NewsNick Rhodes on what makes a good reissue and a potential ‘Liberty’ redux
The Duran Duran co-founder also updates SDE on the new album
Nick Rhodes has told SuperDeluxeEdition he wants Duran Duran to release a deluxe edition of their Liberty album – and revealed he and John Taylor recently rediscovered “three or four” songs from the sessions of their third album, Seven And The Ragged Tiger.
Meanwhile, Rhodes also discussed plans for the band’s next new album, which will follow 2015’s Paper Gods.
Talking to SDE around the 35th anniversary of Arcadia’s sole album So Red The Rose [stay tuned for an interview to be published later this week], Rhodes discussed his and Duran’s attitude to reissues in general. Nick said he’s a fan of deluxe editions, but only if “it looks like the artist wanted you to hear them”.
Rhodes cited 1990’s Liberty as the Duran album most in need of the deluxe treatment. He explained: “There’s a lot of things in the Duran catalogue that John and I have been talking about revisiting. What we do with them and how we do it, I don’t yet know, but we’re threatening to one day do the proper version of Liberty.”
Produced by the band with Rolling Stones associate Chris Kimsey, the album reached number eight in the UK, housing the singles ‘Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)’ and ‘Serious’. It has never been reissued, but the popular 1999 bootleg Didn’t Anybody Tell You includes six officially-unreleased songs from the Liberty sessions. Admitting that some of those unreleased songs are better than tracks which made the album, Rhodes said: “Of all our albums, Liberty is our most un-realised. That’s not anyone’s fault. It’s due to timing, circumstances, our vision of where we were and what music was like at the end of the Eighties. A lot of the songs we recorded during those sessions are way better than how the album ended up. It would be interesting to revisit those tapes and pick out some of those other songs which were better.”
Rhodes said he was partly to blame for the finished album’s poor song selection, commenting: “When we made the record, it didn’t feel wrong. We had great fun with Chris Kimsey, who I’m enormously fond of. Chris Potter, our engineer, went on to produce that fantastic song ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ for The Verve, so I guess he must have come out of those sessions with something. But I just feel that Liberty didn’t quite work. It was a strange time in my life, and I perhaps blame myself for it not working a bit. I’d taken my eye off some of Liberty a little. I love some of the sounds of Liberty, but I don’t think we made the right song selection. I was in the middle of personal issues, such as my divorce. Sadly, those things do affect your creativity, and Liberty is an album I really would like to go back into.”
Rhodes went on to discuss the long-mooted Duran Duran boxset, which he and John Taylor have been talking about since Duran’s only expanded reissue campaign. Two-CD deluxe editions of Duran’s first five albums – Duran Duran, Rio, Seven And The Ragged Tiger, Notorious and Big Thing – were issued in a flurry of activity between 2009 and 2010 and Rhodes revealed: “We’ve been going through some of the old tapes for the anthology that we’re planning at some point. We found three or four songs from the sessions from our third album that I didn’t even know about. We’d completely forgotten about those songs because everything was such a whirlwind at the time.”
Seven And The Ragged Tiger was recorded at Air Studios in Montserrat with producers Alex Sadkin and Ian Little, but these unreleased songs date back to the initial sessions for the album. Rhodes said: “We’d started recording Seven And The Ragged Tiger at RAK Mobile, which we parked outside of a chateau in the south of France. We pretty much scrapped everything from that time and these songs we’ve found aren’t finished. But some of the things that crop up, I think “Yes, these deserve to be finished.”
Explaining his attitude to deluxe editions, Rhodes said: “As a fan, I always love to hear outtakes. I had The Beatles’ Black Album [a bootleg] long before those alternative sessions ended up on the anniversary edition of The White Album, for instance. But the way I feel is, if they’re artist-approved I feel a lot better about owning them. If the artist intends you to know ‘This is a demo’, that’s OK. An artist’s process is fascinating and I love deluxe versions of things when they’re really well done and, more importantly, curated properly.”
