Duran Prove All They Need is Now!
Duran Duran sauntered onto the stage at close to 7-30pm which is just about 3-30am in Britain and if I was staying awake for it, it was going to have to be worth it. Bit by bit, player by player the pieces of the intro to ‘Planet Earth’ built up and the show was underway. ‘I only came outside to watch the night fall with the rain…’
‘Hungry like the Wolf’ followed before the brilliant title track of their new album, All You Need is Now. Simon told us the song was about ‘not looking up, not looking down, living right now!’ He could have said anything, by this point the crowd was in the palm of his hand.
Duran looked confident blending new tracks with the favourites everybody loves to hear from them. At no point did it look a struggle for Le Bon to sing the older material which, lets face it, it can be for some artists. ‘Notorious’ sounded brilliant. You could be forgiven for thinking that the impressive start was bound to tail off and there would be a lull. There wasn’t. Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters was on hand to sing her part of Safe (In the Heat of the Moment). ‘How bout you and me get down, babe I know you’ve been around’… It sounded delicious.
Today Ana beamed with joy over twitter at the performance with Duran and dancing to Rio, but the band had more to give before that point including a spellbinding performance of ‘The Chauffeur’, complete with Simon in the hat and arty pink lights and images on the screens. The rendition of ‘Ordinary World’ was a personal highlight, dedicated by Simon to “absent friends or anyone really”. I love that song and Simon’s voice sounded as good here as it did in the studio version.
I couldn’t finish this review without mentioning the John Barry James Bond medley, a classy tip of the hat to the man. They played ‘Diamonds are Forever’ and various Bond themes before slowly bringing in View to a Kill with Simon changed into a white suit.
They finished with Nick Rhodes taking pictures of the crowd, and the familiar camera shutter sound that heralded the hit ‘Girls on Film’ which even included a brief rendition of Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’, it had to be heard / seen to be believed.
Duran Duran may have been massive in the 80’s, but when they say that all you need is now, they mean it and when the Now is this impressive, no-one can argue.
Given to Sounds 
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