This day is a special birthday for a special man in my life. For none other than Nick Rhodes is fifty years old today! [Oh. My. God.]
In his day Mr Rhodes was, in my opinion, one of the coolest men on the planet. His radical manipulation of his own appearance kept him as the focus of my attention despite the obvious media interest in the pretty Duran Duran "frontmen" Simon Le Bon and John Taylor. In those pioneering days of New Romantic synth-pop, whoever ruled the keyboard ruled the music - and Nick Rhodes was in charge there. And as stylish trend-setters of that type in the early 80s go, his only serious rivals were the likes of Steve Strange, David Sylvian and Pete Murphy.
As I said in my blog for Simon Le Bon's birthday in 2011:
Often unkindly regarded as the "uncool" end of the New Romantic explosion (in my opinion merely because they hailed from Birmingham rather than trendy London, Manchester or Liverpool), Duran Duran are nonetheless one of the most successful of the bands who emerged from the dressing-up era of the early 80s, selling more than 100 million records to date.Certainly, it was this video for the Durannies debut Planet Earth that sent me scuttling off to the charity shops all those years ago to buy frills, bows, baggy shirts and headbands (and hairspray!). This was my "look" for quite a while (I still haven't properly grown out of it!) - and yes, we did dance like those two cool kids in the background...
Furthermore, unlike their contemporaries (rivals?) Spandau Ballet the band has survived (in several incarnations, admittedly) as a unit ever since their foundation, and certainly never crossed over into the Phil Collins/Lionel Ritchie/"adult contemporary" music market like Spandau did with the execrable True...
I have always had a soft spot for the Durannies, all the way from from Planet Earth right through to All You Need is Now. I saw them live at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on the "Careless Memories" tour back in 1981, and had I the money (and had Simon's vocal chords not collapsed after a virus halfway through) I would have loved to see them again on their recent tour.
Only came outside to watch night fall with the rain
I heard you making patterns rhyme like
Some new romantic looking for the TV sound
I'll see you're right some other time love
Look now look all around there's no sign of life
Voices, another sound, can you hear me now? This is Planet Earth
You're looking at Planet Earth
Bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop this is Planet Earth
My head is stuck on something precious let me know
If you're coming down to land, is there
Anybody out there trying to get through
My eyes so cloudy I can't see you
Look now look all around there's no sign of life
Voices, another sound, can you hear me now? This is Planet Earth
You're looking at Planet Earth
Bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop this is Planet Earth
Look now look all around there's no sign of life
Voices, another sound, can you hear me now? This is Planet Earth
You're looking at Planet Earth
Bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop this is Planet Earth
Bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop calling Planet Earth
Bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop looking at Planet Earth
Bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop this is Planet Earth
Nick Rhodes, we salute you!
Happy Birthday indeed.
Duran Duran official website
