Location: Ljubljana / Križanke / Slovenia
Date: Saturday, July 14, 2012
Duran Duran is a name that still sparks strong, fiery emotions among plenty of music lovers. With a plethora of hits like “The Relfex,” “Hungry Like The Wolf,” “A View To a Kill,” “Notorious,” “Rio” and “Wild Boys,” to name just a few, and more than a hundred million records sold, these New Romantic legends can rightfully claim the title of the ultimate pop rock band of the eighties. Then again, the British masters of musical glamour and new wave sensibility, who finally showed up here for the first time (unlike their ‘comrades’ Spandau Ballet, who played here twice back in 1987), don’t need any pompous introduction at all. The best proof was the legions of music connoisseurs and somewhat less hardcore concertgoers who packed Ljubljana’s Križanke, led by forty-something women whose hearts still skip a beat at the sight of Simon Le Bon. Even before the ‘wild boys’ hit the stage, Križanke was bursting at the seams thanks to an admirable number of quality pop rock fans, which here usually only happens when someone like Halid Bešlić or Dino Merlin comes to town.
The night seemed pretty much perfect for reviving eighties nostalgia, since besides showcasing hits from their current studio album “All You Need Is Now” (2011), Duran Duran, as they have done in recent years, had a collection of their greatest hits up their sleeve. Everything would have been almost perfect if the completely unsuitable LeeLooJamais hadn’t been the support act, leaving most fans of good pop rock with long faces, droopy ears and sleepy eyes, and on top of that the sound was dreadful, which sadly happens a lot in Křižanke even to bands of much bigger caliber. Anyway, during the way-too-long wait for Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John and Roger Taylor and touring guitarist Dom Brown, who replaced original member Andy Taylor, along with the other two touring companions, singer Anna Ross and percussionist/tenor saxophonist Simon Willescroft, it seemed like Plečnik’s legendary architectural achievement would be blown to smithereens by the buzz and feverish eruption of the crowd. Right off the bat, it has to be said that all four original members still look youthful, even if it was obvious that LeBon, after shedding his glamorous uniform, has grown himself a pretty decent little belly in recent years. John Taylor on bass, on the other hand, is still thin as a rake, so it’s no surprise that the character of Dante from the popular Japanese video game series “Devil May Cry” was based on him, while Nick Rhodes on keyboards still sports the obligatory ‘canary’ hairdo and the wiry Roger Taylor still pounds his drum kit as passionately as he did three decades ago.
For a warm-up they picked the dark, slow “Before The Rain,” a track from the latest album “All You Need Is Now,” with scenes from the Russian October Revolution rolling on the screen during the performance. To the delight of the longtime fans, they weren’t left hungry for long, because the very next moment the eighties gold hit “Planet Earth” brought exactly the atmosphere everyone was waiting for, with the crowd breathing as one with the band members and their touring companions. The superbly executed “A View To a Kill” whipped up even more delirium, a song most music and film fans remember from the mid-eighties as the theme to the last James Bond movie starring Roger Moore. Le Bon wowed throughout with his expressive vocal approach and kept the audience actively involved the whole time. It came across as a bit grotesque, though, that it took him three tries, after two Croatians, to find some hero from Slovenia, who then ended up childishly reciting something onstage. That wasn’t Le Bon’s last bit of ‘clowning around’ that night, either. The eternal nostalgics and incorrigible romantics got another infusion of New Romantic brilliance through the superbly delivered golden standards “The Reflex” and “Hungry Like The Wolf.” A somewhat funny mishap hit Nick Rhodes in the middle of the show, when the guy mixed up the running order and started playing the intro of the evergreen “Save a Prayer” when “Girl Panic!” from the current album was up next. Le Bon just gave him a strange look and said “what the hell is goin’ on,” after which they quickly pulled themselves together and played a proper version of an altogether rather average song, spiced up a bit by fun projections of glamorous models, including Simon’s wife Yasmin.
So the gentlemen of Duran Duran still swear by the occasionally kitschy glam and pomp of the fashion world, while it seems they’ve left the post-show excesses behind them now that they’ve hit their golden years. “Save a Prayer,” which came right after, was another triumphant moment of the night, taking many in the crowd back to the eighties in spirit. The sound near the mixing desk was decent, solid and satisfying the whole time, which is definitely an achievement for Križanke. “Come Undone” and “Ordinary World,” Duran Duran’s only hits from the nineties, reminded us of “The Wedding Album” (1993), a rare commercial success after the end of the eighties. The confidently performed “(Reach Up For The) Sunrise,” a classic from “Astronaut” (2004), likewise reminded the crowd of one of those rare Duran Duran standards worth mentioning that were created after the golden era ended.
The pompous “Notorious” was likewise among the better-played classics of the evening. As expected, the show peaked with the always fiery “Wild Boys,” into which the old foxes cleverly worked the main motif of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood classic “Relax,” which turned out surprisingly well. It was nice to hear Duran Duran pay tribute to that cult new wave band, which, apart from a handful of connoisseurs and nostalgics, is almost completely forgotten today and released only two albums in its career. The one big complaint goes to the absolutely overlong “Girls On Film” in the encore, needlessly stretched into a dance number with crowd chanting and drawn-out introductions of the band members and guests. The ultimate triumph of eighties nostalgia came with the big closing finale “Rio,” a mega hit that turns exactly thirty years old this year. While it played, rocket explosions and all sorts of carnival imagery ran in the background, spicing up the end of a great night with plenty of temperament.
Despite not-too-promising expectations, the New Romantic legends’ show in the middle of Križanke succeeded in every way and surprised even the biggest skeptics, who may have wrongly assumed that the legendary outfit wouldn’t make a real effort for the ‘sub-Alpine Balkanites’ and squeeze out their best. In their first-ever show in front of a Slovenian audience, which included plenty of Croatian and Italian fans, Duran Duran were in great spirits, and the few technical glitches that happened during the show, especially with certain vocal interpretations, ended up barely worth mentioning. And everyone who spent the best years of their youth in the eighties finally got the long-awaited first-class hangout with some of their main musical heroes, who once again reminded them of far more innocent times long gone.
words: Peter Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Before the Rain
2. Planet Earth
3. A View to a Kill
4. All You Need Is Now
5. The Reflex
6. Come Undone
7. Safe (In the Heat of the Moment)
8. Girl Panic!
9. Save a Prayer
10. Notorious
11. White Lines
12. Ordinary World
13. Hungry Like the Wolf
14. (Reach Up for the) Sunrise
15. Wild Boys / Relax / Wild Boys
—encore—
16. Girls on Film
17. Rio
