the band headlined the massive Live 8 concert, Rome on 2 July 2005 in the Circus Maximus.

2006-2008: Red Carpet Massacre and Andy Taylor's second departure

In early 2006, Duran Duran covered John Lennon's song " Instant Karma!" for the Make Some Noise campaign sponsored by Amnesty International. Their version later appeared on Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur as an iTunes exclusive bonus track. They also performed at two high-profile events - the Nobel Prize Awards and the 2006 Winter Olympics. After a couple of weeks of songwriting in Northern California, the band began working with producer Michael Patterson in London, and continued intermittently for the next several months. At one point, they reported having had fifteen tracks nearly complete for an album tentatively titled , but no further news emerged from the band for months afterward. In September, the band held meetings in New York City with Justin Timberlake and producer Timbaland with an eye to a potential collaboration and were soon reported to have completed three songs with the producer, including a song with Justin Timberlake.

On 25 October 2006, Duran Duran parted company with Andy Taylor once again. In an official announcement on their website, the band stated that an "unworkable gulf" had developed between them and Taylor and that "we can no longer effectively function together". It was noted by Andy Taylor in his book "Wild Boy" that tensions had arisen between the group's management and himself, and he was also diagnosed with clinical depression connected with the death of his father. Dom Brown, who had previously toured with the band, again took over guitar duties and has been performing with them since. After Taylor's departure, the band scrapped the Reportage album. They wrote and recorded a new album entitled Red Carpet Massacre, which included the Timbaland tracks. Dom Brown is the featured guitarist on the album.

In July 2007, the band performed twice at Wembley Stadium. Their first appearance at the stadium was the Concert for Diana which celebrated the life of Princess Diana almost 10 years after her death. The band performed "(Reach Up for the) Sunrise", " Wild Boys" and " Rio". Their second appearance was at Live Earth concert, London. On 25 September, the Timberlake collaboration " Falling Down" was released as a download single on iTunes, and the band announced that they would play nine shows at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway to launch the Red Carpet Massacre album. The album launch was later extended to incorporate a show in London on 3 December 2007 and one in Dublin on 5 December 2007.

In May 2008, they toured the US leg of their 2008 world tour and were supported by the British band Your Vegas. In June 2008, they played the Louvre in Paris in a fundraising effort that contributed to the restoration of a Louis XV drawing room. Guests dined, privately viewed some of the museum's artworks, then attended a performance by the band in the I.M. Pei-designed Pyramid du Louvre. The group's performance marked a first for the 18th century museum which had never before allowed a rock concert to occur anywhere within the grounds or buildings and another groundbreaker for Duran Duran.

On 2 July 2008, in Paris, Mark Ronson performed a unique live set with Duran Duran for an exclusive, invitation-only performance. Together, they showcased specially re-worked versions of some of Duran Duran's classic hits re-created by Ronson, along with tracks from Red Carpet Massacre. Simon Le Bon also performed songs from Ronson's latest album, , as one of Ronson's featured guest vocalists. Unlike the band's previous album , Red Carpet Massacre sold poorly and received mixed responses from the music press. In 2008, was included in the Classic Albums series.

2009-2012: Dominic Brown era and All You Need Is Now

The band departed from Epic Records in 2009, after releasing just two albums. In early 2010, it was revealed that the band would be contributing a cover of " Boys Keep Swinging" to a tribute/charity record for David Bowie called We Were So Turned On from which all profits go to War Child. Other contributing artists included Carla Bruni, Devendra Banhart, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Warpaint. The album was released on 14 September 2010 on Manimal Vinyl Records. A limited edition split 7" single with Duran Duran and Carla Bruni was also released on Manimal Vinyl in December 2010.

In November 2010, Duran Duran announced the worldwide release of their 13th studio album, entitled All You Need Is Now which was to be released on the band's own Tapemodern label and distributed by indie label S-Curve Records. The album, produced by the Grammy Award-winning Mark Ronson and mixed by Spike Stent, was released exclusively on iTunes on 21 December 2010 and hit the No. 1 spot on download charts in 15 countries (including the UK). The first single from the record, title track "All You Need Is Now", was free to download worldwide on 8 December 2010 exclusively in iTunes. Guitarist and songwriter Dom Brown co-wrote all but two songs on the album. In March 2011 the band embarked on a world tour in support of the album. After a warm-up show in London, the tour officially began 16 March 2011 in Austin, Texas.

