Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher. Depeche Mode released their debut album Speak & Spell in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album. Gore took over as primary songwriter and in 1982, Alan Wilder joined to fill Clarke's spot, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years; the band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released an international mainstream success; the following album, Songs of Faith and Devotion in 1993 was a success, though internal struggles within the band during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995.
Depeche Mode has had 17 top 10 albums in the UK chart. Q included the band in the list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!". Depeche Mode rank number 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th most successful dance club artist of all time. Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a Cure-influenced band called No Romance In China, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass. In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In 1979, Marlow and friend Paul Redmond formed a band called the French Look, with Marlow on vocals/keyboards, Gore on guitar and Redmond on keyboards.
In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar, Gore on keyboards and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Along with OMD, other early influences included Daniel Miller and Fad Gadget. Clarke and Fletcher switched to synthesisers, working odd jobs in order to buy the instruments, or borrowing them from friends. Dave Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", Depeche Mode were born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Sparks and the Banshees, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop; when explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the magazine's name is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update".
Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils; the band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic" re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and deliver it, they would demand the companies play it. They'd say'leave the tape with us' and we'd say'it's our only one'. We'd say goodbye and go somewhere else."According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band were approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label.
The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops; the band went to London by train. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough"; the synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed. Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke said he was sick of touring, which G
Evilive
Evilive is a live album by The Misfits. It was released as a 7-song EP in December 1982 and added 5 more songs and released as an album in October 1987, it was released on frontman Glenn Danzig's Plan 9 Records. The album title is a palindrome; the album is included in The Misfits' Box Set. There is a record company owned by Glenn Danzig under the same name. All tracks written by Glenn Danzig. Side A and track 1 of side B recorded December 1981, at The Ritz in New York City. Tracks 2 and 3 of side B recorded November 1981, at On Broadway in San Francisco. All tracks written by Glenn Danzig. Tracks 1–7 recorded December 17, 1981, at The Ritz in New York City. Tracks 8–12 recorded November 20, 1981, at On Broadway in San Francisco. Glenn Danzig – vocals Doyle – guitar Jerry Only – bass guitar, backing vocals Arthur Googy – drums Henry Rollins – backing vocals on "We Are 138"
Sting (musician)
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE, known as Sting, is an English musician, singer and actor. He was the principal songwriter, lead singer, bassist for the new wave rock band the Police from 1977 to 1984, launched a solo career in 1985, he has included elements of rock, reggae, new-age and worldbeat in his music. As a solo musician and a member of the Police, he has received 17 Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year for ”Every Breath You Take”, three Brit Awards, including Best British Male in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution in 2002, a Golden Globe, an Emmy and four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2002, he received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters and Authors and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Police in 2003. In 2000, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording. In 2003, Sting received a CBE from Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for services to music.
He was made a Kennedy Center Honoree at the White House in 2014, was awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2017. With the Police, Sting became one of the world's best-selling music artists. Solo and with the Police combined, he has sold over 100 million records. In 2006, Paste ranked him 62nd of the 100 best living songwriters, he was 63rd of VH1's 100 greatest artists of rock, 80th of Q magazine's 100 greatest musical stars of the 20th century. He has collaborated with other musicians on songs such as "Money for Nothing" with Dire Straits, "Rise & Fall" with Craig David, "All for Love", with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, "You Will Be My Ain True Love" with Alison Krauss, introduced the North African music genre raï to Western audiences through his international hit "Desert Rose" with Cheb Mami. In 2018, he released the album 44/876, a collaboration with Jamaican musician Shaggy, which won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 2019. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born on 2 October 1951, in Wallsend, England, the eldest of four children of Audrey, a hairdresser, Ernest Matthew Sumner, a milkman and engineer.
