This post is also available in: Spanish

Today the 28th of April, Duran Duran arrived into Casa de Campo and after taking the afternoon to relax and no doubt enjoy Casa de Campo’s world class facilities and our glorious Caribbean weather, they joined us (the press) for a conference in Altos de Chavon, which finished literally just a few minutes ago!

Scheduled to begin at 4pm, the English ‘new wave’ band kept us waiting until 5.30pm before making an appearance at Zanzibar, but it was so worth it – not only was it fantastic to see and listen to this legendary band answering questions, but they were also rather amusing! Good old British sense of humor! You gotta love the Brits!!

Before coming inside, the band were treated to a little bit of a dance and music show from Altos de Chavóns dancing girls and a traditional Perico Ripao band, which was enjoyed especially by band member Simon Le Bon, who later commented on it, saying this country has ‘wonderful dancing and wonderful music and we would like to contribute to the music.’

With the help of a Dominican to English translator, the band took their seats and obliged the waiting crowd by asking a range of questions, some rather mundane, but others were much more entertaining – one journalist asked to have his photo with the band and ended up on stage getting his photo taken, whilst another asked if they knew how to dance Merengue, and she ended up giving an impromptu merengue lesson to Simon Le Bon.


The band were first here in Casa de Campo 10 years ago, when they performed with Santana, as a slightly diminished version of Duran Duran – with just Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes, this time the band are thrilled to be back as a more complete version of themselves, with the 2 other original band members: Roger Taylor and John Taylor.

Having just arrived from the United States, the band told us how thrilled they are to be in Casa de Campo and the Dominican Republic, a country they describe as ‘incredibly beautiful.’

Here are just a few questions and answers Duran Duran took during the press conference:
(Although the answers to these questions are pretty accurate, I have had to paraphrase in some cases…I couldn’t write fast enough to keep with everything!)

Q: Why ‘all you need is now’? What significance has that song?
Answered by Nick Rhodes: ‘As you get older, you forget to appreciate the moment, the idea of the song is to remind you to enjoy NOW and to enjoy who you are.’

Q: What do you think is the main reason of your success?
Answered by Nick Rhodes:   ‘We all grew up and came of age in the late 1970’s in Britain, when there was a huge variety of incredible music and different developing genres, which really helped us to become something real and different.’
Answered by Simon Le Bon: ‘Not quitting, or at least none of us quitting at the same time!’

Q: How do you want to be remembered:
Answered by Simon Le Bon: ‘For entertaining, for making people happy with our music and our incredible sexual prowess!’

Q: Who/what music influenced you?
A: ‘David Bowie, Chic, Craftwork and more modern bands such as Radiohead and Arcadefire’

Q: How do you stay true to yourselves?
Answered by Simon Le Bon: ‘We are the real thing.’

Before getting up to have his photo taken with me (among others), Simon left us with these parting words:

‘Its been up and down, people have come and people have left!’

(Talking about their career path…..a phrase that could be used to describe life!)

 

Don’t miss Duran Duran in concert this coming Saturday the 30th of April in the Altos de Chavón Amphitheatre! The show being presented by Skypro is being opened by Dominican band ‘NINECIRCUS’ who are (trust me) an act you’re not going to want to miss, followed by of course the legendary DURAN DURAN!! Woohoo! It’s going to be a fantastic show with 2 great bands! Cannot wait!

To find out more about NINECIRCUS, click here.

See you there!

[nggallery id=809]