The Music Of The 80s - Favorites, Classics And Rarities

[Cain N Moko]

THE TUBES

 

After 1977's failed concept record The Tubes Now, the group toured England, where a series of banned performances made them a media sensation. However, during the recording of the concert LP What Do You Want From Live? Waybill broke his leg onstage while acting out his punk character Johnny Bugger; the remainder of the tour was cancelled, and with it died the band's chart momentum. After returning to the U.S., they recruited producer Todd Rundgren and recorded 1979's Remote Control, a concept album exploring the influence of television; when it met a similar commercial fate as its predecessors, the Tubes were dropped by A&M.

 

In 1980, The Tubes appeared in the movie and in the soundtrack of Xanadu, with a song called "Dancin'" which also featured Olivia Newton John. The album was under Columbia Records and for some reason or another, Columbia didn't sign them up.

 

After signing to Capitol, they recorded 1981's Completion Backwards Principle, an album based on an actual sales training instruction manual; both "Talk to You Later" and "Don't Want to Wait Anymore" earned significant radio play, and the LP became the Tubes' first Top 40 hit. Thanks to its provocative video, the single "She's a Beauty" reached the Top Ten, and pushed the 1983 LP Outside/Inside into the Top 20 Albums chart; after 1985's Love Bomb stiffed, however, the Tubes disbanded, and Welnick later joined the Grateful Dead. In 1993, the Tubes reunited; consisting of Waybill, Steen, Anderson, Prince and new keyboardist Gary Cambra, they toured the U.S. and Europe before releasing a new LP, Genius of America, in 1996. Spooner also issued his own solo record, Mall to Mars. In 2000, the Tubes embarked on another extensive tour, issuing the greatest-hits-live album Tubes World Tour to commemorate the event

[BnF95]

Any info on Kid Creole and the Coconuts or The Damned?

Also Princess Stephanie of Monaco did a disc or two in the really late 80s.

[Cain N Moko]

THE PRETENDERS

 

Over the years, the Pretenders became a vehicle for guitarist/vocalist Chrissie Hynde's songwriting, yet it was a full-fledged band when it was formed in the late '70s. With their initial records, the group crossed the bridge between punk/new wave and Top 40 pop more than any other band, recording a series of hard, spiky singles that were also melodic and immediately accessible. Hynde was an invigorating, sexy singer who bent the traditional male roles of rock & roll to her own liking, while guitarist James Honeyman-Scott created a sonic palate filled with suspended chords, effects pedals, and syncopated rhythms that proved remarkably influential over the next two decades. After Honeyman-Scott's death, the Pretenders became a more straightforward rock band, yet Hynde's semi-autobiographical songwriting and bracing determination meant that the group never became just another rock band, even when their music became smoother and more pop-oriented.

 

Originally from Akron, OH, Hynde moved to England in the early '70s, when she was in her 20s. British rock journalist Nick Kent helped her begin writing for the New Musical Express; she wrote for the newspaper during the mid-'70s. She also worked in Malcolm McLaren's Sex boutique before she began performing. After playing with Chris Spedding, she joined Jack Rabbit; she quickly left the band and formed the Berk Brothers.

 

In 1978, Hynde formed the Pretenders, which eventually consisted of Honeyman-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers.

 

Later in the year, they recorded a version of Ray Davies' "Stop Your Sobbing" produced by Nick Lowe. The single made it into the British Top 40 in early 1979. "Kid" and "Brass in Pocket," the group's next two singles, also were successful. Their self-titled debut album was released in early 1980 and eventually climbed to number one in the U.K. The Pretenders were nearly as successful in America, with the album reaching the Top Ten and "Brass in Pocket" reaching number 14.

 

During an American tour in 1980, Hynde met Ray Davies and the two fell in love. Following a spring 1981 EP, Extended Play, the group released their second album, Pretenders II. Although it fared well on the charts, it repeated the musical ideas of their debut. In June of 1982, Pete Farndon was kicked out of the band, due to his drug abuse. A mere two days later on June 16, James Honeyman-Scott was found dead of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Pregnant with Davies' child, Hynde went into seclusion following Honeyman-Scott's death. In 1983, two months after Hynde gave birth, Farndon also died of a drug overdose.

 

Hynde regrouped the Pretenders in February 1983, adding former Manfred Mann's Earth Band guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bassist Malcolm Foster; the reconstituted band released "2000 Miles" in time for Christmas. The new Pretenders released Learning to Crawl early in 1984 to positive reviews and commercial success. The Pretenders scored their biggest hits with this album with Back on the Chain Gang and Middle of the Road both hitting the US Top 10 and Show Me which reached the US Top 40. Hynde married Jim Kerr, the lead vocalist of Simple Minds, in May of 1984, effectively ending her romance with Ray Davies.

 

Apart from a performance at Live Aid, the only musical activity from the Pretenders during 1985 was Hynde's appearance on UB40's version of "I Got You Babe." Hynde assembled another version of the Pretenders for 1986's Get Close. Only McIntosh and herself remained from Learning to Crawl; the rest of the album was recorded with session musicians. Get Close showed the Pretenders moving closer to MOR territory, with the bouncy single "Don't Get Me Wrong" making its way into the American Top Ten in 1987. Hynde recorded another duet with UB40 in 1988, a cover of Dusty Springfield's "Breakfast in Bed."