He grew up near Wallsend's shipyards. At eight or ten years old, he was inspired by the Queen Mother waving at him from a Rolls-Royce to divert from the shipyard prospect towards a more glamorous life, he helped his father deliver milk and by ten was "obsessed" with an old Spanish guitar left by an emigrating friend of his father. He attended St Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne, he visited nightclubs such as Club A'Gogo to see Manfred Mann, who influenced his music. After being a bus conductor, building labourer and tax officer, he attended Northern Counties College of Education from 1971 to 1974 and qualified as a teacher, he taught at St Paul's First School in Cramlington for two years. Sting performed jazz in the evening and during breaks from college and teaching, he played with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band, Last Exit. He gained his nickname after his habit of wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought he looked like a bee, which prompted the name "Sting".
In the 1985 documentary Bring on the Night a journalist called him Gordon, to which he replied, "My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, this Gordon character?" In 2011, he told Time. You could shout'Gordon' in the street and I would just move out of your way." In January 1977, Sting moved from Newcastle to London and joined Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani to form the Police. From 1978 to 1983, they had five UK chart-topping albums, won six Grammy Awards, won two Brit Awards, their initial sound was punk-inspired. Their final album, was nominated for five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year in 1983, it included their most successful song, "Every Breath, written by Sting. According to Sting, who appeared in the documentary Last Play at Shea, he decided to leave the Police while onstage during a concert of 18 August 1983 at Shea Stadium in New York City because he felt that playing that venue was " Everest". While never formally breaking up, after Synchronicity, the group agreed to concentrate on solo projects.
As the years went by, the band members Sting, dismissed the possibility of reforming. In 2007, the band did reform and undertook a world tour. Four of the band's five studio albums appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, two of the band's songs, "Every Breath You Take" and "Roxanne", each written by Sting, appeared on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In addition, "Every Breath You Take" and "Roxanne" were among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2003, the band were inducted into the Roll Hall of Fame, they were included in Rolling Stone's and VH1's lists of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In 1978, Sting collaborated with members of Hawkwind and Gong as the Radio Actors on the one-off single "Nuclear Waste". In September 1981, Sting made his first live solo appearance, on all four nights of the fourth Amnesty International benefit The Secret Policeman's Other Ball in London's Drury Lane theatre at the invitation of producer Martin Lewis.
He performed solo versions of "Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle". He led an all-star band (dubbed "the
MTV
MTV is an American pay television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. The channel was launched on August 1, 1981, aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys". At first, MTV's main target demographic was young adults, but today it is teenagers high school and college students. Since its inception, MTV has toned down its music video programming and its programming now consists of original reality and drama programming and some off-network syndicated programs and films, with limited music video programming in off-peak time periods. MTV had struggled with the secular decline of music-related subscription-based media, its ratings had been said to be failing systematically, as younger viewers shift towards other media platforms, with yearly ratings drops as high as 29%. In April 2016, then-appointed MTV president Sean Atkins announced plans to restore music programming to the channel. Under current MTV president Chris McCarthy, reality programming has once again become prominent.
MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the U. S. and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent, with 90.6 million American households in the United States receiving the channel as of January 2016. Several earlier concepts for music video-based television programming had been around since the early 1960s; the Beatles had used music videos to promote their records starting in the mid-1960s. The creative use of music videos within their 1964 film A Hard Day's Night the performance of the song "Can't Buy Me Love", led MTV on June 26, 1999, to honor the film's director Richard Lester with an award for "basically inventing the music video". In his book The Mason Williams FCC Rapport, author Mason Williams states that he pitched an idea to CBS for a television program that featured "video-radio", where disc jockeys would play avant-garde art pieces set to music. CBS rejected the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition "Classical Gas" on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer.
In 1970, Philadelphia-based disc jockey Bob Whitney created The Now Explosion, a television series filmed in Atlanta and broadcast in syndication to other local television stations throughout the United States. The series featured promotional clips from various popular artists, but was canceled by its distributor in 1971. Several music programs originating outside of the US, including Australia's Countdown and the United Kingdom's Top of the Pops, which had aired music videos in lieu of performances from artists who were not available to perform live, began to feature them by the mid-1970s. In 1974, Gary Van Haas, vice president of Televak Corporation, introduced a concept to distribute a music video channel to record stores across the United States, promoted the channel, named Music Video TV, to distributors and retailers in a May 1974 issue of Billboard; the channel, which featured video disc jockeys, signed a deal with US Cable in 1978 to expand its audience from retail to cable television.