The expanded physical album, including various format special packages, was released in March 2011, only weeks after the 30th anniversary of the band's first release "Planet Earth". The CD features fourteen tracks, including five tracks not included with the original digital release: "Mediterranea", "Other People's Lives", "Too Bad You're So Beautiful", "Diamond in the Mind", and "Return to Now". In a video posted on the band's website in February 2011, Rhodes mentioned the mixing of another four tracks: "Too Close to the Sun", "Early Summer Nerves", "This Lost Weekend", and "Networker Nation". The album entered the UK chart at No. 11 and the Billboard chart at No. 29.

On 25 February 2011, while in Milan, Duran Duran received a Style Icons of the 20th Century Award and a key to the city, presented by the city's mayor Letizia Moratti. On 23 March, the band performed live at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles as the start of the second season of Unstaged: An Original Series from American Express. The concert was directed by David Lynch and live-streamed on YouTube. The band was joined onstage by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Beth Ditto of Gossip, and Kelis. On 17 April 2011, Duran Duran performed at the Coachella Music Festival located at Empire Polo Grounds, in Indio, California. In May 2011, Le Bon contracted laryngitis leading to either cancellation or rescheduling of most of the European dates for the All You Need Is Now World Tour.

On 1 May 2012, it was announced that the band would be headlining the London Summer Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony celebration in Hyde Park, which took place on 27 July. They represented England, along with Snow Patrol for Northern Ireland, Stereophonics for Wales, and Paolo Nutini for Scotland. At the end of August 2012, with one week left of their 18-month world tour, the band were forced to cancel the rest of the North American leg of the tour as Nick Rhodes had become ill with a viral infection.

On 4 March 2013, the band returned to the studio to work on their 14th studio album, and continued during the week beginning 23 September. They reconvened 13 to 18 December. On 31 December 2013, the band posted a mixtape curated by John Taylor as a New Year's "thank you" to their fans. On 10 February 2014, John Taylor and Roger Taylor worked with the Voce Chamber Choir and London Youth Chamber Choir on vocals for use on some Duran Duran tracks.

Then former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante worked with the band on the new album. The band confirmed this in April 2014 on their official website: "We were holding this exciting news because we were hoping to give you full details when we announced, but as word has leaked out, catching us rather off guard, we wanted to confirm... yes it's true, the extraordinarily talented John Frusciante has indeed been doing some work from his home base in California on our new album. The tracks have been going back and forth via the internet, and we are thrilled with the results. We are all such big fans of John's work and are honoured to have him adding his magic to the record! There are no current plans for John to tour with us, but his guitars sound incredible on the tracks. Hoping to have more news for you soon."

On 15 June 2015, the band officially announced the album's title as , setting a release date of 11 September 2015. The single "Pressure Off" was also released the same week, first via Microsoft's Xbox Music. The song subsequently appeared on Google Play Music. Forthcoming tour dates for the UK and US were also announced. The album debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest debut in 22 years. The album also reached number 2 in Italy, number 4 in the Netherlands, and number 5 in the UK.

On 7 July 2016, Duran Duran announced that MNDR would stand in for Nick Rhodes during part of the third leg of the Paper Gods tour in the United States. Rhodes was quoted as saying, "I will be back as soon as I can but know, in the meantime, that I am leaving both the band and fans in great hands, with the fabulous MNDR." Also, several remixes of their song Last Night in the City were released in digital form in that year.

In December 2016, the original band members Le Bon, Rhodes, Andy Taylor, John Taylor and Roger Taylor lost a case in the British High Court after they attempted to reclaim the U.S. copyright on their first three albums from Gloucester Place Music, part of EMI Music Publishing. Rhodes commented, "We signed a publishing agreement as unsuspecting teenagers, over three decades ago, when just starting out and when we knew no better... if left untested, this judgment sets a very bad precedent for all songwriters of our era." The band spent 2017 touring the American continent and playing a handful of festival dates in Europe and Asia.

