On July 16 of 1980, Duran Duran performed at the Rum Runner with the classic band of five line up that we all know. Hard to believe that it’s really been 33 years since that first performance. I don’t know where the time has gone, only that it’s went and we’re now in the year 2013, anxiously awaiting tidbits, news, pictures, etc. from the studio on #DD14. Fourteen albums. Hundreds of performances (thousands?? Is that possible??), several different lineups…tens of thousands of fans, websites, blogs, books, posters… all beginning with five guys, some pink leopard print pants, a notebook of lyrics, and the Rum Runner.
Naturally, this all took place in Birmingham, England. Not in Hollywood, California and not in New York City. I make that distinction because I’ve noticed just how quick UK fans are to make sure the rest of us understand and remember that they are in fact a British band. Some take extreme issue with John working to achieve his US citizenship, saying that they hope he remembers where he’s really from. This band is certainly not American, and we have no right to claim them as “ours”. I would agree. They are not from here, and yet they worked very hard to make sure they broke the charts here in the states, and they spend an awful lot of time touring here. I think that at times, the overexuberance of welcoming, excited fans here in the US puts the rest of the world, including our British friends, at odds. We really don’t claim the band as our own product, but we love them as though they belong. How can that be bad?
Over the years, especially in my adulthood, I’ve seen the ire raised in more than one UK fan over announcements that have been made for things here in the US while events in the UK have gone mostly unnoticed. I’ve also felt the extreme disappointment of fans in the UK as the band has announced relatively short tours there, while the US hosts them for much longer. Try as we US fans might to explain that we have a much larger surface area to cover, with far more large cities as well as people IN those cities….many UK fans continue to feel slighted, and yes – they do take it out on US fans, as though we actually have some sort of say in the matter, and that we should feel horrible that they come here at all. I know I’m not the only American fan to have noticed.
My only point in bringing this up is that for whatever reason, there seems to be a tug-of-war in the sense of “ownership” of this band, and who “deserves” what. Now, I realize that there are many more countries and continents out there – but it is these particular two where I see the most friction. This isn’t really a discussion of where they should tour, but more of a matter that I see the comment “They are a British band, why on earth are they being represented by Americans?!?” quite often, but mainly when anything of interest is announced.
Yes, I am well-aware I just kicked over a dead stump to expose what was hiding beneath.
Aside from being aware that Wendy Laister is a relative of Nick’s – I don’t have any knowledge of why they have chosen to work with one manager over another, nor do I honestly care. Whatever works for the band is what is going to work for me because you see, I’m just a fan. I don’t understand the industry, and aside from some very limited PR I did at one time – I’m no expert. In fact, I’d assert just the opposite, that I know just enough to make myself extremely dangerous, which really means – I know nothing.
I can certainly see and even understand some of the points people make. It’s hard not to notice that the band does a lot here in the US – even if I can justify the reasons for doing so. I think it’s incredibly difficult to reason why the band and their management does anything they do, because none of us are in Wendy’s head, and it’s not as though she or anyone else in that management office actually answer to fans. (A point that I really believe is lost on most fans at one time or another.) I don’t know why it is that some events that happen in the UK go almost without mention and others that happen here in the US get weeks of comment and notice. I don’t really know why the band doesn’t have a management company located in the UK- I can’t even begin to guess, but it really shouldn’t matter. Yet for many, it really does.
I have to admit, and maybe this is just my perception – but I get the feeling having UK management really matters to their UK fans. I suppose, and yes – I am making a basic assumption here, but I suppose that they must feel that since the band is from the UK, that management would be better served being in their own country. I just don’t think it matters, and perhaps it just doesn’t matter to me. What’s the big deal?? Maybe this argument wouldn’t occur if fans weren’t able to point out how management caters to the US fans in every way from the press they receive to the public appearances they make, and even the way fans are addressed and holidays are acknowledged. Maybe that would have made a difference, but it’s my own opinion that fans would have just found something else to complain about. I suppose my feeling is that I couldn’t care less who manages the band as long as they’re happy and feel as though it’s a workable relationship, because that’s when it is all productive. The trouble is, I don’t really think that is what this debate comes from. Is it really about whether or not the band is productive, or is it about the fact that the UK has a very strong sense of nationalism that we just don’t have here in America?
