Voices, another sound, can you hear me now?

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.

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.

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...

Duran Duran - Planet Earth

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!

Duran Duran - A birthday message from Nick Rhodes 2012

Happy Birthday indeed.

Duran Duran official website

42 outfits in one episode...

Sad news today of the death of Nolan Miller, at the age of 79.

Many may ask - who? But Mr Miller is very dear to all our hearts, as the man who dressed Joan Collins and all the ultra-glamorous ladies of Dynasty, thereby setting a high-camp, hi-gloss, big-shouldered, power-dressing look for an entire generation of sophisticated (and not-so-sophisticated) women during the 80s.

Apparently taking his direct inspiration from the even more formidable Joan Crawford (for whom he was couturier for twenty years), his Alexis Colby Carrington Dexter "look" won him an Emmy in 1984. "I always put Joan Collins in gloves on Dynasty," Mr Miller famously said.

He specialised in costume design for many a glossy Aaron Spelling series including Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat and Hotel, and it is rumoured he wanted to be another Adrian - the 1940s designer whose gowns put the glamour into Hollywood. For Elizabeth Taylor's guest spot on Hotel, Mr Miller spent more than double his $15,000 budget for guest stars to dress her alone.

His roll-call of customers encompasses just about every star in the Hollywood firmament - Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, Sophia Loren, Ginger Rogers, Bette Davis among them. He designed a forest-green sequinned gown for Susan Hayward, a close friend, to wear as a presenter at the 1974 Academy Awards. She was terminally ill and died less than a year later. She was buried in the gown, according to her wishes. "When she got to heaven," he recalled her saying, "she wanted to look like a star."

With Nolan Miller's death, the whole world is a lot less glamorous...

Nolan Miller Fashion Extravaganza

Nolan Miller obituary in the New York Times

Nolan Miller interview from 2003

Nolan Miller's Dynasty designs slideshow

Get ready. Tonight.

Gazing with amazement out of the window on what looks like a monsoon, we can take comfort that it is the end of another week (OK, OK, three days) back in work...

Let us start our party planning right here - in the company of three super-cool individuals who restored funky dance music back to the upper echelons of the charts where it belonged thirty years ago this month. It's white tuxedos, over-coiffed hair, cocktails and bow ties (and, strangely, a bed big enough for three!) all round - as Shalamar take us on a Night To Remember. Thank Disco It's Friday!!

Shalamar - A Night to Remember

A classic.

Have a great weekend, whatever you do!

Happy knicker-throwing!

Many happy returns today to the original Welsh "Sex Bomb" Sir Thomas John Woodward, better known to the world as Tom Jones...

Possessor of the most powerful set of lungs in the business, in his day he also wore the tightest trousers remarkably well. It's no wonder the girls (and boys?) used to throw their knickers at him!

Tom Jones- Help Yourself

And here (of course) is his 20,000-strong sing-a-long moment at Monday's grand Diamond Jubilee Concert:

Tom Jones at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert

Penblwydd hapus, boyo!

Tom Jones official website

Burning like a silver flame

Many of us are coming down to earth with a bump today. After a long bank holiday of flag-waving, British national pride, pomp, ceremony, boats, horses, military uniforms, divas, fireworks and celebration, it's time to return to work - ewww!

So, rather than concentrate on earthly things, I note that the papers are full of coverage of the movement of two (other) celestial bodies. And, as Venus completes its transit across the sun, there is only one song I can play to ease its (and our) passage...

Bananarama - Venus

Fitting, too, as it seems that Bananarama are celebrating thirty years in business in 2012. Congratulations, ladies!

Bananarama official website

Queen vs Bitch?

As we settle down (after the superb carriage procession, Palace balcony cheers and fly-past today) to the realisation that there are indeed things going on in our world other than HM The Queen, so I discover a diplomatic incident going on across the water.

Let the battle of the super-blondes commence!

Famously described by political commentator Timothy Stanley as "Robespierre in high heels", the reactionary right-wing French National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen has opened a war of insults (and even threatened legal action) with none other than Our Glorious Leader Madonna over the latter's depiction of her (at her MDNA tour opening night concert in Israel) with a swastika across her face.



Mr Stanley sums up the National Front's poltics thus: "(its) underlying concern is not the preservation of secularism, feminism or La Revolution. It is that little white babies not be outnumbered by little brown babies. It is racism, vile and simple.”

Mme Le Pen would no doubt love to deny this is true. She is currently trying to get her "not-fascist-at-all" party into government after all, and has distanced herself from the rabid racists and Nazi-sympathisers of the FN - including her own father Jean-Marie - in order to present her party as merely "patriotic".

However, when - among her insults aimed at Madonna's age and performance - she says such things as "By the way, has Madonna given back the children she stole from Africa? Or did she end up buying them?", then you just know she has opened a battlefront on racial issues that even a Frenchwoman as arrogant as Marine Le Pen will live to regret.

I can't wait for la bitch-slapping to begin. Madonna, it's your round!

Read the story in The Guardian

Makes ya proud to be British!

I have just finished watching the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert (we recorded it). What a glittering event! I only wish I had won one of the tickets to be there in person...

