When John and Renée Spent Christmas in Aarhus, Denmark

By Heidi

I have met Duran Duran so many times. At least in my head. The thing is I’m torn between wanting to meet them and being afraid I would be disappointed if I did meet them. Just a few minutes of saying hi and getting an autograph seems like too little and the same time I know that that is most likely what I will get. And that’s why I think I have decided not to meet the band. That does not mean that I do not obsess about them.

When I was 15-16, I had what felt like the opportunity of a lifetime to meet John. At that time John was
with Renée who at that point was our one and only celebrity here in Denmark. Ok, we had local celebrities but no one like Renée. She was an international celebrity. And she was living with John Taylor of Duran Duran in New York. Sometime in early December probably in 87 or 88, a local gossip magazine said Renée and John were to spent Christimas at her mum’s place in Aarhus, 20 kilometers from my home town. I looked up Renée’s mum in the phone book. She wasn’t ex-directory or anything. Things were going smoothly until I started to think about what I was about to do. First of all, I really didn’t know what to say besides ‘Hi, I like your music’. Bah. Then I started thinking about it from John’s perspective. Maybe he just wanted a quiet Christmas with Renée and his “in-laws”. So in the end I decided against it. Did I regret it? No, not really because I felt I had given John a little freedom.

That is the only time I have ever known where any of the Durans are at a given time. But that doesn’t mean I cannot fangirl Oh, yes! I can. In 2018 my son and his girlfriend wanted to see the musical Hamilton in London. They were only 17, so would I please come too because London seemed a bit frightening. I went. On the bus from Hammersmith to the South Bank we drove past Nick’s street. I was jubilant – inside. My kids wouldn’t have given a toss. So I cherished the knowledge inside.

My kids realized they felt safe in London. They felt confident enough to roam the street of London alone
one afternoon. That left me with an afternoon on my own in London. So what did I chose to do? I went to
see Simon’s house. Let me tell you something that has otherwise been a well-kept secret. The Le Bons have pink waste bags. I never knew there was such a thing. I walked past the house, bought two bananas at a Tesco (supermarket) down the road and walked back past the house. I usually walk very fast. If my grandma had been with me, she would have loved the slow pace with which I passed the Le Bons’ house. So did I meet any of the Le Bons? No, I didn’t. When I came home, one of them had posted pictures on social media from a family holiday in France from around the time I went to London. So they spared me the awkward ‘Hi, I like your music’ meeting that I had both hoped for and dreaded. But I still have the receipt from Tesco.