 

Hynde's marriage to Kerr fell apart in 1990, the same year the Pretenders released Packed!, which failed to ignite the charts in either America or Britain. She was relatively quiet for the next few years, re-emerging in 1994 with Last of the Independents, which was hailed as a comeback by some quarters of the press. The album did return the Pretenders to the Top 40 with the ballad "I'll Stand by You." In the fall of 1995, the Pretenders released the live album Isle of View, then remained silent for a few years. Hynde finally returned in 1999 with an album of new material, Viva el Amor. Three years later, The Pretenders left their longtime label for Artemis. The reggae tinged Loose Screw appeared in November and a tour followed in January 2003

[Cain N Moko]

KID CREOLE and the COCONUTS

 

Thomas August Darnell Browder (aka August Darnell) was born in Montreal on August 12, 1950, the son of a French Canadian mother and a Dominican father, but was raised in the New York City borough of the Bronx. In 1965, he formed the In-Laws with his half-brother, Stony Browder, Jr. He earned a master's degree in English and became an English teacher, but in 1974 again joined his half-brother as bass guitarist, singer, and lyricist in Dr. Buzzard's Original "Savannah" Band, a group that mixed disco with big band and Latin styles. In 1976, Dr. Buzzard achieved a gold-selling album with its self-titled debut release, which featured the Top 40 hit "Whispering/Cherchez La Femme/Se Si Bon," but its subsequent recordings were less successful. Darnell began to write and produce for other acts, co-composing Machine's 1979 chart entry "There But for the Grace of God Go I" and working with James Chance among others. In 1980, he became a staff producer at Ze Records and created the persona of Kid Creole (the name adapted from the Elvis Presley film King Creole) with a backup group, the Coconuts, consisting of three female singers led by his wife Adriana ("Addy") Kaegi, and a band containing vibraphone player "Sugar-Coated" Andy Hernandez (a/k/a Coati Mundi), also from Dr. Buzzard. Kid Creole was a deliberately comic figure, a Latinized Cab Calloway type in a zoot suit and broad-brimmed hat who sang songs like "Mister Softee" that found him decrying his impotence while being berated by the Coconuts. Off the Coast of Me, the first Kid Creole & the Coconuts album, was released in August 1980 by Island Records subsidiary Antilles through a distribution deal with Ze. It earned good reviews for its clever lyrics and mixture of musical styles, but did not sell.

Ze made a deal with Sire Records (in turn part of Warner Bros. Records), and Sire released the second Kid Creole & the Coconuts album, Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places, in June 1981. It reached the charts briefly, and Coati Mundi's dance single, "Me No Pop I," was a Top 40 hit in the U.K. Fresh Fruit was a concept album that found the Kid Creole character embarking on an Odyssey-like search for a character named Mimi, and it was given a stage production at the New York Public Theater. Darnell continued the story with his third album, which was released in the U.K. under the title Tropical Gangsters in May 1982. The band toured Britain for the first time to promote the album, and they broke big: The LP hit #3 and three singles, "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby," "Stool Pigeon," and "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy," made the Top Ten, with "Dear Addy" reaching the Top 40. In the U.S., where the album was retitled Wise Guy, the band remained cult favorites, though the album charted and "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby" made the R&B singles charts. In 1983, Darnell produced side projects for the Coconuts (Don't Steal My Coconuts) and Coati Mundi (The Former Twelve Year Old Genius) before releasing the fourth Kid Creole album Doppelganger, which completed the Mimi cycle. The album got into the charts in the U.K., where the single "There's Something Wrong in Paradise" made the Top 40, but it did not chart at home and was a commercial disappointment after the breakthrough represented by Tropical Gangsters/Wise Guy.

 

Nevertheless, Kid Creole & the Coconuts remained a compelling live act with an imaginative visual style, which led to film and television opportunities. They appeared in the film Against All Odds in 1984, with a hit "Male Curiosity" which appears on the soundtrack, and continued to be tapped for movie projects in subsequent years, either for appearances or music: New York Stories (1989), The Forbidden Dance (1990), Identity Crisis (1990), Only You (1992), Car 54, Where Are You? (1994). They also made a TV film, Something Wrong in Paradise, based on the Mimi cycle and broadcast on Granada TV in the U.K. in December 1984.

 

Darnell broke up with his wife in 1985, and the original band split, with the Coconuts forming a group called Boomerang, while Andy Hernandez appeared in the Madonna film Who's That Girl? (1987). Darnell pressed on, appearing at the Montreux Jazz Festival and releasing the fifth Kid Creole and the Coconuts album, In Praise of Older Women and Other Crimes, which did not chart. Neither did the sixth album, I, Too, Have Seen the Woods (1987). The group joined Barry Manilow on "Hey Mambo," a song on his Swing Street album that made the singles charts. Darnell then took time off to write In a Pig's Valise, an Off-Broadway show that ran for 12 weeks. Kid Creole & the Coconuts, now featuring former Dr. Buzzard singer Cory Daye, resurfaced in 1990 on Columbia Records, issuing a seventh album, Private Waters in the Great Divide, which featured "The Sex of It," a song written by Prince that made the British Top 40 and the American R&B charts. It was followed a year later by You Shoulda Told Me You Were ....

