Some five decades old, Simon Le Bon explained how Duran Duran have stayed together.
Insisting the secret to their success is that they all “like each other” and they split the band’s income “equally,” the Brit-pop band has maintained the same line-up of Le Bon, John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes ever since they formed back in 1978 –
In an ITV News interview, the 67-year old front man said:
“We like each other, we like working together. We rely on each other for musical ideas, as well. We split all the income equally; it doesn’t matter if you write something or if you don’t write on it, you get an equal share of the publishing.” “And that way, everybody is happy and crucially only the best material gets on the album. It means there’s no resentment for financial reasons within the group. I don’t know how many other bands do that.”
After scoring a massive 1985 hit with ‘A View to a Kill’ from the 007 film of the same name, LeBon confirmed his interest in working on another James Bond theme for new franchise owners, adding: “Let’s see what Amazon wants to do with it. I’m keeping an open mind. Would we do it? Of course we would. 100 per cent.”
Declaring another of the band’s goal’s of headlining the UK’s fabled Glastonbury Festival should the organizers give them a headline slot, Simon said “Absolutely would love to do it. But we’re not going to do it unless we get the right slot. We have been offered the disco tent at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon and that’s not really where we’re at.”
However, when asked if the quartet would agree to play the festival’s famous Legends slot on a Sunday afternoon – as did Sir Rod Stewart, Kylie Minogue and Dolly Parton in the past – the UK-born singer stated “That is a kind of headline slot for me. Yeah sure we would do that.”
During his Sunday Times’ Culture magazine interview, Simon LeBon also confirmed the band’s interest in playing the Sphere venue in Las Vegas as well as creating a hologram show in the style of ABBA Voyage, explaining “I’d love to do one [hologram show]. But I’d also like to do the Sphere in Las Vegas.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: John Swannell; Distributed by Capitol Records – Public Domain