Dear All,
Last night we played at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. It was an amazing show for many reasons. The venue began being constructed in 1935. It took six years to complete. It was a government project to create employment at a time that we now call The Depression. I stood on the low concrete stage and sighted up the auditorium, which is flanked by two massive ... well yes ... red rocks. I stood there, and I had the daydream that I was standing in what remains of an ancient alien space craft; long ago crashed and abandoned on this strange planet, far from home.
It is a truly magical place.
I was so happy to be part of such a great bill of entertainment. We had UK electro band Clean Bandit, with their fresh sound, their poise, and their Grammy winning song RATHER BE, that is just ... everywhere, including my head. I knew that they would be a hit with the crowd.
Chic featuring Nile Rodgers were just perfect. They played smash, after hit, after no.1. The songs just kept coming from DANCE, DANCE, DANCE (Yowsah! Yowsah! Yowsah!) from 1976, right up to this year's I'LL BE THERE, via WE ARE FAMILY, LE FREAK ... etc. They culminated the set with GOOD TIMES.
We have had a working, and a personal, relationship with Nile, which goes back over 30 years. He has been an important part of four Duran Duran albums, including PAPER GODS. We love this guy. And last night he joined us on stage to play NOTORIOUS and PRESSURE OFF.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Just before we made our stage entrance, we learned that PAPER GODS entered the USA album chart at no.10. That, my friends, is the highest US chart position a DD album has achieved in 22years. You can imagine the euphoria that we took onto the stage with us.
It never ceases to amaze me what having new songs in the repertoire does to a show. Not just for the band, but for the audience too. Suddenly, going to see Duran Duran is no longer an act of nostalgia, performed in the light of, or perhaps, the shadow of - "back in the day". The new material brings the whole affair very much into the world of "now". But more than that; when we play NOTORIOUS into PRESSURE OFF, or DANCEOPHOBIA into TOO MUCH INFORMATION, into GIRLS ON FILM; when we do that, I begin to get a sense of the continuity of Duran Duran. I always said - we're in for the long haul!
Oh and by the way, those chart positions: no.10 in The USA; no.3 in The Netherlands; no.2 in Italy; no.5 in The UK - to name but a few. It's you we have to thank for that...
THANK YOU
WHOOOSH
s
