Friday, May 22, 1998
Orange County Edition
By: JENNIFER VINEYARD

Double Mileage Points as Soloist; Former Duran Duran bassist John Taylor doesn't shy away from most of the old material.;

When Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy left his post as the original lead singer of Duran Duran, it was because he thought the band wasn't going anywhere. Twenty years later, bassist John Taylor left because he felt the band had gone as far as it ever would. A founding member of the Fab Five, Taylor jumped ship following the Birmingham band's attempted mid-'90s comeback, which produced the hits "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" off 1993's "The Wedding Album". Duran's '95 covers album, "Thank You," stopped the band's new momentum; '97's "Medazzaland" attempted Bowie-esque relevance with its melding of electronic sounds and the band's trademark swoony, lush '80s pop. But even coupled with Mojo Records' ska-heavy Duran Duran tribute album (anchored by Reel Big Fish's rendition of "Hungry Like the Wolf"), "Medazzaland" failed to bring back the double Duran. Taylor, after moving to Los Angeles five years ago, chose to leave while "Medazzaland" was in progress. (He's omitted as a band member in the liner notes, though he shared songwriting credit and played on a few songs.)

Despite having released one album--"Feelings Are Good and Other Lies"--and having another in the works, Taylor has yet to be weaned of his 40-million-records-sold Duran legacy. He was the only Duran-ite present at this month's DuranCon, a fans' convention where he showcased his glamour-wear from the band's early days.

Even though he has plenty of solo material to play on his new tour, which he calls Terroristen (German for "terrorists"), he's not performing any of it, including during a stop tonight at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. He's opting for songs from the Duran Duran catalog, with a few nods to the Power Station and Neurotic Outsiders (groups he played in concurrent to his main gig).

Still, he laughs at the idea of rejoining Duran Duran, which is working on a new album. "That's like sleeping with your ex-wife," Taylor said. "In the best-case scenario, if they offered enormous amounts of money, it would have to be [like the Eagles'] Hell Freezes Over tour.

"It's like the KISS tour. Do you really want to go there? That's what you do when you have nothing else left in your life. It's a statement of failure. Is that anything less than a parody, to taint your own legend?"

Taylor sees an implicit statement of failure in regurgitating old hits for nostalgia's sake. Still, while he's figuring out his direction, he sees no harm in embracing what remains of his past.

"It's part of my story," he said. "One of the fun aspects [of going solo] is to be able to sing what I want to sing. I won't do songs that I don't feel a connection with or had nothing to do with their creation. And I won't do the obvious songs, like 'Hungry Like the Wolf,' 'Wild Boys' or 'Save a Prayer.' "

He said he will play "Hold Back the Rain" from "Rio."

"And what I do play," he added, "won't be exactly like it appeared on record. It'll be my way."

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