Seven and the ragged Duran Duran announcement

Cover of Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Hot on the heels of the two disc reissue of Duran Duran's Rio, the band announced today that Seven and the Ragged Tiger is get a similar treatment. Coming March 2010, it may not be released in time for Christmas, but for fans this news is an awesome Christmas present.

Similar to the Rio reissue, Seven mops up loads of tracks released around the time of the original album release. In this case, it also includes the tracks around the "Is There Something I Should Know?" single campaign, that actually featured on the re-issue of the debut album.

The EXCELLENT news portion however is that the limited edition release with be three discs. The third disc is a DVD of "As The Lights Go Down". This has been requested from fans since Duran Duran product originally appeared on DVD back in the day. For the uninitiated, it's basically the band's concert movie "Arena" without the movie bit.

The DVD is fleshed out with era videos (including the 17 minute movie version of "New Moon on Monday" which was previously an Easter egg on the "Greatest" DVD) as well as clips of the band on top of the pops.

This is truly setting out to be an awesome release for fans, and with the Arcadia reissue booked, and a Mark Ronson produced album almost ready, 2010 is shaping up to an awesome year.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger limited edition 3 disc set tracklisting

CD 1:
Original album
1. The Reflex (5.28)
2. New Moon On Monday (4.18)
3. (I’m Looking For) Cracks In The Pavement (3.39)
4. I Take The Dice (3.15)
5. Of Crime And Passion (3.50)
6. Union Of The Snake (4.20)
7. Shadows On Your Side (4.03)
8. Tiger Tiger (3.20)
9. The Seventh Stranger (5.23)

CD 2:
Non album singles and B-sides
1. Is There Something I Should Know? (4.11)
2. Faith In This Colour (4.07)
3. Faith In This Colour (alternate slow mix) (4.06)
4. Secret Oktober (2.45)
5. Tiger Tiger (Ian Little remix) (3.25)
6. The Reflex (single version) (4.25)
7. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (Live) (4.54)
8. New Religion (live at the LA Forum 9/2/84) (4.52) Tape no: 48375
9. The Reflex (live at the LA Forum 9/2/84) (5.52) Tape no:  "

Mixes
10. Is There Something I Should Know? (Monster Mix) (6.40)
11. Union Of The Snake (Monkey Mix) (6.21)
12. New Moon On Monday (Dance Mix) (5.59)
13. The Reflex (Dance Mix) (6.35)

DVD:
As The Lights Go Down
Intro: Tiger Tiger (1.26)
Is There Something I Should Know? (4.41)
Hungry Like the Wolf  (4.03)
Union of the Snake (4.12)
New Religion (5.34)
Save a Prayer 20.11
Rio
The Seventh Stranger (5.00)
The Chauffeur (5.19)
Planet Earth (4.35)
Careless Memories (4.23)
Girls On Film (6.16)

The videos
Is There Something I Should Know?
Union Of The Snake
New Moon On Monday (E.P Version)
The Reflex

Bonus video
New Moon On Monday (movie version) (17.27)

Top Of The Pops performances
Is There Something I Should Know? 23/3/83
The Reflex 26/4/84

The lost nostalgia of the live album

Cover of Arena

Growing up, the only thing I wanted to do was go see my musical heroes live in concert. Living in a town of 50,000 odd meant that really wasn't going to happen for most of the bands I liked. The next best thing was the hope that they'd release a "live album".

Now, with the gift of hindsight, I realise the live album is one of those contractual fillers, much like a "best of", that band's put out so they can leave their record label, or at the very least renegotiate for a better deal.

In my youth, however, the live album was a glimpse into how a band was able to translate their material for the stage, taking album cuts I had committed to memory and shaking them up. There was also the far away mystique of listening to song recorded at venues with amazing names that spawned many an imaginary travelogue. Names like "Hammersmith Odeon", "The Town and Country Club," "Brixton Academy," "The Budokan" and "Le Zenith."

The album I've been listening to recently that jolted my reminiscing of live albums is "In The City of Lights", the 1987 live album by Simple Minds, recorded at Paris' Le Zenith in the summer of '86. When I first bought the album on double cassette, it was the only version of a lot of the songs that I had and I learned them in that format, including the covers medley.

Other live albums of note, that actually stood as discographical entries in a band's repertoire (and not merely cheaply cobbled together wallet-emptiers for diehard fans) for me included Duran Duran's "Arena" (which took 20 years to finally be reissued with perennial set closer Rio attached), Depeche Mode's "101" and the Bowie duo of 70's live albums "David Live" and "Stage".

In recent years, the idea of the live album has been diluted to an amazing degree in an obvious forward step. A number of artists now offer a live CD from their show available shortly after the end of the encore. Instead of a band releasing one live album as a snap shot of their repertoire in time, you can now collect a band's entire tour, warts and all. It's sort of a sanctioned bootlegging service. Not only does this render a live album's discographical inclusion obsolete, it also ensures a die hard fan will end up being very very poor.

