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TRAVELLER
ZÜRICH
Although best remembered for
their 80s pop-tunes hit list, including the
classics “Rio”, “Girls on Film” and“Hungry
Like TheWolf”, Simon Le Bon and his
band, Duran Duran, are still going strong.
With bandmates Nick Rhodes, Roger
Taylor and John Taylor, he’s headlining
arenas fromBuenos Aires to Belfast
and currently on albumnumber 13,
All
You Need Is Now
. But he almost wasn’t
so lucky. Tragedy struck in May, when
he suffered a haemorrhage on his vocal
chords. Eight months later, and on the
road again, the 53-year-old tells us why
he’ll never hang up his party shoes…
Tell us what happened with your throat.
“I was on stage in Cannes. I went for the
high note in a verse and it just wasn’t
there. It was, like, almost a whole octave
was wiped off – I have a three-octave
range – and it stayed like that for three
months. I went to see somany doctors, it
was ridiculous.What healedme was time
and a very good vocal therapist.”
Did you think your touring days were over?
As he gears up to headline the Altitude Festival in Klosters, we talk to Duran Duran’s
frontman,
Simon Le Bon
, about hedonism, longevity and his “crazy” wife
Le Bon Vivant
Q+A
Themembers of
Duran Duran have been
playing together for
decades. From left, Roger
Taylor, JohnTaylor,
Simon Le Bon and
Nick Rhodes
“It did cross my mind that this could be
the end of my singing career, absolutely.
It was very frightening.”
You’re known as one of the most rock ‘n’
roll performers in the business. Has that
changed now you’ve been at it for 30 years?
“I’d say my hedonistic lifestyle has got
worse as time’s gone on, definitely.
But then I married an absolutely crazy
woman, Yasmin Le Bon.”
I can’t believe she out-parties you...
“It’s true! She’s more rock ‘n’ roll than
Keith Richards, Keith Moon and all the
other Keiths put together. She’s amazing,
a total party girl.”
You’ve been touring since 1980, so you must
have seen some incredible parties. What’s
the most legendary one you can remember?
“We were on tour inAmerica in about
1989 andmet this guy. He told us his
name was MohammedAl Fayed and that
he owned Harrods. He said, ‘I’mmad
about Duran Duran,’ and started throwing
these parties for us.We must have had
10 amazing parties with him. The guy
put on everything: incredible food, a
gypsy band... At one, there were 14 belly
dancers doing all kinds of stuff. Then he
disappeared and Interpol wanted to talk
to us. Apparently, he’d been going round,
saying he was MohammedAl Fayed,
running up bills and not paying them.”
So he wasn’t actually Mohammed Al Fayed?
“No, he was a complete and utter fraud!”
Other 80s bands have done revival tours
and retired again, but Duran Duran keeps
going. What the secret of your success?
“Well, we enjoy what we do, we’re friends,
we love music and we’re quite good at
writing it as well – I think those are the
prerequisites for hanging around this
business for a long time.We’re a party
band – we’re designed to give people a
good time.We’ve still got the passion and
we really enjoy ourselves on stage.”
You’re performing at the Altitude Festival in
Klosters. Are you a skier?
“I’mquite good at going down very fast,
either onmy feet or my bottom. I love
the whole ski scene. I haven’t been to
Klosters before, but I’m excited about
going there, as it’s where the Royal family
hang out. Hopefully, I’ll bump into them–
figuratively, not literally – on the slopes.”
Will you be enjoying a hot toddy post-piste?
“I love the après ski scene and I’ll be up
for a wintery tipple after the Altitude
show, but it won’t be eggnog!”
What about warm holidays?
“I like the Turks and Caicos for a bit of
sun, and I fly easyJet every year to Ibiza
for the summer. The Ibiza flight is very
entertaining, especially the one at 9am,
when people have been partying all night.
It’s not human beings on that flight – it’s
more like alien beings.”
Duran Duran will be playing at theAltitude
Festival on 21 January. For details, see
altitudeklosters.com
WORDS LAURAMARTIN
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