On July 16, 2019, Rhodes said the band had been working on a new album since the beginning of the year, with Ronson, Erol Alkan and Giorgio Moroder handling production duties, and Lykke Li and Graham Coxon being confirmed as collaborators. "There's one song so far that's a frontrunner to be the first single. It's just so different from anything I've heard from us before, or actually anyone else. There's a dance element to it. The construction of it, the melodic content, the lyrics, some of the sounds... they're very different for us." He initially said that a release in late spring 2020 for the album "looks realistic"; however, on March 13, 2020, reported that the album would be released in autumn 2020. A week later, the band announced on their Twitter account that the album had been put on hold due to COVID-19, with the release date remaining uncertain.

Although they began their career as "a group of art school, experimental, post punk rockers," the band's quick rise to stardom, polished good looks and embrace of the teen press almost guaranteed disfavour from music critics. During the 1980s, Duran Duran were considered the quintessential manufactured, throw-away pop group. However, according to the Sunday Herald, "To describe them, as some have, as the first boy band, misrepresents their appeal. Their weapons were never just their looks, but self-penned songs." As Moby said of the band in his website diary in 2003: "... they were cursed by what we can call the ' Bee Gees' curse, which is: 'write amazing songs, sell tons of records, and consequently incur the wrath or disinterest of the rock obsessed critical establishment.'" Some of the influences on Duran Duran included contemporary synthpop bands such as Japan and Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Several of the band's contemporaries including the Bangles, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Paul Young and even the Monkees, have named themselves fans of the band's music. Le Bon described the group as "the band to dance to when the bomb drops". Successors like Barenaked Ladies, Beck, Jonathan Davis of Korn, The Bravery, Gwen Stefani and Pink have all cited Duran Duran as a key band in their formative years. Singer Justin Timberlake has claimed to being one of their biggest fans. The newest crop of performers to name Duran Duran as influences include Dido, Franz Ferdinand, Panic! at the Disco, Goldfrapp and Brandon Flowers of The Killers, who said, "Nick Rhodes is an absolute hero of mine-their records still sound fresh, which is no mean feat as far as synths are concerned."

Nick Rhodes has directly lent his production techniques to Kajagoogoo album White Feathers and its number one single " Too Shy", and to the Dandy Warhols album Welcome to the Monkey House. The band's music has been used by several hip hop artists, most notably The Notorious B.I.G., who sampled Duran Duran's 1986 single "Notorious". Numerous bands have covered their music on record and in concert.

In video game culture, bassist John Taylor was the model for Dante, the protagonist of the hit PlayStation 2 game Devil May Cry. Dante mirrors John Taylor's looks with his long rocker hairstyle, clothing, and mannerisms.

The MTV cable channel and the band were launched at about the same time, and each had a hand in propelling the other to greater heights. MTV needed showcase videos with charismatic performers. Les Garland, senior executive vice-president at MTV, said "I remember our director of talent and artist relations came running in and said, "You have got to see this video that's come in". Duran Duran were getting zero radio airplay at the time, and MTV wanted to try to break new music. "Hungry Like the Wolf" was the greatest video I'd ever seen". The band's video work was influential in several ways. First, Duran Duran filmed in exotic locales like Sri Lanka and Antigua, creating memorable images that were radically different from the then-common low budget "band-playing-on-a-stage" videos. Second, rather than simply playing their instruments, the band participated in mini-storylines (often taking inspiration from contemporary movies: "Hungry Like the Wolf" riffs on Raiders of the Lost Ark, "The Wild Boys" on The Road Warrior, etc.). Videos were obviously headed in this direction already, but Duran Duran led the trend with a style, featuring quick editing, arresting graphic design, and surreal-to-nonsensical image inserts, that drew attention from commentators and spawned a wealth of imitators.

