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Now that the band was favouring a more dance-oriented direction, Duran Duran saw the album as an opportunity to take risks and evolve from their Rio sound. I didn’t get writing credits and I don’t believe I deserved them, but I know I helped come up with ideas during that time.” Read our feature on Duran Duran’s 1990 album Liberty Read more: Duran Duran Superfan But he also wasn’t an idiot, and this signalled a recognition on his part that I was an integral part of Duran Duran’s work process at that time. “He needn’t have done that – from a financial standpoint he would have been better off if I wasn’t involved, but that shows what kind of person he was an absolute gentleman. I’ll be finished,’ and they said ‘We’re sorry, but this is a big project and we can’t risk it, so you’re out.’ The band members all appeared to want me involved, but they weren’t prepared to stand up to their managers or to EMI, so I went to Alex and he said ‘From what I can see you’re like a sixth member of this band. I went to the band’s management and said ‘You can’t do this to me. “EMI was getting nervous about me and the band co-producing the album, and to be honest I was a little bit out of my depth, so the decision was taken Then Simon could see where he wanted to put the vocal parts, where the bridges and the choruses should go.”Īfter three months of demo work in Cannes, the band moved to Montserrat’s AIR Studios for six weeks, where Alex Sadkin took over main production duties on Seven And The Ragged Tiger. “Then as I played them back I could press a button and punch in and out, switching between the three patterns at different points, and that resulted in a very interesting arrangement. On Union Of The Snake, I started off putting down a pattern all the way through, then another pattern, and then a third. ”The songs were built rather than written. “That was the first time we’d done anything like that,” Nick says. Read our feature on Duran Duran’s cover art Read John Taylor’s interview with Duran Duran guitarist Dom Brown Little had learnt the technique while working on Roxy Music’s Avalon, and he deployed it to great effect on Duran Duran’s music. At that point, it was definitely the most rhythmic thing we’d done.”Įscaping to a three-storey chateau outside Cannes in the south of France, the band, along with Little, set up a writing camp, taking a 24-track mobile studio from London’s RAK studios and beginning writing and recording lengthy jam sessions before listening to them back, cherry-picking segments and ideas and using them as a foundation on which to build new songs. Alex worked really well with rhythm, which was something we hadn’t exploited to its full potential within the band before. The combination worked extremely well for us. “Instead of Colin Thurston, we worked with Ian Little, who had worked on Is There Something I Should Know? and Alex Sadkin, who had done great stuff with Grace Jones, the Thompson Twins and Bob Marley. “We decided on a change production-wise because we wanted a different sound,” Nick Rhodes says. It’s ambition – that’s what it’s about.”Īs many of the songs from the first two albums had been written around the same time and recorded close together with the same producer, Duran Duran and Paul and Michael Berrow agreed a change of sound would be beneficial to illustrate both their musical progression and the story of their success. “The Seven is for us – the five band members and the two managers – and the Ragged Tiger is success. “It’s an adventure story about a little commando team,” Simon told Rolling Stone. However, as Duranmania reached its zenith, the group was perilously close to implosion due to constant scrutiny into their personal lives – be it from the press or the ardent acolytes that followed their every move with militant accuracy.Īs the band began work on its third album early Seven And The Ragged Tiger in 1983, the decision was made to write and record abroad to avoid a burgeoning backlash and a hefty tax bill. In danger of being overexposed, they saved their reputations – and their money – by spending the year abroad… By Mark LindoresĪfter a whirlwind two years which had seen them release two albums, tour the world twice, become video age posterboys and spark scenes of fan hysteria, Duran Duran were firmly established as one of the biggest bands in the world. After sailing their way to superstardom with rio, Duran Duran’s Seven And The Ragged Tiger saw them threatened with becoming victims of their own success.
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