Duran Duran, Echo Arena

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Duran Duran, ECHO Arena

JUL 7 2008 BY SUSAN LEE, LIVERPOOL ECHO

IT’S been more than 20 years since Duran Duran played Liverpool.

The venue may have changed – back then it was the Royal Court and the Empire which rocked to Rio – and the fans may have grown older but, on the evidence of Saturday night’s show, the boys are in as fine form as ever.

A packed arena was treated to a two-hour plus set which included all the old favourites as well as numbers from their new album Red Carpet Massacre, after which the tour is named.

So no nostalgia act, this.

The lads may be older than their impossibly glamorous former 1980s selves, although Simon Le Bon still clings to those trademark blond streaks, but their musicianship is tremendous.

They managed to make even the best-known of their hits sound fresh and new and, when it came to stage presence, they had it in spades.

Against a Gotham-city like backdrop they got the party started with Planet Earth and Hungry Like The Wolf before introducing us to some of the newer material.

It was catchy enough but stunning versions of The Reflex and View To A Kill had the audience back bopping in the aisles.

The mood slowed with a stunning version of Ordinary World and the show stopper that is Save A Prayer, complete with hundreds of mobile ‘phones being turned on and waved at the band’s insistence.

Then came a techno interlude with all four members, now in the sharpest of black suits, front of stage and behind a range of electronic equipment.

It provided a change of pace, albeit a slightly perplexing one, but then came Girls On Film and we were back on familiar territory.

A knock ‘em dead renditition of Wild Boys apparently closed the show but the audience knew better and, with the band having left the stage, the chanting for Rio started.

The boys obliged and performed an epic version that had the place rocking.

“Liverpool, it’s been too long,” John Taylor told the audience.
Too right.
Hurry back soon.

Courtesy Liverpool Echo