Duran Duran were among the first bands to have their videos shot with a professional movie camera on 35mm film, rather than on videotape, making them look superior to many of the quickly shot videos which had been MTV staples until then. MTV provided Duran Duran with access to American radio markets that were unfriendly to British music, new wave music, or "anything with synthesisers". Because MTV was not available everywhere in the United States at first, it was easy to see a pattern: where MTV went, listener demand for Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Def Leppard and other European bands with interesting videos went through the roof. The band's sun-drenched videos for "Rio", "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Save a Prayer", and the surreal "Is There Something I Should Know?" were filmed by future movie director Russell Mulcahy, who made 11 videos for the band. Duran Duran have always sought out innovative directors and techniques, even in their later years when MTV gave them little airplay. In addition to Mulcahy, they have had videos filmed by influential photographers Dean Chamberlain and Ellen von Unwerth, Chinese director Chen Kaige, documentary filmmaker Julien Temple, and the Polish Brothers, among others. According to Nick Rhodes, "Video is to us like stereo was to Pink Floyd."

"The British won out here, hands down. Next to the prosaic, foursquare appearance of the American bands, such acts as Duran Duran seemed like caviar. MTV opened up a whole new world that could not be fully apprehended over the radio. The visual angle played to the arty conceits of Britain's young style barons, suggesting something more exotic than the viewer was likely to find in the old hometown. The big Duran Duran hits, " Girls on Film" and " Hungry Like the Wolf", were MTV favorites three months before radio began to pick up on them. And via MTV, Duran Duran and their like have engendered an outpouring of good old-fashioned hysteria among teenage girls."

In 1984, Duran Duran introduced video technology into their live stadium shows by being among the first acts to provide video screens above the stage. They have recorded concerts using IMAX and 360-degree panoramic "immersive video" cameras, with 10.2 channel audio. In 2000, they experimented with augmented reality technology, which allowed three-dimensional computer-generated images to appear on stage with the band. They appeared on several century-end video countdowns: The MTV "100 Greatest Videos Ever Made" featured "Hungry Like the Wolf" at No. 11 and "Girls on Film" at No. 68, and the "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos" listed "Hungry" at No. 31 and "Rio" at No. 60. MTV named "Hungry" the 15th of their most played videos of all time.

The band has released several video compilations, starting with the self-titled "video album" Duran Duran, for which they won a Grammy Award, up to the 2004 two-disc DVD release , which included alternative versions of several popular videos as Easter eggs. In addition to Greatest, the documentary Sing Blue Silver, and the concert film (both from 1984) were released on DVD in 2004. Live from London, a concert video from one of their sold-out 2004 reunion shows at Wembley Arena, was released in the fall of 2005.

Other video collections, concert films, and documentaries remain available only on videotape, and Duran Duran have not yet released a collection which includes all their videos. The band has said that a huge amount of unreleased concert and documentary footage has been filmed over the years, which they hope can be edited and released in some form in the near future. The video for "Falling Down" was released in October 2007. The Nick Egan-directed video for the lead single and title track from All You Need Is Now was premiered via Yahoo Music on 20 December 2010. The second video from All You Need Is Now, "Girl Panic", was released on 8 November 2011. It features the some of the world's most famous supermodels, such as Yasmin Le Bon, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova and Helena Christensen, playing the band. The video was directed by Jonas Akerlund, and during the filming, an editorial was made for Harper's Bazaar magazine.

Simon Le Bon - lead vocals (1980-present)

Nick Rhodes - keyboards, vocal effects, backing vocals (1978-present), electronic percussion (1978-1979)

John Taylor - bass (1979-1997; 2001-present), guitars (1978-1979), backing vocals (1978-1997; 2001-present)

Roger Taylor - drums, percussion (1979-1985; 2001-present)

Stephen Duffy - lead vocals, bass (1978-79)

Simon Colley - bass (1978-1979)

Andy Wickett - lead vocals (1979-1980)

Alan Curtis - guitars (1979-1980)

Jeff Thomas - lead vocals (1980)

Andy Taylor - guitars, backing vocals (1980-1986; 2001-2006)

Warren Cuccurullo - guitars, backing vocals (1989-2001); bass (1997-2001) session/touring (1986-1989)

Sterling Campbell - drums (1989-1991) touring/session (1988-1989)

1981: The Faster Than Light Tour

1981: The Careless Memories Tour

1982: The Rio Tour

1983-1984: The Sing Blue Silver Tour

1987-1988: The Strange Behaviour Tour

1988: The Secret Caravan Club Tour

1988-1989: The Big Live Thing Tour (also known as The Electric Theatre Tour)

