|
DURAN DURAN:
NOTORIOUS
THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY
Duran Duran were one of the seminal bands of the 1980s, had
one of their biggest worldwide hits in the 1990s and are now
making a comeback with the release of their recent album 'Astronaut'
in 2004. They released their self-titled debut album in 1981,
the first instalment in a career than has generated record
sales of over 70 million.
Now, music journalist and
biographer Steve Malins has written Duran Duran: Notorious,
the first ever biography on this rock supergroup, a rollercoaster
of a story, packed with exclusive material, some taken from
previously unpublished interviews with the band. Over 50 friends,
colleagues and former band members have talked openly to the
author, many of them for the first time. Duran Duran: Notorious
also contains 16 pages of stunning colour and black and white
photographs.
It isn't just songs such
as 'Save a Prayer' and 'Ordinary World' that has ensured Duran
Duran's fame; their ground-breaking music videos played back-to-back
on MTV won them international popularity and cast them as
irresistible playboy rockstars. And the band members lived
up to the hype, dating supermodels, driving Aston Martins
and diving head first into the sort of celebrity lifestyle
that most people can only dream of. Then the inevitable happened:
a split in 1985, periods in rehab and nervous breakdowns.
In 2001, the original 'fab
five' reformed and in 2005, embarked on a world tour. Their
mixture of synth and swagger has ultimately triumphed, thanks
to the core friendships in the band, their flair for memorable
pop songs and a sense of ambition that dwarfed most of their
contemporaries. Duran Duran scooped the Outstanding Contribution
to Music Award at the Brits in 2004 and MTV's Lifetime Achievement
Award in 2003.
Duran Duran's music has dated
so much better and influenced far more artists than anyone
would have imagined 20 years ago. Scissor Sisters, Goldfrapp,
Justin Timberlake, The Killers and Kylie Minogue are all fans.
In Duran Duran: Notorious,
Steve Malins charts the incredible highs and horrendous lows
of this incredibly popular and phenomenally successful band,
from their humble beginnings as pretty boys living in Birmingham
to the icons that they are today, managing to create an aura
around themselves through sheer force of will. Tatler recently
named Nick Rhodes in their 'Top 30 Coolest People To Have
At Your Party' list.
For every sky-scraping success
as the band broke America or romped across Japan, there was
a catastrophe: Simon Le Bon's near drowning while making the
'Wild Boys' video and, of course, famously surviving the sinking
of his own yacht; their dreadful performance at Live Aid in
1985 which almost killed their career, not to mention their
many fashion disasters and battles with drugs and age, weight
and hair gel. Yet all of this seems to have made them all
the more cherished in the last few years, especially amongst
their older, loyal fans.
In Duran Duran: Notorious,
Malins looks at the band's failures and their successes in
detail and reveals the way in which they have managed to cultivate
an entirely new generation of fans, not only because their
sound is now in vogue again (and being copied by the likes
of the Killers whose debut album sold in excess of 100,000
copies last year in the UK), but also because the band offers
hope to others that you can completely re-invent yourself,
hang out with artists and models, make loads of money (even
after losing it all) and still be considered cool.
Duran Duran: Notorious is
guaranteed to be a must-have for all die-hard fans and the
newly-converted alike!
AUTHOR
Steve Malins is also author of Gary Numan's authorised
autobiography and biographies on Depeche Mode, Paul Weller
and Radiohead. He was a contributing editor for Q Magazine
for five years and has also written for the Sunday Times,
Time Out and Vox. He has worked on three Gary Numan albums
and with artists such as Siouxsie Sioux. He lives in London.
DURAN DURAN: NOTORIOUS -
THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY - OUT SEPTEMBER 5
|
