DURAN DURAN KEEPING BUSY SINCE REUNITING
Published: Monday, September 21, 1987

When Simon Le Bon was growing up in England, he would never go to hear the most popular bands. Instead, he followed the underground, cult groups. Ironically, he became lead singer for Duran Duran, which became one of the most successful groups of the early 1980s.

It was a teeny-boppers' dream band, the kind whose concerts Le Bon previously wouldn't have gone near. But after a few years, three members -- Le Bon, synthesizer player Nick Rhodes and drummer Roger Taylor -- formed Arcadia. The two others, guitarist Andy Taylor and bassist John Taylor, and Robert Palmer, went out as the Power Station.

Now Duran Duran is back as Duran Duran with its first LP since 1983, Notorious. But not with the original personnel. Roger Taylor has dropped out of the music business and Andy Taylor has gone solo.

`Had the Power Station or Arcadia been a lot more successful, then Duran Duran probably wouldn't have got itself back together again,' said Le Bon, who was interviewed on a 2 1/2-month summer tour.

It was May 1, 1986, when Duran Duran reunited.

`We'd already realized that Roger was going to leave,' Le Bon said. `He'd spoken to us at Christmas. We made sure he knew if he wanted to come along he could.

`Andy kind of left us in the lurch. It's a whole drama that surrounds that episode in the band's history, culminating in too many lawyers and accountants getting involved. It got quite nasty.

`I don't know if Andy realized we would do it without him. I think he thought we would quietly sink into obscurity, leaving him free to carry on by himself. I spent two weeks chasing him down. He said he'd do it and he didn't turn up.

`We worked it out eventually. It was quite difficult to make an album going to lawyers mornings and laying down tracks in the studio afternoons. Thank God for (producer) Nile Rodgers; he held it all together.'

The band then went on tour, playing Japan and 10 countries in Europe. `We played 54 shows until the break, nine in a row sometimes, which is quite heavy on singers,' he said.

`I sing quite loud. You've got volume coming off the rest of the band you have to compete with. When you're on stage, also, you've got to hear yourself through your monitors. You can get feedback if you turn it up too much.

`It is important to be able to produce volume and to sound relaxed and stay relaxed. It's something everybody is always working on. The tendency is to tense up when you project volume.' Le Bon wrote the songs for Notorious after his last race.

`I think my lyrics became less metaphysical, more real, less cerebral, more personal.' Duran Duran's audience is changing from squealing teen-age girls to a more mature following.

Their first single, the album title song, made No. 2 on the American charts. The other two, Skin Trade and El Presidente, haven't made the Top 50. `In a perverse way the fact they didn't meet the success we'd had previously gave us credibility with the critics,' Le Bon said.

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