DURAN DURAN ANNOUNCES 78-03 TOUR TO CELEBRATE 25th ANNIVERSARY
16 City Tour Launches November 8th with More Dates to Come
Discover Card Sponsors 10 of the 16 Shows, Offering Card Holders the Opportunity to Buy Seats in Advance of the General Public On-Sale Date
New Album Set for Release in 2004
New York, NY-- The original members of Duran Duran- Simon LeBon (vocalist), Andy Taylor (guitars), John Taylor (bass), Roger Taylor (drums) and Nick Rhodes (keyboards)- who recently reunited after 18 years- played two critically acclaimed, electric club shows in LA and New York this summer, alongside a handful of other arena shows in these markets, celebrating their 25th anniversary. Invigorated by the reaction to these more intimate dates which gave their fans an unprecedented opportunity to see their heroes up
close, the quintet have today announced a series of 16+ concerts in similar venues, starting Saturday, November 8th in Atlantic City, NJ. A new album and an amphitheatre tour are in the works for summer 2004.
Tickets to all sixteen shows will be available to the public on October 18th, with both Discover Card and Duran Duran fan club pre-sales preceding this on October 14th and 15th. For more information on the Duran Duran pre-sale, visit www.duranduran.com.
Duran Duran left crowds of fans, critics, and Hollywood luminaries breathless when they kicked off their 25th anniversary with sold out showsat LA's Roxy Theatre on July 15th and Orange County's Pacific Amphitheater on July 16th. The Roxy was chosen in commemoration of the fact that the venue was the first place the band played on the west coast back in 1981. The Roxy concert was the hottest ticket in LA this summer with everyone from Nic Cage to Gavin Rossdale, Gwen Stefani, Christina Applegate and Beck in attendance. RollingStone.com wrote that "Duran Duran... caused pandemonium on the Sunset Strip," while Launch.com explained that the "entire crowd was a seething, screaming, sweaty mass."
Alongside all the classics, expect the band to perform songs from their forthcoming album on this tour including the guitar driven, edgy, up-tempo "Virus," which will appeal to fans of the band's harder rocking side, signature Duran-sounding pop anthem "Beautiful Colors," and the poignant
thought-provoking "What Happens Tomorrow."
DURAN DURAN FALL TOUR DATES
Sat-Nov-08 Atlantic City, NJ The Borgata
Sun-Nov-09 Washington D.C. Warner Theatre
Mon-Nov-10 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theatre
Thu-Nov-13 Cleveland, OH Agora
Fri-Nov-14 Toronto, ONT Kool Haus
Sat-Nov-15 Detroit, MI Royal Oak
Mon-Nov-17 Chicago, IL House of Blues
Tue-Nov-18 Chicago, IL House of Blues
Fri-Nov-21 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
Sat-Nov-22 New Orleans, LA Twiropa
Sun-Nov-23 Houston, TX Cullen Auditorium
Mon-Nov-24 Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre
Wed-Nov-26 Albuquerque, NM Kiva Auditorium
Fri-Nov-28 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
Sat-Nov-29 Tucson, AZ Rialto Theatre
Sun-Nov-30 San Diego, CA 4th & B Theatre
The band performed their first concert together in New York in 18 years at the Ritz at Webster Hall on August 27th and were greeted by a sold out crowd of screaming fans, paparazzi and celebrities including Moby, The Donnas, Ed Burns, Christy Turlington, Chloe Sevigny, Famke Janssen, Guy Oseary, Tatum O'Neal and Debbie Harry. The band opened with "Friends Of Mine," taken from their 1981 self-titled debut, and by the time they went into familiar favorites like "Hungry Like the Wolf," "Planet Earth," and "Is There Something I Should Know, " the balconies at "The Ritz" were shaking from the fans dancing to the hits.
The NY Post said of the momentous show, "the hungry crowd ... went nuts even before the band played the first notes...As [Duran Duran] tore through hit singles ... raw rock guitars punctuated their signature dance-pop keyboards....Together, the songs displayed Duran Duran's finessee in creating music broadly influenced by funk, rap and rock." Newsday called the show "powerful [and] inventive. "The Village Voice said on behalf of the
audience "[Duran Duran] swooned us to altitudes ecclesiastic."
Duran Duran received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28th, in recognition of both the groundbreaking clips they produced and the incredible contribution they have made to the
development of the music video as an art form and a powerful marketing medium.
Capitol Records will release Duran Duran's GREATEST DVD on November 4th. This 2 DVD video anthology will feature all the legendary music videos including "Girls On Film," "Rio," "Hungry like the Wolf," and "Ordinary World" along with interviews, uncensored versions and alternate cuts.
Duran Duran are scheduled to play multiple stadium shows with Robbie Williams in Melbourne, Australia on December 10th and Sydney, Australia on December 13th and 14th. Additional dates have yet to be announced in this part of the world.
Over the course of its rich and colorful career, the band has won two Grammys, three Ivor Novello awards, released 11 top ten singles, made 11 multi-platinum albums and sold a staggering 70 million records.
Duran Duran's sound was inspired by the soul music of their youth, the vibrant New York underground music scene of the 70's (the New York Dolls and Lou Reed), the iconic David Bowie and avant garde bands like Roxy Music. The band's third album, 1984s "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" earned Duran Duran their first Stateside #1, with "The Reflex." That same year, Rolling Stone magazine christened the band "The Fab Five," as their single "Union of the Snake" exploded around the world. They shot to fame as leaders of the "Second British Invasion" of the 1980s, yet they always stood apart from their peers - delivering an electric live show and pushing the boundaries of music video.
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