Duran have been working on their new album with producers Erol Alkan and Giorgio Moroder, as well as Mark Ronson, who co-produced Paper Gods and its predecessor, All You Need Is Now. It features Graham Coxon as guitarist, with other guests including Lykke Li. Asked about plans for its release, Rhodes said: “We’ll finish it this year, but I just don’t know with everything happening right now as to when it’ll come out. Before the pandemic, it would have been out this year. It’s not that we want to withhold anything from anybody, but we like to support the record by playing shows.”
The band are confirmed to headline Isle Of Wight Festival and the new Lytham Festival next year. They were also due to have headlined British Summer Time at Hyde Park this year, a concert which might be rescheduled for next summer. With the uncertainty surrounding festivals, Rhodes said: “We very much hope to be able to play our shows next year, but we don’t know what’s going to be happening, so how do you promote an album now? There’s lots of things people are doing online and we’re all getting used to Zoom, but I just don’t know what’s right for us. We can’t even do television interviews, or interviews in person. We most certainly hope to put the record out before next summer, but I just don’t know.”
In August, SDE published an interview with Liberty producer Chris Kimsey, where he talked in detail about the making of the album. You can read that interview here, and buy an expanded version as a keepsake SDE booklet, exclusively available via the SDE shop using this link or the button below.
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[…] is the 40th anniversary of Duran Duran‘s self-titled debut and although Nick Rhodes confirmed to SDE that he and John Taylor have been “going through some of the old tapes for the anthology that […]
@Eric
I, totally, agree!
I saw Duran Duran LIVE in the mid-80s before they “BLEW UP.” Great show, while they were still “on the way up!” (Before “REFLEX” remix and “Bond” Theme Song nod) “Rio” and “SaTRT” should have been remixed to discrete, 5.1+, years ago! Either the band or its mgt. is lazy. “Astronaut” 5.1 was “meh.”
Just GET TO IT, guys!
Get on it — esp. in surround – oh, and choose a top-shelf surround mixer/engineer!
I’m 50. My body isn’t what it used to be. My stuff’s gonna just get worse the more mileage I put on it. Waiting for “at some point” to happen just sucks because some of us have already gone to the great beyond and many of us could be gone by the time that arrives. So by telling plans (or maybe just thoughts of plans) of things that get us as fans excited and then to place them “at some point” in the future is a tease I can do without. Just DO IT if you’re gonna do it.
I totally agree. I’m 56 and all us teens from the 80’s get older and older as time goes by. I get the feeling the artists who means so much to us perhaps think we live forever (or they live forever) when they say one day, maybe sometime we can do it. We needed to wait 5 years to see TFF Seeds of Love box and I suppose some of us did not have the chance to get their copy. We needed to wait 8 years to see THIN LIZZY “Rock Legend” box. We are still waiting for Eurythmics, U2, Japan, The Cure, Talking Heads, Echo and The Bunnymen, etc deluxe editions. The hope and desire never ends but life does. All we have to do is wait wait wait and if we are blessing enough we can reach these desirable deluxe boxes editions. Let’s start the wait for Duran Duran’s Liberty album box after all it’s just one more to the list.
This might be a bit off topic but I thought I would mention that Record Labels go not own everything bands do and have them stored in their vaults.Stuff like band funded demos and recordings of their live shows are usually owned by the band,not their label.As regards Depeche Mode I assume Martin Gore owns all his own song demoes as he produces them in his own home studio as guides for Dave and Fletch before decisions about what songs will be chosen and recorded are made etc..Also early DM with Vince Clarke had at least 8 other songs they used to regularly play live,but never released recordings of.So they must exist somewhere so it aint true there is no unreleased DM stuff.Vince Clarke wrote them,so I am guessing he has demos or live versions of them stored somewhere.
While I appreciate remastered material, I think releasing rare (unfinished) tracks, a collection of b-sides and Reportage is what the fans really want. I think most fans of any band want to hear things we’ve never heard before. Unfortunately there’s probably a lot of red tape to get through. Either way, as to Nick’s point about them releasing a new album closer to when they can tour.. ideally that may be the case, but this time releasing the album will give us plenty of time to learn it and hopefully enjoy it so when they do tour, it’ll be that much more appreciated. But they know best how things work. Maybe it will lose too much steam if promotional work can’t really be done simultaneously with its release.. ugh.. the wait goes on…
I can’t wait for the new Duran Duran album next year, it’ll be worth the wait; bring on 2021!!. Also…if done in the right way, do a proper super deluxe Box set of “Seven & The Ragged Tiger” with the newly discovered outtakes and maybe a deluxe book with stories behind the songs. This was(and still is) an important album to me. Came out right after my 13th birthday back then…and helped me through those years of growing up. Yes please, definitely a box for “Liberty” too…underrated.
