On this date…in many of the years of Duran Duran’s career, they were on tour. They do seem to like to tour in or around December, don’t they? Even this year, they are managing to squeeze in two shows at the very end of the month, then another to welcome 2017. Who knows what might come after that. All in all, I think I’ve come to associate the happenings of late Fall and Winter with Duran Duran.
Even when I was a kid, my birthday and/or Christmas would include Duran Duran themed gifts, typically music. Then there was “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by Band Aid—as a lasting result, I can’t even think about Christmas without hearing that song in my head (a good thing).
I think about Sing Blue Silver and Nick’s now infamous line while on the phone… “I’m looking outside and it’s um….snowing.” I see that line from nearly each one of my Duran friends over the course of a winter, and I’m amused each time. Geography and personalities might divide, but the band and their history—which we all share in some fashion—unites.
On this date in 1998, Duran Duran played the Birmingham Expedition Centre with Rialto. I didn’t immediately know who or what Rialto was, so I looked them up. Turns out, they were a Britpop group of the 1990’s. Formed in 1997 and disbanded in 2002, they didn’t last long. They released just two albums during that time—a self-named Rialto in 1998 and Night on Earth in 2000 along with an EP titled Girl on a Train, also in 2000. However short-lived, they were lucky enough to perform at the Birmingham Expedition Centre with Duran Duran.
This was also the tour where Duran Duran played Secret Oktober very slowly. I don’t have video from Birmingham but I did find one from Wembley.
Do you remember?
-R
Yes, I was there–