It aired on the BBC on 20 October 1978. Barbarella, a legendary film from 1968 directed by Roger Vadim and starring Jane Fonda, had already become a cult classic in many places.
A few years earlier the movie had broken box office records across Europe, with Spain arriving later in 1974. It found its strongest audience in the United Kingdom, where it ranked as one of the top grossing films of the year. On that autumn afternoon, millions of Britons sat in front of their televisions to watch this striking pop art piece. In a Birmingham suburb proudly named Hollywood, two teenagers, Nigel John Taylor and Nick Bates, watched with awe and their lives tilted toward music.
Nigel and Nick would eventually become the founding core of the band Duran Duran. They would grow into one of the most influential groups of the 1980s and 1990s, continuing activity into today. A new album is scheduled for release on October 27. With this release, the band’s story also arrives in bookstores in Please Please Say Now, a biography by renowned music journalist Stephen Davis published by Libros Cúpula. The book chronicles the band from its Birmingham pubs origins to global fame and the pivotal moments of the four decades that followed.
Handsome, young, and unmistakably British
Davis notes that in late 1978 Nigel and Nick, alongside another friend, Stephen Duffy, began forming a band. They were still in school, and their city art school surroundings exposed them to every musical trend rippling through the nation, which stood at the center of a cultural upheaval led by figures like David Bowie, T. Rex’s Marc Bolan, and Roxy Music. As punk faded and new waves emerged, Nigel and Nick found themselves drawn to a subset of these styles that combined fashion, drama, and music. They favored a look that was androgynous and theatrical, with bold makeup and a striking stage presence.
The band initially lacked a name. They considered RAF, a nod to the Royal Air Force, but the film Barbarella provided a moment of inspiration that shifted their thinking about identity and image. In the movie, Barbarella lands on Earth and meets its president, while a villain named Durand-Durand steals a device that promises extreme pleasure. The name sounded modern and distinct from contemporaries like The Jam, Simple Minds, or The Human League, even if the original wording of the idea remained unclear to the young founders who heard it rather than saw it written.
Turbulent beginnings
The first Duran Duran concert took place on 5 April 1979 at Birmingham Polytechnic, where Nigel studied. The lineup featured Nigel on guitar and vocals, Nick on bass and vocals, and Stephen Duffy on Rhodes and backing vocals, with later members expanding the palette to include instruments beyond standard pop fare, such as clarinets. Early gigs were in pubs and clubs around Birmingham and beyond, often in venues that welcomed new sounds. A few evenings brought them to a place called Barbarella’s, as they built their craft and audience. Yet the project remained unsettled, with members switching in and out during those formative months. The groundwork, however, was taking shape for a band that would soon draw substantial attention.
Their debut self-titled album arrived in London, bringing a new version of Girls in the Movie and early hits like Planet Earth and Careless Memories. The track that underscored their rising profile was chosen for their first video, a step that would become a milestone in a changing music industry. The band attracted considerable attention, with video clips gaining momentum as MTV began broadcasting not long before they entered the studio to shoot. Manager Paul Berrow described the video as a bold, provocative concept designed to push into video jukeboxes in nightclubs across America, while acknowledging that the original version carried more explicit imagery. The BBC initially rejected the clip, but it found distribution overseas and in other regions, fueling interest in the Birmingham group.
The debut album climbed high on the UK charts, reaching a peak near the top tier of sales. This success enabled a United States tour, a rapid expansion into the global arena, and tours that spanned Australia, Japan, and the United States, with acts like Blondie sharing stages with them. Princess Diana reportedly admired the band and nicknamed them the guardians of a vibrant era, a reputation that the press sometimes compared to a modern Fab Four.
From then on, a stream of milestones awaited Duran Duran. Davis documents the evolution in depth, revealing how the band learned to adapt to shifting times while maintaining a distinctive voice. The future held more releases, including Danse Macabre, a Halloween-tinged project featuring covers and new interpretations of both classic and contemporary songs. The cultural arc around Duran Duran continues to resonate with listeners who remember a pivotal era in popular music, even as the band remains active and creative today.