{"id":419,"date":"2011-10-19T14:38:02","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T22:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=419"},"modified":"2023-03-08T12:01:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T20:01:56","slug":"duranalysis-sing-blue-silver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/duranalysis-sing-blue-silver\/","title":{"rendered":"Duranalysis: Sing Blue Silver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sing Blue Silver<\/em>, the 1984 documentary about the 79-day North American leg of Duran Duran\u2019s 1983-1984 world tour, is a fascinating glimpse into the rarified lives of the band on the road, which seemed to consist mostly of performances and photo ops and interviews, to say nothing of endless hours spent moving from gig to gig in limousines and private planes. And being screamed at by teen girls. Oh, lordy, plenty of screaming teen girls. It\u2019s a hoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s far too much material here to go over everything, but I\u2019ll try to hit some of the highlights. Here we go:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tour kicks off with a press conference, in which Andy gets the ball rolling when he gives a cheeky, innuendo-laden response to a soft-lob question (\u201cWhen did you learn an instrument?\u201d\u2014you can sort of guess where Andy takes it from there). The remaining Durans follow his lead and chime in with naughty replies\u2026 until it\u2019s Roger\u2019s turn. Being naughty and cheeky is not in Roger\u2019s wheelhouse, at least not during a blasted press conference. He looks panicky and embarrassed, until Simon jumps in and bails him out (\u201cRoger needs two hands for his!\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Props to Andy for bringing the awesome throughout this entire documentary. While some of the Durans appear to be fast running out of enthusiasm for life on the road (hi, Roger!), Andy\u2019s clearly in his element.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Showtime! The Durans cease their green room hijinks (helium-sucking and general chaos-making) and head for the stage. Except for Nick, who refuses to abandon his\u00a0terribly important<\/em>\u00a0arcade game for something as trivial as a live performance. A member of their inner circle (who surely has a more important function than Official Nick Wrangler, but he\u2019s never identified by name or purpose, so I have no clue as to his identity) comes up behind Nick, grabs him around his tiny chest, and lugs the wailing pixie off toward the stage. The enduring weirdness of Nick Rhodes continues to be a source of great joy in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I won\u2019t dwell too long on\u00a0Sing Blue Silver<\/em>\u2019s excellent performance scenes, of which there are many. Both the video for \u201cThe Reflex<\/a>\u201d and the Russell Mulcahy-directed concert film\u00a0Arena (An Absurd Notion)<\/em>\u00a0were filmed during this tour, so if you\u2019ve seen either of those, you know what you\u2019re in for. Because it will become relevant later, I\u2019m just going to quickly point out how Nick is off in his own little corner of the stage, surrounded by his synthesizers and sundry equipment (including his then-state-of-the-art Fairlight CMI synthesizer, which came complete with a light pen and monitor). For parts of the show, he\u2019s standing in total darkness. Anyone who thinks Nick is going to sit back and quietly accept this situation is unfamiliar with the ways of everybody\u2019s favorite high-maintenance pixie.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This is Roger\u2019s special post-performance ritual:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Walk directly in front of the nearest camera.