Reportage needs a release that’s for sure
I have to say the 2009 remaster of Rio on double CD sounds pretty good to me and I’m a bit of an audiophile but I’m sure it could be better!
The 2010 remasters of the debut and SATRT are unlistenable on both CD & Vinyl.
My go to version of the debut is the original U.K. vinyl although the 1994 German CD is my go to digital version.
For Rio it is again the original U.K. vinyl although the 2009 is not a bad digital version
For SATRT it’s the Mobile Fidelity vinyl pressing and I can’t find a digital version that I can listen to.
I have played these vinyl version of these three albums hundreds of times and at some point I know I will hear a drop in quality.
I have a Rio cd that I got from fopp about the year 2000, it is a gatefold cardboard thing,I also got true by the spands, same kind of sleeve ,sound good to me! or are these deemed to be poor ?
If it’s the 2001 remaster of Rio it’s the most compressed master out there and a bit too bright. However it’s still not horrendous and it’s listenable, just a tad too compressed and bright.
You can normal tell the mastering by the publishing date.
I think the 2001 remaster was the first digital remaster of Rio.
The 2009 remaster is far better to my ears on my system than the 2001 remaster.
Cheers mark,I think it says enhanced cd on it!,,as I said it’s a gatefold cardboard thing , got true and gentlemen take Polaroids in the same lavish packaging,£5 each from fopp ,Byers road Glasgow , about 20 years ago
Try and get a good copy of the Japanese pressing of the debut album. It really is the best version out there.
I so wish they’d put out amazing stuff from the back catalogue. I had all those demo albums but none play due to the labels whoever i purchased them from placed onto the discs.
What i’d really like also is a proper singles collection every single in it’s correct UK ‘a’ side version in chronological order finishing with a brand new single or maybe a really good new Megamix – i really loved ‘Burning the ground’ / ‘Decadance’! It’s a great shame at just 4 minutes ‘Burning the ground’ wasn’t extended like ‘Decadance’ was.
The greatest / singles sets we’ve had so far have been very poor 4 decades on… nearly as bad as Madonna!!
Reissue the Arcadia – So Red The Rose 3-disc (2CD/1DVD) box set!
Why do we need any of them remastered? We loved the sound on the original so let it be. How many remastered versions of Rio does one really need to own? Keep your remasters DD and play the back catalogue on the road. I’d rather hear some rarities from the past then the same old hits on the tired set lists of late.
nb. I suspect that the only tracks which did get released out of the sessions in France in early ’83 would be Is There Something i Should Know ? and Faith In This Colour.
If anyone has not seen the Tube documentary covering the recording session near Cannes, it is well worth watching. At the time it was extremely exciting to get a behind the scenes look at what they were up to.
So as far as I am aware (from interviews at the time) the only SATRT tracks which have ever been mentioned but are unreleased are the title track Seven and The Ragged Tiger which was apparently the genesis for the two album tracks The Seventh Stranger and Tiger Tiger, and The Cat with the Magic Dice which apparently became I Take The Dice.
There was also the unreleased track mentioned as having been recorded at the same time as The Wild Boys which had a particularly forgettable title. I can’t remember the interview but they talked about two tracks and named both, one of which was The Wild Boys.
It was “Don’t look back”.
Thanks Ernie – that was it.
I am sure music fanatics like this website founder Paul S would have just been to heaven had they been allowed to dig into Prince’s vault of unheard treasures.So it does surprise me that bands like Duran Duran,Depeche Mode and other longevity bands do not locate folk like Paul to work on their huge catalogues of unreleased stuff.These bands are clearly either too busy or just not willing to use up their precious hours in such time-consuming stuff.But out there in music geekland their must be tons of folk who would be willing to unearth anything in these bands vaults worth releasing without seeking a huge renumeration.I just find it a shame that bands could spend days or even weeks demoing stuff that ends up being canned,or recording live shows that just get stored somewhere unheard or unused and simply leave it all stored away gathering dust,all forgotten about until the bands ceases to exist or members pass away.
