Thursday, 25 June 2015

That's Entertainment : Duran Duran


Do you like the Eighties?  Or the Nineties?  The Noughties?  Now?

Well, today is your lucky day.

Duran Duran owned the 1980’s pop charts, lived the glamorous fantasy jet-set lifestyle, married beautiful women and re-invented themselves enough times to form a dozen different bands.  

With charismatic singer Simon Le Bon, dandy Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor, drummer Roger Taylor and rock guitarist Andy Taylor [funnily enough, none of the three Taylor’s were related], Duran Duran cemented themselves as the template for pop/rock bands.

As Durandemonium swept the world, they ruled the airwaves with a string of classic hits - including Hungry Like the Wolf, Rio, Is There Something I Should Know?, Girls On Film, The Reflex and The Wild Boys - and dominated the nascent MTV channel with their pioneering video clips.  Duran Duran took post-punk, New Romantic, synth pop trappings and meshed them with funk, pop and rock sounds recorded with state of the art production and in turn, enamoured millions.  A Brummie band, they’ve always done things differently too - coming from the industrial heavy metal fields of the English Midlands; a boy band who wrote their own songs AND played their own instruments.

The classic era culminated in the US #1 James Bond theme A View To A Kill whereby they splintered - briefly - in to the two equally successful side projects Arcadia (the great “lost” Duran Duran album) and The Power Station [with Robert Palmer - Some Like It Hot].  Then they lost 2/5 of the band but picked up a new guitarist in Warren Cuccurullo, who along with Nick Rhodes carried the band in to the 90’ with hits like Notorious, Skin Trade and All She Wants Is.

Rediscovering their mojo after 1990’s Liberty and a Greatest Hits package with 1993’s The Wedding Album, Duran Duran scored their biggest hit in 5 years with Ordinary World.  Duran Duran were cool again but things were falling apart.  Their record deals collapsed and they became a ‘greatest hits’ act that lurched in and out of the public consciousness.  In 2000, they released Pop Trash which is littered with gems - like their 2nd attempt at a Bond theme - but it flopped.

Then in 2001, all five original members of Duran Duran reconvened and the adulation began again.  With Astronaut, Duran Duran were back with (Reach Up For The) Sunrise and What Happens Tomorrow, but the fractures re-appeared with Andy Taylor leaving DD for a second time.  An entire album was recorded and scrapped before release before hitching their sound to Timbaland and Timberlake to poor results.  But if it’s one thing Duran Duran know, you fall in and out of fashion and if you keep doing what you’re good at, eventually, the pendulum swings back in your favour.

Dropping All You Need Is Now in late 2010, early 2011, Duran Duran were back once again with a blistering pop album.   Trendy with an ‘elder statesmen’ of pop tag, they continually tour the world adding to, never detracting from, their legacy.

And now, in 2015, in collaboration with Nile Rodgers, they’ve dropped Pressure Off, one of those pop/funk gems Duran Duran are perfect at.  A new album Paper Gods comes out in September, and it seems Duran Duran are back in favour with the critics though they’ve never had any problem entertaining their millions of fans.

I got on to Duran Duran with A View To A Kill.  That’s my get on, though I knew their other earlier hits from 1982-1984 from LPs we had at home and from Countdown video clips.  But A View To A Kill was “my” Duran Duran song and I’ve been a fan ever since.  Even though things waxed and waned during the ensuing 30 years, I have never been disappointed in their output.  In fact, during the mid/late 1990’s when Duran Duran were desperately uncool (like ABBA had been up to Muriel’s Wedding) they recorded some really cutting edge music that now is pretty much the sounds and production used by most of the Top 10 pop acts around now.

I could also list all their hits.  But stuff that!  Go buy Greatest.  I’m gifting you some lesser known but equally loved DD songs from my playlist.  

Duran Duran are one of the greatest bands I have ever loved.  Despite the criticism that seems to be levelled at the band, they have always been stylish, cutting edge, adventurous, entertaining!  Never boring; never compromised.

Loving Duran Duran?  Na na na na…it’s a reflex!


[Duran Duran, 1980]

[Rio, 1982]

[1984, for the Mad Max fans] OR the 2015 MM4 visual mash up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsy30eHDXnc

[Liberty, 1990]

[The Wedding Album, 1993]

[Thank You, 1995]

[Medazzaland, 1997]

[Pop Trash, 2000]

[Astronaut, 2004]

[All You Need Is Now, 2011]

[Paper Gods, 2015]



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Friday, 19 June 2015

That's Entertainment : Alphaville


There are two things that tickle my fancy - the film Napoleon Dynamite and 1980’s German synth pop.  Bands like Alphaville, Hubert Kah, Nena, Software, Kraftwerk, Muncher Freiheit...

The great thing about Napoleon Dynamite (if you haven’t seen it, you must).

