Simon Le Bon on the secret to Duran Duran’s success and why the band shy away from politics

Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Channel 4 News

Society & Culture, News, Politics

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

He’s the frontman of one of the most iconic bands of the 80s.

Four decades on, Simon Le Bon says that New Wave legends Duran Duran are still going strong, making new music and announcing that they’re going on tour again.

In today’s episode of Ways to Change the World, Simon Le Bon sits down with Krishnan Guru-Murthy to discuss why the band doesn't make political statements, the state of the music industry, and the secret to Duran Duran’s longevity.

Produced by : Imahn Robertson

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Ways to Change the World. I'm Christian Gary Murphy and this is the
0:08.8	podcast in which we talk to extraordinary people about the big ideas and their lives and
0:12.8	the events that have helped shape them. We are on location this week at Olympic Studios,
0:17.7	which used to be one of the great recording studios in London but is now a cinema and
0:22.3	members club. Partly because it's quite close to my guest's house because he is Simon LeBon,
0:29.6	the lead singer and lyricist from Durand Durand, one of the biggest selling pop and rock acts ever.
0:38.0	And an iconic group of the 1980s, they are still together, still writing new music and still touring
0:46.1	this year, having been Princess Diana's favourite band, the favourite band of well, pretty much everybody
0:54.9	from my generation for a long, long time. So Simon, welcome to the podcast.
1:00.4	Thank you very much. How do you feel about going on tour now, given you've been doing this for 40
1:05.5	years? I can't wait to get back on tour. I've been at home for way too long, I'm getting
1:11.4	on all the family's nerves. It's a great job to have and I also think that touring, it gives me
1:18.4	really good reason to stay fit and to be strong and I think it kind of helps you stay youthful.
1:26.5	Having something physical in your life there as a job, I think it works really well. How different
1:32.1	is it now to back then? It's very different. You know, we used to, the big difference really is
1:42.4	that the show itself has become so much more of a focus at the tour. You know, I think we used to
1:48.0	go on tour in the first, in the past, thinking that it was basically a lot of parties that we could
1:54.2	go to and we just did the live shows to keep, to to to finance our travel around the world and
2:01.3	to be able to go to these parties. But now the show is the party and you know, everything in your
2:08.7	days is just everything. It's focused on making that show the best possible thing, the best possible
2:19.8	event, the best possible moment, the joining of the audience and the music and the band, the best
2:26.8	possible experience for everybody. I mean, you have to be really quite fit. I mean, I've just come
	...

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