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Duran Duran did a press conference in Japan on July 3rd. Here is a little of what went on behind the scenes:

The Conference began at 2.00 pm at a local hotel in the Hickory Room on the 2nd floor. Journalists from TV, radio and print were in attendance.

Order of events:

As journalists take their seats a classic Duran track blared over the PA. The band then entered the room to much anticipation. Simon, Nick, Roger, Andy and John are seated on a top table with an interpreter nearby, and tour posters as the backdrop. A woman named Snoopy, who hosts a few popular radio shows in Japan and has known the band since the beginning of their career, introduces them and then hand over the microphone for the band to say a few words. Snoopy is the MC of the press conference, and starts proceedings by asking the band a few questions before opening questions up to the floor of journalists. The band do a photo call at the end of the conference against a backdrop of posters to the side of the room. They finish by doing short one-on-ones with the key TV crews. More than 120 journalists & photographers attended along with 8 film crews.

The guys are looking fit and happy in that photograph! Good to see the original Fab Five together again!!! :) :thumb:

They still look good!

Yes, I agree wioth Jana. They look awesome! John Taylor looks better than ever!:drool:

They still have it! :D I cannot wait for this tour to get started!

here is the concert report from the first reunion show in japan
All 5 of them were again dressed in black jacket with no back up singers nor additional musicians, and they brought the house down with the opening number…
1) FRIENDS OF MINE - Everyone stood up and could be seen putting their hands in the air, humming and even singing to the song. Wow!
2) HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF - Simon fumbled on the lyrics somewhere on the second verse.
3) PLANET EARTH – Just like HLTW, this sounded like from Arena. Roger was amazing and so was Andy and John.
4) COME UNDONE – song began slightly different with Andy’s opening guitar riff (unlike how Warren would’ve done it). This song sets the mood down for the audience. The female voice on the “can never keep from falling apart..” was, like on their previous tour, a recorded one.
5) WHAT HAPPENS TOMORROW – Simon introduced this as one of the few new songs they were going to perform. He explained briefly what this song is all about – telling a child at night before he goes to bed about not worrying waking up the next day not knowing what will happen. (something like that as far as I recalled). Curtains drawn behind them with a plain white back drop which served as a screen, and that’s when live video of them were projected on it! Halfway through this song, Laurie and I were interrupted by the security guy!!! Yeah, we were caught snapping photos with our digi-cams. The security guy seemed pretty aggressive but we explained we were foreigners and didn’t realised it was not allowed. Hahaha!! They took away our camera, only to be claimed back after the show. BUMMER!!!
6) NEW RELIGION – Fantastic rendition. Just like the more upbeat faster version on Arena. Love the bass line! Andy and John both did tremendous back up vocals on the “don’t know why this evil bothers me, so why is he trying to follow me..”, while Simon perfectly sang his part “ take another chance boy, carry the fight, you can take him if you’re fast..” Though he did fumble once again on one of the verse.
7) VIRUS - Another new song! This sounds pretty heavy. Great rock sounding guitar part from Andy blending with Nick’s electronic synth. “I’m the virus, I’m a siren in the rain. I am a courier bringing the spiral into your brain” “When I interface, difference erase. Nothing will remain. Everything will change forever. Viral subdivide target and align the message will survive, everything will change forever” Quite good actually!
WHITE LINES – Great attempt from Andy!!! Somehow this song was one that didn’t impress me at all. No vocals could be heard on the “white lines….” (while Simon did the rap part) nor on the ascending vocals of “Aah.. aah..” . In general, this sounded too loud and defeaning.
9) NIGHTBOAT – Nice intro to the song. Sounded just like on the CD! I saw 2 ladies a few rows in front of us got rather excited about this song and were shaking their booty!
10) STILL BREATHING – A fantastic new ballad! Almost like a slightly upbeat version of Ordinary World. A great drum part from Roger towards the end of the song. Lyrics… “Home, it’s not brick or stone or comfort in the firelight, not in that sense anyway. Dreams, if only I had known but these things always seem so much clearer at a distance” ..”Now, I know this shattered feeling, trampled but still breathing. I’m just waiting for a good day”.
11) SAVE A PRAYER – The moment Simon picked up an acoustic guitar, I knew they were gonna play this song! Excellent rendition, with Andy on backing vocals. However towards the end of the song, synchronisation went a little off between Roger’s drumbeat and Nick’s synthesizer. Otherwise this song was excellently performed and it got my goose bumps standing! Backdrop was some pictures of angels.
12) ORDINARY WORLD – Again a slightly different guitar part did by Andy. Slightly improvised but not too obvious.
13) A VIEW TO A KILL – This song got almost EVERYONE in the hall standing!!! Excellent performance! Their live version to this song sounded just perfect!
14) SUNRISE – This song is just FANTASTIC!!!! Definitely my favorite among the 4 new songs featured at the concert. It’s totally groovy and has a very hummable tune. In my opinion, a potential single! As far as I can remember from an earlier report on duranduran.com, the famous DJ Felix Da Housecat did a remix to this song. “Reach up for the sunrise, put your hands into the big sky. You can touch the sunrise, feel the new day enter your life” And once again, Andy did an excellent job on the backing vocals to this song.
15) NOTORIOUS/ WE ARE FAMILY – An interesting yet fabulous medley! Andy entered the “Notorious” guitar riff a beat or two late at the beginning, but the song build up and got everyone on their feet. Just when we thought Notorious would end, Andy did some great guitar solo as Nick entered and blended in well with the piano part of that Sister’s Sledge classic “We Are Family”. Simon sang on “We are family.. I’ve got all my brothers with me” with obvious reference that Duran Duran is back once again as a family, and he’s got all the guys back with him!
16) WILD BOYS – This song always sound fantastic live! Roger showcased his drum parts at the beginning. By this time.. the japanese got wild!!!! WOW!!!
17) CARELESS MEMORIES – Sounded fantastic and again just like from Arena! A great live song!!!! Screen at the back was showing a montage of all the earlier Duran Duran videos! Memories of the guys way back in the ‘80s. Way cool!
1 RIO – We guessed it that this would be the closing song before the encore. Backdrop was that famous work of art picture by Nagel – Rio! No one was sitting down… everyone was dancing! And of course the saxophone solo part was done by Simon on harmonica. I still feel that Andy Hamilton should be hired to be with them on their tour! J

They left the stage for a breather before getting back for the encore. Audience clapped continuously in an attempt to get the guys back on stage. In the meantime, it was clearly an advertisement for themusic.com, as they showed on the screen on stage urging the audience to purchase the “Encore Series” of Duran Duran’s performance and “relieve the experience again and again…”

19) THE REFLEX – the first encore. Everyone in the audience knew this song so well!
20) GIRLS ON FILM – an excellent closing number. They did the night version… superb performance from all of them!!!
i got this from a fan from duran.com that saw the show

They've still got it! :D

John Taylor is still yummy!!! :drool: