This was a difficult time for Duran Duran. This period is filled with quite a few issues the band had to go through. Lots of delays on both Thank You and Medazzaland, John's addiction problems and his departure from the band, and Simon's writer's block. Also, Warren taking over more and more control since the release and the huge commercial success of The Wedding Album. It was a tumultuous time for the band, also very exciting and creative, since during this time period, lots of music has been written, recorded, released and shelved by Duran Duran and related: The Power Station, Neurotic Outsiders, John Taylor Solo, Warren Cuccurullo Solo, Simon Le Bon Solo, Blondie, TV Mania, James Bond Movie Theme Submissions etc.

  Many of these projects happened at about the same time. The covers album was initially started by Warren, Nick and Simon with producer John Jones as early as in the summer of 1992, and originally planned as an in-between album to fulfill contract requirements with EMI. The band continued recording songs for their new project in 1993, while on the road for The Wedding Album tour. Thank You was primordially slated for a March 1994 release. Then pushed back to July, to September, to November, to January 1995, and finally got released in March of 1995. The process of recording and choosing the songs to be included, the logistics (having members in France, Los Angeles and London), and issues with the mixes have been the major problems why this album took so long to make.

  On January 12th, during a Larry King Radio Show, John Taylor announced that he had been talking with Robert Palmer, Tony Thompson and Andy Taylor about doing a The Power Station reunion. They were going to do it when the Duran Duran tour finishes.

  On January 14th, Duran Duran filmed a video with Ellen von Unwerth in New York for Femme Fatale. This song was recorded as being part of the Thank You album, but somehow it was added (at last second) onto The Wedding Album.

  In March, Warren Cuccurullo already considered to do a solo project on his own, while The Power Station would start doing another album in May (the Duran Duran tour has ended in April).

In July, Warren mentioned that he will be doing two solo albums (Thanks To Frank and Machine Language).

  Around this time, while recording with The Power Station in the USA, John was struggling hard with drug and alcohol addictions and also with his marriage to Amanda de Cadenet.

  In October, a release date has been set for the new Power Station album; March 1995. This date would have coincided with the 10th anniversary of the original Power Station album.

Also in October, Duran Duran started to write songs for the new album in London at Warren's Privacy Studio.

In November, John went back to the States and is eventually going to a 30-day rehab (up until December 15th) to solve his problems.

  By January, Warren thought that the new album should be probably the fastest the band ever did. 16 songs have been written, 10 tracks already recorded in the computer.

In February, The Power Station is still working in Los Angeles on their new album, the release date has been moved back to June 1995.

  February/March, John already started writing material on his own, and is planning the release of his first solo album. He got the opportunity to use a studio, owned by Hein Hoven.

The videos for Duran Duran's White Lines and Perfect Day were filmed in London with Nick Egan on February 22nd and 24th.

  Duran Duran has taken a break from recording, according to Simon Le Bon on March 5th, the working title of the new album is Medazzaland. The word is a corruption of midazolam, an anesthetic drug used on Simon when he had dental surgery.

  The video for Perfect Day and the Top Of The Pops performance from March 23rd (taped on March 15th) saw the brief return of Roger Taylor, who also played drums on the original recording.

On March 27th, the covers album Thank You is finally released in the UK (on April 4th in the USA). The Japanese issue followed on April 12th, and had 2 Bonus-Tracks. The band is doing promo for the album, and also playing a few gigs in April, May and June; mainly in the USA. In the free time they are still working on Medazzaland in England.

Duran Duran has released 2 singles off Thank You; Perfect Day and White Lines (Don't Do It).
Followed by a 3rd single for Italy only; Lay Lady Lay.

  On June 28th, John played for his first time with the Neurotic Boy Outsiders (Steve Jones, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and John Taylor). He was invited by Matt Sorum for a benefit show at the Viper Room (Johnny Depp's nightclub, located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California) in aid of a cancer sufferer.

  Duran Duran are scheduled to return to London on July 7th, working at Warren's Studio for a couple of weeks before going to Nomis and Metropolis Studios. They are scheduled to finish there in October.

  Also in July, The Power Station album has been delayed again. John has withdrawn from the project, he said that after things initially went well he just didn't dig what they were doing all that much. Between the problems of selling the album (to a record company) and getting all the various managers together to work out the details, it simply became too much hassle.