 

Kid Creole & the Coconuts spent the 1990s touring internationally and releasing albums primarily outside the U.S. To Travel Sideways and Kiss Me Before the Light Changes both appeared initially in Japan, though they found stateside release on a small label in 1995. The Conquest of You was released in Germany in 1997. (An American release on Fuel 2000 was scheduled for 1999, but did not occur.) In the U.S., the group appeared in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Kid Creole starred in the British musical Oh! What a Night, which ran in the West End from August to October 1999

[Cain N Moko]

THE DAMNED

 

As punk's history enters a new millennium, the impact of the band initially judged "the least likely to" seems to grow ever more each day. The Ramones hold deserved pride of place for kick-starting the whole thing, while the Sex Pistols and to a lesser extent the Clash helped take it to an even more notorious level, role models for many young bands to this day. But arguably just as important and memorable were the Damned, London contemporaries of the Pistols and Clash that made their own mark from the start. Eschewing political posing, ill-fitting outside rhetoric, and simply doing the same thing over and over again, the group -- lacking anything like a stable lineup -- took punk's simplicity and promise as a starting point and ran with it. The end result, at the group's finest: a series of inspired, ambitious albums and amazing live shows combining full-on rock energy, a stylish sense of performance, and humorous deadpan cool. Not necessarily what anyone would have thought when Ray Burns and Chris Millar met in 1974 when both ended up working backstage at the Croydon Fairfield Hall.

Burns and Millar -- more famously known in later years as guitarist/singer Captain Sensible and manic drummer Rat Scabies -- kept in touch as both struggled in the stultifying mid-'70s London scene. Things picked up when Scabies talked his way into a rehearsal with London SS, the shifting lineup ground zero of U.K. punk that nearly everybody seemed to belong to at one point or another. There he met guitarist Brian James, while in a separate venture overseen by Malcolm McLaren, casting about for his own particular group to oversee, Scabies first met theatrical singer Dave Vanian, still working through his New York Dolls/Alice Cooper obsession. Vanian's own history allegedly included singing "I Love the Dead" and "Dead Babies" while working as a gravedigger, but whatever the background, he proved to be a perfect frontman. Scabies put Sensible in touch with Vanian and James and the Damned were born, with Sensible switching over to bass while James handled guitar and songwriting.

 

Though the Sex Pistols became the most publicized of all the original London punk groups, forming and playing before everyone else, the Damned actually ended up scoring most of the firsts on its own, notably the first U.K. punk single -- "New Rose" -- in 1976 and the first album, Damned Damned Damned, the following year. Produced by Nick Lowe, both were clipped, direct explosions of sheer energy, sometimes rude but never less than entertaining. The group ended up sacked from the Pistols' cancellation-plagued full U.K. tour after only one show, but rebounded with a opening slot on the final T. Rex tour, while further tweaking everyone else's noses by being the first U.K. act to take punk back to America via a New York jaunt. Things started to get fairly shaky after that, however, with Lu Edmonds drafted in on second guitar and plans for the group's second album, Music for Pleasure, not succeeding as hoped for. The members wanted legendary rock burnout Syd Barrett to produce, but had to settle for his Pink Floyd bandmate Nick Mason. The indifferent results and other pressures convinced Scabies to call it a day, and while future Culture Club drummer Jon Moss was drafted in to cover, the group wrapped it up in early 1978.

 

Or so it seemed; after various go-nowhere ventures (Sensible tried the retro-psych King, Vanian temporarily joined glam-too-late oddballs the Doctors of Madness), all the original members save James realized they still enjoyed working together. Settling the legal rights to the name after some shows incognito in late 1978, the group, now with Sensible playing lead guitar (and also the first U.K. punk band to reunite), embarked on its most successful all-around period. With a series of bassists -- first ex-Saints member Algy Ward, then Eddie and the Hot Rods refugee Paul Gray and finally Bryn Merrick -- the Damned proceeded to make a run of stone-cold classic albums and singles. There'd be plenty of low points amidst the highs, to be sure, but it's hard to argue with the results. Vanian's smart crooning and spooky theatricality ended up more or less founding goth rock inadvertently (with nearly all his clones forgetting what he always kept around -- an open sense of humor). Sensible, meanwhile, turned out to be an even better guitarist than James, a master of tight riffs and instantly memorable melodies and, when needed, a darn good keyboardist, while Scabies' ghost-of-Keith Moon drumming was some of the most entertaining yet technically sharp work on that front in years.

 

The one-two punch of Machine Gun Etiquette, the 1979 reunion record, and the following year's The Black Album demonstrated the band's staying power well, packed with such legendary singles as the intentionally ridiculous "Love Song," the anthemic "Smash It Up," and "Wait for the Blackout" and the catchy Satanism (if you will) of "I Just Can't Be Happy Today." On the live front, the Damned were unstoppable, riding out punk's supposed death with a series of fiery performances laden with both great playing and notable antics, from Sensible's penchant for clothes-shedding to Vanian's eye for horror style and performance. 1982's Strawberries found the Damned creating another generally fine release, but to less public acclaim than Sensible's solo work, the guitarist having surprisingly found himself a number one star with a version of "Happy Talk" from South Pacific. While the dual career lasted for a year or two more, the Damned found themselves starting to fracture again with little more than a hardcore fan base supporting the group work -- Sensible finally left in mid-1984 after disputes over band support staff hirings and firings. Second guitarist Roman Jugg, having joined some time previously, stepped to the lead and the band continued on.

 

To everyone's surprise, not only did the Damned bounce back, they did so in a very public way -- first by ending up on a major label, MCA, who issued Phantasmagoria in 1985, then scoring a massive U.K. hit via a cover of "Eloise," a melodramatic '60s smash for Barry Ryan. It was vindication on a commercial level a decade after having first started, but the Anything album in 1986, flashes of inspiration aside, felt far more anonymous in comparison, the band's worst since Music for Pleasure. After a full career retrospective release, The Light at the End of the Tunnel, the band undertook a variety of farewell tours, including dates with both Sensible and James joining the then-current quartet. The end of 1989 brought a final We Really Must Be Going tour in the U.K., featuring the original quartet in one last bow, which would seem to have been the end to things.

