Back in 1981, I was an awkward little tween by just about anyone’s description. No, I didn’t wear glasses and I didn’t have braces, but I had the biggest hair ever (and not because it was the style, but because I didn’t know enough to use conditioner and contain the frizz!), I wasn’t allowed to wear make up yet, I had zero…and I mean ZERO… fashion sense, and I was in 6th grade. I was a young 6th grader in that I had only just turned eleven by the time January 1, 1981 rolled around. As I’ve mentioned previously in lots of other blogs, my musical taste was pretty limited. I cut my chops, so to speak, on Disney records (give it up for Winnie the Pooh and Disney Disco albums my friends!!) and a few K-Tel compilation efforts. I did have brief, fleeting affairs with Shaun Cassidy (I always wondered what the lipstick on the coffee cup for his “Room Service” album was all about…) and Rick Springfield (I was a sucker for the dog, what can I say?), but all in all, I didn’t really have the first clue. Or the second!
Being rather young, I felt like I was miles behind most of the girls in my grade at school. While they were all pouring themselves into their Jordache jeans and Vans….I was still wearing Dittos and whatever shoes my mom could find on sale at Gemco. They were holding hands with boys in the hallway, and I was wondering why they’d want to touch them. Then there were the ones who liked to glue their faces to the boys. (I always wanted to know what the “Wanna suck face?” pins were about and why anyone would seriously want to do that!) Suffice it to say, I was way, WAY behind. After school, I’d rush home to turn on General Hospital, do my homework, practice my clarinet and then turn on KROQ 106.7 to listen to music. I was always intrigued by what I would hear, and I would sit there, wish I could be brave enough to ask my parents to take me to the record store over the weekend, and wonder what it must be like to be cool enough to actually buy records and have my own stereo in my ROOM. This is no joke. I was once a very pathetic tweenager, and now – I’m a pathetic parent, according to my two oldest. 😀
One evening, as I recall, KROQ would play the new music. The DJ would make a big deal out of it and play a new record that no other radio station in the area would DARE play because it was so new. They called it “New Wave”, and aside from that, I really didn’t know much other than I liked whatever they’d play. On this one night, Rodney on the ROQ mentioned that he was playing a song from the new group, Duran Duran. I remember thinking the name sounded so completely lame that no one would ever remember it. Ha! Live and learn….the stupid names tend to stick with you! I turned the radio up as loudly as I could without drawing the attention of my parents, who were sticklers for my 8:30 bedtime and I was pushing it. (no that’s not a joke either. I was 11 and had a bedtime earlier than my own 3 year old!) I heard the beginning chords of Planet Earth, and I was immediately curious. I loved the way the keyboards sounded, and it was clear to me right then that I needed to find out who this band was, and hear all of their music. I remember going to the trouble of taping their song off of the radio with my super classy cassette player/stereo combo – that cassette was full of static, but you know – it was Duran Duran! The next day I hurried through breakfast, grabbed my books and my clarinet, and set off to school earlier than normal. I rushed to my locker, through my books in there and found my little group of friends – who were every bit as awkward as I – and told them about my new found interest. Curiously enough, I wasn’t the only one listening to the radio that night. My friend Marsha had also been listening, and it was agreed that I would spend the night at her house that Friday night, and we’d go to the record store in search of Duran Duran!
I’m sure it really was not that following Friday night, but at some point in the future, I did stay over at Marsha’s house, and at that point she introduced me to a show on TV that until then, I’d never stayed up late enough to see – Friday Night Videos. It was on that show Duran Duran first appeared in our living rooms. By then, I know we’d acquired Rio, and quite possibly the first album as well. My memory is fuzzy of the details, but I can tell you that the very first video I saw of Duran Duran was Hungry Like the Wolf. That little memory nugget remains clear as a bell! I was shocked by how primal and raw it all felt – and I was completely sucked in; hook, line & sinker! After that, it’s a blur of going to Wherehouse records for any and all albums, singles, posters and even t-shirts we could find. (I had the white sleeveless t-shirt with their faces on the front and the “eye” symbol on the back) I remember staying at Marsha’s house as often as I could in order to watch Friday Night Videos, squealing any time they played a Duran video, and going to the grocery store without fail every single Sunday morning with my mom so that she could go shopping and I could read all of the teen magazines. (Tiger Beat and Bop among them!) Not long after Friday Night Videos started, Video One was on TV in the afternoon with Richard Blade, and I loved rushing home from school to watch. My walls grew crowded with their pinups, and at some point, I learned how to dress so that I wasn’t teased at school, and I finally found a hairstylist that was able to teach me the finer points of conditioning and good haircuts. I’ll even let you in on a little secret – my mullet was WAY cooler than Simon’s ever was! ;D
I don’t really think my story is much different from anyone else, but it’s a good memory. I still smile when I think of how excited I’d get when I’d hear them on the radio, or how giggly I’d get when Marsha and I would watch them on TV. I even remember sitting with her when they did their infamous press conference right before the Sing Blue Silver tour – I think that was at the Roxy theater in LA or something. (yes, that’s how “good” of a fan I am, I can remember what is said at certain press conferences, but never where they were held or what they were for. Sue me.) Regardless, it was the one where they talked about how Roger had “two hands” for his. We laughed a LOT. I think that’s part of what made Duran Duran so fun – I shared it with my group of best friends, and we spent a lot of time laughing at the band’s expense. Not entirely unlike how it is today, actually. (sorry guys!) In all that time, it never occurred to me that in 30 years, I’d still be listening to the band, still getting excited when they’d be on the radio…or even going to shows overseas! (come to think of it, I don’t think my husband thought any of that would be the case when we married, either!)
