Lyrically, it deals with nothing much deeper than all-night parties in hotel rooms, but the tune is magnificent and draws you in, with Le Bon’s voice going from a deep insouciant croon to a deranged “la la la” in the chorus. What they had in spades though – aside from delectable cheekbones – were great songs, and tellingly Late Bar was tossed off as Planet Earth’s B-side, not even making the final cut of the band’s debut album. At 6ft 2ins, Hertfordshire-born lead singer Simon Le Bon was an imposing figure, but styled in foppish collars and cuffs, he looked “more like a scrum-half who’d blundered into his mum’s washing line” according to one reviewer. These days, boybands, for want of a better word, are normally militarily slick from the off, so it is a joy to behold the amateurishness of an inchoate Duran Duran. They’d set their sights on the very thing they were singing about on their debut single. The single peaked at No 12 in 1981, though Duran Duran were thinking bigger than a trendy club scene dominated by Spandau Ballet. Dropping the words “new romantic” into the song earned the derision of their cooler Blitz-kid contemporaries in London, and bass player John Taylor admitted it was an “opportunistic” attempt to get their foot in the door (even if Rhodes later claimed it was sarcastic). The first signs of life came when Planet Earth was released in 1981, a gloriously catchy sci-fi adventure that owed a debt of gratitude to Japan’s Quiet Life, right down to the sequenced opening it was the kind of homage that could have been brazened out had keyboard player Nick Rhodes not turned himself into a bleached clone of Japan’s David Sylvian. Their faith would be repaid handsomely as a bidding war broke out, with EMI emerging victorious. They were managed by the entrepreneurial Berrow brothers, owners of the Rum Runner nightclub in Birmingham, whose conviction that the five-piece would eventually hit the big time was such that Michael Berrow mortgaged his house to finance a tour with Hazel O’Connor. I don’t like all strange cults, but in this case, I do like this one.Duran Duran emerged out of the state-funded art-school free-for-all of the 1970s, though their naked ambition and subsequent years of success would coincide with those of Margaret Thatcher it’s difficult to imagine they could have existed at any other time. It was the first really completely electronic thing that we’d done, and it’s turned into this sort of strange cult. Because I think it was an important stepping block in our sound during the making of the Rio album. “'The Chauffeur,' which I figure you might’ve had. "No, no don’t tell me those off the top of my head," Rhodes said. The list came together when Rhodes was reacting to music site Stereogum running their list of the 10 best Duran Duran tracks. We're commemorating this well-earned accolade with Nick Rhodes himself running down his three favorite Duran Duran songs of all-time. RELATED: June 1981: Duran Duran Debuts with "Duran Duran" I think, for all artists, these tools that we make music with are of the most importance, and I am very grateful to the developers at Roland for staying in touch with the way that music evolves.” These were the instruments that really formed the sound palette that I developed my creativity from. Well, for me, this has always been the Jupiter-8. I started out in 1980 with a Roland System-100, then I graduated to a Jupiter-4, and shortly after to a Jupiter-8.You often hear guitarists talking about the ultimate Les Paul or the 1959 Stratocaster that they just can’t do without. "I am honored to receive it, particularly as Roland has been such a big part of my life since the beginning of my career. “Wow, a huge thank you to everyone at Roland for this glorious award," Rhodes said in a press statement. He's been honored with the sixth annual Lifetime Achievement Award from Roland, the manufacturer of such iconic keyboards as the Juno-6 and one of Rhodes' personal favorites, the Jupiter-8. Congratulations are in order for Duran Duran's legendary keyboard player, Nick Rhodes.
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