 

Anything but. 1991 brought the I Didn't Say It tour, with Paul Gray rejoining the band to play along with the quartet. It was the first in a series of dates and shows throughout the '90s which essentially confirmed the group as a nostalgia act, concentrating on the early part of its career for audiences often too young to have even heard about them the first time around. It was a good nostalgia act, though, with performances regularly showing the old fire (and Sensible his legendary stage presence, often finishing shows nude). After some 1992 shows, the Damned disappeared again for a while -- but when December 1993 brought some more dates, an almost all-new band was the result. Only Scabies and Vanian remained, much like the late '80s lineup; their cohorts were guitarists Kris Dollimore and Alan Lee Shaw and bassist Moose.

 

This quintet toured and performed in Japan and Europe for about two years, also recording demos here and there that Vanian claimed he believed were for a projected future album with both Sensible and James contributing. Whatever the story, nothing more might have happened if Scabies hadn't decided to work out a formal release of those demos as Not of This Earth, first appearing in Japan in late November 1995. Vanian, having reestablished contact with Sensible during the former's touring work with his Phantom Chords band, responded by breaking with Scabies, reuniting fully with Sensible and recruiting a new group to take over the identity of the Damned. Initially this consisted of Gray once again, plus drummer Garrie Dreadful and keyboardist Monty. However, Gray was replaced later in 1996 following an onstage tantrum by, in a totally new twist, punk veteran Patricia Morrison, known for her work in the Gun Club and the Sisters of Mercy among many other bands. Scabies reacted to all this with threats of lawsuits and vituperative public comments, but after all was said and done, Vanian, Sensible, and company maintained the rights to the name, occasional billing as "ex-members of the Damned" aside, done to avoid further trouble.

 

Since then, this latest version of the Damned has toured on a fairly regular basis, though this time with instability in the drumming department (Dreadful left at the end of 1998, first replaced by Spike, then later in 1999 by Pinch). While Vanian continued to pursue work with the Phantom Chords, for the first time in years, the Damned started to become a true active going concern again, the lineup gelling and holding together enough to warrant further attention. The capper was a record contract in 2000 with Nitro Records, the label founded and run by longtime Damned fanatic Bryan Holland, singer with the Offspring (who covered "Smash It Up" for the Batman Forever soundtrack in the mid-'90s). In a fun personal note, meanwhile, Morrison and Vanian married, perhaps making them the ultimate punk/goth couple of all time.

 

As of 2001, the Vanian/Sensible-led Damned looked to be in fine shape, releasing the album Grave Disorder on Nitro and touring to general acclaim. Knowing the fractured history of the band -- captured in the literally endless series of releases, authorized and otherwise, from all periods of its career, live, studio, compilations, and more -- it'd be a foolish person who'd claim things will stay on an even keel for the future. Permanently losing Scabies would seem to have been a killer blow on first blush, but the group soldiers on regardless, a welcome influence from the past as well as a group of fine entertainers for the present. Regardless of where the next years take them -- and who knows if there might not be one more full reunion tour many moons from now -- long live the Damned

[hitman531ph]

TOTO

 

Toto was formed in Los Angeles in 1978 by David Paich (b. June 21, 1954, Los Angeles; keyboards, vocals), Steve Lukather (b. October 21, 1957, Los Angeles; guitar, vocals), Bobby Kimball (b. Robert Toteaux, March 29, 1947, Vinton, LA; vocals), Steve Porcaro (b. September 2, 1957, Connecticut; keyboards), David Hungate (b. Texas; bass), and Jeff Porcaro (b. April 1, 1954, Hartford, CT; d. August 5, 1992, Hidden Hills, CA; drums). Paich was the son of arranger Marty Paich; the Porcaros were the sons of percussionist Joe Porcaro. The bandmembers had met in high school and at studio sessions in the 1970s, when they became some of the busiest session musicians in the music business. Paich, Hungate, and Jeff Porcaro wrote songs for and performed on Silk Degrees, the multi-million-selling 1976 album that combined pop, rock, and disco elements into a slick combination which heavily influenced mainstream pop music.

 

Toto released its self-titled debut album in October 1978, and it hit the Top Ten, sold two-million copies, and spawned the gold Top Ten single "Hold the Line." The gold-selling Hydra (October 1979) and Turn Back (January 1981) were less successful, but Toto IV (April 1982) was a multi-platinum Top Ten hit, featuring the number-one hit "Africa" and the Top Tens "Rosanna" (about Lukather's girlfriend, movie star Rosanna Arquette) and "I Won't Hold You Back." "Waiting For your Love" and "It's A Feeling" became RT classics. At the 1982 Grammys, "Rosanna" won awards for Record of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Instrumental Arrangement With Vocal; and Toto IV won awards for Album of the Year, Best Engineered Recording, and Best Producer (the group). In 1984, a third Porcaro brother, Mike (b. May 29, 1955), joined the group on bass, replacing Hungate. Then lead singer Kimball quit and was replaced by Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen (b. May 15, 1951, Wyoming, MI).

 

Toto's fifth album, Isolation (November 1984), went gold, on the strength of its lone US Top 20 single "Stranger in Town", but was a commercial disappointment. Frederiksen was replaced by Joseph Williams (b. Santa Monica), the son of the conductor/composer John Williams, for Fahrenheit (August 1986). Fahrenheit did well as the group returned to the US Top 5 with "I'll Be Over You". The singles "Lea" and "Without Your Love" became Adult Comtemporary favorites.

