Wednesday 19 January 2005

Lessons Learned

With news this week that Duran Duran's Roger Taylor has injured his foot and thus cancelled the band's about to start Japanese tour, there's been a large hue and cry from fans who are now stuck with a impending Duran-less Japanese holiday.

When dealing with a trip that hinges on the appearance of a band, I guess it's always a good idea to make back up plans as well - like choosing a destination that you'd want to go to anyway.

Back in 1995 I went on holiday to California with a mate of mine. Just so happens that this particular week in June co-incided with Duran Duran (again again) playing The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Mate and me got to the NBC studio in Burbank at 7am to make sure we got tickets, then spent a great deal of the afternoon in a lineup with likeminded people. Around 4:30pm (the show starts taping around 5:30pm) we were told the musical act would be Boys II Men not Duran. No reason was given, but the fact that one of the other guests was bassist John Taylor's ex-wife Amanda made us all think.

The point is, while we felt a bit cheated that day - early rising and long lineups for Boys II Men is just WRONG!! - we still enjoyed our Duran-free holiday in California.

While people are moaning about being out of pocket up to £1500 for a Japanese holiday, maybe they should just try and have a good time and drink in the Japanese culture and marvel at places Duran have played, like the Budokan.

Another point. Bands usually have world tours for a reason - so people don't have to traipse half way round the world at great expense to see them.

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