Review: Le Bon Lets Rip

Duran Duran take on Paris in Ronson style at their one off show

03 July 2008 - Duran Duran and Mark Ronson let rip at Le Cigale in Paris last night, unleashing an hour long medley of re-worked tracks.

Ronson, was let loose on their classic hits for a one-off collaboration, and didn’t hold back, slipping in a selection of covers, bond theme tunes, and club beats to bring their back catalogue to a throbbing sweaty dance floor.

Simon Le bon kicked off by joining Ronson on stage as his band wrapped up their set - joining Daniel Merryweather for vocals on Stop Me.

The pair dueted on the song, and Ronson looked like all his Christmases had come at once, as his hero joined him on stage.

Ronson's final guests in his usual star-studded line-up of front men and woman, included Candie Payne and The Charlatans' frontman Tim Burgess.

The full Duran Duran team got the crowd warmed up with a run through of some of their biggest dance anthems, before Ronson joined them again for the bond mash up of tracks, sparking rumours they are working on a track for the next film, Quantum Of Solace.

The entire collection, which originally was meant to be half an hour long but ended up at over an hour, had 4 different elements, with the encore including I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun and a stunning solo of Ordinary World - with just Le Bon’s vocal haunting the venue.

Then the band piled back on stage, for a cover of Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Blur's Song 2, before the grand finale of Rio, which left Paris' glamorous fashion set, sweaty, shiny faced, and grinning from ear to ear.

The unique collaboration was the third in a series of 4 events engineered by Smirnoff.

Jo Youle

Courtesy BBC 6 Music
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20080703_duranreview.shtml