Review: Duran Duran, Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
Karen Price, Dec 10 2011
It may be 30 years since Duran Duran burst onto the music scene, but the darlings of the New Romantics are still at the top of their game if their latest tour is anything to go by.
And while they may have transported their fans back to their youth as they performed old favourites like Hungry Like The Wolf, the band also proved that constant reinvention is one of the reasons they are still an international success.
After walking on stage to huge cheers, they encouraged us to do that very 21st century thing and “get tweeting”. Our Twitter messages about the show were streamed throughout the night on a stage backdrop.
The gig opened with one of their a new track, but it was perennial favourite Planet Earth which really got the fans going. From then on in we were taken on a 30-year journey of both old and new hits.
As A View To A Kill, Notorious and The Reflex, echoed around Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, I felt like I was back in my bedroom as a 13-year-old constantly hitting the ‘rewind’ button on my cassette player.
Who would have thought I would be watching my heroes performing live a quarter of a century later and that they would be sounding as good as in their heyday. And while they may now be in their 50s, Simon Le Bon and co still have boundless energy and look a decade younger too.
But Duran are not just a nostalgic band and they are still releasing albums, including the latest offering All You Need Is Now. As they played their single, Girl Panic, the video featuring original supermodels including Cindy Crawford and Le Bon’s wife Yasmin – banned by MTV for being “too raunchy” – was shown on a video screen.
Le Bon was clearly delighted to be in Cardiff and spoke of his Welsh roots. One of the most poignant moments was when he dedicated Ordinary World to the family of the late Wales football manager Gary Speed.
After a two-hour set, Duran left the stage before an encore of Wild Boys which morphed into Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax and then Rio.
One tweet summed up the night perfectly: “I feel like a teenager again.”
Happy times indeed.
Courtesy Wales Online
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/music-in-wales/2011/12/10/review-duran-duran-motorpoint-arena-cardiff-91466-29930414/#ixzz1gEd94wfV