Depeche Mode’s huge catalogue of unreleased stuff? There isn’t anything by all accounts & definitely not huge amounts
Depeche Modes Archivist Brat says there is hardly anything unheard in the Mute Records vault in London.
Duran Duran see themselves as a contemporary act, not a legacy one. Hence the lack of decent reissues or comprehensive SDEs.
As discussed below there are loads of unreleased songs in the vault, including an entire album, but if the band aren’t interested in putting them out then we won’t hear them.
It is baffling – just imagine if their imperial period got the same treatment Roxy Music’s debut did a few years ago. But as long as the band want to push forward with new material and neglect their back catalogue then so be it. It’s their choice after all.
See I would believe all of this had the highly scalped and art luvvie snapped boxed edition of Rhodes’s Bei Incubi not been released in October, with a very nice boxed set, I sat and looked at my well worn copy of So Red the Rose… its once glossy sleeves well thumbed and the vinyl now reaching its worn and thought “Hold on a minute…”
The problem with Duran for all the relevance of its legacy as a band, both in its own artistic catalogue and in its influence of homage through 70s Roxy, Bowie, Disco and Chic, seem to miss to often contradict themselves both in the lack of vinyl releases and the relevance of proper remaster issues. To which the the last offerings were a terrible remaster of the original album, a coveted remaster of Rio which nobody can get their hands on these days for a decent cost through third party profiteers . The Notorious and Big Thing remasters which are great apart from inconsistencies with original inner sleeves and then what ? A 3 cd reissue of So Red the Rose which although was a nice addition, was issues in a pretty uninformative and sparse artwork layout.
I understand the issues that dealing with major record labels are a pain in the ass, the stumbling block with Andy Taylor since the mid 80s which never seemed to fully manifest in a true cohesion of band member respect and opinions. Which of course lead to the break up the first time.
The time to release a proper boxed set of such early material is now, Liberty is great to reissue but not when the bands most revered work is left with a legacy of half stabbed reissues, that were less in number and some even less in quality.
If they put the work into a real box set of So Red the Rose for example, with the same pomp as Bei Incubi, talk to Arturia and strike a deal to include various sound sets of Fairlight Patches through its VST, include demos and outtakes… this is what fans want. And before I come across as misogynistic, Duran have to realise also that their artistic work had and always have been revered amongst synth player and musicians alike. Fans are more than doe eyes 50 something women doting on Mr Rhodes style, some of us are interested in the programming and musicality. John Taylor’s Stone Bass Odyssey series on Youtube was fantastic during lockdown and a great insight to the duran music . Lets have more of that !!
There are four members of Duran Duran who would all have to sign off on any project… then they would have to get Andys approval for the 1980-1985 period releases and then get Warrens approval for 1989-2000 releases. Also Sterling was a full member during Liberty so he would also need to be asked. It sounds like a nightmare are has probably made lawyers a lot of money over the years. I think Durans main concern is they don’t want to be seen looking back on their career too much in case they end up a nostalgia act.
DD seem to live by the mantra ‘All You Need Is Now’ they look forward, not backwards. They don’t do deep cuts live, only fan favourites and new tracks. They give the occasional nod to their influences, not endless covers, fingers burnt ‘Thankyou’. They seem to enjoy playing live more than recording these days, maybe it’s the money or possibly they miss the original five piece jamming dynamic. Whatever the reason, I do hope they have used this year to work on the new album, with more focus than on ‘Paper Gods’ which suffered from inconsistency due to multiple producers. AYNIN was by far their best album for ages thanks mainly to the focus of Mark Ronson. I do hope they will revisit the ‘golden age’ albums but only if they run out of creative juice for the new goods.
It would be great to bring Sterling and Warren back to play a few tracks and to read their views on working on Liberty.
Downtown as well as Serious were missed opportunity.
Violence Of Summer, is one of their worst songs in their catalog.
