DURAN DURAN SIGHS WITH RELIEF, BREAKS INTO THE '90S
Friday, April 9, 1993

BYLINE: Mary Campbell, Associated Press

Duran Duran, hit makers and video icons of the 1980s, don't want to be thought of as a thing of the past. Fans have started to take their side. ``Ordinary World,'' the first single from the band's new, self-titled album, cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard pop charts.

``Relief is the first word that comes to my mind,'' said bassist John Taylor. ``We've been knocking our heads. We've done our dues. Anybody who thought we were an overnight success, we've more than made up for that now.'' ``We're just thrilled,'' added synthesizer player Nick Rhodes. ``It is very gratifying to actually finally see it being released and received in this way. None of us would have imagined it would go this well.''

The British band formed in 1980 and was one of the first groups to benefit from extended play on MTV, their series of video-saturated hits including ``Rio,'' ``Hungry Like the Wolf'' and the chart-topping James Bond theme, ``A View to a Kill.'' But the quintet split into two groups in 1985.

``We thought we were making consistently better records than the ones that were the hits. In hindsight, maybe we weren't,'' Rhodes said. ``We decided the band had been taken over by lawyers, accountants, managers and business managers. We seemed to be spending too much of our time concentrating on those things. We realized it was destroying things. We withdrew very much, to our own detriment as regards commercial success, for our own peace of mind.''

Andy Taylor and John Taylor formed the Power Station with Robert Palmer. Simon Le Bon, Rhodes and Roger Taylor formed Acadia. Neither had the success of Duran Duran.

``At the time we were very confused and felt, `Why has this happened?''' Rhodes said. ``Roger Taylor was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He had to get away from the pressure. We speak to him often. He's fine. Andy Taylor wanted to do solo rock projects.''

About a year later, Le Bon, Rhodes and John Taylor (none of the Taylors is related) regrouped, deciding they were better off together. Duran Duran scored big in 1986 with the title song off their ``Notorious'' record but struggled with the next two albums, ``Big Thing'' and ``Liberty.''

Rhodes said he was lowest around the time of ``Liberty.'' Taylor, however, said band members supported each other. ``When one was down, there was always somebody else to pull them up and reassure them that we were doing the right thing,''
he said.

``We had a hard time. We went through a period of second guessing everything we did. We had to rediscover ourselves and remind ourselves we never got in this game to be pinups. We wanted to be a band and make records people were going to like.''

He saw another bright spot about ``Liberty'': having guitarist Warren Cuccurullo help with the writing. ``That was our first step toward the '90s,'' Taylor said. ``We realized writing with a guitarist was very favorable to our music. It reflects in this album. That's why, with him on guitar and me playing keyboards, we moved back toward stronger melodies, harmonies and arrangements.''

``Duran Duran'' also was the name of their first record, which came out in 1981. The cover of the new one features wedding pictures of the group members' parents. ``I was visiting my parents one weekend,'' Rhodes said. ``I happened to find one of their wedding photographs. I wondered what the other band members' parents' wedding photos looked like. I gathered them all up. We sent them off to our artist to do a montage. We hadn't told him the album title. He put Duran Duran right in the center, and it looked great.''

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