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Friday, December 02, 2011

It's a little known fact that as a young boy, I was a kind of Billy Elliot figure around the council estates of Basildon. I was no good at dancing, but I was quite into Spandau Ballet. As a result, I never really warmed to those wild boys from Duran Duran. Although, as I confessed to Lisa on Wednesday night, I did once buy 'The Reflex' on 7" single and record it onto cassette for a ten-year-old girl I had my eye on. It was 1984, so I could do that without appearing on the sex offenders register.

Lisa, on the other hand, spent her formative years eschewing school work in favour of sitting at the back of the class, compiling height charts to compare the stature of Simon Le Bon with Nick Rhodes. And as Simon is pointing out here, Nick is only this tall...

Miliband on the Left
He's also being stalked by a dodgy looking bloke who appears to be creeping up behind him as he plays the keyboards. I think it's Ed Miliband.

So since accepting Lisa warts and all (I had that written into our wedding vows), I've been forced to embrace the music of Duran Duran, and I have to say that as of Wednesday night, I think they've finally won me over. We did go and see them in Birmingham in 2005, but to be honest, I was more taken by Daniel Bedingfield than Simon Le Bon, so they didn't leave a big impression.

Wednesday in Brighton, however, was a different kettle of fish. The support act was called Cocknbullkid, so I was half expecting to see Bedingfield again, but it turned out to be a young black girl named Anita. She was very good, but the main improvement was in the headline act. It might feel like there are precious few jobs out there for young people nowadays, but Duran Duran have clearly been taking on new staff. They were only three short of a football team on Wednesday...

Eight
With an extra percussionist, saxophonist and backing singer, plus a new guitarist who could knock Andy Taylor into a cocked hat, they sounded a lot better. I was genuinely impressed.

On the downside, they were encouraging people to tweet during the evening, and displaying the messages on a big screen behind the stage, which seemed slightly pointless, and merely enabled the younger members of the audience to share their inanity with the rest of us. I could have done without hearing the views of the girls with the flashing bunny ears.

The same goes for Simon Le Bon's thoughts on the global financial crisis. When we saw Duran Duran six years ago, Simon paused between songs to adopt an expression of meek humility and declare that he was responsible for ending the war in Iraq. This time he introduced the song 'Ordinary World' by reflecting on the day's public sector strikes, and telling us that these are tough financial times, and we're all in it together. Which might have gone down better, had we not just paid him fifty quid each for our tickets.

I didn't think much of his Movember efforts either...

Simon Le Bon
Beards are strictly against the rules. The man can definitely sing though. He just needs to stick to that, and not talk.

4 comments:

Phil's Mum said...

I don't know anything about Simon le Bon.  He didn't play his guitar in our front room, did he?

A Passer-by said...

Probably not, Phil's Mum.  He was too busy sailing boats and getting capsised - as this 2005 report about the 1980's popstar says:


<span><span>LATEST: Eighties pop star SIMON LE BON is relieved he faced his fears yesterday (07AUG05) and joined his old sailing crew to compete in the sailing race which almost claimed his life 20 years ago - in the very same boat he dodged death in.</span></span>

Lisa said...

I can even remember the name of the boat. No wonder my exam results were bad. 

Dave said...

I think your mum has stolen my comment.