Duran Duran Announce Spectacular Stadium Show

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DURAN DURAN

DURAN DURAN ANNOUNCE SPECTACULAR STADIUM SHOW
ST ANDREWS FOOTBALL GROUND, BIRMINGHAM
Saturday 28th May 2005

BIRMINGHAM - They have played to in excess of 1 million fans over the last three years, enjoyed sell out tours across the UK, America, Japan and Australia and have been honoured with no less than four prestigious Lifetime Achievement music awards from MTV (USA), Q Magazine (UK), The BRITS (UK) and The Ondas (Spain) since they got back together in 2001. Their new album “Astronaut” – which debuted at #3 in the UK charts - has achieved critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

Today pop legends DURAN DURAN announce their first major British stadium show of 2005 with the original line up of SIMON LEBON, NICK RHODES, JOHN TAYLOR, ROGER TAYLOR and ANDY TAYLOR. The stadium concert, which is to be staged at Birmingham’s St Andrews football ground on Saturday 28th May 2005, is set to become one of the Midland’s biggest and most talked about events of 2005.

Simon LeBon said of the forthcoming stadium show “When we played Birmingham’s NEC earlier this year we had an amazing and very special reaction from our ‘home-town’ fans. It’s been a while since we last played a venue of this size in the city and we are really looking forward to this very special show. We have some amazing memories of Birmingham, which is where it all started for us back at the Rum Runner. Birmingham is simply our spiritual home.”

The St Andrews stadium show will be Duran Duran’s single biggest UK performance in 21 years since the band played Birmingham’s Aston Villa football ground on July 23rd 1983. It also follows a phenomenally successful sold out UK arena tour in April of this year, where the band played to more than 250,000 people over 17 shows, that included three sold out nights at Birmingham’s NEC, and five capacity shows at Wembley Arena that broke the box office records.

John Taylor added “The last time we played a football stadium in Birmingham was in 1983 at Villa Park and that was an amazing experience. We wanted to come back to St Andrews in 2005 - just to even the score!”

The St Andrews stadium show in May of next year is preceded by the release of the band’s second single ‘What Happens Tomorrow’ (taken from their Epic Records’ release ‘Astronaut’) on January 31, 2005. Duran Duran will embark on their Astronaut World Tour in January with a run of arena dates in Japan, followed by a 40 city outing across America, which will end just before May’s British Stadium show at St Andrews Football ground.

Roger Taylor recalls: “Birmingham has always had a special place in our hearts because we were part of the local music scene in the early days. Nick, John and I grew up in Birmingham, and because of the amount of time we spent here as a band, Simon and Andy seem to have become honorary Brummies - so it will be a very special show for us, our fans, friends and family.”

Tickets for the general public go on sale at 9am this Friday 10th December 2004, priced at £35 and £45. Tickets can also be obtained through www.getlive.co.uk and www.gigsandtours.com or by calling 0870 400 0688 or 0871 2200 260. Ticket outlets include: Birmingham Ticket Shop, Midland Box Office, NEC Box Office and Stratford TicketShop.

VIP packages, including early access, best seats in the house, a pre-show reception, exclusive merchandise and a chance to meet the band are available from Wednesday 8th December through DuranDuranMusic.com.

WHAT THE PAPERS ARE
SAYING ABOUT DURAN DURAN!

The Sun succinctly summed up the mood of fans by saying “Duran Duran appeared on stage for the first time since 1985 last night – and seemed out to prove they were still the hottest band on planet earth! They burst with energy from the start. Simon’s voice is as powerful as ever. The crowd went wild. Anyone who saw their last UK stage show at Live Aid 18 years ago, would think not a day had passed.”

The Daily Mirror was also brimming with tributes to the band: “Duran Duran – no joke, these guys may well be Britain’s next Rolling Stones! A bunch of lads from Birmingham came of age last night. When they brought down the curtain with a rousing encore of ‘White Lines’ and ‘Girls On Film’, I have never seen scenes like it!”

The London Evening Standard wrote: “Their entrance was magnificent. They lined up at the front of the stage, stroked their suits, milked the applause and peeled off one by one to play ‘Friends Of Mine’. ‘Rio’, ‘Planet Earth’, ‘Careless Memories’ and ‘Wild Boys’ were rattled out with abandon that groups 20 years their junior would struggle to muster!”

The Daily Express said: “Pop idols Duran Duran showed they’ve still got what it takes to drive their fans wild with a storming UK comeback gig..”

Equally the Daily Star could find no fault with their performance: “Duran Duran proved after 18 years away from a stage they’ve still got what it takes to move the crowd.”

The Guardian also remarked “The rebuilt combo look smarter than when they went away. Unusually for a comeback band, they also sound better than they did. The set list reflects the unrecognised breadth of their canon, dipping into their eerie side with 1981’s sinister “The Chauffeur” and the instrumental Tiger Tiger, never played live before. New song “I Like Noise” is a fantastic funk grind and “Beautiful Colours” jostles for a place in their line of classy pop songs. Perhaps most impressively Le Bon brings a new maturity to songs that were once about escapism. ”The message is that the Wild Boys are back!”

DURAN DURAN
St Andrews Football Ground, Birmingham Saturday 28th May 2005
Tickets on sale to the general public 9am Friday 10th December 2004
www.getlive.co.uk / www.gigsandtours.com

Ticket Outlets
Birmingham Ticket Shop, Midland Box Office/ NEC Box Office/Stratford Ticket Shop.

Tel: 0870 400 0688 or 0871 2200 260