2. Whip off shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Why, thank you, Roger. Much obliged.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Backstage, the boys are introduced to Mike Davis and Marcus Allen from the Raiders. This is worth seeing for: a) the fetishistic sight of leggy knockout John Taylor in a football jersey, and b) the shots of Andy and Nick playfully roughhousing with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n

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B) is significant in light of Andy\u2019s memoir (Wild Boy: My Life In Duran Duran<\/em>), in which he depicts his relationship with Nick as an unbroken series of snubs, slights, shouting matches, passive-aggressive bitchery, icy silences, and hurled pork pies. I don\u2019t doubt Andy\u2019s account\u2014I\u2019m sure it was all of that\u2014but from what we see throughout\u00a0Sing Blue Silver<\/em>, their dynamic was more complicated than simple mutual animosity. Unless they\u2019re keeping up an elaborate masquerade for the cameras, Nick and Andy seem to genuinely get a kick out of each other. They even appear to be\u2014brace yourselves\u2014buddies. It\u2019s\u00a0cute<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hotel room interviews. This is what John Taylor looks like when he first rolls out of bed.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Disgusting, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys have some free time in New York, so Nick dons his best French Foreign Legion hat, grabs his best girl (future wife\u00a0Julie Anne Friedman), and strolls off on a magical adventure down Fifth Avenue. Much of the tour takes place in cold, wintry cities, which provides Nick with the opportunity to sport an amazing array of outerwear: crazy hats and scarves and bulky layered coats with huge padded shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Andy, meanwhile, hoofs it to the nearest pool hall and has himself a fine old time playing billiards. We don\u2019t get to see how the other Durans enjoy their downtime, but I\u2019m betting Roger\u2019s day involved a locked door, an unplugged phone, and earplugs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The tour continues. Another city, another performance. Nick is still plunged in darkness, and seriously, I\u2019m half-convinced at this point that someone\u2019s just screwing with him. And who could blame them? It\u2019d be fun to mess with Nick\u2019s head. Muck up his lighting, leave him groping around for his keyboards in the darkness, then sit back and wait for the fireworks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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(A quote from Simon, taken from a 2003 Tatler profile of Nick, about his bandmate\u2019s legendarily control-freaky nature: \u201cHe\u2019s very analytical and that can be a pain in the arse. He cares about everything, and I mean everything. He feels it\u2019s his business to choose my socks and underwear.\u201d Along those same lines, here\u2019s a quote from Nick, as related in Steve Malins\u2019s Duran Duran Notorious: The Unauthorised Biography<\/em>, as to why he\u2019s the scourge of lighting directors everywhere: \u201cI\u2019m horribly particular about colours. The arguments I\u2019ve had with lighting designers about shades of magenta\u2026\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backstage, Nick goes full-tilt Norma Desmond about the lighting: \u201cIt\u2019s so depressing, that black stage. It\u2019s terrible. Horrible. Vile. It\u2019s got to go. I kept looking at it all through the set. Horrible. Horrible.\u201d In the background, his bandmates quietly get snockered, as though the thought of getting through one of Nick\u2019s tirades cold sober is too much to bear (Roger\u2019s thousand-yard stare is especially poignant). Andy backs Nick up on the lighting situation: \u201cIt\u2019s turning me to drink. I never<\/em> usually drink.\u201d This is what I mean about Andy bringing the awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n

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While the boys get ready for a shoot with famed photographer Francesco Scavullo, Simon ruminates on the dangers of getting undressed when journalists are in the vicinity: \u201c\u2018Cause if you take your trousers off in front of people, they\u2019ll write things like, \u2018Simon Le Bon wears yellow underwear,\u2019 and they\u2019ll accuse you of having chubby legs and a gut.\u201d This is in reference to a cover story on the band in the February 2nd, 1984 issue of Rolling Stone, in which journalist James Henke writes, of seeing Simon sans<\/em> pants, \u201cIt was not, frankly, a particularly awe-inspiring sight. Le Bon, you see, is no John Travolta when it comes to physiques. Not a slob, just slightly chubby legs, a little bit of a gut.\u201d<\/em> Oh, ouch. Knife to the heart! Not that anybody should ever lose sleep fretting about long-past blows to Simon\u2019s robust ego, but it\u2019s hard not to wince at that.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Especially considering how whippy and lean he was in 1984. \u201cBit of a gut,\u201d nothing doing.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In Atlanta, the boys attend a banquet in their honor at the headquarters of one of the tour\u2019s big sponsors, Coca-Cola. The event chairman spontaneously calls upon John to make some off-the-cuff comments. Always ready to add a fun chaotic element to any situation, a somewhat blurry John takes the stage and cheerily declares his preference for Pepsi.