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Duran Duran was founded in 1978 by Nick Rhodes and John Taylor. After several line-ups and demos (recorded in Birmingham at Bob Lamb's home studio), the classic line-up stood in May of 1980. On July 29th, the band entered AIR studios in London and recorded early versions of 'Girls On Film' and 'Tel Aviv', but were getting back with Bob Lamb on September 17th, to do 'Planet Earth' and 'Is There Anyone Out There?'. Plans have been made to independently release the latter on the Tritec Music label, but this project was cancelled soon. The band returned to Bob Lamb's home again to record more demos. 'Night Boat', 'Faster Than Light', 'Sound Of Thunder', 'Anyone Out There' and 'Planet Earth' have been put to tape and used to attract record companies. Duran Duran was finally signed by Dave Ambrose from EMI in early December during their support tour with Hazel O'Connor. On December 8th, the band went to EMI's Manchester Square studios and demoed 4 tracks ('Anyone Out There', 'Planet Earth', 'Friends Of Mine' and 'Late Bar'), and shortly afterwards they eventually started to record their self-titled debut with producer Colin Thurston at Red Bus, Utopia and Chipping Norton studios. |
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UK LP |
The initial UK vinyl LP (EMC 3372/0C 062-64 382) was released by EMI in June of 1981. The first issue had silver embossed frames, later pressings were issued with grey frames, just to get replaced with golden frames on a reissue by the UK company Fame (FA 3185/41 3185 1). The original vinyl LP released in England encompassed nine tracks:
Side A
Fun stuff to note: the early pressings of the UK vinyl LP have a 'message' etched into the run-out groove area that says:
'MICHAEL I'M ABOUT TO EXPLODE'. This was
something Paul Berrow used to say to his brother Michael (the Berrows have been the band's managers back then). Also
'DURANIES ROCK-ON', another 'message' from
the band, is to be found in the groove of the 'PLANET EARTH' UK 12" single. |
US LP |
The initial North American version (ST-12158) was released on both Harvest and Capitol. It has 'To The Shore' removed from the track listing, and has 'Planet Earth' in its Night Version as the opener instead of 'Girls On Film'. This is making the vinyl LP, released in North America, encompassing only eight tracks:
Side A |
US LP (Reissue) |
After the success of the remixed and remastered North American 'RIO' LP, the first album was re-released in the US on the Capitol label in April of 1983. This reissue came with the same catalogue number (ST-12158), but with a different sleeve, and includes the (then) current single 'Is There Something I Should Know?', which was a stand-alone single released in the UK in March of 1983. 'Girls On Film' is now track one on Side A and 'Planet Earth' shows up in its standard Album Version, but 'To The Shore' does still not appear.
Side A In Japan, Toshiba/EMI chose a different track listing for this re-release on LP (EMS-91062). 'Is There Something I Should Know?' was added as the opener and 'To The Shore' can be found in its original position.
Side A |
Worldwide CD |
When the compact disc was introduced, both EMI and Capitol had no CD pressing plant of their own. In the UK, EMI opened its first
CD manufacturing plant in Swindon in May of 1986. I guess that their first 'DURAN DURAN' CD pressings were possibly made in 1987. Also in
1987, Capitol began producing CDs for the US market at their own plant in Jacksonville, Illinois. But Duran Duran's self-titled debut
album was already released on CD (CDP 7 46042 2) in 1984. These very first issues were manufactured in Japan by CBS/Sony for EMI (not Capitol),
and released in the UK and in the US, while the one for the US market came initially in a clear plastic 'blister pack'. Toshiba/EMI began
manufacturing their own CDs in Japan, which can be identified by a 'TO' in the matrix of the disc, not before 1986. In North America these
Japanese EMI discs (made by Toshiba/EMI) can be found in the 'long box' issues from 1986, while the Capitol booklets and boxes
were printed in the USA. Oddly, all those CDs made in Japan have track 2 misspelled as 'PLANT EARTH' on the disc. Later being corrected on
pressings made in the UK.
3:31 Girls On Film The Japanese 'Black Triangle' compact disc release (CP32-5020/CDP-7460422) was also manufactured by CBS/Sony, and issued by Toshiba/EMI in March of 1985. It utilized both the tracks and the cover from the 1983 US reissue LP.
3:30 Girls On Film A mispressed West German release (matrix: SONOPRESS C-7101/CDP7460422 A) was issued in late 1989, probably 1990 by EMI. The CDs have a silver label with red and black lettering instead of silver with only black lettering, and again track 2 is misspelled as 'PLANT EARTH'. Actually the CD plays the original track listing from the 1981 UK vinyl version of the album, but was labeled identically as previous CD releases (i.e., with the track listing from the 1983 US LP reissue version).
