Duran Duran Set for Birmingham Home Gig

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Duran Duran set for Birmingham home gig

Friday 2nd December 2011, 10:59AM GMT.

Hometown heroes Duran Duran are looking forward to playing the gig of their lives when they headline Birmingham’s LG Arena tonight, writes Andy Richardson.

The stars, who have sold around 100 million records, will play a set of hits and songs from their critically-acclaimed latest album, All You Need Is Now.

Drummer Roger Taylor said gigs in Birmingham always ‘leapt out at the band’ when they looked at their tour sheet.

He said: “That’s the one that we look out for. It makes us all very nervous.

“In Birmingham, we know we have to be good.

“We played at Madison Square Garden recently, in New York. But Birmingham has even greater pressure.”

The band are delighted to be touring, having been forced to cancel dates earlier this year after singer Simon Le Bon developed laryngitis.

“We came back against the odds,” Taylor adds. “We didn’t know whether we would even play. But the tour has started brilliantly. I can tell you this, we’re ready for it.”

Duran Duran have enjoyed a commercial and critical renaissance, becoming one of the world’s coolest bands.

Their new Girl Panic video – watch it above – has become an internet sensation and has been watched by more than four million YouTube watchers.

It was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and features Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova, Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen, and Yasmin Le Bon portraying Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, and Dominic Brown.

Roger added: “We were the band to hate for all the serious music journalists.

“But bands coming up through the woodwork, like The Killers, Franz Ferdinand and No Doubt, all said we were a great band.

“We even finally got a Q Award.

“I could pinch myself sometimes that we are still doing it 30 years later. We came out the gig on Wednesday night and there was a mob scene and we had to fight to get to the car.

“It was like 1983 again, we can’t believe this is still happening.”

The band recently worked with cult American film director David Lynch on a concert called Unstaged, which was live-streamed on YouTube.

Their latest album, All You Need Is Now, was made with Mark Ronson.

Roger added: “We seem to have hit a rich vein of form. Bringing Mark Ronson in was a great thing for us, he had a young, contemporary vision.

“He had a great appreciation of the history of the band.

“We are a lot more relaxed that we used to be about everything. We take our art very seriously but we are very relaxed about playing now.

“We feel as though we have nothing to prove at this point, we have all the life time achievement awards and it’s a great place to be where we don’t have anything to prove.

“We never judge our songs against the older material, we judge it as it stands in its own right.”

Tonight, they’ll hear the roar of 10,000 hometown fans as they take to the stage.

“I think everything builds to the gigs. The live show is something we work very hard on.”

Courtesy Express & Star
Read more: http://www.expressandstar.com/entertainment/2011/12/02/257494/#ixzz1fPWfpPji