Agree with Jason. There is nothing going on now. Other artist are releasing their new album. Since the fans don’t want to pay $$$ for a used vinyl album, why don’t Duran’s re-release The Wedding Album, Pop Trash, Astronaut, Red Carpet Massacre and All You Need Is Now?
Yes. I did skip Medazzaland, on purpose.
This version should have been on the album.
Duran Duran – Who Do You Think You Are? [Alternative Version]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wspnSdBI1TI
I just wish they’d hire Paul to help them sort it out. ;)
Some years ago, EMI issued boxed set editions of “Duran Duran” (debut) & “Seven and The Ragged Tiger”, and they were sonicly quite faulty, including an odd stutter during the intro of “Girls on Film”. EMI refused to replace the discs, while conceding that the discs sounded “Different” to previous masterings (“shrill” is more accurate), and they (EMI) took great offence at fan criticism of the Abbey Road Studio engineer who caused the poor sound. EMI then issued similar boxed sets for “Notorious” & “Big Thing” keeping the mastering engineer’s name anonymous, and these reissues sounded good. But, by then, few Duran Duran fans trusted EMI, and those releases sold poorly. Then the series stopped.
Now, under Warner/Parlophone, Duran Duran should start an all-new deluxe edition series, with the group getting involved at all stages of production including mastering. The group’s EMI catalog deserves better treatment than it has been given thus far.
I second that. The remastered sounds on the Debut and S&TRT are HORRIBLE. I am not a big fan of the mastering on Big Thing or Notorious either, TBH. The sound effect glitch on Girls on Film was completely avoidable to anyone paying attention. It occurs during a repeating sound effect. The easiest of audio edits! Also, for those interested, there’s a visual way to compare the dynamic range difference between the 2010 remaster and earlier digital and vinyl issues: the dr.loudness-war website. It’s not always the definitive way to determine how a remaster might sound but it does give you an idea of what to expect.
Hire Scott Davies of Rubellan Remasters for outstanding dynamic sound
I think all bands who’ve been thinking of doing a SDE “one day” should’ve taken the past 7 months as a perfect opportunity to work on it! Neil Hannon wrote all the lengthy liner notes for the Divine Comedy box set during the first lockdown, for example. It’s not often artists get all this time off from touring or recording. Why not use it to delve through the archives, rather than saying “one day”?!
i recently read john and andy’s biographies, which i enjoyed. it was interesting to see how they felt durans creative process went…sounded like lots of jamming, fighting, drinking, eating and (when it was working right) really good songs coming out of it all…it also sounded like they thrive with a strong, but really creative producer, and definitely not a flavour of the month…enjoyed their ronson material, and look forward to the moroder tracks (which i hope will be more than just one track)
Unlike quite a few others I shudder at the thought of a monstrous Anthology Box. How will I afford it? Where will I put it? Surely well thought out (and spread out!) individual album reissues like the TFF boxes or Tull sets are the way to go.
I have been a huge fan since my early teens. The Seventh Stranger on Seven and the Ragged Tiger is my absolute favourite. I have the set of 5 different covered 7 inch records of Wild Boys. Bought and put in plastic sleeves and never played featuring a photo of each band member. I always hoped I would one day get them signed. I first saw then in 1982 at Manchester Apollo when I was 15 and saw them again as I was front row at the Gibraltar Music Festivsl on my 48th birthday in 2015. They were even better than the first time.
Rightly or wrongly, Duran Duran (and NR in particular) have always seen themselves as a top-tier contemporary act. Even at their commercial nadir they still toured arenas, even when they were half-full.
They’ve very rarely looked back, always produced new material and tried to stay abreast of current musical developments. Some times they pull it off, sometimes they don’t.
However, it’s this sheer bloody mindedness that has kept them together in some form or other for over 40 years. So while I’d love a nice SDE of (nearly) all of their albums, I find it hard to begrudge their desire to not dwell on the past behind and push forward.
They were obviously called Futurists for a reason!
