Duran Duran Heats Up the Crowd at Pacific Amphitheatre

by Cindy Robinson

Fresh off their performance in London’s Hyde Park at the opening of the 2012 Summer Olympics, Duran Duran returned to the Pacific Amphitheatre over the weekend to close out the Orange County Fair’s summer concert series. The sold out show brought legions of fans in to see the band perform on the final leg of their All You Need Is Now tour.

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The hot August night only got hotter as the band launched into a tight set of their greatest hits including early tracks such as Girls on Film, Planet Earth and the only occasionally dusted off fan favorite, Careless Memories, which sent the crowd of hard-core Duranies into a frenzy. Duran Duran continued the journey through their 30 year career thrilling the audience with 90’s gems like Ordinary World, Come Undone and the Grandmaster Flash cover, White Lines.

The set was also heavily peppered with tracks from their latest album, All You Need Is Now including the title track, audience favorite, Girl Panic! and the Man Who Stole a Leopard.

The band continues across the United States throughout the month of August with the remaining dates listed below:

• August 15, 2012 Tulsa, OK, Duran Duran at The Joint inside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, OK
•  August 17, 2012, Memphis, TN, Duran Duran at the Memphis Botanical Gardens in Memphis, TN
•  August 18, 2012, Biloxi, MS, Duran Duran in Biloxi, MS at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
• August 19, 2012, Atlanta, GA, Duran Duran at Chastain Park in Atlanta, GA
• August 21, 2012, Durham, North Carolina, Duran Duran at DPAC in Durham, North Carolina
•  August 22, 2012, Portsmouth, VA, Duran Duran at Telos Wireless Pavilion in Portsmouth, VA
•  August 24, 2012, Mashantucket, CT, Duran Duran at MGM Grand at Foxwoods
•  August 25, 2012, Atlantic City, NJ, Duran Duran at Revel Ovation Hall in Atlantic City
•  August 26, 2012, Pittsburgh, PA, Duran Duran at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, PA
•  August 28, 2012, Kettering, OH, Duran Duran at the Fraze Pavilion in Kettering, OH
•  August 29, 2012, Highland Park, IL, Duran Duran at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, IL
•  August 31, 2012, Orillia, ONTARIO, Canada, Duran Duran at Casino Rama Entertainment Centre
•  September 01, 2012, Orillia, ONTARIO, Canada, Duran Duran at Casino Rama Entertainment Centre

Check Ticketmaster to see if there are any tickets left for your city. They put on a great live show you don’t want to miss!

Duran Duran have also just released their latest concert movie, A Diamond in the Mind out now on Blu-ray/DVD chronicling the first part of their All You Need Is Now Tour.  The Blu-ray/DVD is available via Amazon.com and the live audio CD is out now on iTunes.

The band will take some well deserved time off after the tour wraps up at the end of the summer before heading back into the studio with producer Mark Ronson sometime next year.

In the meantime, fans can catch bassist John Taylor out on the road later this year promoting his auto-biography, In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death, and Duran Duran which is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom in late September followed by an October release in the United States. You can pre-order the book now online, watch the Duran Duran Facebook page or follow John on Twitter to see which cities he will be visiting to sign copies of his book.

Another Honor for Duran Duran – Headlining the Olympics

by Jade Robledo

It is a GREAT time to be a Duranie. That is, a fan of Duran Duran.

First there was the release of the artwork for their upcoming DVD / CD, A Diamond in the Mind. Then there was the first date of the South American leg of the All You Need Is Now tour, a date in which the band was joined on stage by popular Brazilian singer Fernanda Takai for a duet of “Ordinary World.” Now the news from this morning.

It has been announced that Duran Duran was selected to perform at the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London on July 27th. As the United Kingdom consists of four different nations, it was decided that the opening ceremonies should consist of live performances from an act representing each part. Duran Duran were chosen for England, with Snow Patrol representing Northern Ireland, Stereophonics selected for Wales and Paolo Nutini on behalf of Scotland. Each act will perform a “greatest hits” set in front of 60,000 fans in Hyde Park, and countless others watching throughout the world.

For those who may want a bit more than one of their many hit songs from the past three decades, the tentative release date for A Diamond in the Mind is set for July 10th, 17 days before the Hyde Park show. Filmed at MEN Arena in Manchester, England on December 16th, the DVD / CD set showcases the band’s critically acclaimed 2011 release, All You Need Is Now, along with their older hits.

If you are lucky you will be able to catch the band live. Their upcoming dates can be found on their official site.