  August/September, Duran Duran are at work in London on the new album. They have music for 16 songs, but not the lyrics for 4 of them. A lucky group of fans in London has been invited (August 14th) into Warren's Studio to listen to parts of the album.

The 'Coat' Demos; at least 2 of the invited fans recorded covertly in Privacy Studios via a micro-cassette inside of a coat pocket, when Warren played them the songs. All of these tracks are without vocals. They are obvioulsy not in a decent quality, and not the final song versions, but they give an idea what has already been written at that stage. These recordings have been shared via cassettes within a little group from September of 1995, and are to find digitally since the Internet became widely available.

  On September 12th, Simon took part in a Bosnian relief show in Modena, Italy, in which he sang Linger with Dolores O'Riordan, and also Ordinary World with Luciano Pavarotti.

  Enjoying himself again, John played additional shows in September and October with the Neurotic Boy Outsiders. Simon Le Bon attended on October 16th at a Viper Room performance with the Neurotic Boy Outsiders. Planned dates for November have been postponed due to John having to go to London and help with the new Duran Duran album.

  On November 6th, Warren confirmed that just Nick Rhodes and him submitted a song for the James Bond movie Goldeneye. According to Thomas Nordegg (Warren's guitar tech at the time), Warren and Nick put this together in July/August, and sent it out. The song has Nick on keyboards and Warren on guitar. Steve Alexander played drums and Tessa Niles sang. The song was rejected; the contracted theme song was written by Bono and The Edge from U2, and performed by Tina Turner.

  Also in November, according to Warren, all that needs to be done on the new Duran Duran album is vocals. In the meantime, TV Mania (Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo) started a project, while waiting for the lyrics to be finished, which is called Bored With Prozac And The Internet?. The band plan to take a break around Christmas, and return to work in January. Medazzaland has now been delayed until September of 1996.

  Around this time Duran Duran switched from EMI to Virgin Records (the band was still on Capitol in North America). Virgin is within the same company, owned by EMI. According to Warren, it just seemed to make a lot more sense to have a company that was fresh to move more units basically.

December, John's solo album, Feelings Are Good And Other Lies, has been released through his own label B5 Records, available as mail order.

  December 22nd, John is on the road again, with the Neurotic Boy Outsiders. The band is also just about to sign with Maverick Records, and will be recording an album for a September 1996 release.

  January, Warren and Nick remain hard at work on their dance-oriented Bored With Prozac And The Internet? project. It's planed now to be a 3-record set. Also ideas for it to be on Broadway, within the next couple of years, are in their heads.

March 26th, Warren's solo album,
th@n.ks 2:/Fr@n.k (Thanks To Frank),
has been released on Imago Records.

April 1st, Nile Rodgers released Do That Dance as a single in Japan; featuring Bernard Edwards, Simon Le Bon and the Crowell Sisters. The song was recorded in December of 1995.

April 17th, Chic, with special guest appearance by Simon, played live at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan.

  Also in April, Warren and Nick are very excited over their TV Mania project. They are working nonstop on it. The first album is mixed and done,
the other two they're working on, and are halfway through both of them. Ultimately, the recordings remained unreleased for some 17 years after
having been  presumed lost.  Nick came  upon the original  TV Mania DAT  master tapes  in a storage facility,  and
finally released  Bored With Prozac And The Internet?  with Warren in March of 2013 on Tape Modern/The Vinyl
Factory. Although, you may count Prototypes as something by TV Mania; this track has been released as early as
in 2000, on the special edition of Duran Duran's Pop Trash album.

May, the now called Neurotic Outsiders (they removed the "Boy" in the middle) finished recording their album.

July 10th, a various artists compilation, Nescafe Excella Sounds Of Summer, has been released in Japan by Syn/Toshiba-EMI. Simon is on this CD with a cover of the Who's Magic Bus which he recorded with some side musicians.

July 27th and 28th, the members of the Neurotic Outsiders are in Los Angeles, shooting a video for Jerk, which will be the first single.

  Also in July, the release date for the new Duran Duran album is pushed back again; to March of 1997. The band worked on Medazzaland throughout August and September. Warren, Nick and Simon have continued to work on the album after John did his parts and left for the Neurotic Outsiders tour. Warren stated that the songs P.L. You and Ball And Chain may not make the album. According to John, they are leaning toward So Long Suicide or Who Do You Think You Are? for the first single, to be released in January 1997. No confirmation on the actual title of the album as of yet, it would supposedly change to A Whole New Ball Gown or Undergoing Therapy.