And if you haven’t listened to a 1980’s German synth pop band called Alphaville…you should.

But I’m betting you’ve already heard one Alphaville song (or it’s cover version by Aussie band Youth Group [about a decade ago]) titled Forever Young.

Forever Young is one of those songs slightly nihilistic, almost paranoid Cold War pop songs that Germans did so well as the Americans and Soviets marked their territory in a divided Germany.  There were many songs of this ilk [think Nena’s 99 Luftballoons] and these days, Forever Young is often used in ads or by Eistedford’s or as in Napoleon Dynamite, a song at the prom!

Forever Young…
I want to be forever young.
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever young.

Alphaville though were (and still are - sporadically) a group who pioneered a fair bit of synth music and their influences continue today.  Their keen ear for a pop tune is uncanny and on their first three albums - though possibly dated in sound (tinny drum machines; sax!)- never miss a beat.  Best of all, they knew how to get you to dance and were avid users of the remix single for dance halls and discos.  Nor were they immune for the early 80’s love of what was considered at the time the exotic Japan or the ‘big budget’ film clip that plays out like a cheesy cinematic movie.

They released a swag of singles (and 12 inch dance remixes) to a range of success and did quite well especially in Germany.  Their ‘peak’ period included three albums from 1984’s Forever Young LP, 1986’s Afternoons in Utopia and 1989’s The Breathtaking Blue.  

Tracks to sound out would be Big In Japan, Sounds Like A Melody, The Mysteries of Love, For A Million, A Victory of Love, The Jet Set, Summer Rain and of course, Forever Young.














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Thursday, 11 June 2015

That's Entertainment : Tear Council


Alright, keeping in the ‘let’s be quick’ [I know you read these whilst sipping a coffee or sitting in the loo…or in that brief millisecond has you hit delete] and with an eye to ‘fresh’ tunes making (air)waves, here’s a newish indie-pop band breaking out called Tear Council who I had to share with you.

And they’re so ‘fresh’ I don’t actually physically own any of their gear yet, merely two I-tunes downloads…such is the modern world of music.  So no photo of me with anything to hold.

Now according to the band’s Facebook page, Tear Council is a side-project for none other than Matt Van Schie who is a member of another fantastic electro-synthpop outfit called Van She (who you should check out too).  This fact I only found out tonight looking up the band after a week of having listened to their songs.

Tear Council’s two singles (thus far) - My Car and Anywhere - are emotion charged, low-key electro pop slices of heaven and well worth downloading off I-tunes.

Or, you can check ‘em out here on Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/tear-council.

Anyway.  I really liked ‘em both.  My Car is a downcast, melancholy toe tapper…if there is such a thing and I really like the sound of it as it’s got ‘something’.

So here’s hoping you don’t mind them either.

Here’s to a cool weekend.  And nothing says ‘cool’ like yellow tints.

Also...follow them on FB: https://www.facebook.com/tearcouncil







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Thursday, 4 June 2015

That's Entertainment : Kermit the Frog - The Rainbow Connection


A frog…a banjo…a ballad.

What more can you want?

When I was a kid, The Muppet Show was at its peak.  A variety show that was big in the ratings, it attracted celebrity A-List guest stars to interact with the puppets and churned out a zany, cheesy mix of song, dance and humour.

I guess, when you look it now, it inhabits a similar place Hey, Hey It’s Saturday does and reflects a simpler time when people were easier entertained.

Take for instance - music.  In the old days, magazines would carry ‘rumours’ of a band recording.  Or releasing an album.  Or touring.  Hearing a song on the radio meant going to the record shop and having them search the coming release guides, find the label and catalogue number, write out a pre order and wait 2-6 weeks for the single to come in to stock before racing back to buy it and listen to it.  That’s why people like Molly Meldrum were cool - they knew all the stories and gossip.  

Now, I can watch a band live on the internet recording their latest track, upload it on my mobile phone and have listened to it a million times before it even hits the stores.  It’s instant, immediate, now!

The Muppet Show, along with it’s sister production Sesame Street, spawned an industry under the care and guidance of Jim Henson and his creative workshop.  There were albums, movies and animated shows. It’s now owned by Disney.

Of course, eventually, we all grew up and technology made things much more accessible.  Variety entertainment died as the internet exploded and you can find literally everything your heart desires online.

However, one Muppets song that resonated with me through the years as a kid and now as an adult, is the wistful opening number from The Muppet Movie.

The Rainbow Connection is a beautiful song (weird to think it was written by Paul Williams who was Little Enos Burdette in Smokey and the Bandit!!!).  Dreamy, yearning, wistful, positive and full of hope.  It should be cheesy but it never is.  

It’s one of those little oddities that strikes a chord in every listener, and I for one, adore it.

And as Statler and Waldorf would heckle from the balcony:  MORE!!!  MORE!!! 

Enjoy!





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