Talking of Duran Duran I did make contact with
Andy Wickett and happened to be into Ultravox at the time when John was the lead singer.
I listened first to
Portfolio. This is a collection of tracks post his venture with Duran Duran. Nothing exciting for me but some good songs in there written with his guitar. He kindly added
Stevie's Radio Station from his pre-Duran Duran band
TV Eye. It's a track that if you send the mp3 to Iggy Pop he'll cover it immediately. This track was played by Duran Duran with and without Andy Wickett. Parts of this track appears on the Duran Duran tracks
Rio and
Last Chance On A Stairway. Simon Le Bon's romantic melodies are very different to Andy's new wave's melodies and his input to Duran Duran is often overlooked.
I then played the
Duran Duran Demos. This consists of four tracks with Andy (Wickett), Nigel (aka John), Roger and Nick.
Reincarnation and
Working The Steel didn't do too much for me and I can see why these tracks never resurfaced later on.
See Me, Repeat Me is a fantastic track, reminiscent of Japan, which sees John, Roger and Nick paving the way for their first hit
Planet Earth. Although, parts of this track appeared on
Rio, a cut and paste job
a la William Burroughs. The original of
Girls On Film appears here and is very true to the hit single. All that changed was Simon adding his romantic lyrics and vocal melody, and Colin Thurston's excellent production skills.
If you like Duran Duran it's worth getting the Demos and only costs GBP7 including P&P. Oh by the way, artwork is by John Taylor.
It's now the turn of
John Foxx and The Maths...hurrah for analogue synths!
Chris
