July 01 | Swept Ashore Iceland on a Wave of Nostalgia
When I was ten, my older sister told me that no matter what, I should track her down if I ever caught sight of the Duran Duran video, Planet Earth.
Weeks later, with my feet propped up on the television table, one of MTVs pioneering VJs announced that they were about to play the video that my sister was dying to see. It was just after 7 a.m. on a Sat. morning and I briefly hesitated before darting up the stairs to wake up my groggy sister. She made it down by the second verse. I have never forgotten the thrill in her eyes as she watched her favorite band rock our house while everyone else slept.
It seems fitting that 22 years later, just two days after arriving to Reykjavik for the first time in my life, that I would be welcomed to Iceland by Simon Le Bon with the burning question he belted out to 11,000 screaming fans last night at Egilshollin: "What planet are you from!...Iceland!?"
I knew my memory had come full circle when I, along with about 10,500 other thirty-somethings, screamed out "Planet Earth!!"
I wasnt the only one in the house tripping down memory lane.
Berglind Steinadottir taveled 7 hours from the northeastern town of Husavik to see Duran Duranalmost as long as it took me to get here from San Francisco. Steinadottir, 35, said there was no doubt she would make it here for the show.
"I was in love with Simon LeBon 20 years ago and had to come and see him in person," she screamed over the din of the crowd.
Throughout the night Steinadottir danced and twirled with a neon green headband lighting up a circle around her. She recently adopted a baby girl from China, but for two hours last night whe was a 15 year old lost in the sounds of her youth.
Some came with an imagined nostalgia.
Twenty-six-year-old pilot Snati Jonssons said he got into the band in 1995 when he stumbled across some his sisters old vinyl. "I was 16 and listening to them all the time."
Hard to imagine choosing Duran Duran over Oasis who ruled the air that year, but the band, named for Jane Fondas evil nemesis in Barbarella, has a way of inspiring freakish devotion.
Before LeBon and the boys (who all seem to have the surname Taylor) capped off the night with Rio the singer told the crowd, "It took us 25 years to get here. But it was worth the wait.!"
Two days after stepping onto Icelands shores for the first time, I know how just you feel Simon.
Im a new staff writer for IR. Looking forward to getting to know the place.
Courtesy Icelandreview.com
