Duran Duran
Saturday, 11 July 2026, 9:00 PM – 10:50 PM
Passariano di Codroipo (Udine) / Villa Manin / Italy
Duran Duran are today one of the rare bands that count among the surviving representatives of ’80s pop rock, still recording new albums and hitting the road on tour. Around the world. When Duran Duran burst onto the scene, their quirky elegance put them in exactly the right place at the right time to add their piece to the mosaic of ’80s pop culture. And on top of all that, they looked great. The Duran Duran catalogue — especially from the first half of the ’80s — is timeless, and that timelessness remains all-pervading in 2026 as well. But that wouldn’t be the case if the band weren’t constantly out on tour. That summer run from two years ago, when they stopped at the Arena in Pula at the end of July 2024 (RockLine concert review), feels like yesterday — and now here’s a series of twelve European summer dates.
Among the handful of survivors who shaped the face of ’80s pop rock trends, Duran Duran — alongside Depeche Mode — are arguably the biggest of the lot today. From the still-active acts of those distant days, there are a few peers still at it: the reinvigorated Scots Simple Minds, who are absolutely brilliant live; the fascinating Tears For Fears (with very few dates that almost invariably sell out in minutes); Level 42, who are still kicking around, playing mainly across Britain and the northern part of the old continent (they even showed up at the Pivo in cvetje festival); while Spandau Ballet, who were still performing as recently as 2017, remain at odds with each other instead of doing what you’d expect in their mature years — entertaining fans around the world and pocketing a bit of extra cash.
For their eleventh date — second to last on the European summer run — Duran Duran landed a show at the idyllic grounds of Villa Manin, which was the estate of the last Doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin. In 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte himself is said to have been quartered in this very residence for two months, during negotiations with the Austrian monarchy.
Italian audiences are absolutely wild about Duran Duran. Always have been. I remember that long-ago July show on the sandy beach in Jesolo near Venice back in 2008 (RockLine concert review) — what the die-hard female fans were getting up to during that gig — and two years ago at the Arena in Pula the entire front half of the floor was essentially Italian. The concert in Passariano near Codroipo (close to Udine) was the last of the band’s three Italian stops. The pre-show euphoria was genuinely unbelievable. Cars were streaming into the venue from every direction at least five hours before the gig, and even though we arrived — by our estimation quite early — at 7 PM, with the show announced for nine in the evening, we had a nightmare finding a parking spot and ended up nearly two and a half kilometres from the press entrance, which turned out to be a terrible investment (then again, they do say walking is good for the soul). There were plenty of campervans too, some having already claimed the spots closest to the venue the day before.
Then it started to drizzle. And it kept getting heavier and heavier. When we finally reached the press desk just before half past eight — at the main entrance to the truly stunning Villa Manin grounds — the masses flooding into the venue were already wrapped in ponchos and huddled under umbrellas, and nobody had skipped the insect repellent either (the landscaped grounds include decorative ponds, home to mosquitoes that start out very small indeed). Of all the dry days in the year, rain manages to find the exact moment you head out to a major open-air concert in the region! And on top of that, to a concert by the band you grew up with from your teenage years — the band that turned your world upside down and got you to stop singing Naša četica koraka and other such nonsense. So then the weather nearly ruins all the fun. Except it didn’t. Right on nine o’clock, when the Duranies took the stage, the rain had completely let up. The landscaped park — the palace gardens inside the walls — is enormous. I can’t remember the last time seats were spread out across nearly the entire space. By our estimate, there must have been at least 15,000 people at the venue, seated and standing combined.
The band is perfectly tight. You can feel that Duran Duran have been touring heavily in recent years, handling everything on stage with effortless ease — and visibly loving every second of it. That said, you could tell the tour was running on fumes, particularly in Le Bon’s voice, which sounded burned out, a little worn, slightly frayed at the edges. Simon pulled certain lines with a gentle rasp more than once. Not that he missed a single note — he nailed everything, and his delivery was fully on point. In the first half of the concert especially, all the way up to Ordinary World, his voice was under real strain. But he went in full throttle and never let up. Like there was nothing to it. This wasn’t the first time he’d been through this in his career — he’s dealt with it many times — and once again Simon performed like nothing was holding him back, radiating genuine warmth, maintaining incredible connection with the crowd, and with his trademark stage presence filling every corner of that stage. Simply put, this man is in his element up there, and nobody can take that from him. With that enormous charisma out front, he had the crowd completely spellbound and right there with him through an hour and fifty minutes of pure show.
Anyone who’s visited Villa Manin before also knows damn well that the area around Passariano is surrounded by farmland. Unfortunately, that made itself very much known during the show itself — something that even Simon Le Bon couldn’t ignore, addressing the crowd in true English dry-humour fashion, something along the lines of: “How lovely it is to be here, on this farmyard” — and adding that “the aromas are just right, too.”
