“That moment in 1972, when David Bowie played ‘Starman’ on Top of the Pops – it affected an entire generation of kids.”
Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes is reminiscing about his earliest recollection of music. “It wasn’t just the song, it was Bowie’s entire persona,” he continues of the influences that impacted the band. “Glam rock was very important to us, then punk and disco. But punk changed everything – people realised they didn’t need to be a musical virtuoso to form a band.”
Rhodes recalls watching a punk gig at Birmingham’s Barbarella’s club as a teenager and returning home to try the chords on a guitar. He later taught himself to play the synthesiser, developing the sine wave sound that ensured he and drummer Roger Taylor, vocalist Simon Le Bon, guitarist Andy Taylor and bass player John Taylor would become the most successful pop ensemble of the 1980s, Duran Duran.
Read full article in Financial Times
Photo courtesy Stephanie Pistel