3:31 Girls On Film |
UK CD (Reissue) |
The CD was eventually reissued in the UK (CD PRG 1003) in 1993, but as a Dutch (0777 7 89956 2 3) Parlophone import. 'To The Shore' was now added out of sequence at the end of the disc. You can easily spot that EMI used a different font for this addition, and that there are no lyrics for 'To The Shore' in the inner booklet. Whilst 'Is There Something I Should Know?' was mastered way too loud (in comparison to the other tracks) on previous releases of the CD, the volume was adjusted now on this reissue (i.e., all tracks are between 2.3 and 3.8dB louder, whereas 'Is There Something I Should Know?' is 1.7dB quieter in relation to the very first Japan manufactured CDs). All in all, EMI did not apply a lot of effort in this issue.
3:31 Girls On Film |
Remastered CD |
In 2003, EMI began a reissue process of remastered Duran Duran albums. The album was remastered by Nick Webb, who cut the original 7"s, 12"s and first 3 LPs at Abbey Road. The remastered version was available as a limited edition in a LP shaped, gatefold cardboard minisleeve (7243 5 84380 2 4) and as a standard edition in a jewel case (7243 5 84809 2 4). EMI again used the silver frames for this release and a smaller (proper) Duran Duran logo. They made the gatefold cover look like a mini copy of the original UK LP. This remastered CD finally restores the original track listing, removed 'Is There Something I Should Know?' and brings back 'To The Shore' in its original position. The songs appear all in their 'original' full length. In fact, some of the songs are noticeably longer as compared to prior CD productions.
3:30 Girls On Film |
Special Edition |
In March of 2010, EMI released 'DURAN DURAN' as a Special Edition. Available as a 2 CD edition (EMCS 3372) presented in a 6-panel digipak picture sleeve complete with an 8-page picture booklet, which comprises the original UK album alongside the B-sides of the singles, plus a second CD including previously unreleased demo recordings, Radio 1 sessions and alternate mixes, all digitally remastered from the original recordings. This remaster is also availabe on a double vinyl LP (EMCD 3372) and as a 2 CD/1 DVD limited Special Edition (EMCX 3372), which is packed in a deluxe, lift-off-lid box with a folded poster from the original Japanese LP release, plus five postcards. Additionally for this limited issue, EMI included a DVD containing music videos, TV appearances and a behind the scenes featurette. The 2 CD edition includes:
Disc 1 The vinyl edition comes with:
Side A |
The Songs And Their Versions |
3:30 Girls On Film [Album Version]
5:28 Girls On Film (Night Version)
6:14 Girls On Film (Night Version) [Video Night Version]
5:43 Girls On Film (Night Version) [Alternate Night Version]
5:45 Girls On Film (Instrumental) [Instrumental Night Version]
5:40 Girls On Film (Night Mix)
3:57 Girls On Film (AIR Studio Version)
4:01 Planet Earth [Album Version]
6:16 Planet Earth (Night Version)
6:56 Planet Earth (Night Mix)
5:00 Planet Earth (Manchester Square Demo)
4:01 Anyone Out There [Album Version]
4:08 Anyone Out There (Manchester Square Demo)
3:49 To The Shore [Album Version]
4:01 To The Shore [Alternate Album Version]
3:41 Careless Memories [Single Version]
3:52 Careless Memories [Album Version]
5:25 Night Boat [Album Version]
4:06 Sound Of Thunder [Album Version]
5:44 Friends Of Mine [Album Version]
5:51 Friends Of Mine (Manchester Square Demo)
5:16 Tel Aviv [Album Version]
6:02 Tel Aviv (AIR Studio Version)
2:54 Late Bar
3:02 Late Bar (Manchester Square Demo)
3:25 Khanada
3:16 Fame
4:27 Faster Than Light
4:08 Is There Something I Should Know? [Single Version]
6:40 Is There Something I Should Know? (Monster Mix)
4:35 Is There Something I Should Know? [Video Version]
4:06 Faith In This Colour [Alternate Slow Mix]
4:06 Faith In This Colour |
There are several songs that are named and/or were recorded as demos between Duran Duran were formed in 1978 and they released their debut album. Some of the very early tracks were re-recorded by The Devils (Nick Rhodes and Duran's first lead singer Stephen Duffy) together with some new material and published in 2002 on the album 'DARK CIRCLES', which could have been the very first Duran Duran album. These are songs which are named, but not released officially under the name Duran Duran: 'Soundtrack' | 'Aztec Moon Rich' | 'Take (The Lines And The Shadows)' | 'Hold Me/Pose Me' | 'A Lucien Melody' | 'Hawks Don't Share' | 'Toy Room To Tokyo' | 'So Cold In El Dorado' | 'Lost Decade' | 'Big Store' | 'Newhaven-Dieppe' | 'Signals In Smoke' | 'See Me, Repeat Me' (which became 'M M A Go Go' or 'Ami A Go Go' or 'Amy A Go Go' and later evolved into 'Rio') | 'Reincarnation' | 'Working The Steel' | 'Dreaming Of Your Cars' | 'Love Story' (later evolved into 'Khanada') | 'X Disco' (which became 'Breaking Away' and later evolved into 'Late Bar') | 'Enigmatic Swimmers' | 'Secret Success' | 'On A Dead Child' (evolved in 1985 into the song 'Missing' by Arcadia) | 'Underneath The Clocktower' and 'Beverly Hills'.
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