Duran Duran Revisits Atlanta
It’s been about a year since we were graced with Duran Duran’s outstanding show. They are reportedly back in the studio preparing another album. But before we dance into the future, let’s look at their amazing past tour and particulary the stop in Atlanta as that’s what I’m most familiar with.
Travelling Fans
Duran Duran have travel fans just like Tears for Fears. They are a group of VIPs that are registered with the official fanclub and attend performances all over the world. They are an impressive group of people. We were fortunate to get in touch with a few of them, mainly Ingrid and she is just a delight! She and several of the team have been featured countless times on the Duran Duran page and at the Atlanta show were allowed to announce the band. It was quite a moment in superfanland.
I arrived early as always. It had been raining as it always seems to do on concert days in Atlanta. We get all four seasons for sure when certain bands come to town. There we were humid and damp from the elements, people in plastic ponchos covering gorgeous outfits that were carefully put together celebrating milestones in the band’s history. I stood for what may have been an hour in the merch line. Soon enough I got several things…a leather manpurse, Tshirt and bunch of other things. I was grateful for it, caught up in the fandom.
I bought my ticket to the show months in advance through the fanclub. Because I didn’t choose the VIP option I was only able to get as close as “the stage door” as my seat. It’s a great seat but I would have loved to be in box seat or the first 3 rows. I mean, when you know all the songs, all the words, practice dance moves and the like you want to be near the mike, right? So there I was next to the stage door. My friends teasing me that I’m probably going to get to sing. Duran Duran don’t know me THAT well to let that happen, again, this isn’t Tears For Fears, these are their friends. I continued tweeting and the band’s social media group RT’d everything. It was amazing. Something about getting an RT and knowing “they know you’re alive and supporting” is just everything and more.
MDNR opened for them and I thought she was great. She had upbeat lyrics, dressed in fun fashion and her songs were very club-like and modern 80s meets the Millennial. I know some were not pleased but for me she was stellar! She interacted with the crowd while playing instruments, a sort of one-woman show. She was just…FUN! After she left the video began…a long intro to what would be one of the best shows in ATL that year (with all due respect to the B52s at the Fox earlier that summer). The video was of a woman, dressed beautifully in Victorian and Rococo era style dress and hair…running for miles. She just kept running…and that drove people insane. They weren’t sure when it was going to end and the man beside me put on quite a show of his disapproval to the point his girlfriend became embarrassed and asked him to sit down. I think he rather liked the attention. I admit, that video was long and I had wished someone would have come out onto the stage running around in Roccoco attire to sort of bring life to that. But I liked it nonetheless…
Then with a burst of energy Duran Duran came to the stage, playing the set list just as we expected including songs that everyone had requested. The DD social media crew was on it like lighting. I tweeted, “The show is now Live. Duran Duran starts now” along with a picture of the audience from where I was standing and dancing. They quickly retweeted it. There were tributes to issues that fans were going through and several times Simon Le Bon, the Great came over to our side and paid some real attention to us, grabbing Anna’s hand the whole way. The subtle cues and recognitioin didn’t go unnoticed, thank you kind Sir, much appreciated!
Special Moments
Again, one of the travel fans from Los Angeles (Ingrid’s travel pal) on the front row was given the microphone to announce a few fun things the band asked of her. Simon said, “We’ve never met have we?” Which was a lie, any travel fan and dedicated fan knew who she was. She’d been at every show. In fact, she is so well known she’s got as much of a fan club of her own. These girls are hot! They look amazing and always perch up front like loyalist. It’s something to be proud of, I’m certainly proud of them.
“Leave the Light On” was played for a fan who had either died or gone missing during the tour. It’s clear that the band pays attention and checks their twitter feed. This was precious and very important, and again, appreciated.
Also, the band said they’d been to Atlanta more times than any other city on this particular tour
. It’s true, they’d been there 4 times and with every show the crowds got bigger and bigger to the point it was sold out this time. We can’t wait for them to come back.
This concert was even better than the one from Oct 2011, if you can believe that. I had a great time. Danced like a soldier of sound and people around me joyfully made note that I didn’t stop singing and dancing… and I didn’t. I held it the whole time, choreography and all that jazz with every song. I made a lot of new friends…many of whom danced along with me.
So how are they a sister fan club to Tears for Fears?
If you have to ask at this point, you’re gonna get your band fan card revoked. LOL. JT and Curt are friends (remember the infamous twitter pictures?). There was a joint tour at one point and there remains a comraderie so we are happily tagging along with their fans as well, supportive and showing up much like DD fans do at TFF shows. We’re sister fans.
So, both bands have new material underway, looks like 2014 is gonna be bananas!!! Bring it!! 🙂
Thanks for reading,
-Andye
Tears for Fears Travel Fans 