‘We look like soft, made-up blokes, but we’re really tough’: Duran Duran on 80s excess, tabloid scrutiny and their Halloween glow-up

They spent their heyday on yachts, then rolled up their sleeves in the wilderness years.

Ahead of a Halloween show at the O2, pop’s great survivors explain their staying power In 2022, Duran Duran were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

It felt like a big deal, a sweet moment of acknowledgment for the band’s five-decades-long career, the 100m records sold, the string of bulletproof hits: Save a Prayer, Rio, Hungry Like the Wolf, Girls on Film.

They were inducted by actor Robert Downey Jr; Drew Barrymore, Naomi Campbell and Gwen Stefani were on hand to pay heartfelt tribute and, as keyboard player Nick Rhodes points out, “It’s a big national live TV broadcast in America that goes out to millions of people,” so the band booked some warm-up shows.

“And it so happened that there was a date that came up in Las Vegas on 31 October,” says Rhodes.

“And I looked at everyone and said: ‘Well, we can’t do a normal show.

Las Vegas on Halloween – surely that’s the opportunity for a little bit of fun?’” They worked up a set of suitably themed material, including covers of Billie Eilish’s Bury a Friend and Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer.

There were, of course, costumes involved, because, as Rhodes drily notes, “When have Duran Duran ever not dressed up?” Continue reading...