2011 in Photos – A Look Back at Bruno Mars, Duran Duran, INXS and U2

by Cindy Robinson

Here we are at the end of the first week of 2012 and I wanted to do a post on my favorite photos of 2011 from the various rock & roll events I attended last year. While the list was small in comparison to years past, I still had the opportunity to see some great live bands.

I feel like I’ve conquered the technology mountain to get to this little post I want to share with the world. Laptop software issues continue to plague me as do the internet connectivity issues (do we hear a New Year’s resolution here?? Solve the tech issues in 2012!) and when I finally made it over these hurdles, I learned that WordPress blogs typically don’t support embedding slide shows from Picnik. Say what? I battled computer issues, stayed up until wee hours working on my slide show and my blog won’t host it?

Thankfully the information superhighway quickly led me to information that allowed me to solve this issue. I discovered Vodpod which allows you to embed your Picnik slide show into your WordPress blog. Shazam! It isn’t perfect, it’s much smaller in scale than the original so I feel some detail is lacking but I’m happy I was able to embed it and share with readers.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Let’s get down to the subject at hand – 2011 in photos. Wow, narrowing down a plethora of images shot over the past year turned out to be a daunting task. I intended to pull just one image from each event but soon found that impossible as image after image drew me in. So I grabbed my favorites and went from there.

For me, 2011  included live shows from the likes of  My Chemical Romance, Bruno Mars, Brian Setzer, Duran Duran, Honor Society (a band my daughter really enjoys who rose to fame as the opening band on the Jonas Brothers tour in 2009),   INXS , a book signing by Guns n’ Roses Duff McKagan and the long postponed U2 at Angels Stadium show finally came to fruition!

My Chemical Romance were incredible as their live show is always an intense throbbing mass of music loving people. This was our first time seeing Bruno Mars and it definitely won’t be our last. His live show was amazing, just non-stop energy from start to finish. The audience was also amazing – a complete mash-up of every type, size and age of concert goer imaginable. Brian Setzer always puts on a great live show too!

Duran Duran are my favorite band so my opinion of them will always be biased and I always enjoy seeing them live! Their Unstaged performance directed by David Lynch at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles in early 2011 really kicked it up a notch though when they added a list of special guests for their show that included Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Beth Ditto of the Gossip and super producer Mark Ronson.

INXS breezed through the USA for a short summer tour before singer J.D. Fortune departed the band for a second time. INXS look to be back on track for 2012 though with their new Irish singer, Ciaran Gribbin. Youtube footage shows his performances to be of a more mellow variety with awkward dance moves but I’ll wait to fully assess the new line up until I see it for myself. He’s got big shoes to fill and it takes time to grow into a role of that magnitude.

Then there was U2! I think there are few people who would dispute the awesome spectacle that is a live U2 show. This show seemed especially sweet to me as I had originally purchased my tickets in November 2009 and the show ended up being postponed due to Bono’s emergency back surgery and subsequent recovery. Finally, in June of 2011, they rolled back into town and blew us all away. U2 with Lenny Kravitz were worth the wait!

It’s always hard to narrow down the list of favorite shows, to choose just one for the top spot. Even though my list was much shorter than normal for 2011 (darn bad economy!) it didn’t make things any easier. I know I can cross My Chemical Romance off the contenders list because their record release show at the House of Blues in Hollywood in November of 2010 was their best to date that I have seen.

After thinking long and hard about it, I narrowed down my top choices to U2 and Bruno Mars. U2 live is so much more than just a rock & roll concert but ultimately I’d have to award the top slot to singer Bruno Mars. It was refreshing to see an artist I hadn’t seen before and to be thoroughly excited and energized by the set.

What were some of your favorite shows you saw in 2011? Who are you looking forward to seeing live in 2012? Are we all jazzed for the return of Van Halen in 2012? 80’s icon Adam Ant is due to tour the USA for the first time in 15 years! Preliminary tour buzz shows his fans are coming out of the woodwork like crazy. INXS are set to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their iconic Kick album. 2011 breakout band, Foster the People are scheduled to hit the road hard during 2012 moving up to larger venues as they trek across America. And it’s almost time for the big Coachella announcement! Who will they get for 2012?