Don't get me wrong, though. Apart from the mystique of the live album the other thing I really wanted as a kid was a live album recorded at the show I was at. To a certain degree, I've been able to get that with this new service. I am the proud owner of Moby "Live at Brixton Academy" from his 2005 hotel tour, released about 10 minutes after he came off stage! (I swear I can hear myself yelling at him!)

However, it's not just the band's feeding their fans frenzy for a copy of the show you were just at that's diluted the mystique of the live album, it's been the release of live albums that just don't feel right. While the aforementioned Depeche Mode released one of the greatest live albums of the 80s with "101," they then went on to release one of the most un-needed live albums of the 90s with "Songs of Faith and Devotion Live". This literally captured the "Songs of Faith and Devotion" album live - same songs, same sequence.

I guess the wisdom of age means I will never view the release of a live album again as the event I used to see them as. To a certain degree they simply aren't. Duran Duran's "Arena," for instance, was a multimedia experience before the advent of multimedia experiences. They released an album, a video, a making of video and even a board game - all for a live album! Then there was the over the top video with the William S. Burroughs theme. Sheesh!

Try cramming all that into a post-concert bootleg!

Duran Duran Musical

Nick Rhodes via last.fm

I'm not a huge fan of musicals, the ones where they hog-tie an artist's back catalogue into some dodgy storyline especially gets my goat.

So, how do I feel hearing the news that Duran Duran are following in the footsteps of bands like Queen and Abba? Torn. Part of me doesn't want to believe it, but as Nick Rhodes told Heart FM, "We are actually [planning it] - a few people have talked about it."

Last.fm radio subscription debacle

Image via CrunchBase

This week last.fm did something that their fans were hoping they wouldn't do - they started charging people for streaming, outside of Germany, the US and the UK. Their reasoning is that they can make an ad-funded model work in these countries, but nowhere else.

Fans and users - and from the blog comments, it seems these numbers are dropping like a stone - outside of these three countries are forced to pay either £3.00, €3.00 or $3.00 per month to stream more than the "shareware" 30 tracks they're granted. Funnily enough, it looks like you can choose the currency - enabling people to opt for the weakest currency.

What's steamed everyone's beans, by the posts on the blog, isn't so much that they're charging, but the way they went about it. It was announced in a sort of "oh by the way, from this moment on we're charging". They alluded to the charges a while back, but many people hoped it was a passing fad.

With options - at least in the UK where we have Spotify - I've been using last.fm more and more for just their scrobbling feature, which enables me to track what I listen to, as opposed to using their streaming facility.

For some reason my top track is STILL "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise" by Duran Duran, and I've really been compelled over the last few years to top that.

New Duran album news

In what was considered by many (including a former band member) to be a few too many shades of crazy, Duran Duran's last album was helmed by famed hip-hop producer Timbaland.

Duran are no strangers to the hip and the hop having covered "White Lines" and "911 is a Joke" on their 1995 covers album Thank You. Again, those who thought the pairing for Red Carpet Massacre was crazy also skip over the band's 95 foray into other people's tunes.

The band have announced - via their blog - that they've entered the studio for their 13th album with producer de jour Mark Ronson. Now this is such a better pairing than the hippy hoppy.

The band have already gelled nicely with Ronson, having reworked a number of their hits for a one off performance in Paris last summer for the Smirnoff series of events. They also contributed a reworking of "A View To a Kill" to the recent War Child album, Heroes.

I'm very interested to see what this pairing will produce. In fact, I haven't been this interested in a Duran project since Nile Rodgers took the reigns for Notorious.

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.

New Year. New Things. Etc.

So it's a new year and what better way to welcome it than by attending a live and exclusive gig in Londontown?

Last night I attended a BBC Radio 2-taped free concert by Duran Duran at Hammersmith Palais, a small little nightclub that the band played back in 1982, really before the cusp of worldwide fame grabbed them by the danglies. That show as well was taped for radio broadcast.

Apart from the obvious highlight of seeing the band in a 3,000-odd capacity venue (and how many fans can say that - unless they attended the Big Thing Tour in 1989?), it was awesome to see the band continue to trot out the older tracks. Too many bands with a history similar to Duran's continue to tour a greatest hits package year after year.

Credit due to Duran, though. They've been listening to the fans who continually ask for older b-sides and obscure album tracks to be added to the set lists. Last night was the first time in many, many years that the band played "Hold Back The Rain", a standout track from the Rio album, which I have personally never heard live.

This can be added to other non-greatest hits tracks from the last couple of tours; stuff like "(Waiting For The) Nightboat" and "Friends Of Mine", and for the lucky few who got to see it's live debut "Tiger Tiger".

Great gig, welcome introduction to 2005 for those of us there, and I can't wait to see us singing along to "Notorious", "Ordinary World" and "Rio" when the concert is played on the radio later this month.

