Roger's 2023 Year End

Event(s) of the Year (Not Duran Duran related) -

The first thing that popped into my mind is the Beatles releasing “Now and Then.” How incredible is that? They made  an amazing song, we heard it so much on the radio in the UK – they were #1 on the singles chart. It gives me hope for the next 20 years!

Best movie and/or TV Show (series) of 2023 –

I didn’t go to the cinema much because we were so busy, I watched most of my movies on airplanes, like this one – “Inside” starring Willem Dafoe. It’s about a jewel thief that gets stuck in an apartment he is trying to rob. It was a really cool movie, I really enjoyed it.

My favourite televisionwas the David Beckham documentary, BECKHAM. It was amazing. I’d forgotten how hated he was, and how ridiculous that is; sport should never be that serious, but he was really vilified.

Best book and/or podcast of 2023 –

I am not a podcast person, though I did one with Bernie, John’s bass tech. It’s called “Is Breakfast Included,” and I enjoyed it.

I loved Matthew Perry’s book “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” It was a great story of hope. He had been through addiction and issues in his life, and it seemed like he was in a really good place. A month later, I got a text from my daughter telling me he had died. It was so shocking. It was really sad, I was a huge fan of “Friends.”

Best Music You heard in 2023 –

I love “Volcano” by Jungle, and I also love the Peter Gabriel record, i/o. I am a huge fan of Peter, I think he has the most incredible voice, a soulful rasp. I love everything he does.

Favourite Duran Duran moment of 2023 –

So many! I loved the UK tour. That was the best UK tour I can remember as far as reception. Birmingham was an incredible night. Also, Forest Hills Stadium in New York was magical. Being outdoors, so many people came out to see us, and it was the end of an amazing run in the U.S. It was a real buzz.

Most looking forward to in 2024 -

Shows! Latitude Fest will be amazing. I saw a list of some of the other artists playing – London Grammar, Kasabian -  it’s going to be a great bill. I’ve heard the Cruel World Festival is a really cool event too.

We have some great music we are going to resurrect. Some from the 1980s that we want to have another look at. Reportage is also one we’re talking about. We have a really strong collection of music we want to go back to.

Nick's 2023 Year End

Event(s) of the Year (Not Duran Duran related) –

The big events of the year were rather depressing, but I hope the world gets better and warfare, in particular, ceases as soon as possible. So instead, I will focus on technology: ChatGPT launched in November 2022, but people really discovered it this year. That, along with AI, were a fascinating development. I think it’s quite extraordinary as a creative tool. I know people worry it will be able to write music and movies for us, but I think, for me, there’s a good human story to be told. It’s about ideas and how you use it. We made the video for “Danse Macabre” using an AI animation program. It was a pure joy to type in whatever you can think of and watch it come to life.

Also – Space! I’d love to see space travel become something more democratic. I’d love to see a man (or woman) on the moon again, or on Mars!

Best movie and/or TV Show (series) of 2023 –

I have a long list of things I am excited to see – Oppenheimer, Maestro, May December, Killers of the Flower Moon... I will see them over the next 6 weeks. When we were on tour, I went to see Barbie. It had its merits, and I loved the style of it, however, at best, I thought the script was slightly annoying. You know what stuck with me? The Quiet Girl. It stayed with me all year. If you haven’t seen it, watch it.

I finally took on Downton Abbey. It’s great to just see fabulous actors and actresses really performing beautifully written scripts. That’s what I miss most of all in movies now. Watching things like The Crown, and Downton Abbey, is extraordinary. I am very much looking to Season 2 of Wednesday and the next Black Mirror.

Best Exhibit/Museum of 2023 –

There are a lot of them. I traveled a lot, so I try and find a little space to jump into a museum here and there. At the beginning of the year, I went over to Paris to the Louis Vuitton Fondation to see the Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol show. It was great seeing those pieces together, it was really, really something. I saw the Christian Marclay show at the Centre Pompidou. His show was centered around his relationship with music, so that was fun to see. I saw Cecily Brown’s show at the Met in New York. I thought it was beautiful. I saw the Keith Haring retrospective at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. More recently I saw some shows in London. I saw “Women in Revolt” at the Tate Britain, it is a miraculous achievement. I saw The Gucci Cosmos at 180 Strand. I went to see “Rubens & Women” at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. You forgot people could paint like that.

Best book and/or podcast of 2023 –

I am not against podcasts, but I don’t really listen to them much. Books, on the other hand, especially photography books…there are a load of great ones this year.  Albarrán Cabrera’s Photographic Syntax is a really beautiful book, he has such an unusual eye. It’s mostly very unusual depictions of nature scenes. I liked Miho Kajioka’s Memories of Future, that is more of a portfolio. She has a very delicate style. It’s nice to see something of that quality.

