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        <p><span>They were a symbol of the band of the <a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/blazers-with-shoulder-pads-trend-of-the-season" target="_blank" rel="noopener">80s.</a></span><span> To the point that there was practically no teenager who did not have a poster of <strong>John Taylor</strong> or <strong>Simon Le Bon in his room</strong> . At the beginning of the <strong>MTV</strong> era, their videos, &ldquo;Girls on film&rdquo;, &ldquo;Save a prayer&rdquo;, &ldquo;Hungry like the wolf&rdquo;, broadcast non-stop, had been instrumental in the unleashing of Duranmania . Crowds of groupies (including Lady Di) seemed willing to do anything, and their music made everyone dance. The story begins with two teenagers in Birmingham, friends since childhood, Nick Bates and Nigel Taylor, who would then reinvented as Nick Rhodes and John Taylor in the</span> <span><span>'78</span> form a band whose name, discovered by John, is derived from a character the sci-fi cult <span>years'</span></span> <span>60 "Barbarella". The group finds its definitive formation with the arrival first of drummer Roger Taylor, then of Andy Taylor on guitar (none of the Taylors are related to the others) and finally with the appearance of Simon Le Bon. Everything happens very quickly, the first to bet on them is Dave Ambrose of EMI, the same who had signed the Sex Pistols. They debuted in '81, with an album that bears their name and whose first single, between synth pop and new wave, &ldquo;Planet Earth&rdquo;, became a hit in the English top chart. But it is the second album <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0vndiSM8xxlb8CQFOMMO9h" target="_blank" rel="noopener">, " <strong>Rio</strong> "</a> , which takes them to the top of the American charts and transforms them from club band into pop star. It is the beginning of a period of wild parties, trophy girlfriends (read top models, Ren&eacute;e Simonsen for John, Yasmin Parvaneh, still his wife, for Simon), of growing tensions between out-of-control egos. In 84 they separate, John, with Andy and Robert Palmer, forms Power Station, Nick and Simon become Arcadia, Roger plays with both groups. They are back together for <strong>&ldquo;Live Aid&rdquo;,</strong> the biggest musical event in history that will keep over two billion viewers glued to televisions around the world. An initiative by Bob Geldof to raise funds for the famine in Ethiopia that will see everyone who counts in the world of music, from Bob Dylan to <a href="https://www.lofficielitalia.com/eventi/heroes-david-bowie-e-masayoshi-sukita" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David Bowie</a> , from Queen to U2, take to the stages of Wembley and Philadelphia. When they record "Notorious", which comes out in 86 and is still a success, Roger Taylor has already left to move to a farm in the countryside, later Andy will leave, convinced that the band had become too commercial, while in the '97 John also slips away, to go and detoxify himself from cocaine. He will return in 2001, like Roger, but in the meantime <strong>the Duran Duran phenomenon</strong> gives the center stage to other bands, other genres of music, other aesthetics, even if of course they make other albums, sometimes a hit ...</span></p>
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                <p><strong>OFFICIEL HOMMES ITALIA: On October 22nd the new album, the fifteenth of your career, &ldquo;Future Past&rdquo; was released, six years after the previous one in 2015, &ldquo;Paper Gods&rdquo;. How was this project born?</strong></p>
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                        <p><span><strong>NICK RHODES:</strong></span> <span>We had started working on the album before the lockdown, and when we got back to everyone's perspective it was very different. It was very inspiring to have Graham Coxon, the Blur guitarist, and Mike Garson, Bowie's pianist, for us an absolute legend in the studio, but also Giorgio Moroder, we have admired him for forty years and this is the first time we work. with him, managing to create, I believe, a song 100% Duran Duran and 100% Giorgio Moroder.</span></p>
                        <p><span><strong>JOHN TAYLOR:</strong></span> <span>It's an album where the personality of each member of the band and each of the artists we asked to collaborate shines through. While in the beginning we made records dominated by super producers, because in a sense we didn't know who we really were.</span></p>
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                                <p><strong>LOHI: Which are the musicians who have influenced you the most?</strong></p>
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                                <p><span><strong>NR:</strong></span> <span>David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Kraftwerk, Sparks, and then T. Rex, Roxy Music. John and I discovered punk rock, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees together, later Giorgio Moroder's electronic music.</span></p>
                                <p><span><strong>JT:</strong></span> <span>Obviously the Beatles and not only for the genius of their lyrics and their music, but because they have experimented with everything, opened all the roads. And David Bowie, the absolute reference for every member of the band, the Clash, Queen ... I like versatile bands that never cease to reinvent themselves, to leave the comfort zone of a single musical genre. This is why I don't usually listen to the music I love, and instead I spend a lot of time listening to the music I don't know.</span></p>
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FROM LEFT Jacket, shirt and trousers, DOLCE & GABBANA. Wool sweater, STELLA MccARTNEY; t-shirt and jeans, DOLCE & GABBANA. Hood, KAUSHIK VELENDRA; shirt and trousers, DOLCE & GABBANA; tape, Nick's own. Sweater and trousers, DOLCE & GABBANA.