Set List
1. FINEST HOUR
2. HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF
3. HOLD BACK THE RAIN
4. WANT YOU MORE
5. UNION OF THE SNAKE
6. WHAT HAPPENS TOMORROW
7. CHAINS
8. ASTRONAUT
9. ORDINARY WORLD
10. SAVE A PRAYER
11. BEDROOM TOYS
12. NOTORIOUS
13. REFLEX
14. NICE
15. (REACH UP FOR THE) SUNRISE
16. WILD BOYS

Encore
17. GIRLS ON FILM
18. RIO

Wiki Wiki goodness

Over the last couple of days, I've discovered the joys of the Wikipedia. It's an "open to the public" resource that allows anyone to add, ammend or update entries on just about anything. An amazing resource and truly what the Internet is all about - collaborative learning.

True to form, I've spent most of my time updating and adding entries for Duran Duran, including Greatest, Rio and the Carnival ep. I've also taken time to make pitstops around the SACD and CD entries.

Truly an amazing site, and they even have some non-music related entries!

Reach up for the Sunrise!

I promised myself I wouldn't update this thing while I was on holiday, but somethings are too good not to share.

With the impending release of the new Duran Duran material in the next couple of months, I came across a link for the new video. As a fan, reports of the filming have been quite abundant, but to see the finished product kinda makes the extremities tingle just a bit.

A kindly soul has put it on a website in Divx format for all and sundry to download and watch (thus not having to waste hours and hours in front of shite music channels like I did in 1993 just to see the Ordinary World video).

Also of note is the actual track-listing of the Sunrise single (more for my own benefit than anything else):

UK CD1
1. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Album Version]
2. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Alex G Cosmic Mix]

UK CD2
1. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Album Version]
2. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Nevins Radio Mix]
3. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Ferry Costen Dub Mix]
4. Know It All
5. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Video]

Australia will release the following

CD1
1. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise
2. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Alex G Cosmic Mix]
3. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Ferry Corsten Remix]
4. (Reach Up For The) Sunrise [Peter Presta NY Tribal Mix]
5. Know It All

So again, the UK CD1 is a redundant purchase if you grab CD2 and the Aussie one. Rumour has it there's a mopping up US single coming out 28 September that should feature everything (as they generally do).

Whoosh!

Duran Duran. They may actually release something!

With Duran Duran you never want to count on something until it actually happens, but with reports of record deals signed and videos shot, I think it's time we - as fans - can stop holding our collective breath.

The latest news from DuranDuran.com is also cause for celebration as it solidifies some of the rumours that have been circulating the Internet for the last few months. Chiefly, the first single will be Sunrise (as featured on the Queer Eye soundtrack) and the album, due out in October on Epic, will be called Astronaut, a title no one would have ever guessed that.

Time to dust off those glad rags and do a little jig. Duran are finally back, baby!

Before Sunrise

According to the Mirror tabloid, the new single (or at least video) from Duran's much-delayed forthcoming album IS going to be Sunrise.

"About to release their first studio album in 19 years, the video for cool track Sunrise will see Andy Taylor filmed among 10,000 clubbers at Ibiza's Manumission tomorrow, Nick Rhodes in a spaceship, Roger Taylor in a vintage car, John Taylor on a LA beach and Simon Le Bon, above, driving a BSA motorbike along the Spanish coastline"

Here's hoping something does finally materialise in the shops and ... God forbid ... they actually capitalise on the momentum that the new singles boxset will generate.

Time Out interview with Duran Duran

Cover of Big Thing

Having leafed through this week's Time Out, I was surprised and a little elated to see that Zodiac Mindwarp was playing a live gig in London (with or without the Love Reaction remains to be seen). £12 at the Borderline, btw.

My elation at obscure 80s cock-rockers aside, the interview with cover stars Duran Duran was actually interesting and (almost) factually correct!

Most of the press recently have been harking on about the "comeback" and the "reunion" but seem to forget that the band haven't actually broken up. Some of the more enlightened press have worked the "reunion of the original lineup" angle, but most (near all) seem to shit from a great height on any material released post the Taylor-trio member days... that's the 1981-1985 era for those playing along at home.

Time Out however, not only reversed that trend, they actually went on record saying the material between 1986 and 1990 was their strongest stuff!

WHAAA?

I mean, fans know this - Big Thing and Notorious are permanent faves for those in the know - but what do the press know of this period? The interviewer does go on to mention that hits were few and far between (the amazing "Skin Trade" stalling at 39 for instance).

Not only are Duran Duran being reassessed in light of the 25th anniversary reunion (damn, now they've got me saying it), but the press are finally taking their heads out of their collective asses and actually letting the music do the talking - not preconceptions.

It's a perfect day.

Btw, the factual error was saying that the band were all from Birmingham except for Watford boy Simon. Truth is, Andy's from Newcastle.