But honestly, there isn’t much to debate here. The crowd was completely in it. As far as the eye could see. From the front row to the back of beyond. Everyone was standing, nobody sitting. Everyone dancing, having a blast, singing along. Duran Duran sent us uncles and aunties — well into our fifties — back to a time 40-plus years ago. All sense of time and place vanished, and the band almost certainly feels something similar in those under-two-hours of musical magic steeped in new romantic nostalgia. As if they’re actually somewhere in the first half of the ’80s themselves. Le Bon was happily bailed out in certain moments by two backing vocalists: the already-legendary Anna Ross, without whom Duran Duran go nowhere, shining once again in Come Undone; and Rachel O’Connor, who has been with the band since 2021. There’s the ‘eternal’ saxophonist Simon Wilescroft, impossible to imagine a Duran Duran show without; and guitarist Dominic Brown, who alternated between a Fender Telecaster and a black Gibson LP depending on the nature of each track. There were some serious thunderclaps when he picked up the Gibson LP and cranked it to the max (Wild Boys, Hungry Like the Wolf, the White Lines cover, Rio).
And the other three pure-blooded Duranies? Nick Rhodes first, naturally — “And our keyboard God, our prince of shoulder pads, king and queen of the absurd… this is Mr. Nick Rhodes,” in Le Bon’s own words, during the pause before Planet Earth. He’s essential. Irreplaceable. Building that kind of magic in moments like Save A Prayer is strictly his domain. Roland Jupiter-8? The Reflex, obviously — it doesn’t get any better. But none of any of this would exist in Duran Duran without the solid, dancefloor-driving rhythm built on the funky bass wizardry of the one-and-only John Taylor, locked in tight with the precise, commanding, powerful drum strikes of Roger Taylor. As mentioned, the tightness is exceptional. The sound was excellent. Flawless. The only two minor downsides? The first was that truly unpleasant farmyard smell; the second, Le Bon’s occasional raspiness — which you really can’t hold against him at the end of a tour — and which in no way detracted from an outstanding show, one where the crowd was going full throttle the entire time, without which the spectacle certainly wouldn’t have built such powerful atmosphere or such intensity of passion and emotion. Wherever you looked: pure party, total bliss, infectious joy, great vibes all round. A venue full of nothing but smiles.
Compared to the experience in Prague just under three weeks earlier, when Duran Duran played the indoor O2 Arena on 24 June 2026 (RockLine concert review), this encounter with the band was a very different beast in terms of vibe and energy! Everything felt considerably more intense overall. More magical, even. The magnetic pull between audience and band was even stronger! This is fiery Italy, not Eastern Europe. All the essential hits were there (Union Of The Snake was missing again)! Plus a first-rate opener with Is There Something I Should Know?, then the sinfully good treat that is The Chauffeur, where Le Bon — dressed as a sailor, naturally — played the ocarina (in Prague they played Evil Woman — the ELO cover — in that slot). The terrific new standalone single Free To Love with its funky disco beat was also in the mix. The intensity kept building toward the finale. The embrace of the atmosphere was becoming almost hypnotic. The predatory Planet Earth always leaves an enormous mark. Then after it came that breezy, optimistic little single from the “Astronaut” album — (Reach Up For The) Sunrise — upending the whole atmosphere once again, followed by the naughty, cheeky Girls On Film to close the main set. The band broke the track into Psycho Killer (Talking Heads) — Le Bon handles that vocal role insanely well (brilliant performer that he is) — then comes back to Girls On Film with its classic outro.
In the encore, Simon also tried his hand at acoustic guitar. That was Save A Prayer. Before they started, Le Bon called on the crowd to light up their phone screens. No Duran Duran concert can go without that single. The same goes for the grand finale of every Duran Duran show — that spot is always reserved for the timeless Rio, where everyone is completely gone by the end (Dom cranked his Gibson all the way up). The band spent quite a long time saying their goodbyes, and the very last one off the stage was Le Bon himself! Duran Duran are still burning with incredible fire in 2026. And they’ve already confirmed new dates for October 2026. These guys are slowly approaching seventy, yet they carry themselves like new romantic newcomers fresh on the scene. They blast you back to the ’80s, into some parallel universe of nostalgia, where you instantly feel younger alongside them and get taken back to the old days when the world was young and innocent — to the time of your greatest teenage dreams, when those lads on BRAVO posters plastered all over your bedroom wall kept you in a state of gentle, euphoric frenzy. Priceless.
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photography: Aleš Podbrežnik
Duran Duran – setlist:
1. Free to Love (symphonic instrumental version) – taped intro
2. Is There Something I Should Know?
3. The Wild Boys
4. The James Bond Theme (orig. John Barry) – taped intro
5. A View to a Kill
6. Hungry Like the Wolf
7. INVISIBLE
8. Lonely in Your Nightmare / Super Freak (aka “Super Lonely Freak”)
9. The Reflex
10. Ordinary World
11. Come Undone
12. New Moon on Monday (“New Moon Dark Phase” version)
13. The Chauffer
14. Notorious
15. White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) (orig. Grandmaster Melle Mel)
16. Free to Love
17. Planet Earth
18. (Reach Up for the) Sunrise
19. Girls on Film / Psycho Killer
—encore—
20. Save a Prayer
21. Rio