2011 in Photos, posted with vodpod

World Photography Day 2011

Simon Le Bon

Today is World Photography Day. The date of August 19th was chosen as the day to celebrate the birth of the fabulous art form that allows us to document our lives, our triumphs, our difficult times, our work and our world as it is the historic day in 1839 when Louis Daguerre developed the first permanent photographic image known as the Daguerreotype. It was a process which allowed him to print a positive image, which were then usually placed in glass fronted boxes for display. He developed the process in early 1839 but it wasn’t formalized by the French government until August 19, 1839.

Also in 1839, William Fox Talbot developed the calotype process, which created both a negative image, allowing prints to be made of the positive image. Talbot’s process took photogrphy a step further than Daguerre’s since it allowed for both a negative and a positive. His process wasn’t formalized until 1841 but since both were developed in 1839, it is the year recognized as the invention of photography.

What does a photograph mean to you? Why do you take them and what feeling does it evoke from you when you witness the result? Do you take photos of your kids first day at school, graduations and weddings? Are you inspired by sunsets and dramatic landscapes? How many photographers out there still dabble with film cameras? How has the digital age changed the art form?

Bonelli Park

Please leave some comments and post a favorite photo that is meaningful to you or share some links to great photography! Today I’ve chosen one of my shots of singer Simon Le Bon from the band Duran Duran from a performance in Los Angeles earlier in 2011.

I’ve also been inspired lately by Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, California which offers stunning landscape views and here’s an image from a recent outing to the area.

Have You Seen U2 on the 360 Tour?

by Cindy Robinson

Life On The Scene readers, I have been moonlighting, for a site called Tree.com doing some writing for their entertainment section and covering a variety of live events for them. One of the recent ones was the massive, long-awaited return of U2 to Anaheim, California where they took over Angel’s Stadium for two shows. They put on an incredible show, as one would expect from U2 with fine support from Lenny Kravitz to kick off the evening.

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Here is a sampling of images from the evening and if you’d like to check out the entire review, slideshow and alternate set of images, please enjoy them here: http://www.tree.com/entertainment/blog-blog/archive-2011-06-22-u2-at-angels-stadium-worth-the-wait.aspx 

I’ve also been covering events such as Bruno Mars, Duran Duran (who we were lucky enough to see before lead singer Simon le Bon suffered vocal cord injuries which led to cancellation of the band’s European summer tour), Honor Society and My Chemical Romance recently. I hope to get some links and images from those reviews posted for you soon.

Looking ahead, we hope to bring you coverage on INXS, Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers as he launches his first solo album, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II (I can’t believe we’re at the end of the series!), Comic-Con and some projects Robert Downey Jr. is working on and Katy Perry.

Your comments and feedback are always appreciated!

Duran Duran Launch World Tour at SXSW Festival

John Taylor

by Cindy Robinson

When Duran Duran gets it right, they really get it right. The band kicked off their world tour at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin, TX last night to a crowd that left singing the band’s praises as part of the SXSW Music Festival.

The 80’s megastars have just begun to saturate the music market with their 13th album, All You Need Is Now, which is available now as a 9 track EP via iTunes with the deluxe CD package coming to a store near you on March 22nd. You can also pre-order the deluxe version from Amazon now, with delivery expected the day of release. 

Produced by Mark Ronson, their latest album takes the listener on a synthesizer infused journey down memory lane with Nick Rhodes to the height of 80’s pop music while the grooves of drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Taylor keep us dancing in modern times. Singer Simon Le Bon, who has often been criticized in the media for his quirky voice, sounds smooth &  melodic, demonstrating his vocal skills and a voice that has stood the test of time.

As a producer Ronson carefully guarded the bands existing, unique sound while moving them forward into new territory at the same time. He doesn’t try to make a band sound like his own records.

Duran Duran will hit Los Angeles next week for a round of appearances on American TV shows the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Late Night with Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The band will also play a one-off concert in Los Angeles to kick off the 2nd season of the American Express Unstaged Concert Series which will be directed by critically acclaimed director David Lynch and broadcast live online courtesy of YouTube and Vevo.

All You Need Is Now

Duran Duran have proved their staying power with tickets to a handful of North American warm-up concerts selling out in mere minutes as the band criss-crosses the USA in preparation for their slot at the upcoming always sold out Coachella Music & Arts Festival in Indio, CA April 15-17, 2011. The massive music festival which annually draws approximately 90, 000 visitors to the California desert will also offer a live webcast of music acts throughout the weekend.

They will then head home to the UK & Europe for concerts in May and June, and a tour of Australia in December with more worldwide dates to be announced as they become available via Duran Duran’s website. You can also check in with Duran Duran’s Roger Taylor, John Taylor and Simon Le Bon on Facebook and Twitter as they check in from their daily lives, from rehearsals and on the road.