The service was no longer active by the time MTV launched in 1981. In 1977, Warner Cable a division of Warner Communications and the precursor of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment launched the first two-way interactive cable television system named QUBE in Columbus, Ohio; the QUBE system offered many specialized channels. One of these specialized channels was Sight on Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music-oriented television programs. With the interactive QUBE service, viewers could vote for their favorite artists; the original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who became president and chief executive officer of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, on New York City television station WNBC-TV in the late 1970s. Pittman's boss Warner-Amex executive vice president John Lack had shepherded PopClips, a television series created by former Monkee-turned solo artist Michael Nesmith, whose attention had turned to the music video format in the late 1970s.
The inspiration for PopClips came from a similar program on New Zealand's TVNZ network named Radio with Pictures, which premiered in 1976. The concept itself had been in the works since 1966, when major record companies began supplying the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation with promotional music clips to play on the air at no charge. Few artists made the long trip to New Zealand to appear live. On Saturday, August 1, 1981, at 12:01 AM Eastern Time, MTV was launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen and roll," spoken by John Lack and played over footage of the first Space Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia and of the launch of Apollo 11; those words were followed by the original MTV theme song, a crunching rock tune composed by Jonathan Elias and John Petersen, playing over the American flag changed to show MTV's logo changing into various textures and designs. MTV producers Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert used this public domain footage as a concept. A shortened version of the shuttle launch ID ran at the top of every hour in various forms, from MTV's first day until it was pulled in early 1986 in the wake of the Challenger disaster.
The first
Music venue
A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. A music venue range in size and location, from an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Different types of venues host different genres of music. Opera houses and concert halls host classical music performances, whereas public houses and discothèques offer music in contemporary genres, such as rock, dance and pop. Music venues may be either or publicly funded, may charge for admission. An example of a publicly funded music venue is a park bandstand. A nightclub is a funded venue. Music venues do not host live acts. Depending on the type of venue, the opening hours and length of performance may differ, as well as the technology used to deliver the music in the venue. Other attractions, such as performance art or social activities, may be available, either while music is playing or at other times. For example, at a bar or pub, the house band may be playing live songs while drinks are being served, between songs, recorded music may be played.
Some classes of venues may play live music in the background, such as a performance on a grand piano in a restaurant. Music venues can be categorised in a number of ways; the genre of music played at the venue, whether it is temporary and who owns the venue decide many of the other characteristics. The majority of music venues are permanent. An example of a temporary venue would be one constructed for a music festival. Music venues may be the result of public enterprises; some venues only promote acts of one particular genre and example of this are opera houses. Music venues can be categorised by capacity. Music venues are either indoor. Examples of outdoor venues include bandshells. A temporary music festival is an outdoor venue. Examples of indoor venues include public houses, coffee bars and stadia. Venues can play live music, recorded music, or a combination of the two, depending on the event or time of day. A characteristic of every live music venue is that one or more stages are present. Venues may advance tickets only.
A dress code may not apply. Amphitheaters are round- or oval-shaped and unroofed. Permanent seating at amphitheaters is tiered. A bandshell is a large, outdoor performing structure used by concert bands and orchestras; the roof and the back half of the shell protect musicians from the elements and reflect sound through the open side and out towards the audience. Bandstand is a small outdoor structure. A concert hall is a performance venue constructed for instrumental classical music. A concert hall may exist as part of a larger performing arts center. Jazz clubs are an example of a venue, dedicated to a specific genre of music. In Japan, small live music clubs are known as live houses featuring rock, jazz and folk music, have existed since the 1970s, now being found across the country. An opera house is a theatre venue constructed for opera. An opera house has a spacious orchestra pit, where a large number of orchestra players may be seated at a level below the audience
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was a rock band based in San Francisco, California that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success, they were headliners at the three most famous American rock festivals of the 1960s—Monterey and Altamont —and the first Isle of Wight Festival in England. Their 1967 break-out album Surrealistic Pillow ranks on the short list of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are among Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time." The "classic" lineup of Jefferson Airplane, from October 1966 to February 1970, was Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Spencer Dryden. Marty Balin left the band in 1971. After 1972, Jefferson Airplane split into two groups. Kaukonen and Casady moved on full-time to Hot Tuna. Slick and the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane recruited new members and regrouped as Jefferson Starship in 1974, with Marty Balin joining them.
Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and was presented with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. In 1962, 20-year-old Marty Balin recorded two singles for Challenge Records, neither of which were successful. Balin joined a folk group called the Town Criers from 1963 to 1964. After the Beatles-led British invasion of 1964, Balin was inspired by the success of the Byrds and Simon & Garfunkel in merging folk with rock to form a group in 1965 that would follow that lead. With a group of investors, Balin purchased a former pizza parlor on Fillmore Street, which he converted to a music club, the Matrix, began searching for members for his group. Balin met folk musician Paul Kantner at the Drinking Gourd. Kantner, a native San Franciscan, had started out performing on the Bay Area folk circuit in the early 1960s, alongside fellow folkies Jerry Garcia, David Crosby and Janis Joplin. Kantner has cited folk groups like the Kingston Trio and the Weavers as strong early influences.
He moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1964 to work in a folk duo with future Airplane/Starship member David Freiberg. Balin and Kantner recruited other musicians to form the house band at the Matrix. After hearing female vocalist Signe Toly Anderson at the Drinking Gourd, Balin invited her to be the group's co-lead singer. Anderson sang with the band for a year and performed on their first album before departing in October 1966 after the birth of her first child. Kantner next recruited blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. From Washington, D. C. Kaukonen had moved to California in the early 1960s and met Kantner while at Santa Clara University in 1962. Kaukonen was invited to jam with the new band, although reluctant to join, he was won over after playing his guitar through a tape delay device, part of the sound system used by Ken Kesey for his Acid Test parties. Kaukonen came up based on the name of a friend's dog. A 2007 press release quoted Kaukonen as saying: "I had this friend in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people," explains Kaukonen.
"His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane. When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying,'You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!'" Drummer Jerry Peloquin and acoustic bassist Bob Harvey completed the original lineup. The group made its first public appearance as Jefferson Airplane at the opening night of The Matrix on August 13, 1965; the band expanded from its folk roots, drawing inspiration from the Beatles, the Byrds and the Lovin' Spoonful, developed a more pop-oriented electric sound. A few weeks after the group was formed, Jerry Peloquin departed, in part because of his disdain for the others' drug use. Although he was not a drummer, singer-guitarist Skip Spence was invited to replace Peloquin. In October 1965, after the other members decided that Bob Harvey's bass playing was not up to par, he was replaced by guitarist-bassist Jack Casady, an old friend of Kaukonen from Washington, D. C. Casady played his first gig with the Airplane at a college concert in Berkeley, two weeks after he arrived in San Francisco.
The group's performing skills improved and they soon gained a strong following in and around San Francisco, aided by reviews from veteran music journalist Ralph J. Gleason, the jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle who, after seeing them at the Matrix in late 1965, proclaimed them "one of the best bands ever". Gleason's support raised the band's profile and within three months their manager Matthew Katz was fielding offers from recording companies, although they had yet to perform outside the Bay Area. Two significant early concerts featuring the Airplane were held in late 1965; the first was the historic dance at the Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco on October 16, 1965, the first of many "happenings" in the Bay Area, where Gleason first saw them perform. At this concert they were supported by a local folk-rock group, the Great Society, which featured Grace Slick as lead singer and it was here that Kantner met Slick for the first time. A few weeks on November 6, they headlined a benefit concert for the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the first of many promotions by rising Bay Area entrepreneur Bill Graham, who became the band's manage
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English new wave band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band were one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, but by the end of the decade and music style changes challenged the band before a resurgence in the early 1990s; the group were a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the US. They achieved 14 singles in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the Billboard Hot 100, have sold over 100 million records worldwide; when the band emerged they were considered part of the New Romantic scene, along with bands such as Spandau Ballet and Visage. However, Duran Duran would soon shed this image by using fashion and marketing to build a more refined and elegant presentation; the band has won a number of awards throughout their career: two Brit Awards including the 2004 award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, two Grammy Awards, an MTV Video Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, a Video Visionary Award from the MTV Europe Music Awards. They were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The video age catapulted Duran Duran into the mainstream with the introduction of the 24-hour music channel MTV. Many of their videos were shot on 35 mm film, which gave a much more polished look than was standard at the time, they collaborated with professional film directors to take the quality a step further teaming up with Australian director Russell Mulcahy for some of their most memorable video offerings. In 1984, the band were early innovators with video technology in their live stadium shows; the group was formed by keyboardist Nick Rhodes and bass guitarist John Taylor, with the addition of drummer Roger Taylor, after numerous personnel changes, guitarist Andy Taylor and lead singer Simon Le Bon. These five members featured the most commercially successful line-up; the group has never disbanded, but after separation of Andy and Roger Taylor in 1986, the line-up has changed to include former Missing Persons American guitarist Warren Cuccurullo from 1989 to 2001 and American drummer Sterling Campbell from 1989 to 1991.
