The first broadcast of Off the Record, a Duran Duran concert recorded at Chichester Festival in November 1981, airs on TV.

Duran Duran is nominated for “Best Newcomer” at the British Rock & Pop Awards; they perform “Girls on Film” and “My Own Way” at the show.

The band begins recording the Rio album at Air Studios, London with producer Colin Thurston. Paul McCartney is in another one of the Studios with George Martin and the band Japan are also recording an album there at this time.

Artist Patrick Nagel is commissioned to create a painting for the cover of Rio. He makes two images for the band to choose from, one is used for the album, the other is only ever seen on the Japanese single issue of “My Own Way.”

The band and their management agree to hire director Russell Mulcahy, who directed “Planet Earth,” to work on several more videos. It is Russell and Producer Eric Fellner who suggest the band shoot on location in Sri Lanka.

Duran Duran commission director Ian Eames to make a short black and white film to accompany the song “The Chauffeur.” The band elects not to appear in the video. It is a highly stylized clop inspired by the images of photographer Helmut Newton.

Nick stays behind in London to complete the final mixes on the Rio album, while the other band members fly off to commence work on the videos in Sri Lanka. He catches up with them several days later, bringing a cassette of the finished album with him.

In Sri Lanka Duran Duran film videos for “Hungry Like The Wolf,” “Save a Prayer,” and “Lonely in Your Nightmare.”

Duran Duran performs “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Lonely in Your Nightmare” and “Hold Back the Rain” on Peter Powell’s Get Set for Summer show in the UK.

The band returns to North America to support the release of Rio; dates include The Meadowbrook (New Jersey), Ontario Theatre (Washington, DC), Pier 42 (New York City), Mann Music Center (Philadelphia), North Stage Theatre (Long Island), Chance (New York City), Peppermint Lounge (New York City), Paradise (Boston), Le Club (Montreal), Concert Hall (Toronto), Heaven (Pittsburgh), Clutch Cargo (Detroit), Parkwest (Chicago), Palms (Milwaukee), 1st Avenue (Minneapolis), Playhouse (Winnipeg), Dinwoodie Lounge (Edmonton), McEwan Hall (Calgary), Commodore Ballroom (Vancouver), Showbox Theatre (Seattle), Kabuki Theatre (San Francisco) and The Greek Theatre (Los Angeles).

Andy Taylor marries the band’s hairdresser, Tracey Wilson at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.

Duran Duran gets the opening slot on Blondie’s Tracks Across America tour. The CNE venue in Toronto has over 30,000 fans in the audience, the largest the band has ever played to up to this point. They get an unexpected encore but have played all of their songs so they have to repeat one of them.

Duran Duran begin working with David Kershenbaum in Los Angeles on remixes of several tracks from Rio for the Carnival EP to be released in America, Japan and several other countries.

The Carnival EP is released. Each territory had a different selection of 4 songs (except Japan, who had 5 tracks) with Night Versions.

The band plays rescheduled shows including Draken Theatre (Stockholm), Drammenshallen (Oslo), Turku Concert House (Finland), Falkoner Theatre (Copenhagen), Rotation (Hannover), Zeche (Bochum), Trinity (Hamburg), Sektor (Berlin), Oz (Stuttgart), Music Center (Utrecht), Brielpoort (Deinze), Le Palace (Paris) and more.

The initial success of the Kershenbaum remixes spurs Capitol Records to issue a re-mixed and re-mastered version of the Rio album for North America featuring the David Kershenbaum remixes.

The single for “Rio” is released worldwide with the B-Side “The Chauffeur (Sing Blue Silver).” The single version for US, France and Germany has the B-Side “Hold Back the Rain.”

Duran Duran embarks on a sold-out 25-date tour of the UK; dates include Caird Hall (Dundee), Apollo (Glasgow), Edinburgh Playhouse (Edinburgh), 2 nights at the Hammerstein Odeon (London; where Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel joins them on stage for “(Come Up and See Me) Make Me Smile” ), 2 nights Apollo (Manchester), De Montfort Hall (Leicester), 2 nights at the Empire Theatre (Liverpool), 2 nights at City Hall (Newcastle), 4 nights at the Odeon (Birmingham) and more.

Duran records “Is There Something I Should Know,” at Good Earth Studios in Soho, London. The band produces the song with Ian Little. It is mixed by Bob Clearmountain in New York, but the band decides the sound is not exactly what they are looking for and hire Producer Alex Sadkin to remix the masters in London at RAK Studios.

MTV places “Hungry like the Wolf,” on maximum rotation; it goes on to become one of the most played videos ever.