1993: An Acoustic Evening with Duran Duran

1993-1994: The Dilate Your Mind Tour

1995: The Thank You Tour

1997: The Ultra Chrome, Latex and Steel Tour

1998: The Greatest and Latest Tour

1999: The Let It Flow Tour

2000: The Pop Trash Tour

2001: The Up Close and Personal Tour

2003-2004: The Reunion Tour

2005-2006: The Astronaut Tour

2007-2008: The Red Carpet Massacre Tour

2009: The Summer Tour

2011-2012: All You Need Is Now

2015: 2015 Tour

2015-2017: Paper Gods on Tour

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Duran Duran () are an English new wave band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band were one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, but by the end of the decade, membership and music style changes challenged the band before a resurgence in the early 1990s.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Duran Duran - New Album 'Paper Gods' Available Everywhere. On Tour Now!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Duran Duran. 2.5M likes. This is Duran Duran's official Facebook page. Visit Duran Duran's official website at http://www.duranduran.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A Message from Duran Duran

Hi Everyone,

We have made the decision to take a temporary break from the studio in order to keep everyone safe and sound. While we are 'self-isolating', however, we still want to be in touch with you all in some way. So, for thirty minutes each week, we're going to take turns striking up conversations and taking questions via the Duran Duran Twitter feed. For us, we feel it's important during this crazy time to stay connected, so we can share our thoughts and feelings. Community has never felt like such a scarce commodity!

Our love goes out to all of our fans around the world, particularly in areas that have been badly hit by the virus. We have never seen anything like this in our lifetimes, and we are feeling much of the same uncertainty and fear that we're sure you are.

We hope that through keeping connected we can all feel strong and supported.

Stay tuned for details on our first meet up, which will take place tomorrow, Friday afternoon, UK time. Until then... stay healthy.

- Simon, Roger, John & Nick x

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A Message from Duran Duran Hi Everyone, We have made the decision to take a temporary break from the studio in order to keep everyone safe and sound. While we are 'self-isolating', however, we still want to be in touch with you all in some way.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Duran Duran are an English new wave band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band were one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, but by the end of the decade, membership and music style changes challenged the band before a resurgence in the early 1990s. The group were a leading band in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US in the 1980s. They achieved 14 singles in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the US Billboard Hot 100, and have sold over 100 million records worldwide.

When the band emerged they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene, along with bands such as Spandau Ballet and Visage. However, Duran Duran would soon shed this image by using fashion and marketing to build a more refined and elegant presentation. The band have won numerous awards throughout their career: two Brit Awards including the 2004 award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, two Grammy Awards, an MTV Video Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a Video Visionary Award from the MTV Europe Music Awards. They were also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Duran Duran - New Songs, Playlists & Latest News - BBC Music

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Duran Duran are an English new wave band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band were one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, but by the end of the decade, membership and music style changes challenged the band before a resurgence in the early 1990s.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Simon John Charles Le Bon (born 27 October 1958) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and lyricist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the band Duran Duran and its offshoot, Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.

Le Bon was born near Bushey, Hertfordshire, England, the first of three boys for Ann-Marie Le Bon, followed by his younger brothers, David and Jonathan (b. 1965). His surname is of Huguenot origin. His mother encouraged his artistic talent when he was six years old by entering him in a screen test for a Persil washing powder TV advert.

He was a member of the local church choir from a young age, but was also trained as an actor.

Simon Le Bon went to Pinner County Grammar School, the same school that Elton John attended some years earlier. He also attended Nower Hill High School, the same school his mother attended and in 1978 studied Drama at the University of Birmingham.

He worked as a theatre porter at Northwick Park Hospital Accident and Casualty, and also auditioned for a punk band at Harrow College. He appeared in a few television commercials and also in several theatre productions including Tom Brown's Schooldays in the West End of London.

Le Bon worked on a kibbutz - an Israeli collective community - in the Negev desert in Israel in 1978, and then returned to England to study drama at the University of Birmingham before meeting the fledgling band Duran Duran in 1980.

Duran Duran was founded by childhood friends John Taylor and Nick Rhodes along with singer/songwriter Stephen Duffy in 1978, but Duffy left a year later, convinced they weren't going anywhere. The band went through a long succession of lineup changes after Duffy's departure, but finally settled on a guitarist and drummer. The band had a powerful pop sound flavoured with disco, funk and electronics, built on a solid rock rhythm section, and all they needed was a charismatic singer with a distinctive voice.

