The elevator door of a storage unit in Bellevue, Wash. glides open to reveal a 10- by-20 storage unit flooded with Duran Duran memorabilia. Buttons, magazines, games and even an unopened bottle of hot sauce from 1985 all display the faces of the band and are spread out on a table waiting to greet whoever is there to pay a visit. Shiny racks stacked with dozens of large boxes filled with posters of varying sizes line the walls. Every item has been carefully saved and everything in this unit is handled with care.
The memorabilia is owned by Andy Golub. To him and other Duranies — a nickname for fans of Duran Duran — this is known as "the archives."
Golub, a 42-year-old Western Washington University alumnus who graduated in 1995 with a degree in sociology, has a love for the rock band Duran Duran so strong that he turned his passion into a large collection of posters — and he’s been collecting for years, he said.
As a student, Golub kept a Duran Duran poster on the door of his residence hall room in Nash Hall where people would doodle moustaches and other comments on the band’s faces, he said.
Golub’s work with his collection has helped him become a well-known archivist who goes by “Durandy,” he said.
Danny Steward, a specialist in preserving and restoring posters, said he originally thought that his friend Golub was just an obsessive fan.
“Andy was obsessed with his collection and Duran Duran,” Steward said. “I thought this is just another one of those obsessive kinds of personalities who focus on one item and will collect everything and anything to do with that particular thing.”
However, it was more than that. Golub took his collection and turned his 30-year passion into a four-pound book called “Beautiful Colors: The Posters of Duran Duran” that was published in December 2013.
The book is filled with vibrant posters of the band from Golub’s archives and chronicles their growth through music, visuals and fashion throughout their entire career.
Golub first became interested in Duran Duran at the age of 12 when he heard the song “The Reflex” in 1984, right around the time of his bar mitzvah, Golub said.
“Most people have their bar mitzvahs and study to be a man,” he said. “I was learning to be a Duranie.”
Once he had memorized the names and faces of the band’s members, Golub began to admire the band’s visuals and began collecting teen magazines.
“I couldn’t just collect one,” Golub said. “It turned into something that was much more than just collecting; I started to realize that what I was collecting was moments of history.”
Alan Budwill, a host on the “Kent & Alan” Seattle radio show on Star 101.5, can attest to Golub’s passion for the band. He first met Golub during a singing contest
where the Duranie attended and belted out the lyrics to a Duran Duran song, Budwill said. “We always tease him and tell him he’s crazy and he’s nuts,” Budwill said. “But he’s really quite lovable and a smart guy.” The band is also in full support of the work that Golub has put into his collec-tion, Wendy Laister, Duran Duran’s man-ager and CEO of Magus Entertainment, said.
“It’s enormously flattering that some-body has dedicated so much time and en-ergy to archiving this incredible collection of artwork and posters that they’ve done over the years,” Laister said.
When Golub’s collection first began, he would go straight from his work as a legal assistant to his archives and spent hours organizing his collection to the point where his fiancé, Christine Born, would call and ask where he was, he said.
When Golub began to thoroughly take care of his collection, he called Steward, the paper specialist and “poster doctor,” who helped him create an environment that would allow proper presentation of the posters, he said.
Golub took what he learned from Steward and began laying posters flat in large boxes, removing moisture from the archives and rolling up posters when there was no room to lay them flat, Golub said.
“Perhaps three good words to describe Andy and his work with his collection: he gets it,” Steward said. “I was so surprised because he went from this collecting green horn to being his own archivist and that doesn’t really happen very often.”
To keep the aesthetic of the book con-sistent, Golub decided to use only official posters from promotions, he said.
Golub and Born then brought all of his posters to a studio that she worked at and had to hold the posters up one-by-one with dozens of clips or lay them flat on the floor. Born would then photograph them as quickly as she could before the setup fell apart, Golub said.
Golub also had to make sure that printing the book was a perfect process and even flew to the printer to make sure the colors popped on the page the way he envisioned, he said.
“If you’re going to have a book called 'Beautiful Colors' you have to make the colors beautiful,” he said.
Golub said he surprised everyone with how polished his book was and was happy with the final product, he said.
“It has an award-winning style,” Steward said, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with that book.”
Golub is glad that fans are having a positive reaction, as he made the book for fans to be able to connect memories they’ve had with the band to the book, Golub said. He also hopes to inspire fans follow their own passions.
“You just sometimes march forth even though you don’t know how it’s going to turn out, you don’t know where it’s going to go or where it is going to lead,” Golub said. “Just do it because you feel it and that’s what ‘Beautiful Colors’ is.”
Golub understands the unique position he’s in and he does not take it for granted, he said.
“This is not something everyone does, and it’s been my life’s biggest achievement so far,” Golub said. “It’s been a wonderful ride, and it’s certainly far from over.”
