A debate can often ensue before someone throws out a white flag – usually in the form of a Duran Duran music video or a random question about the band.Īt shows, fans from various socio-economic backgrounds and political persuasions come together. In Duranie forums, the conversation often turns on any day from John Taylor’s hair dye in the 1980s to political topics such as home schooling, Mitt Romney, the war on women and gay rights. Simon’s message, and the band’s message, is ‘don’t give up hope because we don’t have anything else.’ The alternative isn’t anything better.” “What happens in life often is that hope gets shattered and broken and it’s easy for cynicism to set in when things become as difficult as they have over the last few years. “I think hope is certainly something all human beings inherently favor,” Rhodes said. The song, Le Bon always says, is ultimately about hope. On the current tour, he dedicated it on various nights to human rights, climate change and Pussy Riot. At an Olympics performance prior to the opening ceremonies, he dedicated it to peaceful games. One Duran Duran song where politics enters the arena is the 1993 hit “Ordinary World.” On any given night while on tour, Le Bon will dedicate the song to current events of the day. “Occasionally, if you look far enough comments that people feel strongly about on a political issue end up being a tweet or in an interview like I’m doing with you now,” he said. “We often discuss things privately.”īut Rhodes acknowledges that social media serves as an outlet for the band’s political viewpoints. “Interestingly the band as individuals and collectively all have strong and sometimes differing political viewpoints both in Britain where we live and internationally,” Rhodes said. “If I had a vote, I'd stick with him for another term," said Taylor, who has also tweeted about the need for more gun control in the United States.įans discovered that Le Bon often tweeted about many political issues that led to them to investigating the troubles of Julian Assange or more recently, the drama around Russian punk rockers Pussy Riot. He still has an affinity for the president. In 2008, he made a YouTube video as a Brit who supported Obama. John Taylor, who splits his time between England and the United States, was an Obama supporter. They were far more than pretty faces on the wall. But what member, if any, was a Tory or Labour supporter? Who knew? Who cared?Īs adults, Duranies soon learned that their pin-ups had views and intelligent insight into myriad topics. They knew the late Princess Diana loved the band as much as they did. They didn’t care about Ronald Reagan’s GOP policies they – and I was one – only focused on whether bassist John Taylor dyed his hair a new shade of red or singer Le Bon dated a new girl. Most Duranies fell in love with the band as teenagers during the Reagan ‘80s. In turn, politics entered the Duranie world. Rhodes mainly stays away from social media except for dabbling in Duran Duran’s Second Life world, which he masterminded. The band also found their fans with Simon Le Bon and John Taylor taking to Twitter while drummer Roger Taylor prefers Facebook. They found each other – strangers who shared one passion– in Facebook groups and the band’s fan club message board. (KI PRICE/REUTERS)ĭuranies quickly united. Singer Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran performs on stage at Hyde Park in London on July 27.
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