-R
I have many similar DD memories, Friday Night Videos I'd almost forgotten! I think Rio was my first video though (afraid my memory is much fuzzier than yours). It is funny how it has all come around now. I like to imagine what delight my 13 yo self would have had to be tweeting Simon and John. I have had 2 replies from Mr. LeBon and it is pretty exciting even for my almost 40 yo self!
Thanks for the follow today!
Aww… what a great story. And you remember so much of it. That warms the cockles of the heart. Seriously. : )
I just remember a friend of mine in 6th grade who started wearing a Duran button on her jacket. I went over her house after school one day and her sister schooled us in the fine art of Duran Duran.
I also remember taping tunes off the radio. One night I recorded Tel Aviv on my dad's work tape recorder. It was the old school kind with the attached microphone on a cord. At any rate, I accidentally hit the “record” button mid-song, and forever had to listen to me screaming, “oh no! Oh no! oh no! Did I hit record? ” during the last 30 seconds of the tune.
Thanks for the blog. I have OBVIOUSLY been enjoying following it.
@Toni – I remember having a tape recorder like that, and then at some point I wound up with a grayish silver one with big black buttons on the top, and I can remember having MANY similar instances where I'd be recording a song and then accidentally hit a button in the middle of it and screw the entire thing up. I also remember one night at my friend Marsha's house where we must have called the local radio station (at the time I think it was KIQQ 100.3 – which is LOOONNNGGG gone now) about 30,000 times begging for Duran Duran. I finally got through to someone at about 1:30 in the morning and the DJ person says “Shouldn't you be in bed right now, little Duranie?!?” LOLOL Good times! Glad you're enjoying the blog – I have a lot of fun writing, especially when I'm recalling good times like these! -R
For me it was around 1981 when Planet Earth hit MTV. I was 6 years old & I think my mother got MTV to keep the kids in the neighborhood occupied during the summer. I remember my grandparents driving my sister & I to the record store (30 minutes away) the day the Rio album went on sale. Once the videos from Rio started every kid in town was hooked especially my sister & I. We dressed like them,I even tried to convince my mother to let me bleach my bangs blond like John Taylor, we almost got kicked off the school bus everyday for singing The Reflex, bought every magazine, poster, and article you could find and even watched their 1984 pay per view concert on HBO. After 25 years we finally had our chance to see them in Philadelphia. I even talked the ushers into letting us go up to the front because yes we were “crazy fans” who had waited a lifetime to see them & nobody was stopping us. Today our 30 year love affair takes us to AC in October with hopes for meeting any one of them. They've had a profound effect on our lives & everyone who knows us from childhood knows this as we always, always, always, want DD at any function that we attend.
I LOVE hearing these stories!!! Keep them coming and thanks for sharing!! -R
I feel like the oldest of Duranies sometimes. I was 15 in 1982/83 when I first became aware of them. I wish I could remember the exact moment when lightning struck, but I think it must've been the “Rio” video. I grew up in a very small town, rural area, and had no chance of hearing something as unusual as “Planet Earth” on the radio around there. But when we finally got cable, even before MTV, there was Night Tracks, and Night Flight, and Friday Night Videos. (For which I am eternally grateful.) I remember seeing “Rio” and thinking “I must find out more about them!” And it all snowballed from there. Trips to the grocery store for magazines, papering of the bedroom and my locker at school with posters, staying up until all hours in hopes of catching a video, taping an interview program off the radio. (which I still have!) But I never got to see them live until 2006, right after Andy left for the second time. I think I've been to 9 or 10 shows since then, making up for lost time. Even though I kind of let my fandom lapse for several years in between, they've been a HUGE influence throughout my life.
I always debate on whether or not to tell my story, usually I just say “yea, I heard Planet Earth on the local radio station one night, and the rest is history…” which is kinda the truth. I did hear Planet Earth, I loved Simon's eerie echo-y voice, loved the drums, definitely different than what I had heard before, but my story is a little deeper than that… a little more depressing. And I DO NOT tell this story for sympathy, I used to NEVER tell it at all because I was horrifically embarrassed. But now as an adult, I see things differently now. While I did enjoy their songs starting with Planet Earth, and loved, loved, loved when Rio came out… my truest, purest level of fandom came around the time Seven and the Ragged Tiger came out. I was poor, so I couldn't afford to run out and buy it as soon as it came out, but a friend of mine had a bootleg copy (and half of The Reflex) was missing. And the sound was muffled, but I listened to it every day that I could! During this time in my life something else major was going on…. ok, here goes… domestic abuse. And let's just say it was between my parents, and let's just say things got bad… real bad. I sometimes was up until 3 or 4 am on school nights making sure my brother didn't hear everything or see too much. While I cleaned up the house or a person after an “episode” of abuse, I would be so keyed up that I could not go back to sleep at all. I would cry, the police would come sometimes, but this was all back in the day of it taking 45 minutes to an hour for a policeman to come and it was always “well you guys are married, you need to work it out.” Definitely not the laws we have today. Anyway… my escape, my sanity was truly Seven and the Ragged Tiger… specifically Seventh Stranger. I felt like I was having a conversation with Duran2 that I couldn't have with any of my other friends during that time. I couldn't tell anyone about what went on inside my house, I didn't invite anyone over, as i was so afraid that the parents would start fighting and it would lead to something awful. But I could “talk” to Duran2 and I could listen to their music through headphones and be taken away. Somewhere else. At that point, I fell head over heels in love with their music. It was my friend. And also, it was around this time that I actually saw The Reflex video for the first time, and little did I know they had the looks as well as the talent!! 🙂 I was a diehard fan after that. Anything I could get my hands on that had Duran Duran on it, in it or related to it… I had to have it! I got the Simon haircut from the Reflex video.. and while it did look extremely close to what he had… on a girl, um… not so good. I saw them for the first time in Aril '84. And I have loved every minute since then!