 

Steve Porcaro quit in 1988, prior to the release of The Seventh One. In 1990, Jean-Michel Byron replaced Williams for the new recordings on Past to Present 1977-1990, then left, as Lukather became the group's lead singer. Jeff Porcaro died of a heart attack in 1992, but was featured on the group's next album, Kingdom of Desire. By this time, Toto was far more popular in Japan and Europe than at home. The group added British drummer Simon Phillips. Tambu, released in Europe in the late fall of 1995, appeared in the U.S. in June 1996. For 1999's Mindfields, Bobby Kimball returned to the lineup after a 15-year absence. The group members continued to do session work during the band's tenure, contributing significantly to the sound of mainstream pop/rock in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s.

[VX200Racer]

Mardones, Benny

"Into the Night"

1980

 

Mary Jane Girls

"In My House"

1985

 

M/A/R/R/S

"Pump up the Volume"

1988

 

McFerrin , Bobby

"Don't Worry, Be Happy"

1988 

 

 

Moving Pictures

"What About Me"

1983

 

Musical Youth

"Pass the Dutchie"

1983

 

Myles, Allanah

"Black Velvet"

1989 

 

Nena

"99 Luftballoons" ("99 Red Balloons")

1984

 

Nu Shooz

"I Can't Wait"

1986

 

Numan, Gary

"Cars"

1980

 

Ollie & Jerry

"Breakin... There's No Stopping Us"

1984

 

Opus

"Live is Life"

1986

 

Oxo

"Whirly Girl"

1983

 

Poindexter, Buster

"Hot, Hot, Hot"

1988?

 

Pretty Poison

"Catch Me (I'm Falling)"

1987

 

Re-Flex

"The Politics of Dancing"

1984

 

Red Rider

"Lunatic Fringe"

1981

 

Rockwell

"Somebody's Watching Me"

1984

 

Rossington-Collins Band

"Don't Misunderstand Me"

1980

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Diba Real Life yung band na kumanta "Catch me (I'm Falling"? Favorite ko din sila...

[VX200Racer]

DURAN DURAN LIVE FROM LONDON DVD

 

I recently bought a DVD of Duran Duran Live From London DVD.

 

The DVD concert featured their 2004 concert in London.  What's good about the DVD is that the concert is played by all five original members of Duran Duran from the first album since their reunion in 2001.  Roger Taylor (drums) and Andy Taylor (lead guitar) reunited with Simon Le Bon (vocals, flute, harmonica), Nick Rhodes (keyboard/synthesizers) and John Taylor (bass).

 

The DVD also celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Duran Duran as a band.

 

Andy and Roger also gamely played Duran Duran hits when they were no longer with the group.  The DVD features an audio commentary of some of the songs and a photo gallery as well.

 

Except for Reach Out for the Sunrise (2004), What Happens Tomorrow (2004), Ordinary World (1993) and Come Undone (1993), Duran Duran played most of their 80s hits to perfection.

 

Here's the list of their 80s songs on the DVD:

 

A View To A k*ll

The Chauffeur

New Religion

Is There Something I Should Know

Hungry Like the Wolf

Union of the Snake

Night Boat

The Reflex

Notorious

I Don't Want Your Love

Planet Earth

Careless Memories

Save a Prayer

Rio

Wild Boys

Girls on Film

 

Also features Andy Hamilton on saxophone and Sara Brown on backing vocals

 

However, I was slightly disappointed that their hits So Serious (1991) and New Moon on Monday (1983) was not in their repertoire.  But the DVD is very good already.

 

The 1990s member Warren Cuccurullo does not make any appearance although he was mentioned in the commentaries.

 

Simon Colley, Stephen Duffy, Andy Wickett and John Curtis were not present either, nor were they mentioned.  These four guys were once a part of Duran Duran before the band recorded anything yet.

 

The DVD features regular stereo, SRS Surround 5.1 and DTS 5.1

 

Forget Arena.  Forget Sing Blue Silver.

 

The Duran Duran Live From London DVD is a must-have on the shelves of DVD collectors, especially for the now all-grown-up "Durannies" of the 80s.

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That would be a nice DVD to own. I think it wasnt in the A&B DVD shelves in 2004 when I was looking around...Part pala si Stephen Tintin Duffy (known din sa Kiss Me song)....sa Duran2! I ended up buying a New Order DVD. Then a Cure DVD - yung B side DVD!

[VX200Racer]

Thank you very much...

 

DANNY WILSON

 

Like Matt Bianco, Danny Wilson was a band with nobody named Danny Wilson or Danny or Wilson.

 

Top 40 radio developed a brief crush on Danny Wilson in the late '80s. Formed in Dundee, Scotland, Danny Wilson shared the same pop sensibilities as compatriots the Big Dish, the Blue Nile, and Deacon Blue. Singer Gary Clark's breathy, yearning vocals on 1987's "Mary's Prayer" earned the group its first -- and only -- hit stateside, but the band slowly amassed a cult following that usually develops with artists possessing timeless songwriting abilities. Formed by Clark, his brother Kit Clark, and percussionist Ged Grimes, Danny Wilson was signed to Virgin Records in 1985. Two years later, the group released their debut LP, Meet Danny Wilson. The single "Mary's Prayer" peaked at number three in the U.K. in 1988, and it was a surprise success in America as well.