September 10th, the self-titled Neurotic Outsiders album, accompanied by their single Jerk, has been released by WEA/Maverick Records. The band is touring from September 5th until 28th to promote the album.

  On September 14th, during an interview with Jill Grant for a radio show on CJAM 99.1 FM in Windsor/Detroit, John made insinuations, which could have been noted as early indications, that he seriously thought about leaving Duran Duran.

September 27th, The Power Station performed their brand new single She Can Rock It on Top
Of The Pops. The band also did a video for the song.

Finally, Living In Fear has been released on Chrysalis Records in Japan (October 9th with 2 Bonus-Tracks) and the UK (October 14th). Since John has pulled out of the project back in July of 1995, all his basslines have been re-done by producer Bernard Edwards. But note; rough mixes of several songs have been leaked, with John playing bass. The album is dedicated to Bernard, who died prior to the release on April 18th. He was found dead in his hotel room in Tokyo by Nile Rodgers, when Chic was performing in Japan at the time.

November, John filmed a video for the song Feelings Are Good in New York City with Johnny Boston.

November 21st, John's album, Feelings Are Good And Other Lies, has been released now in Japan on B5/Canyon International.

  In early December, it was reported that John was in Boston, overseeing the mixing of Medazzaland. Capitol Records now fixed the release date to March 25th, 1997 (later delayed again).

Also in December, The Power Station did a few gigs in Japan to support the album.

  January, John Taylor has left Duran Duran to pursue a solo career. He announced this to fans at the DuranCon Fan Convention in Los Angeles on January 18th.

  January 24th, Katy Krassner, who was working for Left Bank Management at the time, confirmed via the information hotline that John left the band. According to her, Simon, Nick and Warren are continuing on as Duran Duran, and are working currently in two studios, mixing and doing some recording and final touch up on Medazzaland.

  January 25th, the Neurotic Outsiders released Angelina, a 5-track EP,
in Japan on WEA/Maverick Records.

  February 11th, Blondie has reunited. Nick and Warren (TV Mania) had written and recorded 2 songs (Studio 54 and Pop Trash Movie) with them a few months ago. Blondie is planning a Greatest Hits compilation, due out in April or May, with a few extra songs on it. Anyway, this project didn't happen, but note; both recordings have leaked, and are worth looking for. Pop Trash Movie was later adapted by Duran Duran and newly recorded for their Pop Trash album in 2000.

  February 11th until 13th, Duran Duran shoot the footage for the amazing Out Of My Mind video with Dean Karr in Český Krumlov, Czech Republic.

March/April, Feelings Are Good And Other Lies been re-released in the USA on B5/DeRock, and also released now in the UK by Revolver/DeRock and in Germany on CNR Music/DeRock. The release in Germany was accompanied by the song Feelings Are Good as a single.

  April 3rd, Simon, Nick and Warren attended the premiere of the movie The Saint in Los Angeles. Out Of My Mind was played at the end of the movie, and is also included on the motion picture soundtrack.

May 12th, the new single Out Of My Mind, taken from the motion picture
soundtrack The Saint and the forthcoming Duran Duran album Medazzaland,
is available on Virgin Records.

Duran's album is done and has been turned in, it is waiting for a release date to be set. The band plans to release Electric Barbarella this summer.

May 20th, Warren's second solo album is out on Imago Records. Most of the material on Machine Language was already recorded back in 1986/87 at the house of Thomas Nordegg, where Warren was living with him for a couple of years.

June, Duran Duran filmed the video for Electric Barbarella with Ellen von Unwerth at Black Island Studios in London.

  Summer, not sure when exactly this happened, but I guess it was around the time when Medazzaland was finished, and waiting to get released. Anyway, what happened is that Nick, Warren and Simon demoed and submitted a song for the next James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies. MGM wanted a popular artist, but Duran's song was rejected. There were around twelve submissions, the contracted theme song was performed by Sheryl Crow. Duran Duran's Tomorrow Never Dies was later re-recorded with different lyrics and became Kiss Goodbye/Last Day On Earth, released in 2000 on the Pop Trash album.

August 19th, Capitol Records announced the upcoming release of the new album from Duran Duran. Medazzaland in stores October 14th.

It took quite a while to rekindle interest in America, but a deal was finally put in place with Guardian Records. On August 26th, The Power Station released Living In Fear in the USA. Note; the song Let's Get It On was replaced with Power Trippin' for this US edition.