The makeup of my country is very, very different from anywhere else in the world I’ve traveled. Even our patriotism is different – it comes from a completely different place in our sense of “self”. I think a lot of this is because very, very few of us can trace our roots back to an origination here in the US. My own family moved here between two and four generations back. My paternal grandfather came here from Italy when he was just 10. My paternal great-grandparents were from England and moved here to own a hotel in New York. My maternal great-grandparents were from Germany and Ireland. Very few people I know really identify their nationality as American when you casually ask them. If you ask my husband his nationality, he’ll tell you that he is Hispanic and English. His mother is from England, his father is from Santa Fe, New Mexico – and they can trace that part of the family back to Montezuma and Cortez, but yet he doesn’t typically say “American” or “US”. The only time it comes up is when he’s being asked his citizenship at the customs area at the airport, really. I don’t think he is all that unusual. Sure, we’re proud of our country – but I just don’t think there is this need to claim things as our own in the same way there is in other parts of the world. My point is NOT to say that this way is better, but to explain why we really don’t get it. But, we should do better to understand one another, which is why I hope to learn from this blog.
I don’t think there are easy answers here, except in one area: we are not intended to be the experts for the band. Our job is to be fans. To enjoy what they do, to consume the art that they create. I’m pretty good at that last part – so I’ll let them handle the tough stuff.
-R
Yeah, we can add Katy is American, Nile Rodgers, Mark Ronson, Bernard Edwards are from US too and they're some of their most successful producers.
There isn't any kind of rivalry between Europe-USA in terms of success, warmth: not from me at least.
I think we're just a big one family.
The rest I hear is rubbish.
Long life to DD and to their fans everywhere!
Mark Ronson is British
He was born in London but has spent and does spend a lot of time in New York.
-A
I'm aware of that, I was just pointing out that he's not from the US!
Okay.
-A
I kind of take offence to any person and/or country telling me that they have ownership of DD. I mean….really? You have a certificate that says they are “owned” by you? Seems kind of silly, if you ask me. In my eyes, they are 5 (yes, I am going to include Dom) individual musicians who each have families. If anyone was to claim “ownership” of them, their families would have the first say in it.
As for the fan base, I will agree with DDTV. We are one big family.
Can't we all just get along?
Lisa
First, how were you in between 5th and 6th grades @ the same time I was and be 2 years younger? Did you skip grades? Anyway, I understand the pride those in the UK feel that they are the place DD is from. I get that completely. Although, let's not forget that one member for almost half of their existence was from NY. (Then some strangely do not consider him a “real” member, whatever the f that means!) I can understand the NEED to representation here in the US. There is a huge difference in how they are regarded in the press here. In the UK, they are celebrities. If Nick shows up @ one of the seemingly hundreds of events he attends a year, there are pictures of it. If Simon and or Yasmin show up somewhere, there are pictures of it. If Roger DJs somewhere, there are pictures of it, even if it happened outside of the UK. Anything John does gets press. Here in the US, if you don't have some shitty song that teenyboppers love or are not on a reality show, you are not treated as a celebrity. Period. Nobody in the press CARES if you attended an Oscar party. Good luck finding publicity shots. They NEED someone here to fight for them to get any attention for whatever they are working on. There are no good radio stations here any more that play them and those that do, focus on their 80s hits as if they no longer exist. As an American, it has been a dark void since about the time of Big Thing, with the exception of a brief resurgence in 1993 and then again in 2003, but that was pushed as some sort of nostalgia tour. Almost ZERO emphasis on there being brand new material. As for tours, yes, plain and simple, this country is VAST. Overlay the UK on a US map and see where they would play that many dates in that small a space. The east coast is it. And even here within the US, there is an east vs west mentality because the west in the last decade has had the short end of the stick on tour dates. (And sorry for all those in between in states they never even think of playing.)
As for nationality, it is the same for me. If someone asks, I tell them I am Italian on my mother's side and Irish and German, mostly on my dad's. But if they wanted to know where I am from, I would say I am an American and I am VERY proud of that and patriotic. That does NOT mean to imply I thin I am better than someone from another country. I never understood that. Why can't you be proud, without being considered to think of yourself as superior? Anyway, as a fan from the US, I AM proud to say I HAVE been a fan since 1981. I am lucky that I lived in a place where the radio stations played a variety of music and they were popular on my station. I am a bit annoyed by those in the UK who feel the need to say they have been fans since 1980, only because, to be honest, I am not always sure I believe them. They were only playing in clubs then and unless you are older or somehow knew someone who was going to those clubs and talking about them, chances are you didn't know about the band until the rest of us did when they released records.
