Guitarist Dom Brown on his 20th Anniversary with Duran Duran

How time flies!

Unbelievably to me, it’s been 20 years since I first met and played with Duran Duran.

I remember it like it was yesterday - one Wednesday morning in Nov 2004 I was called by a producer friend, Fraser T Smith, who asked if I was available 2 days later to stand in for a show with Duran Duran on 21st November as Andy Taylor suddenly became unwell. He said that DD’s tour manager would call me in the next 30 mins. When he called, he asked if I was available; I said “yes of course, when are we rehearsing?" He explained there would be no full band rehearsal as Simon and Nick were in Europe doing promo and said that John and Roger wanted to meet me that evening at Sphere Studios. We got on super well from the off and jammed along to a few of their songs. They gave me a copy of all of their CD’s and ticked off about 15 songs for me to learn before the next day. I went home and stayed up most of the night, getting about 3 hours sleep, before waking up to continue learning. One of the first things I said to Roger was, “sorry to hear about your brother Andy”, he laughed and said, “we aren’t brothers. None of us are related in any way”. I couldn’t believe that they weren’t even cousins and that a band could have 3 non-related Taylors!

I met with John and Roger again that next afternoon and jammed the songs with them. John was so encouraging, “Wow! It’s like having Jeff Beck in the band!”. It was a huge compliment to me as Jeff is one of my top 3 guitarists.

That next day, I met Simon and Nick at the soundcheck for the party we were performing at that evening. Naturally, they both appeared sceptical about the situation as they’d not met or heard me playing yet, but thankfully the gig was great and I didn’t mess up. After the show we were relaxing in the Green Room and they asked me if I was available for the next month as they had a bunch of Arena shows in the US and some promo in Europe and Andy would be unavailable due to illness. I guess this low key gig was my audition, and thankfully I passed it! So an emergency visit to the US Embassy was set up and then off to Europe we went for some promo events - and clothes shopping for me with Jeffery the bands stylist.

That first show back in November, 2004 was a private show for a friend of Simon's 40th birthday. Fast forward 20 years to the day: Simon, having guested with my band Uncovered: The Electric Rock Experience a couple of times in the past, had now hired us to back him up for the same friends 60th birthday! It was such a fun night and a great way to mark this milestone...

I next performed with the guys on December 2, 2004 for their headline show at the Gwinnett Centre Arena, Atlanta, GA to 18,000 fans. There was still no time for a rehearsal, so we had an extended soundcheck and ran the entire set. The next few weeks in the US were great, and I really got to know the band including backing singer Tessa Niles and sax player Andy Hamilton. People often ask me if I was nervous before the first Arena show, but I actually wasn’t nervous about the playing as I thought “even if I did mess up who could blame me having jumped in at such short notice with no rehearsals.” I was more nervous about the opening of the show. For dramatic effect, the 4 principals and myself would walk to the very front of the stage in pitch darkness without our instruments and return to our positions as the lights went up. I had an anxiety dream the night before the first show where the lights come up and I’m the only one standing at the edge of the stage frozen on the spot watching the band back in their positions ready to start!!

This run of shows, which also included a VH1 live recording and some live TV appearances in the US, was a real success and although Andy came back at the beginning of 2005, I had a strong sense in my bones that I would work again with DD in the not so distant future. In March, 2005 the tour manager called me and asked if I was available for a show the next night in Denver as Andy’s father had become very ill and he needed to go back to the UK for a few weeks. I joined the tour and did a few weeks of gigs before Andy returned. Again there was no time to rehearse before the Denver show, and I had to listen to and learn a few additional songs on my iPod on the plane. I went straight from the plane to John’s hotel room to go over the new songs, and then went straight to soundcheck to run them with the band. I remember meeting Andy on his return backstage and he was very appreciative to me for standing in. He'd said I’d saved the tour.

It wasn’t until September, 2006 that I then became the band's full time, regular guitarist... and the rest, as they say, is history!

I must say a huge thank you to all you DD fans and Duranies out there. You are the best fans in the world and have been so welcoming and supportive to me over these last 20 years. I love the familiarity of seeing the hardcores who some how manage to be at every show. You are noticed and appreciated! The enthusiasm from all of the fans is palpable and even before the band plays a note the energy, love and warmth from the fans fills the venue.Each night when I step on that stage I look at the audience and know everything is going to be ok... and that the next couple of hours are going to be magic!