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        <p><strong>LOHI: You broke up, reconciled, moved away, different musicians joined the band. How is the dynamics of your relationships?</strong></p>
        <p><span><strong>JT</strong> :</span> <span>With Nick the bond is very strong, we are both only children, both Gemini, with Simon there is a deep alchemy, in reality we are like a family, linked by many different dynamics. We are not songwriters, I would say that rather we work as architects, we are abstract expressionists: we can work on the sound of a song six months before writing the text. We are four and we are a democracy, and we work with a whole series of collaborators, listening to many opinions when by now most of contemporary music is born with only two figures, artist and producer. I think that if we have remained relevant it is because we have fought to be, we have not settled on a groove repeated over and over again. Ours is a form of group therapy based on the strength of being together. Personally I need a boost, the success and the years have made me lazy, I made albums where I played two notes and then they were picked up by others. In &ldquo;Rio&rdquo; we played whatever it was possible to play to grab attention, later in New York, working with crazy musicians, I questioned myself, I felt small, not too good. I started with the guitar, but then I switched to bass because everyone wanted to play the guitar ...</span></p>
        <p><strong>NR:</strong> <span>John and I are very close friends, I was 10 when I met him, he was twelve. We were only children and we grew up as brothers. But also with the other members of the band the relationship is very close. It seems impossible to me 40 years have passed, we have been together for a long time, we have always been very ambitious, we have always aimed to be the best and we have always tried to be contemporary, to use the most advanced technology. We have never identified with a musical genre and we have not become attached to a single type of music. John and I have always been obsessed with graphics and have always considered ourselves a collective of creatives.</span></p>
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                <p><strong>LOHI: The favorite album of all those of Duran Duran?</strong></p>
                <p><strong>NR:</strong> <span>Actually our work has to be considered in its entirety, even if obviously &ldquo;Rio&rdquo;, in 1982, was the key album. But I would also say &ldquo;Notorious&rdquo;, which I think has influenced many other artists and &ldquo;The Wedding Album&rdquo;, from '93, with what is perhaps my favorite song, &ldquo;Come Undone&rdquo;. And then also the album of our reunion. We have always been very meticulous, very demanding on all the details, it is no coincidence that in 40 years we have made a total of 15 albums, we could have done twice as many, but perhaps that is why we have stood the test of time.</span></p>
                <p><span><strong>JT:</strong> "Rio" and "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" (</span> <span><span>'83).</span></span></p>
                <p><strong>LOHI: What is your favorite phase in making a record?</strong></p>
                <p><strong>NR:</strong> <span>The initial one, of creation still without limits, boundaries, direction, when you start from a blank page in the morning and leave the studio in the evening with the awareness of having created something. But if you asked Simon the same question he would tell you that his favorite moment is the live performance.</span></p>
                <p><strong>JT:</strong> <span>I like the initial creative phase, the one where we determine the mood, the tone, the one where we are most prolific; then we slow down: Simon can spend months on a text and I go crazy. As a bassist, I can stay in the studio doing some encouraging sounds, but I am perfectly aware that they go on without me. And then there is the live moment, it has always been my element, it is</span> <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: transparent; letter-spacing: 0px;">when the talking ends and the pure level of connection with the music begins, a magic that has attracted me since I was a boy. I was 16 when I started performing in public, but that feeling of danger before starting because anything can happen, and then the adrenaline rush that gives you people's happiness when they start singing and dancing to your music, are always present. We played in front of small audiences like in festivals like Whight's where you could only see audiences up to the horizon. It was incredible every time.</span></p>
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                        <p><strong>LOHI: The concerts you are most attached to?</strong></p>
                        <p><span><strong>JT:</strong></span> <span>Of course &ldquo;Live Aid&rdquo;, because being part of that</span> <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; background-color: transparent; letter-spacing: 0px;">crazy line up of artists was exhilarating, but also the first UK tour with just two singles and screaming girls. They were under the stage and didn't even really listen to us, the only thing they wanted was to catch our attention. Coachella was also an incredible experience, and then I remember some crazy concerts in Italy: in Milan for the &ldquo;Notorious&rdquo; tour we performed for the first time in a stadium (San Siro, ed.).</span></p>
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                                <p><strong>LOHI: What do you like to do when you are not working?</strong></p>