The reunion of the original five members in the early 2000s created a stir among the band's fans and music media. Andy Taylor left the band once again in mid-2006, guitarist Dom Brown has since been working with the band as a session player and touring member. John Taylor and Nick Rhodes formed Duran Duran in Birmingham, England, in 1978, where they became the resident band at the city's Rum Runner nightclub, they were doing jobs at John working the door and Nick deejaying for £ 10 a night. They began rehearsing and playing at the venue. There were many nearby nightclubs where bands such as the Sex Pistols and the Clash played gigs, the most significant was called Barbarella's, they went on to name the band after the Milo O'Shea character from Barbarella, a Roger Vadim sci-fi film, "Dr. Durand Durand"; the band's first singer was Stephen Duffy. Simon Colley soon joined Taylor and Duffy. Colley was the band's original bass player; this was the first complete line-up of the band. For percussion, an electronic drum machine belonging to Rhodes was used.
Colley left the band prior to the addition of Andy Taylor. A few guitarists were subsequently auditioned unsuccessfully, as well as a handful of vocalists after Duffy left Duran Duran early in 1979. Among them was a vocalist they had prior to Simon Le Bon, Andy Wickett, who had a major part in the writing of "Girls on Film" during his tenure with the band, according to Andy Taylor's autobiography. Wickett is featured on some of the demos that were presented to EMI. According to both Wickett's and John Taylor's websites, Wickett co-wrote an early version of the song that came to be known as "Rio". Upon Colley's and Wickett's departures, the band enlisted singer Jeff Thomas and guitarist Alan Curtis, each for only a brief period, before settling on Andy Taylor for lead guitar and Le Bon for vocals in 1980; the meeting of drummer Roger Taylor in 1979 with John Taylor and Wickett at a party, as well as the departure of Colley, led John Taylor to switch to bass. Roger Taylor became their original drummer.
It was this line-up. In April 1980, guitarist Andy Taylor came from Newcastle to audition after responding to an advertisement in Melody Maker. In May 1980, London vocalist Simon Le Bon was recommended to the band by an ex-girlfriend who worked at the Rum Runner; the owners of the club, brothers Paul and Michael Berrow, became the band's management, paying them to work as doormen, disc jockeys and busboys when they were not rehearsing. In 1980 they performed in clubs around Birmingham and London; that same year, when touring as an opening act for Hazel O'Connor, the band attracted critical attention, resulting in a bidding war between the record companies EMI and Phonogram. "A certain patriotism" toward the label of the Beatles led them to sign with EMI in December. Duran Duran were amongst the earliest bands to work on their own remixes. Before the days of digital synthesizers and easy audio sampling, they created multi-layered arrangements of their singles, sometimes recording different extended performances of the songs in the studio.
These "night versions" were available only on vinyl as b-sides to 45-rpm singles or on 12-inch club singles until the release of the compilation Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran in 1999. From the beginning of their career, all the members had a keen sense of visual style, they worked with stylist Perry Haines and fashion desig