DD takes forever. I always wonder if it’s creative uncertainty or solely marketing that causes the delays. I’m curious about any outtakes from this legendary band. I remember reading an article once, post-Liberty, I think, and Nick mentioning a track “Juice” that I never heard about again. Would love to hear any rediscovered rarities and demos. The last big surprise for me was probably the “Tel Aviv” demo, before it was an instrumental and had a pretty different structure altogether. And why the heck was the full version of Rose Arcana not on the original Arcadia release? Rhetorical question. It was to be discovered in all its glory as a rarer gem, so when you hear the “intro” on SRTR, your mind fills in the entire emotional narrative of the extended version while your ears are switching to the tragic beauty of “The Promise.” Because tragedy doesn’t wait for beauty to end, it cuts it right off like the album edit of “Rose Arcana.” Friggin’ life. Friggin’ Duran Duran taking forever… Oh, I will get Medazzaland on vinyl the second it’s available. What an underrated gem in their catalog! Oh, finally (since no one else has chimed in on it yet): “Venice Drowning” and “Downtown?” Deep Liberty tracks worthy of reappraisal.
Yes, Venice Drowning is for me in the top 5 of DD songs. With some of the best/worst poetic/unpoetic lyrics they wrote (depending on how you feel).
There is an original Liberty US Capitol promo tape with the following track listing, which is where the existence of ‘Juice’ arose. I am sure it circulates amongst the cognescenti
“Hothead”
“Read My Lips”
“Violence of Summer”
“Liberty”
“All Along The Water”
“Downtown”
“First Impressions”
“Can You Deal With It?”
“Serious”
“Yo Bad Azizi”
“Venice Drowning”
“Antarctica”
“Hymn For The Preacher”
“Antarctica” (Perc & Guitar Mix)
“Juice”
Your question about Rose Arcana will be answered VERY soon.
Nick Rhodes is a master of sound and a fan of the stuff us fans love too so he understands well what makes a great deluxe edition and despite the amazing quality of bootlegs which i love they always find something we dont expect like for me the rio demos and tel aviv from 1980. liberty is a great album if you listen to what goes into each song ………a good 5.1 mix would solve that and me and friend have boosted the audio and ive heard stuff in there that changes the album dynamics in sound , the mix is what nick does best. give him the multitracks and he will do his magic im sure and he will with great care. i wonder if he spotted Dreaming Of Your Cars from the 1979 demos on you tube. i love that demo great quality too , Roger only ever attempted ska on Watching the Detectives but boy does he do it well on this very solid playing ….id love to hear a Simon vocal version reworked for 2021
I’m no Duran fan by any stretch but have to admire Nick Rhodes openness here. We’re all human aren’t we? All slip up occasionally, fall short now and again and before we know it forty odd years have rolled by and we see long gone episodes with more enlightened eyes. The future could be bright….
This interview is a very pleasant surprise, all the members have been doing interesting stuff for the fans during this Beast from the East!
The band are all in their 50’s now & must have surely have a finite recording career left now, especially with 5+ years between albums so now IS the time to go back & compile these thorough expanded editions that we , the fans want and need!
Would love to sit down with Mr Rhodes for a few hours & ask him about band stuff etc etc.
I’ve had the privilege to work with Ian Little and his publisher during the 2020 lockdown to edit the long-awaited book about his time in 1982 / 1983 working on Is There Something I Should Know? and Seven And The Ragged Tiger. We’re hoping it will be available in the next few months, and it also provides fascinating insights to recording the Avalon album with Roxy Music. Watch this space!
I’d love to see a Liberty redux version – maybe with the additional tracks Nick & John have found, as well as a remixed version of the original album? Serious is a classic track and still in my Top 3 from Duran Duran!
Can’t wait to read what you have for us regarding Arcadia. That’s my favorite album from these gents.
Had no idea there were DD unreleased songs, I guess…nobody told me ;-) Thanks to this article and YT I’m now listening to “Didn’t Anybody Tell You” ;-) When did it come out ? I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned in the CK interview or did I miss it ?
Of course we all love Duran Duran and we all wish super deluxe edition of each album. 2CD+DVD isn’t enough we want much much more but when Nick said “…but we’re threatening to ONE DAY do the proper version of Liberty” it’s seems to me it’ll be a loooooong loooooong wait until it comes, IF IT COMES SOMEDAY. At least Nick and John talked out it and it’s can be face as a begin somehow. Let’s cross our fingers and save a prayer ’til the next deluxe edition, who knows!?
