the same drum sound as they had on the Power Station
album. That was an exciting challenge to a pretty
novice engineer, but Steve Ferrone was the ultimate
incredibly polite and patient pro musician, and the
Duran guys were really cool too..." [17]
   April 15
Three instrumental tracks were put to tape on April
15th: 'Rope' [which became 'Hold Me'], 'Vertigo' and
'Notorious' [which actually is 'Take It To Me'. It is
rather confusing, since the latter 'Notorious' has no
origin here. Possibly it just came due to the fact that
all these early tracks have been named after Alfred
Hitchcock movies, and the title 'Notorious' existed
long before the actual song]. [18]
   April 18
Duran Duran issues press release about Roger's official
departure from the band.
Most likely in late April
John visits Andy in Los Angeles, playing him 'the
tapes', and trying to bring him back. [19]
May 1 till June 14
Davout Studios, Paris
Nick and John are beginning the next preparations at
Davout Studios in Paris with session drummer Steve
Ferrone and staff engineer Daniel Abraham; they
expected Andy to join them from Los Angeles, but he
didn't appear. John: "What happened was we all
arranged to meet in Paris... to start writing songs and
Andy didn't turn up." They stayed at Davout the whole
month of May till June 14th, then moved camp to
London. Daniel Abraham: "At the end of the first
month the band asked me whether I wanted to go
to London with them to do more demos... I went to
London and continued working with the band at West
Side Studios." [20] [21]

   May 11
Simon returns on Drum in Portsmouth, England,
finishing the Whitbread race in 3rd place. [22] [23]
   May 12
Simon appears on Wogan show on UK TV. [24] [25]
   May 14
Simon appears on TV-AM, a British morning TV show.
   Mid of May
Simon Le Bon went to Davout Studios in Paris,
and teamed up with John and Nick.
   Late May
Simon went back to England, since he has heard that
Andy is in the country [Bath]. He is on a 'mission' to
get Andy back, while Nick and John stayed in Paris. A
couple of days later all three talked to Andy in England,
and he finally agreed to "start pooling material with
you [Nick, John and Simon] the first week of August."
But Andy didn't show up until September 18th. We can
be confident that both of the meetings happened
after the 13th of May, as Andy was in the studio in LA,
and prior to the 31st of May, as this is the date that
Andy presented the 'Rodney On The ROQ' show with
Steve Jones on KROQ in LA. During the show, he
mentions that he's just back from Europe.
   May 23
Yasmin and Simon attending his brother David's
wedding in London. [26] [27]
   May 25
Simon is in London with Drum for Sport Aid. [28] [29]
   May 27 till June 1
Simon is still in London. He has been met by fans at
his parents' house in Pinner. [30] [31]
Andy believed that Simon was still in the UK on the 1st