Duran Duran: The Band Designed to Make You Party

Saturdays tend to be my day to catch up.  I usually stay pretty caught up in the early part of the week but by Thursday, I’m officially behind on household chores (laundry, grocery store, cleaning, etc.).  I’m also behind on my sleep.  Thus, by Saturday, I need to catch up so that I can be ready for the next week.  Often times, I also need to get caught up in what is happening in Duranland.  Thus, I have downloaded TV Mania and am spending some time on facebook and twitter.  I read through the week’s blogs again, too, to see if there is anything I wanted to comment on.  Then, it hits me, Rhonda announced that after our dinner banquet at the convention, we will venturing down to Late Bar, the Chicago club, for a long night of partying to their night, Planet Earth, filled with 80s music!  I cannot begin to tell all of you how excited I am for this night at the convention!!!  If it is anything like the banquet at the 2004 convention or the night at the Pyramid Club in 2007 for the fan show, it will be a night to remember, for sure!

When I signed up for the convention in 2004, I don’t remember even caring about what the specific events were.  I was just too excited by the idea about being around other fans and talking about Duran for a whole weekend.  I knew that I wouldn’t have to defend the band or my being a fan of theirs, which sounded like heaven.  As the event moved closer, I started to ponder more about what the actual weekend would be like.  I focused on what the other people were excited about and, clearly, they were really excited by the dinner/dance that was taking place on the Saturday night.  I didn’t really get it, other than I knew that there would be food there that was included in the price for the convention.  (This is the same for the convention coming up, by the way.)  Beyond eating, though, what would it really be like?

I remember walking towards the large room where the dinner/dance was being held and seeing other Duranies merging to enter the double doors.  The number of Duranies seem to multiple for this event as I don’t remember seeing as many people at the Friday night mixer or at the daytime activities.  Before I entered the room, though, I took note of the sign at the door.  I knew right then and there that this would be serious.  It wasn’t just a group of people getting together.  It was bigger and better than that.  My excitement increased dramatically!

As I entered the room, there were circular tables that were decorated with beads, lava lamps and little blow-up Astronaut dolls.  I also remember papers at every place setting.  One of those pages was a group picture, of sorts, of the band.  It was really an outline of a group picture that you could color!  How fun!  There was also a page of trivia that I remember doing almost immediately after sitting down.  My coloring page remains devoid of color but sits in my Duran scrapbook.  Soon enough, the music and videos started.  There is nothing quite like seeing Duran videos projected onto the wall with a bunch of Duranies in the room!  One of my favorite moments was when the video for Arcadia’s The Flame was shown as all of the John girls in the room *squeed* at his cameo moment!  I knew that I was in the right place then! 

After dinner, drinks continued to flow, more videos were shown and soon almost everyone was up out of their seats and dancing!  By the way, I love this picture because it shows the video (can you name it?), the astronaut on the table and the dancing!  Of course, there were other great moments during this festive party.  I remember some serious *squeeing* that happened during the New Moon on Monday video.  The men at the convention seemed to prefer the videos for Girls on Film and The Chauffeur.  In fact, they moved their chairs up close to view those videos.  I even remember the bartender getting into the music as she poured drinks for us!

After the dance was over, many/most/almost all of us were not ready to be done for the evening.  This dance had not only renewed the joy that can be found in fandom, but got us in the mood to party.  Wait, isn’t that what Simon says during the introductions at each and every show–that they are the band designed to make us party!  Oh and they did in this case and they didn’t have to be there to make it happen!  Anyway, most of us then decided to hit the city for additional partying!  During 2004, there was no set plan about where to go like there is for the 2013 convention (thanks to Late Bar!).  I joined the group who decided to wander Bourbon Street, including a little Howl at the Moon.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Howl at the Moon, it is a chain of bars in which there are piano players and a small band who performs covers of famous songs.  When we walked into this one in New Orleans (which sadly isn’t there anymore), I remember the group of people I was with encouraging me to turn in our request to play some Duran.  After all, we were part of a convention.  They had to do it, right?  Well, the nice tip we gave them probably didn’t hurt but…soon enough, some of us, including the authors of this blog, found ourselves on the stage singing, “Rio,” as the band there wouldn’t perform Duran otherwise.  This less-than-stellar performance is on video somewhere.  Thankfully, to the world, it has never seen the light of day!  After they played “Rio”, they went on to play “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Ordinary World”.  Rhonda and I enjoyed those as well, especially since we could just sing along from our seats! 

Of course, I envision this convention to be even better as we will be combining the best of the 2004’s dinner/dance with a fabulous 80s night at a local club.  This, in fact, reminds me of the Pyramid Club in New York City.  There was a meetup planned there before the Fan Show in 2007.  It was an amazingly fun night and, in fact, my favorite part of that weekend.  What was that like?  Ah…you all will have to wait until next week for that description and pictures.  This blog is long enough.  😉 

Before I sign off, though, since I am all about catching up, I just wanted to remind everyone that early registration for Durandemonium 2013 goes through this Thursday, March 21st.  We also have a t-shirt design contest going on and are looking for people to design the t-shirts for the convention.  Details can be found on this blog:  here.  Now, I’m going to look through more of my pictures for the convention in 2004 before I start doing the dishes.  It is way more fun!

-A