Do we? That would seem rather presumptuous.
Yeah and major labels need to employ Scott Davies from Rubellan Remasters to do the remastering for future projects…on his FB page he provided a demonstration of his process and need to truly do an outstanding job…..Duran Duran and other artists you hear that….Scott’s work is outstanding and loves the process and the music
And there is also “Reportage”, the shelved album made with Andy (I guess) before “Red Carpet Massacre”… Well curated DeLuxe editions of all albums would be most welcome. Even those first five albums from the eighties would deserve some extra demos and alt. tracks just like the Tears For Fears deluxe editions did. And fore sure BBC and other radio stations will have unreleased live shows to add to the gourmet menu. Altogether with good liner notes, new track by track interviews (like the Pet Shop Boys “further listening” releases do), pictures and images of record covers from various countries, the whole catalogue deserves new releases. And 2021, 40 years over Planet Earth would be the time for it! And of course Arcadia’s “So Red The Rose” deserves a DeLuxe edition with studio unreleased tapes, if such material does exist (I hope it does). Great band. Great catalogue. Deserves the best!
I am a fan of big boxed sets with 10cd’s or more,that are 10in or 12in size,which have a good hardback book and have tons of music,including a few demos,live versions,extended versions,new mixes,rare tracks,unreleased tunes etc..the full razzle dazzle I suppose.Just a shame Duran Duran cannot create one as they have a huge catalogue and a history which means there must be lots of unreleased stuff.I am guessing a big collection like this would sell in large enough quantities to justify the cost and effort in creating it.I would buy it,so I am sure many others sould too!
When he mentioned deluxe editions need to be curated properly I hope you gave him your business card Paul!
It was actually the good Mr John Earls doing the interview for SDE, otherwise I would have :)
The same John Earls that used to do Planet Sound on Channel 4?
Ask him about someone called Peter Pinsent, Paul.
That should make him laugh.
Peter Pinsent from Pinner? He was pretty much the last person to write letters rather than emails to PS. Usually on the back of Tesco Finest food cartons.
How about taking care of the easiest task first; reissue all of the post-80’s albums on vinyl! As we know Medazzaland and Pop Trash have never been officially released on the format. Some of the others have been OOP for ages.
Nick was always super creative and my favourite member and I am a fan from 1983. However, after divorce he became very depressed and autodestructive and you can feel it in his ideas and arrangements. You can even see it in his recent photo art which is disturbing and shows his inner struggle. I wish someine else took the lead from 1990 because we would have more rock oriented and more respected Duran today. I wish Nick all the best and he will always be in my heart. I will probably stay their fan to the end. And yes please release all unheard songs, that is gold for us fans.
In Durantime as usual, we will all be dead before anything is released! Interesting though about the 3-4 SATRT unreleased tracks, the only one anyone has ever heard is the title track itself, which is believed to be lost from NR/JT comment. I always worry when Nick says he wants to finish things off, he never will, just get them out there. I doubt anything will tarnish their legacy, in fact lack of action may well do that.
First of all…Good Lord just put out the damn Wedding Album FIRST. It was promised years ago, and as someone who already owns a copy, I am speaking out directly for the fans who want it and do not have it. Insane…It’s one of their biggest sellers and much better than Liberty, sorry!
Secondly, a pandemic is a good time to put new stuff out! What else is going on really? Guess what’s going to happen…They’re going to wait until stuff opens up again like everybody else who waited, and then they’ll be struggling for attention again like everybody else who waited. I understand the logic of touring, but even that is going to be spotty on the sales front for possibly years, so put the record out and let people fall in love with the music at home so when you CAN tour again, everybody knows the songs and are excited to finally hear them live. Maybe an artist on the level of DD could pull a U2 and do an Achtung Baby/Zooropa thing where leftover songs and new material can be released as a “Part 2” or something just to rejuvenate when touring time comes. At the very LEAST give us a box set of Rio, Ragged Tiger, or album #1…they are stone cold CLASSICS and there’s plenty of songs from the deluxe editions and probably ones we don’t know about in a closet somewhere that would make a very nice package…a musicologist’s dream!