The band toured the States in support of the album from September 4th till 28th.

September 4th, a various artists tribute album, Dream Home Heartaches... Remaking/Remodeling Roxy Music, is released on B5 Records. This tribute to Roxy Music was created and developed by John Taylor and Hein Hoven. The royalties have been donated to The Los Angeles Childrens Hospitals High Risk Youth Program. John is on the album with the song Just Another High, and he also played bass on Dave Gahan's version of A Song For Europe.

Also in September, John released a 5-track EP, titled Autodidact, as a limited edition through B5 Records. The Feelings Are Good video is featured as a bonus in the CD-ROM section of this EP.

September 23rd, the new single is out! Electric Barbarella was physically released on this day in the USA. The CD5 includes 5 tracks plus the uncensored video in the enhanced section of the CD.


Electric Barbarella also was the internet's first-ever digital single for sale, using the technology developed by Liquid Audio. Back then, Nick pushed the button on the computer to upload the song at Abbey Road Studios in London. You could have purchased the Radio Edit for 99 cents on September 10th, and also an exclusive Internet Only Mix for $ 1.99. Because of certain legal issues, online sales were available for US residents only.

  On October 14th, Capitol Records released Medazzaland in the USA. The album was already available in Japan since September 10th. Also Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela got their CD. When Nick was asked, in December of 1998, why the album hasn't been released in Europe/UK, he said: "I could actually write a telephone directory about this. Basically we had a major falling out with our US record company Capitol, because we felt they were mishandling Duran Duran projects, so we spent most of this year (1998) negotiating our way out of a contract, which we have now successfully done, and we are free to release Medazzaland sometime in the future. It's been so long since we wrote those songs, now that we think Hallucinating Elvis (which became Pop Trash) will probably be released before."

In support of the album, the band went on their Ultra Chrome, Latex & Steel tour through the USA and Canada from Nov. 6th till Dec. 16th.

  The album has been 3 years in the making, and within 2 months it disappeared completely, which is a shame, really. People just didn't or couldn't see the beauty of this album. Nick and Warren end up doing most of the production, but Simon is also credited as an associate producer. TV Mania (Nick and Warren) basically took control of the sound, with help from Mark Tinley engineering & programming and Anthony J. Resta with Bob St. John mixing the record & doing additional production on 3 of the tracks as well. While Anthony J. Resta also played drums on quite a few of the songs and was responsible for additional rhythm & programming, Bob St. John did the job as the mixing engineer, assisted by Gareth Ashton.

  Medazzaland is very eclectic, with all the different styles | it is experimental, swarming with special effects, weird guitar sonics and treated vocals | it has a very industrial and alternative sound | it is very personal, with darkness, sadness and strangeness | in my opinion, it is the band's best 'Warren Cuccurullo-Era' album by far!

On July 16th, 2008 Medazzaland has been added to iTunes (USA and Europe) by the band (Duran Duran New Partnership). This digital issue utilised the 'original' cover artwork by Andrew Day, which is slightly different compared to the one used for the previous CD release.

On October 14th, 2022, which marks the 25th anniversary since its initial issue, Medazzaland has finally been released (Tape Modern/BMG) worldwide on CD and even more remarkable on vinyl for the first time ever. The double LP set has been pressed on 180g neon pink vinyl and includes a 20-page booklet. This anniversary edition used a noticeably different artwork for the sleeve. It looks like an early version that Andrew Day hasn't completed yet.

  You'll may notice below that Nick wrote quite a lot of the lyrics, that's due to Simon's writer's block back then. Also, you may expect that John was more involved in the writing process, and had played bass on more of the early songs. But some of the recordings took place on days when John wasn't around. Warren had done some of the basslines early on, and additionally, some of the songs that John did play on, had their bass re- done by Warren, when John departed in January of 1997.

  Shelved tracks (kept unfinished/unreleased): p.l. you (this was played through the Thank You tour and also performed live on Canadian TV in 1995. It was stated that this song would definitely be on the album, but it has been dropped at a late stage. According to Warren, the band wasn't happy with the existing lyric) | tabula rasa (this song has also been dropped late. It became Time Life in February of 1996, and then Hollywood Girls in the summer of 1996, but it never got finished) | magic pill (played live once on May 28th, 1995 in Houston, Texas) | got to let go | aphrodisiac | rosebud | amnesia and lolita's kiss (this was written after the album's completion).