As the straining cordon of policemen splits under the frantic pressure of budding femininity, the coach swerves away from Glasgow Apollo and speeds though the dark, wet back streets.

Soon the last gang of pursuers stumble back into the distance and a solitary figure keeps abreast of the coach,running as if its life is at stake. The coach just clips through an amber light and still the figure keeps coming, madly ignoring the Green Cross Code.

“Pull up! Stop!” yells Roger Taylor and the coach jerks twice and coasts to a halt. The automatic doors purr open and young Mark Duffy, heaving with exhaustion and excitement, staggers up the steps to rapturous applause.
“Please will you put ‘I was in your coach’?” he asks Nick Rhodes as the lipstick blond signs his programme.“Please… otherwise my friends won’t believe me…”
OK, although the incident’s true, you’ve read it many times before. Duran Duran: pop stars, candyfl oss gods to a new generation of gullible adolescents with more pocket money than sense. If only the stupid sheep would scream and lend fi nancial support to the worthy likes of the Gang Of Four, the world would be
a better place. Well… er… wouldn’t it?
I, for one, quite honestly doubt it and have caught a fair amount of flak in the past for being stupid enough to say so. Here, at Maker Central, my rapturous review of the ‘Rio’ album is still the subject of ridicule and considered an unbalanced lapse of common sense.
But just why do the press find Duran Duran unacceptable?
Do they pose some threat to jealously guarded traditional standards? Is it because they wear make-up? Just why do they offend mature sensibilities? And why do they sell so many records? Only one way to find out…Yours truly nipped up north of the border with the express purpose of confronting Duran with their own reputation and giving them a rare right of reply.Nick Rhodes provided the most apt preamble.
“We are probably the only band that’s known as five individuals. We are five very different personalities as The Beatles were four.
“There can be up to five contradictions at any one point. I think this interview is important because we’ve never ever been able to level our how we felt exactly about all those things… I think it’s really interesting… about the reasons why…”Appetite whetted? Here goes…
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Modern Music Rated Duran Duran Albums:
Duran Duran - Medazzaland
Duran Duran - Rio
Duran Duran - Astronaut