Where is the expanded Arcadia album Nick used to speak of in the 80’s? He said there was enough material for a double album, yet all we got in the deluxe edition was “Say the Word” (great song) and an extended “Rose Arcana” that had been a b-side. I feel like he has forgotten all about this!
Damn! I should be marketing these guys! Missed my chosen profession and ended up in a record shop instead. At least they should be listening to shop owners since we actually talk to fans and see what they are actually spending their cash on…
Please think about Nick’s birth date; he is becoming 60 in two years. Remembering the stuff from the 80s could be …. let’s say slowly and incomplete. Btw – I am 44 and it is the same for me .
But Vinyls beginning with issues from 93 are welcome!
I like DURAN DURAN to re-issue the GREATEST compilaton again only this time with the missing hits that were on the original promotional version. MY OWN WAY and CARELESS MEMORIES, oh and also include the UK single mix of SAVE A PRAYER.
There’s no complete A-sides collection available. “Greatest” was incomplete, with no chronological order, no remastering and debatable choices of edits. “Decade” stops with “All She Wants Is” and it’s incomplete as well (no “My Own Way”, no “Careless Memories”, no “Meet El Presidente”, no “Do You Believe in Shame”).
A multi-disc anthology for the dedicated fan, of course, is welcome. But a complete and updated greatest hits set would be also a great idea to celebrate their 40th anniversary next year.
The last track of brazilian edition of Decade is A matter of feeling. Greetings from Brazil!
Wonder whether that means they found the tape for the Seven and the Ragged Tiger ( the song)
What is a better time to finish unfinished songs and put together an anthology with newly found material than in a pandemic? So if that is not happening now and they will release and promote a new album after the pandemic, I don’t see this happening in the next few years, if ever. Nick shouldn’t be telling the world this unless he’s actively working on it. It’s always “John Taylor and I are talking” or “It would be interesting to…” instead of “John Taylor and I are actively working on…” So unless they are actively working on reissues, these are all empty words.
The anthology mentioned sounds a great idea. The singles box sets and the 2-CD deluxe editions of the first five albums were good apart from the mastering glitch on ‘Girls On Film’ on the 2010 2-CD release of the first album.
While ‘Rio’ has been revisited a few times it would be great to have an SFE of it including the various (three I think) versions of ‘Carnival’ which were never released in the UK and only released on CD in Japan.
Also, to my knowledge the original UK 7” single version of ‘Rio’ has never been released on CD.
There is so much DD can do with their catalog. And although it is very hopefull but Nick is always full of plans and sadly most of them are realised.
The first three DD albums all need remastering properly. The 2010 issues were diabolical.
The Wedding Album is also long overdue for the deluxe treatment.
I love the thought of an anthology but indeed with better mastering but that may be wishful thinking as most music is being recorded too loud/ with less dynamic range. I have the Ragged Tiger on DVD-A and the sound is magnificent and worlds apart from the 2010 reissues.
@RMJ or Paul S
Where was SATRT issued on DVD-A?
If so does the DVD contain 24/96 LPCM stereo mixes?
Although Liberty was a so-so album, I believe Serious to be one of the band’s best songs. Looking forward to whatever happens with this!
I completely agree. “Serious” is haunting, addicting, certainly one of their best tracks but it s pretty isolated on that ugly record. I don t hold my breath about a reissue but I would be curious to hear extended/remixes/instrumental of that track
There were 2 unofficial remixes of serious, on the
unleashed compilation. The 7 inch remix, and the
7 inch house mix. Maybe there were more, and
longer versions. Those were very good. You
can hear them on youtube.
later
-1
I agree. Serious is one of the better songs in their catalog. Sadly, the Liberty album as a whole is mostly forgettable – but, even still, you have 2 or 3 songs on there that still deserve heavy rotation.
Fully agree with you Scott, IMHO Serious is one of their top 5 tracks.
I also like Liberty, it’s not as bad as people say (inc NR) much preferred that to TBT.
I wish Duran Duran would do some 5.1 mixes. Their music is ideal for surround sound.
I think Astronaut got a 5.1 mix.
Although I presume you are talking about their first half dozen albums.