Win a Trip to see Duran Duran in Austin, TX at SXSW

by Cindy Robinson

Southwest Airlines, Urban Outfitters and Thrillist have teamed up to offer a lucky winner and their guest a VIP trip to Austin, TX and two badges to South by Southwest (SXSW) 2011 Music & Film Festival to see the best new bands out there along with guest appearances and concerts by Ozomatli, the Strokes, possibly Snow Patrol and Duran Duran.

Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes

Duran Duran are currently doing promotional appearances around the globe to promote their latest album, All You Need Is Now, which is currently available in a 9 song EP on iTunes with a physical CD Deluxe Edition due out in the USA on March 22nd. The band will embark on a world tour in March including a stop at SXSW on March 16 to headline the Time Out showcase at Stubb’s  and give a Featured Interview at the Austin Convention Center on March 17.

The band has also scheduled a stop in Los Angeles to visit the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 22nd. Limited tickets are available now for the TV show taping via the Tonight Show’s site.

Go to Thrillist’s contest page to sign up now! The winner will receive a VIP Trip to Austin during the SXSW Festival , March 14th-19th, featuring:

• $500 Urban Outfitters Shopping Spree
• (2) Roundtrip Tickets to Austin on Southwest Airlines
• (2) Music Festival Badges
• (5) Nights Deluxe Hotel Accommodations
• VIP Access to Thrillist Austin’s Party @ Antone’s
• Guaranteed Access to UO’s “Live in Austin 2011” Performances
• Dinners at Thrillist-curated Restaurants
• Lifetime Subscription to Grooveshark Anywhere

Duran Duran announce UK tour dates

by Cindy Robinson

Duran Duran are set to return to the stage with a number of tour dates set for May this year. The British band have revealed 11 dates where they will be performing across the UK. It’s the bands first tour of their homeland in a few years and looks to be a sellout. Fan club pre-sales begin later this week via the bands site.

The band featuring Simon le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor will begin their worldwide tour with a handful of special performances in the USA including the The VH1 Pepsi Super Bowl Fan Jam on February 3rd, in Grand Prairie, TX and the famous Southern California Coachella festival on April 17, 2011.

Duran Durans new album is called All You Need Is Now (produced by Mark Ronson) and is available now on iTunes. An extended edition physical CD is expected in March 2011. The 80’s hitmakers still have a massive fan base and have remained popular through the decades with great albums like the Wedding Album in the mid 90’s with the massive hit Ordinary World and more recently with the Astronaut album. Their new album All You Need Is Now looks destined to be another of their smash successes craftily blending sounds that could easily have come from their early hit album Rio while incorporating a modern twist to the music.

The full dates are as follows:

• 18th May 2011 Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
• 19th May 2011 Glasgow SECC
• 21st May 2011 Birmingham LG Arena
• 22nd May 2011 Nottingham Capital FM Arena
• 23rd May 2011 Liverpool Echo Arena
• 28th May 2011 London The O2 Arena
• 30th May 2011 Brighton Centre
• 31st May 2011 Bournemouth International Centre
• 1st June 2011 Cardiff International Arena
• 3rd June 2011 Manchester MEN Arena
• 4th June 2011 Sheffield Motorpoint Arena

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Duran Duran Shares New Single FREE on iTunes!

image courtesy of iTunes and Duran Duran

British band Duran Duran is offering up there latest single, All You Need Is Now for FREE via iTunes today! Hurry and download your copy now because it may be a limited time offer. The band will release their 13th studio album, All You Need Is Now via iTunes on December 21st, with a longer CD version available to fans early next year.

The Mark Ronson produced album has been generating a lot of buzz with talk that the super producer has taken the band back to the sounds of their Rio album.

Their last release, Red Carpet Massacre, seemed to be just that, a Timbaland massacre as he turned it into something he would put out rather than enhancing the sound of Duran Duran. To be fair though, the album did translate better as a live show.

Duran Duran has already begun some European promotion of the album with American promo slated to begin this week. They will be launching a full scale tour in 2011 to support All You Need Is Now. The 1st single has a catchy chorus and early previews of the album indicate it will be a strong album for Duran Duran definitely taking us back to the days of Rio and My Own Way.

The band is also running a contest via their Twitter. They recently tweeted these instructions “Tweet what you love about All You Need Is Now using #aynin. 5 tweeters will win the album FREE on Dec 21. Must follow this account to win.”  

 

 

Simon le Bon