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Yeah, I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s neither Coke nor Pepsi in John\u2019s glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So after the show, Nick sits down with a couple of the lighting guys to hash out the problem with the overly-dark stage. The lighting guys\u2014you know, I really wish Sing Blue Silver<\/em> had done a better job of identifying all the various staff and crew members running around, so I could refer to people by name and\/or title\u2014do their best to placate him. They\u2019re obviously treading delicately around their wee dainty 21-year-old millionaire pop-star employer, and thus their responses come across as a bit condescending: \u201cYou\u2019re bright up there, I thought, so it is a psychological thing, too\u2026 Problem is, all night long we were taking readings with meters and stuff, and you\u2019re the brightest one on stage 90% of the time.\u201d Nick\u2014totally calm, totally polite, totally intractable\u2014goes straight to the heart of the matter: \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t actually see<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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While this is taking place, Roger waltzes in front of the camera and, oh gee, his pants appear to be sexily unbuttoned.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Roger Taylor: stealth exhibitionist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys go on a tour of FBI headquarters at the Hoover building in DC, where they\u2019re treated to a lecture about the Bureau\u2019s past accomplishments. The Durans all display varying degrees of polite interest and\/or mild ennui. Except for Andy, who\u2019s mesmerized<\/em>. Andy is a heartbeat away from abandoning this whole guitar-legend-in-the-making business and embarking on a bold new career as a G-Man.<\/p>\n\n\n

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No. No. Jesus, no. FBI agents, mark my words: No matter how much they plead and whine and beg and bat their pretty eyes at you, do not<\/em> let the gaggle of hyperactive, accident-prone pop stars handle your guns.<\/p>\n\n\n

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New Orleans: Nick and Julie Anne stroll around Bourbon Street, where Nick receives an impromptu tap-dancing lesson from a young street performer. I appreciate Nick\u2019s moxie, but his dance skills have not noticeably improved since the \u201cNew Moon on Monday<\/a>\u201d video.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It\u2019s the home stretch of the tour. Irrepressible prankster Simon feigns a broken arm during rehearsal.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Afterward, he reveals the charade. The Durans find it uproarious. Well, sixty percent of the Durans find it uproarious, anyway\u2014Nick is nowhere in sight, and as for Roger\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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Yeah. Not too hard to tell what he thinks of all this.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Okay, this part is sort of ghastly: During the last leg of the tour, John had some kind of accident in his hotel room that resulted in a badly lacerated foot. The exact cause is still shrouded in mystery, but let\u2019s clear our brains of speculation and accept John\u2019s explanation in an article in the April 1985 issue of, ahem, BOP magazine (\u201cJohn Taylor: \u2018I Nearly Killed Myself!\u2019\u201d): \u201cI had been dancing on broken bottles without realizing it and I had to have 20 stitches in my foot.\u201d Dancing on broken bottles! Could happen to anyone! After that, John was in no shape to prance about the stage, but they couldn\u2019t afford to cancel the gig and reschedule the very expensive shoot for the Arena<\/em> concert film, so\u2026 well, here\u2019s a quote from Andy\u2019s memoir about how they got John ready for the show:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the end, John had to be fired up at both ends. The doctor gave him huge amounts of morphine in the foot. Then John took pharmaceutical cocaine through the nose to keep him awake. It was the only solution; otherwise, the morphine would have knocked him out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was originally going to remark that you can\u2019t tell the difference between the performances where John is uninjured and the performances where he\u2019s tripping balls to take away the crippling foot pain, but then I started sorting through screengrabs, and\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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Yeah. Yeah, you sort of can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backstage after the final concert, an emotional Simon and John and Andy all mash themselves together into one big, clingy, sweaty, meaty, tear-soaked mess.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Once again, Nick is nowhere to be seen (teary, sweaty, shirtless group hugs are not, repeat, not<\/em> his scene). Roger glances at his hugging bandmates, then opens a beer and sacks out on a nearby couch, looking like he\u2019s had quite enough of Duran Duran, thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And that\u2019s pretty much it. Entertaining stuff. It\u2019s strange: As glamorous and exotic as they all seemed during this time, for all the weirdness that came with their monstrous fame and fortune\u2014the drugs, the egos, the excesses\u2014they still basically come across as a bunch of nice kids. Kids with great bone structure and awesome hairstyles and flashy wardrobes, sure, but nice kids nonetheless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sing Blue Silver, the 1984 documentary about the 79-day North American leg of Duran Duran\u2019s 1983-1984 world tour, is a fascinating glimpse into the rarified lives of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duran-duran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1605,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/1605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}