Who loved Duran Duran so much that they “wore” them to school each day in the form of pins—whether attached to a denim jacket, black trench coat, button-down “preppy” pinstriped shirt, backpack, or even kept attached to a ribbon at home—when I was in seventh grade, they were all the rage.
Like many kids, I had pins as well. I’ve lost a lot of them over the years, but just before going to the first Duran Duran fan convention I’d ever attended, I unearthed them from a box of memories I kept in our garage. I can remember pawing past all of the sheet music that I’d kept from high school band, past a couple of folders of music from middle school band, down to some plastic sandwich bags I had packed full of pins I’d bought while in marching band over the years. I looked at them, then something caught my eye a little farther down in the box. That “something” was a pin of Roger’s face in black and white, along with a few other pins I’d kept that had somehow escaped my mom’s massive “cleaning out” that occurred when they’d moved from my childhood home.
I grabbed the bag and took it into the house. At the last minute, I threw it into my suitcase for the weekend, figuring that if I were ever going to wear them again, it would be that weekend.
Sure enough, I found plenty of opportunity. I treasured the comfort in wearing my Duran Duran shirts, donning the pins, and feeling like I was part of the group. Then, during the vendor marketplace we hosted that weekend, I found someone who was selling more pins. I painstakingly searched the collection on the table, grabbing several that I had to have.
My pin “collection” isn’t huge by any means. It’s not even complete, but I treasure each one of them. Rarely do I ever search for more on eBay or anything like that, although from time to time—such as right now, I think to myself that maybe I should spend some time looking for more. Then the moment passes, and I’m off thinking about other things.
Even so, when I take the minute or two to look my pins, I see the two pins I love most in the whole collection: the SATRT “eye”, along with the gold and blue slanted logo. I don’t know what it is about those two pins that stir up memories of writing Duran Duran over and over on my school notebooks, or reading Tiger Beat endlessly, or even calling into KIQQ and begging them to play “just one more” Duran Duran song on a Friday night. Somehow though, those are the memories that pop into my head, and I find myself smiling.
Sure, it’s nostalgia. I just happen to think that there’s enough time in the day for a quick memory of what fandom was like for me at maybe 12 or 13. After all, if it weren’t for those days, I’m not sure I’d still be such a big fan at 50.
-R
Like you I still have several pins but also lost many along the way. I remember ordering from this company called Musicade (I think that was the name) where they had 10 pins for 10 dollars. I sent in ten dollars cash (getting the money from saving my lunch money, the things we did for DD) and got a note saying they kept two pins because I didn’t pay the 2 dollars shipping (I probably didn’t know I had to sent 12 dollars). I would buy them at various events and had relatives buying them and I even bought a specialty one through a magazine where you could get a button that said I love Duran Duran with a heart. Unfortunately, I lent them to people who lost them (or never returned) so lost many. Years later during the reunion they had a set of pins so I then bought those. A few years ago I was in a thrift store where they had a box of them for 10 dollars but didn’t have much cash so planned to return the next day but they were gone.
OMG! Another KIQQ listener?! That was where I discovered them, too. I still have and wear buttons and pins.
I still miss that station, it was the best!! I loved KROQ, but for Duran Duran, particularly after they really received LA radio airplay – I was hooked on KIQQ. I remember the night it went off the air, too. One minute it was Tears for Fears, and in the next, the station started playing mariachi-style music. Sad. -R