Duran Duran alters familiar script

By: David Burke - Quad-City (Iowa) Times

John Taylor, founding guitarist of Duran Duran, is asked how much of the band's current concerts feature songs from the band's first album of new music in more than four years, October's "Astronaut."

Six songs out of a 20-song set list, says Taylor, adding, "There's a hint of fear in your voice there."

But Duran Duran isn't afraid of giving its fans newer material to balance '80s hits such as "Is There Something I Should Know," "Notorious" and "Wild Boys."

"You've got this resume of all these songs you've made, and some of them you've made famous," Taylor says from his Los Angeles home. "But every time you go out, you have to refresh the script a little bit. You've got to give the people what they want, but you have to keep updating it. I love that."

Taylor and fellow band members Roger Taylor (no relation), Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes ---- the lineup for Duran Duran's heyday ---- reunited in the summer of 2001 and have performed several tours during the subsequent years.

"They've been greatest hits shows, and now we have a new album in the marketplace and we can mix it up a bit," Taylor says. "Which is invigorating for us. You've got to mix it up."

Taylor was one of the group's founding members in 1978. By 1982, its album "Rio" launched the band, thanks to the songs "Hungry Like the Wolf," "Say a Prayer" and the title song.

He said the sound and the experience of "Astronaut" was similar to the first album.

"I think it does much of the same job," he said. "Our first album, as it is with most bands, is the manifesto. ... We've never strayed too much from that. About the time of (1993's) 'The Wedding Album,' things began to get a little lush, a little acoustical. But I think we've got back to more of a minimal, wiry aesthetic with this record. You really hear the interaction of the musicians.

"At least I hope so."

But, Taylor said, the band didn't want to simply repeat the Duran Duran sound of the 1980s.

"You can't ever go back there," he said. "It would be like a job for an archaeologist or an archivist. You couldn't just make a record that sounded like it was made in 1980. But we've got the same sort of values in this record."

All of the members of the band have matured through the years, said the 44-year-old Taylor.

"You're so different as people," he said. "I think we know much more now, we know how to get what we want. Back when we were kids, we were just eager students following directions. None of us had any idea of sound or what a microphone was."

Taylor said he admired Bruce Springsteen's comeback concert a few years ago, when the Boss ---- using the "Born to Run" album cover as publicity ---- firmly saluted his past but also had a generous amount of new music.

"He was able to go back, work with his boys again and not break step," Taylor said. "That was what we set out to do."

With nostalgia for the Reagan years being as plentiful as "I Love the '80s" reruns on VH1, Taylor said he was mostly pleased with the way Duran Duran has been portrayed in retrospective.

"Obviously there are a lot of people who love us a lot. We've touched people, a lot of people, in a deep way," he said. "We don't get the kudos a lot of other artists do. In a way, you have to be grateful with what you have."

Duran Duran

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: San Diego Sports Arena, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego

Tickets: $38-$78

Info: (619) 220-8497

Courtesy Quad City Times