Le Bon's ex-girlfriend, Fiona Kemp (a barmaid at the Rum Runner nightclub where Duran Duran were rehearsing), introduced him to the band in May 1980, recommending him as a potential vocalist. As band legend has it, he turned up for the audition wearing pink leopard-print trousers, and carrying a notebook containing a large collection of poems he had written-several of which would later become tracks on the early Duran Duran albums.

After listening to the songs the band had already composed together, Le Bon spent some time fitting one of his poems ("Sound of Thunder") to one of the instrumentals, and found they had a good match. Le Bon agreed to "try [Duran Duran] out for the summer"; within six weeks the band was playing steadily around Birmingham, London and Nottingham, and a national tour supporting Hazel O'Connor led to a record deal with EMI Records in December that year.

The band's first album, Duran Duran, was released in 1981, and they quickly became famous as part of the New Romantic movement. Three more albums followed in quick succession: (1982), Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983) and the live album (1984). Each album release was accompanied by heavy media promotion and a lengthy concert tour. By mid-1984, the band were ready for a break. Duran Duran's only other work that year was an appearance on the 1984 Band Aid charity single, " Do They Know It's Christmas".

Following the departures of Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor, Le Bon, Rhodes and John Taylor continued on as Duran Duran, recording and releasing (1986) and (1988). The group added guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and drummer Sterling Campbell and recorded the album (1990), but the band's success had begun to wane in the late 1980s.

Duran Duran had a resurgence in popularity in 1993 with The Wedding Album, featuring the top-10 single " Ordinary World". Several months into the extensive worldwide concert tour supporting this album, Le Bon suffered a torn vocal cord, and the tour was postponed for six weeks while he recovered.

In 1995, Duran Duran released the covers album , and Le Bon had the chance to cover some of his favourite artists, ( Jim Morrison, Lou Reed and Elvis Costello), but the album was severely panned by critics from all quarters. That year Le Bon also performed Duran Duran's 1993 hit "Ordinary World" with opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti during a "Children of Bosnia" benefit concert for War Child. Le Bon described the event to Jam! Showbiz thusly: "If you're talking about name dropping, he's one of the biggest names you could drop, Pav-The-Man".

When bass guitarist John Taylor left the band in 1997, Le Bon and Rhodes remained as the only two members who had been with Duran Duran from the beginning of their recording career. The successive two albums with Le Bon, Rhodes and Cuccurullo, Medazzaland (1997) and (2000) were not commercial successes.

In 2001, Duran Duran's original five members reunited to record a new album, , for Epic Records. Astronaut was released worldwide on 11 October 2004. The album was preceded by the single "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise", their first UK Top 10 single in a decade.

Before Duran Duran reunited in 1986, Le Bon formed the band Arcadia with fellow Duran Duran members Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor. The band had a UK/US top 10 hit with their first single " Election Day", and released one album, So Red The Rose in 1985.

While Le Bon has been in Duran Duran for the band's entire recording history, he has also dabbled in solo outings. In 1985, for the Whitbread Round the World Race, he contributed a song entitled "Grey Lady Of The Sea" and narrated a video of that year's race called Drum (1987). "Grey Lady Of The Sea" was released as a single in Japan in 1988.

In 1989, for Jonathan Elias' Requiem For The Americas project, Le Bon contributed "Follow In My Footsteps", with The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs on background vocals. The track was released on 7" single in Italy that year.

In 1998, along with friend Nick Wood and wife Yasmin, he set up SYN Entertainment ( Simon Yasmin Nick) in Tokyo, Japan. Having first conceived the idea in 1988, Le Bon is currently described as SYN's "Founder and Chairman", while Wood is "Founder, President and Creative Director".

In 2000, SYN Entertainment founded SYN Records which has released a number of compilations, some of which have included contributions by Le Bon. Another solo track, "Dreamboy", was featured on the SYN-released soundtrack to the Mario Van Peebles movie Love Kills.

Also in 2000, SYN co-executive produced the Duran Duran album along with Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo's side-venture TV Mania.