Best Music You heard in 2023 –

I haven’t explored far enough, but without any doubt the pop song of the year is Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” which is a perfect pop song. It really was that good. It’s not that often that songs like that come along, those are the hardest songs to write. That song is a masterpiece.

I liked the song “Fear’ by the Seratones, it has a cool sound to it, reminded me of early Blondie and girl groups like the Ronettes or the Shangri La’s. I liked the song “Offering” from Gabriels, I like the Motown sound they have, but it’s also modern.

Favourite Duran Duran moment of 2023 –

The fact that we managed to put out a record within such a short space of time, that we completed DANSE MACABRE in three to four months - and Simon wrote three songs in that time - and we completed the artwork, made videos…that made me very happy! I feel our output is sometimes too slow, however, whatever the reasons, it was thrilling to get a project from conception to release in less than 12 months. DANSE MACABRE is a triumph.

The video for “Black Moonlight” by Jonas Åkerlund was so much fun. We laughed so much. Why isn’t every video like this??

Also, the tour. It was undoubtedly the best we’d done since 1984. It was the most amazing time for all of us. We didn’t have to cancel any shows, despite the Covid risk, it was great. The Pittsburgh show stuck in my head. The NY show in Forest Hills, that was such a great venue. The UK tour was as good as any we have ever done.

Most looking forward to in 2024 -

Sleeping?

Lots of things – a few shows. The one at the Rose Bowl (Cruel World); we’d like to do some shows in Europe as we didn’t have the opportunity last year. We are going to start to work on Reportage again. It has held up very well, we aren’t going to change it a lot. I am putting together a photo book of the exhibit I did in Ibiza with Rory McCartney.

We like to keep things moving, I think that’s what keeps us interested. The fact that we kept moving through things has helped enormously shape what we are.

John’s 2023 Year End

Best movie and/or TV Show (series) of 2023 –

I find myself watching a lot of TV. The series that packed the most punch was The Bear, Season 2. The way it talked about family and addiction and co-dependence. It was real art. The music was great. They really did something special.

It’s a lot harder to make a commitment to watching a film. I did like May December. That felt like a grown-up movie. It was interesting from a music perspective. The director took a score from the movie The Go-Between and used it in this film. It was an amazing choice that did a lot for May December. We watched Killers of the Flower Moon. I liked it, I thought it was well told and worth seeing.

Best book and/or podcast of 2023 –

I don’t listen to many podcasts. If I had to nominate any it would be Fluffy Wraxall’s.

The book I enjoyed the most in 2023 was Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. She is an epic writer, and this is an epic. It’s a re-telling of David Copperfield set today, amidst the opiate crises. What I tend to do these days is download the audio book as well, and I bounce between the two. The other book I really liked was Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. It takes place in Boston, and I read it when I was in Boston.

Best Music You heard in 2023 –

I mostly listen to classical at the moment, but for the purposes of this, I am focusing on people who are still living.

• Brian Eno performed with the Baltic Orchestra and we took a work outing, we all went together. It was really profound. If I was to make a list of the artists who have brought me the most joy in my life through music, he’d be in the top 5. The show started slowly, and there was no break in the music after 40 or so minutes, the audience just let it rip with applause and that was just the best moment for me. People like me, and Nick, have been following Brian for so many years and have never had the chance to thank him in public. It was clear we were applauding his creative generosity. It was magical.
• Steve Lacy’s Gemini Rights - I found that it just ticked all the boxes for me. It’s contemporary and it’s musical.
• The song of the year for me was Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red,” which is built on the lick of “Walk on By.” It’s a particularly nourishing sample and what Doja brings to it really works.
• Travis Scott’s Utopia is a bit of a masterpiece. It’s a very thoughtful, well considered, wide ranging, and expensive creation. You have to like hip hop to give it a go but I think he made a statement.
• The soundtrack to Oppenheimer by Ludwig Göransson is absolutely remarkable. It's a symphony of electronic sound.
• I loved what Nick Cave did for the series Dahmer.

Event(s) of the Year (Not Duran Duran related) –

Nothing came close to the moment when the first hostages were released from Gaza. It was like an absolute moment of possibility. Some kind of common language had been spoken amidst the hatred that brought that moment to bear. In the next few days, you’d wake up and wonder if more had come out. I cannot even begin to understand what it’s like for the families, so with the release you felt hope.

Most looking forward to in 2024 -

The world getting smarter and hopefully start thinking beyond the end of their noses. We don’t have to agree, but we need to start making peace with one another.

My daughter’s going to get married next year, that’s a big one.

I am looking forward to the Cruel World festival. I am looking forward to the Latitude Fest – we’ve never played in Suffolk, bizarrely.

We are going to bring Reportage back to life.

Aston Villa, top 4, Premier League!

I’m a lucky guy, I have an extraordinary life. I’d like to see some of that luck spread out around the world a little more. It’s hard to see so many people hurting.

Duran Duran photo courtesy of Elliot Taylor