 

Named after the 1952 Frank Sinatra film Meet Danny Wilson, Danny Wilson was obviously enamored of '60s soul and Steely Dan's cool, sophisticated arrangements. Consequently, the band's retro sound never fit in with the U.K. rock scene of the late '80s, although they were often compared to Prefab Sprout, another group that defied contemporary trends and featured a singer with a velvety voice. "Second Summer of Love" also landed on the British charts in 1989 with a hit "Everything You Said Was True"; however, after their follow-up album Bebop Moptop, Danny Wilson broke up and Gary Clark went solo. In 1993, Clark recorded Ten Short Songs About Love. He then formed the short-lived King L, releasing Great Day for Gravity in 1995. Clark joined former King L member Eric Pressly (bass) and female singer Keeley Hawkes in Transister, creating a completely different sound with hard-edged guitars and samples on their 1997 self-titled album. But, by 2000, he was no longer with them. In 2001, Clark co-wrote and produced tracks on Natalie Imbruglia's White Lilies Island

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Mary's Prayer ko nasa cassette tape ko lang. Sayang wala na yung CD Warehouse sa Greenbelt...o shoppesville doon ako 'tambay' madalas where I got great albums from Scritti Politti and Housemartins. Ok Matt Bianco - nakakuha ako sa Calgary (Alberta) Canada ng the Best Album nila...yung the best ng Orange Juice unfortunately has tracks 12 above broken up by static..noon sinosoli ko na eh sabi ng store ownner akin na lang daw hehehe..then bought the Adventures instead...and regretted not buying a lesser known album of the Mighty Lemon Drops!

[hitman531ph]

You can find Mary's Prayer by Danny Wilson on a CD compilation called The Greatest Rock Ballads Ever. The CD also includes 70s, 80s and 90s rock ballads

[hitman531ph]

Diba Real Life yung band  na kumanta "Catch me (I'm Falling"? Favorite ko din sila...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You quoted a previous post of one-hit wonders of the 80s. They are the artists or groups who have had no follow-up hits to this day.

 

Since Real Life made it to the US Top 40 twice, that technically does not classify them as a one-hit wonder. Their two US (and UK) Top 40 hits were "Send Me An Angel" and "Catch Me I'm Falling" both recorded in 1984.

 

The 1987 recording of Pretty Poison's "Catch Me I'm Falling" has the same title with the song of Real Life but it is an entirely different song. It was a dancefloor hit that crossed over to the pop charts in 1987 but the Pretty Poison song was in no way new wave.

[hitman531ph]

That would be a nice DVD to own. I think it wasnt in the A&B DVD shelves in 2004 when I was looking around...Part pala si Stephen Tintin Duffy (known din sa Kiss Me song)....sa Duran2! I ended up buying a New Order DVD. Then a Cure DVD - yung B side DVD!

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The Duran Duran Live From London DVD features their 2004 concert but was actually released on DVD only last October and November 2005 (depending on the country).

 

The best concert I've seen from Duran Duran ever. The concert recording is also the best. Their Arena live recordings in the 80s were terribly recorded. This new one is a total makeover in concert recording.

Edited December 28, 2005 by hitman531ph

[VX200Racer]

great thread hitman...dami pang ok na new wave bands like New Order, Joy Division at yung new band nila...ano yun? Nag emerge sa early 90's

[hitman531ph]

great thread hitman...dami pang ok na new wave bands like New Order, Joy Division at yung new band nila...ano yun? Nag emerge sa early 90's

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New Order split into two groups in the early 90s. The other one was called "The Other Two" which had 1 hit titled "Selfish" in the 90s.

[hitman531ph]

The Official Duran Duran Biography:

 

(Funny, it didn't mention their US Top 10 hit "New Moon on Monday" from Seven and the Ragged Tiger, "I Don't Want Your Love" from "Big Thing" and "So Serious" from the Liberty album)

 

Twenty six years after the formation of Duran Duran, the five original members: Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor, are back together again - long after they parted company to pursue other projects.

 

With the same undeniable musical chemistry and signature style that propelled them to the top of the charts, the band reunited in 2001 to record a new album that was released late last year to worldwide critical acclaim. With wonderfully infectious songs, excellent musicianship, thrilling arrangements and raw and edgy vocals, the band's latest album - 'Astronaut' (Epic Records) - is quintessentially and unmistakably "classic Duran Duran for the new millennium".

 

Duran Duran have sold over 70 million records to date and have had an extraordinary career that has made them one of the most successful groups of the past few decades. They fused pop music, art and fashion to an unprecedented degree and single-handedly transformed music video production, taking the medium from a simple marketing tool into what is now one of the music industry's most valuable assets. With exotic locations, beautiful girls and stunning visuals, Duran Duran set a whole new standard. Their success followed years of hard work and relentless touring. Good looks, great style and a wealth of confidence completed the package.

 

They wrote classic, timeless pop songs combining rock guitars with compelling melodies and memorable lyrics. They played to sold-out audiences around the world and broke box office records everywhere they went. The media compared them to the Beatles as hysteria preceded them, both on stage and off. Rolling Stone magazine called them 'The Fab Five'. They tapped into the mood of the times and captured an army of adoring fans.

 

Now they are back together to do it all again.

 

Formed in Birmingham, England in 1978, by keyboardist Nick Rhodes and bassist John Taylor, Duran Duran's sound was inspired by the soul music of their youth, the vibrant New York underground music scene of the 70's (the New York Dolls and Velvet Underground), the iconic David Bowie and avant garde bands like Roxy Music. At the time, John was at art college and Nick was finishing up at high school.

 

The first incarnation of the band was rounded out by fellow art student Stephen Duffy and another friend, who was at catering college - Simon Colley. Simon played clarinet and bass. Nick had one small synthesizer and a drum machine. John played guitar and Stephen sang and played a fretless. The local college circuit became their practice ground, but before too long Simon and Stephen moved on to pursue other opportunities and Nick and John were left looking for replacements.

