Photo: RICHARD GRAY @RUGFOOT
Duran Duran, who need no introduction, brought their UK tour to London last night following the release of their 14th studio album Paper Gods, which opened with the eponymous and first track of the new LP. A few tracks in saw a nostalgic revisit to earlier days as 'Wild Boys' brought their zeitgeist-defining era to centre stage.
Simon Le Bon trickled 'Hungry Like the Wolf' in a view to maintaining the prowess of their early years, followed by 'A view to a Kill' being introduced by a snippet of James Bond videography on the canvas backdrop.
What kept an expansive venue energised through the night and entertained thousands is the band's illustrious ability to dabble in multiple staple genres of the 80s. The funk-tones of new single 'Pressure Off' whose studio version features the strings of Nile Rogers (although Mr. Hudson as the producer filled in for the lord of funk on guitar live on stage; there's no contest, right?) closed in flamboyantly retro fashion with a blizzard of yellow confetti.
The encore opened with the heartfelt ballad 'Save a Prayer’, dedicated to the tragic events which took place in Paris just a few weeks ago. A myriad of flashlights from camera phones embellished the gargantuan tent rotating in miniature fashion like dizzying fireflies, as the intertwining vocal harmonies were accompanied by acoustic guitar and sifted through the stadium. A truly poignant moment of tribute.
The crowd’s anticipation was quenched when the immortal party anthem 'Rio' hit the sound system. Lindsay Lohan joined the new wave kings on stage as the token beauty glittering in gold and seeing the venue by the riverside to an emphatic farewell to an equally nostalgic and moving evening - but also from a band rooted very much in the now.
Duran Duran played:
Paper Gods
The Wild Boys
Hungry Like The Wolf
A View to a Kill
Come Undone
Last Night in the City
What Are the Chances?
White Lines (Don't Don't Do It) (Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel cover)
Only in Dreams
Love Voodoo
Notorious
I Don't Want Your Love
Pressure Off
Planet Earth
Ordinary World
(Reach Up for the) Sunrise / New Moon on Monday
Danceophobia / Too Much Information / Girls on Film (Danceophobia with Lindsay Lohan)
Encore:
Save a Prayer (Dedicated to the Paris attack victims)
Rio
