It seems everyone from Robbie Williams to The Beatles is getting a biopic these days, but one British band is still waiting for its time to shine.
Duran Duran’s 40-year history is primed for the big screen, with new wave 80s clothes and controversial music videos providing ample visual appeal.
Their breakthrough single Girls On Film was actually banned for being too provocative, having been created for nightclubs and ending up on the newly minted MTV.
John Taylor, the group’s iconic bassist, revealed to Metro that there have been ‘a few scripts’ the group has taken a peek at.
We chatted over Zoom, with John casually showing us the stunning view of the Rhine River from his green baroque-style hotel room in Basel ahead of a gig.
‘We’ve had a lot of conversations over the years,’ the Rio hitmaker grinned before dashing our dreams and confirming there are no current plans.
John, 65, explained: ‘I think the problem is, with Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman, they were focused on one guy, one creative genius, and everything kind of worked around that. With us, if you go all the way back to the band that exploded in the 80s, you’ve got five guys.
‘So it becomes almost more like an Ocean’s 11, and it’s about the interplay between five. I think that’s a little bit more complex.’
He added that there are ‘no deaths’ to hinge the plot on, to which Metro replied: ‘Thankfully’.
‘Thankfully!’ John laughed in reply before confessing he’s not sure the Duran Duran story ‘would even be a movie [he] would want to see.’
‘I’m interested in stories where the hero has to go through all sorts of challenges to survive,’ the bassist continued. ‘I suppose what Duran Duran is about, in a way, is friendship.
‘We are kind of like a friendship group that makes music.’
On top of that, John has ‘honestly’ never seen an actor and thought they’d be able to play him.
However, the Hall of Famer does get mistaken for other celebrities ‘all the time’, apparently a Rolling Stone rocker has been a common one this year.
‘I’ve been mistaken for Ronnie Wood twice this year,’ he confessed. ‘Now, go figure. I just don’t get that one. Although we’re both very handsome guys…’
Metro agreed and suggested that maybe fans are simply too dazzled by his presence.
Duran Duran, much like the Stones, are still very active making music and touring, with a very special Halloween gig coming up.
This is the third year in a row the band has thrown their Danse Macabre Party, but it’s the first time the show will come to the UK.
Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena will play host to this spooky performance, which features covers and darker reimaginings of their own tracks.
The group even released an album linked to the show, adding a new recording of the 1983 hit Shadows On Your Side this year.
Their growing tradition started by accident when they realised they were performing in Las Vegas over the Halloween weekend in 2022.
John said: ‘We thought, why don’t we play a couple of songs that are Halloweeny, you know? And actually, wouldn’t it be fun to dress up? And that was that, really.’
There’s no strong pull to the occult or a fang-fascination here driving this celebration, although the bassist noted that Nick Rhodes is a big fan of skeletons.
‘Nick is like a child in a toy store, he does love it,’ he laughed. ‘Nobody loves a skeleton like Nick.’
He teased that the keyboardist isn’t a fan of rehearsals but is always keen to make their films, while Simon Le Bon, Roger Taylor and John are all sticklers for practice.
‘You’re never done,’ he explained. ‘If you want to be a musician, the job of discovery and learning will never stop.’
That discovery hasn’t always co-existed with his bandmates, though, as in 1997, John left Duran Duran for five years to pursue solo work when things got a little ‘prickly’.
‘I’d left for good, actually, because I didn’t feel it,’ he recalled. ‘I didn’t feel like I fit in anymore. I didn’t feel it really served me.’
The band’s fame had allowed them to grow and get new experiences, meaning they had started going off in different directions.
He rejoined Duran Duran in 2001, bringing his personal tastes back to the ‘mothership’ — as well as the ability to respectfully move through any prickly moments.
‘Coming back, I realised I just had to change my perception of everybody. We have to be really respectful, which is not a word I would have used when we started out.’
Duran Duran has a loose rule that they won’t go six weeks without getting on a stage, as that’s what ‘feeds our muse’.
Metro pointed out that there is one stage that the Birmingham icons are yet to play, which earned a reluctant smile from John.
Last year, Simon and Nick famously declared they will not be playing Glastonbury until they are offered the Pyramid Stage at a decent time.
John joked that since there is no festival next year he ‘doesn’t have to answer’ but offered his take on Worthy Farm anyway.
‘That’s probably why I’ve not heard [about it this year],’ he replied. ‘It doesn’t keep me awake at night. I’d like to do it.’
Praising UK festival audiences, he added that they have ‘never seen an appetite for live music in the UK like these last few years.’
However, Duran Duran aren’t going to sit comfortably and wait for that Legends slot invite, as he says they have ‘got to keep moving’ if they want to ‘stay in the game’.
‘You take a year off and the phone will stop ringing after a few months,’ he reasoned. ‘And by the end of the year, they just won’t think of you. You’ll have been replaced.’
Hard to believe a band with 14 UK Top 10s would ever be forgotten but those ‘exciting opportunities’ might not be as easy to come by.
John concluded: ‘Success is like a constantly moving target; the bar gets raised on you constantly. You know you’re famous because you can’t walk down the street without people pointing at you.
‘But at the same time, you’ve got this terrible fear that it’s all going to end any moment now.’
We doubt Duran Duran’s success is anywhere near ending, after all, there’s a Pyramid Stage waiting for them… one day.
Duran Duran’s Danse Macabre party hits the UK on October 31 at Manchester’s Co-op Live with tickets on sale now.
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