Jenny Colgan

What is the secret of Duran Duran’s durability?

There’s a cracking story to be told of the teenybopper band who refused to lie down and die, but sadly Stephen Davis’s book isn’t it

Left to right: Roger Taylor, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon and Andy Taylor in 1984 [Getty Images] 
issue 31 July 2021

In my second year at secondary school we were all deeply envious of a girl named Judi Taylor because, obviously, her name was only three letters away from John Taylor, the world’s most beautiful man, which meant she probably had the best chance of marrying him. I was thinking about this the other day just after I’d checked to find out if there were any VIP tickets left to see Duran Duran next year in Hyde Park (there aren’t), when one of my daughter’s friends jumped in the car.‘Hi, ‘she said. ‘I’m Charlotte Derulo. Well, I will be one day.’ Never underestimate the eternal passion of a tween girl.

As it turns out, Nigel John Taylor, a scrawny beanpole in thick glasses who only revealed himself as a god when he got contact lenses and joined a band, was far from good husband material, spending much of his time in Duran Duran absolutely off his box, numbing everything happening to him with extraordinary amounts of cocaine and alcohol.

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