In October 2005 Dutch trance DJ Ferry Corsten released the track " Fire", with vocals by Simon Le Bon. It was a remix of the lesser known Duran Duran single " Serious", from the album . (full credits: Ferry Corsten feat. Simon Le Bon - Fire (Flashover remix), on Flashover Recordings) In late 2006, Le Bon became a member of Shinzou Sound, and took part in the Japan-based online manga project, 'Synesthesia', by co-writing the theme song 'Nobody Knows' along with Nick Wood.

In 2010, Le Bon collaborated on the song "Record Collection", the title track from Mark Ronson's third album. In the song, Le Bon is heard singing the chorus, along with Mark Ronson and hip hop artist Wiley. Ronson later produced Duran Duran's 2010 album All You Need Is Now, and 2015's .

In the early 1980s, Simon Le Bon was engaged to his then longtime girlfriend, model-turned-actress Claire Stansfield.

After a break up with her, Le Bon wooed young fashion model Yasmin Parvaneh. Seeing her face in a magazine, he phoned her modelling agency to track her down and they married on 27 December 1985.

Yasmin suffered two miscarriages, but the couple went on to have three daughters: Amber Rose Tamara Le Bon (born 25 August 1989), a model like her mother; Saffron Sahara Le Bon (born 25 September 1991); and Tallulah Pine Le Bon (born 10 October 1994).

He became a grandfather on June 6, 2018 when his daughter Saffron gave birth to a baby boy named Taro Arturo.

While Duran Duran was on hiatus in 1985, Le Bon drew media attention when his maxi yacht, , lost its keel and capsized during the Fastnet race, just off Falmouth, along the southern coast of Cornwall. Before being rescued, Le Bon and other crew members were trapped under the boat, inside the hull, for forty minutes. They were all rescued by the Royal Navy, using a Search and Rescue helicopter from 771 Naval Air Squadron based near Helston. The rescue earned the Rescue Diver, POACMN L Slater, a George Medal. Despite the accident, Le Bon and Drum went on to participate in the 1985-1986 Whitbread Round the World Race, coming in third overall in elapsed time. Le Bon and his partners eventually sold Drum; the events surrounding Drum and the races were chronicled in a 1989 movie entitled Drum - The Journey Of A Lifetime and the book One Watch at a Time written by Drum' s skipper, Skip Novak.

Twenty years after his accident, in 2005, Le Bon made public his desire to race again. During a touring break in August 2005, Le Bon again raced Drum in the Fastnet race, borrowing the vessel from her current owner (the late Scottish multi car garage owner Sir Arnold Clark) to participate, and raising funds for the RNLI charity. Le Bon had to leave the race unfinished, as light winds were slowing Drum (and the other competitors), and would have delayed the boat's arrival at Plymouth, interfering with Le Bon's obligation to perform in Japan. He appears as the narrator in a documentary film project called The Weekend Sailor which is about a Swan 65 sailing yacht called Sayula II that won the first Whitbread Round the World sailing race in 1973/74.

In 2009 Le Bon (who describes himself as a "concerned agnostic") contributed an essay to the book The Atheist's Guide to Christmas, edited by Ariane Sherine. In 2014, he became a distinguished supporter of Humanists UK.

Le Bon injured his vocal cords and was unable to finish his 2011 summer tour. He remarked, "I am trying to be philosophical."

On July 11, 2018, Le Bon was accused by Shereen Hariri of sexually assaulting her at The Wherehouse, a record store she worked for at the time during a photograph session on April 10, 1995. He quickly responded via the band's social media pages denying the allegation saying in part, "I have always been one who can admit to my mistakes and apologize for my failings. But I cannot apologize for something I did not do."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Simon John Charles Le Bon (born 27 October 1958) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and lyricist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the band Duran Duran and its offshoot, Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Duran Duran is an English new wave and synth pop band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band grew from alternative sensations in 1982 to mainstream pop stars by 1984. The band achieved 14 singles in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the Billboard Hot 100, and have sold over 100 million records worldwide. See full bio "

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Duran Duran, Soundtrack: A View to a Kill. Duran Duran is an English new wave and synth pop band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band grew from alternative sensations in 1982 to mainstream pop stars by 1984.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
List of songs with Songfacts entries for Duran Duran