 

Over the subsequent months, a number of new faces came and went before Roger Taylor joined the band on drums. He was more experienced than many of his predecessors in the group, having played with local punk heroes, The Scent Organs. With Roger on board, John took up the bass and the newly christened Duran Duran (named after a character in Roger Vadim's sci-fi classic, Barbarella) started to develop a funky style, that was less about punk rock and more in tune with some of the up-and-coming bands of the day, like Simple Minds and Japan.

 

Although still newcomers, John, Roger and Nick were keen to find a label for themselves, so quickly started to send out their demos, visit London-based record companies and find higher profile gigs that they thought could further their cause. As part of this process, they approached the local Rum Runner nightclub - a fashionable spot where they were confident they would go over well.

 

Listening to their demos, the owners of the Rum Runner, Paul and Michael Berrow, saw something in the band that they were sure they could make successful. Immediately the band became residents at the club, writing and rehearsing in an empty room during the day and DJ'ing and working in the club at night.

 

Auditions for new band members followed - with Andy Taylor answering an ad in Melody Maker and Simon LeBon joining shortly thereafter, having been introduced by his ex-girlfriend, who bartended at the club. Unlike the rest of the band, Simon came from the South, but was studying drama at Birmingham University.

 

In the months that followed, the band worked tirelessly - writing and recording, and playing live whenever and wherever they could. By 1980, after supporting Hazel O'Connor on tour, their efforts were rewarded as the buzz built and a record company bidding war erupted. Eventually EMI Records came through, putting the band immediately into the studio with producer Colin Thurston.

 

Their eponymous debut album sold more than 2.5 million copies in 1981, staying on the charts for an astonishing 118 weeks and spawning the hit single 'Planet Earth'. That same year, they became the first pop act to do a 12" remix (also 'Planet Earth') and to release a controversial video (directed by Godley and Creme) for the dance mix of 'Girls on Film', that was subsequently banned by both MTV and the BBC.

 

With hindsight, it seems strange that the band so rapidly became the poster-boys for a new generation of teenagers, as 'Duran Duran' was the antithesis of a traditional pop album. The lyrical themes were obviously adult-orientated; the music - while pop-tinged and dance-fueled - had a much darker quality. As they themselves had initially stated, there was a hint of early Damned to their sound; a shadowed, European twist that filled the album with an almost gloomy atmosphere.

 

Songs like 'Careless Memories' and indeed the entire second side of their first album weren't far removed in mood from post-punk bands like The Cure, the Psychedelic Furs, Echo and the Bunnymen and many other precursors of the whole Goth movement. What spared Duran Duran from living entombment, however, was their dance-inducing rhythms and Rhodes' very experimental electronics.

 

Duran Duran shot to fame as part of the "Second British Invasion" of the 1980s that included groups like Spandau Ballet, Human League, Ultravox and Culture Club - and yet, they always stood apart - delivering an electric live show, pushing the boundaries of new technology and enduring longer than any of their peers.

 

Classic chart-toppers such as 'Hungry Like the Wolf', 'Rio' and 'Save A Prayer' followed on their multi-platinum, sophomore release 'Rio', as the band shot to another level of success with their exotic and groundbreaking videos. It was during this time that Princess Diana declared Duran to be her favorite band, and friends like artists Andy Warhol and Keith Haring lent their support. By now the music had traveled outside the UK and the band were enjoying global success.

 

By 1983 'Hungry Like the Wolf' (which was filmed in Sri Lanka by director Russell Mulcahy) had become one of the most played videos on MTV. Later that year 'Is There Something I Should Know' went straight to #1 in the UK and hit #4 in the US.

 

The band's third album, 1984's 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' earned Duran Duran their first Stateside #1, with 'The Reflex'. That same year, Rolling Stone magazine christened the band "The Fab Five", as their single 'Union of the Snake' exploded around the world.

 

By now, the band were playing sold-out arenas and breaking box office records everywhere they went. Awards, hits, and global branding became the norm. As one successful single followed the next, it seemed like they could do no wrong.

 

In only three years they had done three world tours, an unprecedented number of interviews and TV appearances galore. On this schedule there was no respite from the press, the pressure, the demands or the fans. The problem, however, was that although they wanted to pull back, the offers just kept coming - getting better and better all the time.

 

In 1985 an invitation to write for the movie 'A View to a k*ll' earned the group another first when their song became the only Bond theme tune to make it to #1 (an accomplishment that still stands today).

 

With Duran's success still riding high, the label wanted another album. For the first time in years, the band said "no", needing time to draw breath and regroup creatively. Unable to take a total break, however, John and Andy teamed up with Robert Palmer, former Chic drummer Tony Thompson and bassist Bernard Edwards to form the Power Station; while Nick, Simon and Roger embarked on a side project: Arcadia, with guest performers Grace Jones, Sting, David Gilmour and Herbie Hancock.

 

While the Power Station's self titled album found Andy and John moving further afield from Duran Duran's signature sound, with an intriguing hybrid of funk and glamrock, Arcadia's album 'So Red the Rose' was a sublime reaffirmation of the mother ship's style. Pulling threads of darkness from 'Duran Duran', and adding shades of pop from 'Rio' and 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger', the album's first single, 'Election Day', was dark electro-dance-pop at its very best.

 

In July 1985, after some time apart, the five members of Duran Duran got back together to play in Philadelphia at the historic Live Aid concert. Although no one knew it at the time, this would turn out to be the final performance of the original lineup and would mark the end of an era.