When we Brits decide to throw a party, we certainly do it in style. A crown-shaped stage around the Victoria Memorial on The Mall, Buck House outstretched behind - and in a stroke of genius, used as a big screen onto which film of the Queen's reign and other images were projected - a dazzling line-up of billion-selling artists, a range of music spanning six decades, an audience of tens of thousands... What could be better?





Opening the show accompanied by a huge miltary band, Robbie Williams rocked Let Me Entertain You like a child throwing his toys out of the pram, but that's exactly what we love him for! We shan't, however, mention the next few acts - that's what fast-forward is for. Will.i.am, Jessie J, our organiser Gary Barlow duetting with "Cherl Kerl" (Cheryl Cole), JLS, Sir Cliff Richard. Ewww.



The inevitable classical section rescued us from absolute musical crucifixion, thankfully, opening with the brilliant Lang-Lang ("the musical Panda"?) and his piano virtuosity, which calmed matters down a bit - well, until Alfie Boe (on next) decided to turn O Sole Mio into some kind of pub-rock number. Speaking of piano geniuses, Jools Holland and Ruby Turner were fabulous as always, singing Billy Preston's You Are So Beautiful.



However, even Miss Turner's flowery frock couldn't compete with the stunning magnificence that is Grace Jones! At 64, the diva proved her mettle by hula-hooping throughout a gutsy rendition of Slave to the Rhythm, and I was on the edge of my seat!

Grace Jones - Slave to the Rhythm [HM The Queen's Jubilee Concert, 2012]

Unfortunately, as is the nature of such an event, the ups are followed by downs.

Ed Sheeran is a boring little tit, and was completely out of place on this set. I think even the Royals popped out the back for a pee and a fag at this point. A big surprise followed, for despite the glittery frock and angel wings the lovely Annie Lennox was surprisingly off tonight, as she struggled to reach the notes she used to on Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart). Renee Fleming had no such problems with her beautiful rendition of Un bel dì vedremo from Madam Butterfly, however.



The first sign of a true crowd-pleaser was the magnificent Sir Tom Jones singing a rollocking version of Mama Told Me Not To Come, and of course Delilah - which had thousands in the crowd singing along! Only fitting for such a musical icon, of course.

The interlude saw the arrival of Her Majesty (gawd bless her - especially since Phil has been taken to hospital), looking fab in a black cape (last seen on her in a 1968 Cecil Beaton portrait). And just in time for the lovely Robbie's return, this time on Mack the Knife (rather good it was too). Unlike Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd-Webber's "official tribute" Sing - massed chorus or no massed chorus. But who cares about "official tributes" - it was DIVA TIME!



Resplendent in a glittering white chiffon number, Dame Shirley Bassey it seems only had one song to sing - but by god she certainly sang it! And what else would she choose on this special occasion but Diamonds Are Forever? Sublime...

Dame Shirley Bassey - Diamonds are Forever [HM The Queen's Jubilee Concert, 2012]

No sooner had one great gay icon glittered her way off (stage left), but in from stage right skipped our own Pearly Queen Kylie! Accompanied by girls in silver crown dresses and faux-guardman hats and bouncy boys with sequinned crown t-shirts, she bowled the audience over with a stunning medley of her hits - Spinning Around, Can't Get You Out Of My Head, Step Back In Time and All The Lovers. Wow!

Kylie Minogue at HM The Queen's Jubilee Concert, 2012

Coming back down to earth a bit, and realising that by now it had got dark, the focus shifted to Buckingham Palace itself, illuminated with flowers. There, on the prestigious balcony, Alfie Boe and Renee Fleming sang a beautiful rendition of one of my all-time most beloved songs Somewhere. Truly lovely...



Back to the stage, and it was the turn of the sparkly pink wonder that is Elton John! Evidently still recovering from his recent bout of pneumonia, he was slightly croaky but nevertheless every inch the showman on I'm Still Standing, Your Song and Crocodile Rock. He was followed by the equally legendary Stevie Wonder (a man in whom I have never really seen the appeal), who got even the Royal box tapping its feet to Sir Duke. However, from there it went downhill (with the godawful Isn't She Lovely and a duet with that bloody creep Will.i.am), so I moved on.



Of course, next up was one of the great anticipated highlights of the evening, as Madness performed a selection of their classics (including Our House, complete with projected image of terraced housing across the front of the Palace, and It Must Be Love with hearts) - on the roof of The Queen's residence! Incredibly clever, and rather fab.

Sir Paul McCartney (the most successful of all the artists on the bill) was the inevitable headliner, with a selection of Beatles and his solo hits; from Magical Mystery Tour through Let it Be and Live and Let Die to the finale of Ob-la-di, at which point everyone (Charles, Camilla and the Queen herself included) took to the stage.

To finish, Prince Charles (who called The Queen "Mummy" much to the joy of the crowd) made a speech of thanks to everyone; the crowd did a shout-out to the ailing Philip and a big "three cheers" to HM; thousands of voices sang the National Anthem through an ocean of Union Jacks; Her Majesty placed a large jewel into a rather Bond-like apparatus and the Official Jubilee Beacon lit up - and then the whole world exploded!!

Fireworks at HM The Queen's Jubilee Concert, 2012

A totally and utterly remarkable occasion...

Diamond Jubilee Concert