As for just being a fan and being happy and buying what they are creating, I am. (Though, it DOES sting when they keep releasing things so far out of my price range, I know I will never own them. But that is a whole separate issue.) I was still pretty young when they started, so I didn't begin buying records until the ITSISK 12″ came out, but I was HOOKED from then. And I missed out on the earlier tours here. I didn't KNOW about a tour until 1984. If only I could go back in time… There are so many thing I would do differently as a fan if I knew than what I know now. Stuff I didn't buy because I was unaware until it was too late. Ah, but what to do. Just keep hunting. Anyway, I am off topic. But that happens. Seeing the band live and collecting are my main focus, after all.
Your first question is tough to answer because I'm relying on my memory… I distinctly remember watching Reagan's inauguration in my 5th grade class, and that was 1980. The date of the Rum Runner was in July of that same year, and so I would have been getting ready to enter 6th grade. I think. I am a November birthday though, and I was young compared to most of my classmates, so maybe that's part of the problem. I started kindergarten when I was 4, and yes – I tested in. Otherwise, just count it to my failed memory, bad math and please pardon me. 😀
As for the rest of what you said – thank you for touching on things I didn't even consider. You are right – here in the states, the band really are not celebrities in the same way they are at home. It's true and I forget about that. They get no real coverage unless they are pushing it through themselves through the typical promotional channels, so yes I agree, it's a darn good thing they've got people here in the US that understand our media. It's very different here.
I love what you said about being a fan. I have been a fan since 1981, as have most everyone I know from the fan community, give a year or two. I just don't think the years really matter, if you're a fan…you're a fan. I don't care whether you've been a fan for 20 years or 30 years. I know some try to pull rank by saying otherwise and it just makes me roll my eyes, because some of the people who say that then turn around and hate on half the work the band has ever done, saying it's crap. I don't get it.
I know what you mean about prices, too. I can't own everything. Those boxed limited editions are way out of my price range. I wish they weren't, but as I'm fond of saying here at home: I have everything I need and a lot of what I want. I can't really complain about the other things, and I can't. I really can't even if I'd like to, because I do a lot more than a lot of my friends, and I don't forget that.
-R
This is the one fan discussion topic which gets on my nerves more than any other. Just goes to show that some people will complain about anything. We fans are pretty much voiceless when it comes to where the band will appear or perform… granted I guess some large group of fans could join together and do some big thing to get the bands attention. But is that likely? Maybe, when we were enthusiastic teens or young adults with time and energy. But considering the fact that most of us long term fans are now middle aged with family and work obligations… chances are most of us would be unable to invest in a big fan effort to get a band to play more shows at a certain location.
So why must fans complain to each other? When Nick's illness forced the last two weeks of the AYNIN tour to be cancelled, so many people made comments to the effect that we in the US should be happy we have had so many opportunities to have seen them over the past two years, and had no right to complain about a few missed shows. I don't get that. At all.
As a fan in the Midwest, I see the one or two shows they may play around me… and then I travel. I wonder, how does traveling across the US compare to travelling from the UK to a venue in France or Italy? Honestly, I have no idea of what is involved money wise or even with traveling between countries. Granted I have traveled to Canada and Mexico but have no experience with traveling between countries in Europe. My point, however is that while the band may play in the US quite a bit, as MissNovemberTuesday pointed out, it is a HUGE country.
There is a well respected but not very well known musician out of southern California I have been a huge fan of since roughly 1991. While he frequently plays up and down the west coast, and occasionally the east coast, he has not done many Midwestern tours. In the past 22 years I have seen this man perform a total of 4 times. But never, ever, in a million years would it occur to me to bemoan his fans lucky enough to live in say, NY and suggest they have no right to complain about a cancelled show because they have had more opportunities to see him than I have. I wouldn't. That's just petty, you know?
Anyhow, my comment is long and off point, as usual, lol! But it really does irk me when fans complain about the hows and why of where and when the band performs or makes appearances. It's something we have very little control over, if any, so why attack each other over it? Why complain about it at all?