                                <p><span><strong>NR:</strong></span> <span>I didn't stop working, in the initial phase of the lockdown I was horrified at not being able to do it. I solved it by arranging my digital archive of photographs and producing &ldquo;Astronomy,&rdquo; four albums with Wendy Bevan, released separately on this year's solstice and equinox dates, with the latest coming out in December. Wendy is creative, chic, humoral, we have many things in common, she is also a photographer. I had worked as a producer on his record, then when we realized that with the lockdown we had to block everything, because it made no sense to make it without promoting it on tour etc etc we decided to work on some purely instrumental songs, and it was so stimulating that the pieces they became 52.</span></p>
                                <p><strong>JT:</strong> I think that lying by the pool is one of the great pleasures of life, it is not for nothing that I chose to live in California.</p>
                                <p><strong>LOHI:</strong> <span><strong>You have always been very fashion conscious, and your look has undoubtedly been one of the reasons for your success.</strong></span></p>
                                <p><strong>NR:</strong> <span>I like well designed, well structured clothes, I hate sportswear, you will never see me in jeans or tracksuits. I have always followed new designers, especially those who came out of Central Saint Martins, I like to go to their shows, support them publicly. I loved Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent, I think it was the golden moment of menswear. I don't like ridiculous fashion, although I appreciate a touch of sense of humor, I want to feel elegant and chic. Among the items in my wardrobe that I love most are some McQueen outfits from when there was Lee, some incredible pieces by Gaultier from the 80s, but also by <a href="https://www.lofficielitalia.com/fashion-week/comme-des-garcons-collezione-primavera-estate-2022-sfilata-foto-look" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Comme des Gar&ccedil;ons</a> , Yohji Yamamoto, by a great tailor like Antony Price (figure fundamental in the creation of the style of Bryan Ferry, nda), Thierry Mugler, Montana, Galliano, Tristan Webber. Looking fabulous is one of life's pleasures. From a fashion point of view, the lockdown was a catastrophe.</span></p>
                                <p><span><strong>JT:</strong></span> <span>I've always been a fashion victim, perhaps for a genetic question, my father created (literally, he chose the fabrics and then sewed them) some clothes for my mother, and then the music scene was dominated by artists like Queen or David Bowie , there was a lot of competitiveness on the clothes. Without forgetting the influence of punk rock, of the Sex Pistols. We have never worn jeans. My wife (Gela Nash, co-founder of Juicy Couture, ed.) Is a fashion designer, we talk about fashion all the time.</span></p>
                                <p><strong>LOHI: At the time you used make up, like Bowie and Adam Ant ...</strong></p>
                                <p><span><strong>NR:</strong></span> <span>I'm absolutely comfortable with make-up, it makes you feel different, it adds a touch of theatricality to the grayest day, I started wearing make-up at 16 and never stopped, I look in the mirror in the morning and I think mine face could only improve with makeup. Back then there was a lot of closure, the fact that we were made up only liked a gay fan base, today the mentality is more open, there is a lot more freedom of expression.</span></p>
                                <p><strong>JT:</strong> <span>If I really want to make a sensation I wear eyeliner, but I don't care anymore. Instead, I work a lot on my body, I take it very seriously, I am very healthy, and I do constant work to keep it up to the demands of a tour.</span></p>
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                                        <p><strong>LOHI: Do you consider yourself primarily a British band?</strong></p>
                                        <p><span><strong>NR:</strong></span> <span>Undoubtedly, although I still feel European despite Brexit. I don't like those who think small, if we all worked together in harmony instead of witnessing conflicts between superpowers it would be much easier to deal with the great problems of the planet such as climate change in a more efficient way. But we are a British band because we would not be conceivable without English music that came before us, without David Bowie for example, or without English fashion, without <a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/Fashion/vivienne-westwood-red-carpet-looks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vivienne Westwood</a> or without the tailor of Roxy Music ...</span></p>
                                        <p><strong>LOHI: Is it possible to be a music star without being narcissistic?</strong></p>
                                        <p><strong>JT:</strong> <span>At 22 I was not a narcissist, at 26 yes because the whole lifestyle of a rock star pushes you to be one, to focus all attention only on yourself. It is obvious that such an attitude when working in a team is disastrous, tensions explode.</span> <span>JT:</span> <span>I have never stopped being a narcissist.</span></p>
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      <p style="text-align: center;"><em>The OFFICIEL Hommes Italia Centennial Issue will be on newsstands starting October 25, 2021.</em></p>
      <p style="text-align: center;"><em>TEAM CREDITS:</em></p>
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              <p><strong>HAIR: </strong><span>Cristiano Basciu @</span> <span>RICHARD WARD HAIR;</span></p>
              <p><strong>MAKE UP: </strong><span>Carol Morley @</span> <span>CAROL HAYES MANGEMENT</span> <span>using</span> <span>ARMANI BEAUTY;</span></p>
              <p><span> </span><strong>DIGITAL OPERATOR: </strong><span>Vlady Vala;</span></p>
              <p><strong>PHOTO ASSISTANT: </strong><span>Stephen Young;</span></p>
              <p><strong>STYLING ASSISTANT: </strong><span>Natalie Richardson.</span></p>
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Duran Duran Are Ready to Tell Their Future Past

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