 

In early '86, John was approached to write the theme for the film 9 1/2 weeks. In April, his solo effort for the film, 'I Do What I Do', charted on both sides of the Atlantic, as plans started to take shape for Duran Duran to begin work together again in the studio. And then the bombshell came… with Roger Taylor's announcement that he wanted another year off and would be retiring to his Gloucestershire farm for the foreseeable future.

 

Stunned, the four remaining band members returned to the studio in June to start writing and recording, but before long Andy Taylor was following Roger out the door, wanting to give himself a few more months away from the project before starting an album cycle all over again. With hindsight, he says his departure wasn't fuelled by a desire to embark on a solo career. This was, however, the outcome. Following his relocation to Los Angeles, Andy wrote and recorded 'Thunder' with Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones, before taking up the producer's reigns on a string of successful records, including Rod Stewart's comeback release 'Out of Order'.

 

With Andy gone, and Roger officially resigning shortly thereafter, things seemed to be taking a very serious downturn for Duran Duran. Then, in August, the band were contacted by guitarist, Warren Cuccurullo, whose own band, Missing Persons, had recently folded, and the line-up started to take shape once more.

 

Later that year Duran Duran 'Mark II' teamed up with producer Nile Rodgers, to record the funk-based album, 'Notorious'. The album's title track topped the charts, propelling the record to multi-platinum status. Fourteen years later, the same song was sampled by Sean "Puffy" Combs on the posthumous Notorious B.I.G. release, 'Born Again'.

 

But the band's immense success did not end there... 'Notorious' was followed by 'Big Thing' (in 1988), and the release of 'Decade' in 1990 - celebrating their previous ten year's work. Their sixth studio album, 'Liberty' came out later that year - with new drummer Sterling Campbell replacing two-time collaborator Steve Ferrone.

 

In 1993, Nick, Simon, John and Warren went back into the studio to record a new album, 'Duran Duran 2'. Better known as the 'Wedding Album' (because the album artwork featured photos of their parents' weddings) the CD spawned the award winning smash 'Ordinary World' and its equally acclaimed follow-up 'Come Undone'. Released the following year and garnering them some of the best reviews of their career, and the prestigious Ivor Novello songwriting award, the 'Wedding Album' sold more than four million copies around the world, and brought the band a new generation of ardent 'Duranies'.

 

'Thank You' Duran Duran's covers album followed 'DD2', and gave the band a chance to pay homage to many of the great artists that inspired and influenced them over the years. The album included tributes to Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Led Zeppelin, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, amongst many others, and received rave reviews from both fans and the artists themselves.

 

Later that year, Le Bon performed with tenor superstar, Luciano Pavarotti, at the War Child benefit concert in Italy. Other festivals and tours followed, but in between, John Taylor also found time for the Neurotic Outsiders - a quartet comprising former Sex Pistols' Steve Jones, Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum. Originally formed to play a benefit gig in LA, their impromptu onstage jam turned into a viable project that was later signed to Maverick Records and released its eponymous album in 1996.

 

In 1996, after two decades of being with Duran Duran, John Taylor officially left to pursue various solo projects. The following year, the band contributed, 'Out of My Mind' to the film version of 'The Saint' and released 'Medazzaland', which Taylor had played on before leaving. The album featured 'Electric Barbarella', the first song ever to be sold in a download format across the Web.

 

In 2000, after the release of two Duran tribute albums (featuring artists as diverse as Kylie Minogue, and Ben Lee on one and the Deftones and Goldfinger on the other), Hollywood Records put out the critically acclaimed 'Pop Trash' CD, which the band supported with an extremely successful international tour, that featured the first use of 'augmented reality' technology in a live concert. At the end of the tour, Warren left the group to return to Missing Persons.

 

With the most recent world tour behind them, Simon took a well-earned break at the start of the new millennium, while Nick joined long-time friend and collaborator Stephen Duffy, as The Devils, to work on their debut album, 'Dark Circles' (released in late 2002).

 

Over the years many people tried to encourage the original members of Duran Duran to reform to capitalize on the obvious chemistry that existed between them. While they were busy pursuing other, individual interests, however, this never happened. In 2000, with the band's silver jubilee fast approaching, the timing felt right and conversations were initiated. At first the talk was only of a reunion tour, but once in a room together again the creative juices started to flow. As 2001 rolled around Duran's original 'Fab Five' went back into the studio to embark on the writing process for their first album together in almost eighteen years. Charged by the challenge of "taking back their crown", Simon, Nick, Andy, Roger and John worked hard to complete the new material in time for a release late last year ('Astronaut' was released on Epic Records on October 11/12).

 

When you add up their chart successes, the awards, the album and singles sales, the number of concert tickets they sold, the stadiums they filled, the ground-breaking videos they made, and the influence they've had on generations of musicians, theirs' is a story that only a handful of artists, such as U2, the Rolling Stones, and Madonna, can tell.

 

As both individuals and founders of one of the world's most influential pop groups, the five band members have always pushed the boundaries and set new standards. Looking to set trends, rather than follow them, they have taken risks that others would have shied away from. The results speak for themselves.

 

Like all bands, Duran Duran have had their share of highs and lows - both personally and professionally. Unlike many bands, however, they have been able to maintain a clear vision of who they are, and continue to write great pop songs that will stand the test of time and enthrall generations of fans to come.

 

With the phenomenal success they have already enjoyed and their intense commitment to the future, Duran Duran are uniquely positioned. They are a household name around the world - a recognizable and respected brand to generations of music lovers. They have a rich and colourful past. They have an equally exciting and dynamic future.

Edited December 28, 2005 by hitman531ph