Fulfilling A Dream

I was going to do this blog over the weekend but todays announcement that the Olympics would be opened with a concert made me decide to bring it forward.  The four home nations will be represented by various bands with Duran Duran leading the English contingent.  There has been uproar from a few suggesting that the still popular and much-loved band are past it and should not have been awarded this honour but I strongly disagree I couldn’t think of anyone more suited.

My first introduction to the band was thanks to Top of the Pops, it took only one song and I was hooked.  All pocket-money went on saving up for those precious albums, as soon as they came out I would be there at HMV coming away clutching that precious cassette (for younger readers they were what existed before CDs) I remember the tears when my stupid cassette player chewed up Seven and the Ragged Tiger.  The of course there were all the magazines and posters.  Not to mention the badges, mirrors, scarves and all the other merchandise that no self-respecting Duranie could ever live without. Of course as with any band everyone has their favourites and as some of you will know from a previous blog mine was the base player John Taylor.  This picture of him wearing ‘the hat’ has special significance and if you bear with me you will understand.  This was the picture that I had posted on the ceiling above my bed until that fateful night when it fell down and got torn (yes more tears).  The point was this was what sparked my dreams at the time, I would dream about the books I had been reading and replace myself obviously as the damsel in distress and JT as the hero (sad I know but I was only thirteen.)  But that’s the point the Olympics is about dreams and who better than a band that throughout the decades has inspired millions of dreams to be part of it.

I longed to see them live but they were everything my dad couldn’t understand.  They wore frilly shirts, had long hair, wore make up, the list of reasons for my dads disapproval goes on.  And then came the fracturing of the band, members leaving, different projects and I thought I had missed my chance.

Until last year!

With the release of All You Need Is Now came a new tour, could it be possible I could finally fulfil a life long dream.  With trepidation I typed into google and looked at the dates.  Yes there was one I could get time off work for and there were tickets available.  After a few pleading looks towards the other half and a few clicks my dream was coming true.

So May comes round and the time draws nearer for my dream when it is postponed due to SLB’s laryngitis, nerves tear at my insides as I first await a new date then wait to see if I can change my week off to accommodate it ( I think my boss knew if I couldn’t I would quite probably be off sick anyway).

Roll on December and party time.  I was lucky enough to see them at their home town concert and they did not disappoint.  Unlike many bands they filled the venue I know this as I have a friend who works there and he commented on it at the time.  The majority of people there were like myself, people who had fallen in love with them in their teens, we had grown up to their music. Cried over broken hearts listening to their lyrics, but many like myself had never had the chance to see them live before.  That night they made dreams come true, well most, some we will hold onto as memories of our teenage selves the adult recognising how unrealistic they were.

From the first chords the almost the whole auditorium were on their feet dancing and singing along I say almost. The mixed the old and the new seamlessly they looked every bit as youthful and energetic as they did back in the day. This is a band that embrace new technology and are innovative as they always were exemplified by the big screen showing a backdrop of tweets during the concert. My long-suffering other half was one of a hand full of other halves dragged along but even though he would not dance I did catch him singing along and he thorough enjoyed the concert so much so that when I suggested the DDUK convention to him he automatically agreed to going. And that is another testament to their ongoing popularity demand for convention tickets proved so great that a lottery system was required and guess who was lucky enough to get a pair.  Yup come December I will have an excuse for writing another blog about them.

If a band that has inspired a generation of new musicians and fulfilled the dreams of so many people over a sustained period does not represent everything the Olympics stands for then who does.  The fact that their last album has been globally acclaimed shows they are still as relevant as popular as thirty years ago when they burst into our hearts and changed the music industry for ever.  If we truly want to embrace the Olympic spirit then who better than a band who has burned brighter than the Olympic torch and has a consistant Gold ranking.