An amazing stage design, visual effects, a bank of TV monitors, the band's costumes... everything was well thought-out down to the tiniest detail, and worked just perfectly! Also the tour merchandise was outstanding.

    I watched this video a million times, and still love it! Personally, I never was a huge fan when Duran were playing rearranged acoustic versions of their tunes, but there is one great exception; the haunting and beautiful live version of SAVE A PRAYER they have played during this STRANGE BEHAVIOUR tour.

    Anyway, this document should not only refer on how great the shows of this tour have been, it should, however, finally clarify on which dates and at which venues the footage has been filmed & recorded for this awesome release.

    Nothing of the material has been taken in 'Rio De Janeiro, 1987-88', as was stated on the WORKING FOR THE SKIN TRADE DVD, which has been re-mastered in 2010 for the inclusion in the package of the NOTORIOUS deluxe edition. No, not even the intro is from Brazil, it is from Irvine! And I argue as well that there is also nothing from the 'San Diego Sports Arena' gig. No, not even any audio as was noted on the DANCE INTO THE FIRE bootleg CD! It is Irvine again.

    As already mentioned, I've watched this video countless times, growing up with it, enjoying the music and the visual show. But while watching it extensively, I was also looking for little details being different.

    The shows of course had more songs to offer. AMERICAN SCIENCE, UNION OF THE SNAKE, "MEET EL PRESIDENTE", ELECTION DAY, SOME LIKE IT HOT, A MATTER OF FEELING, HOLD ME, IS THERE SOMETHING I SHOULD KNOW? & THE REFLEX, all have not been considered for the released product. See below from which source the audio of the remaining tracks have been taken from.

    Audio taken from the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA on July 27th.

    Audio taken from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.

    Audio taken from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.

    Audio taken from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.
Oddly, John's introduction to this song is a mash-up, coming from three different shows! First part is from Irvine (27th), followed by Mountain View (31st), next is (most likely) from Sacramento (30th), and finally the last part from Mountain View again.

    Audio taken from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.
VERTIGO and NEW RELIGION have been switched on the release from the original track order of performance. The beginning of the song has noticeably been fixed or replaced, and although the audio is definitely from the gig at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Simon's speech intro has been taken from the Irvine Meadows concert.

    Audio taken from the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA on July 27th.
This beautiful intro to THE CHAUFFEUR was conceived especially for this tour, but it has been heavily edited for the release.

    Audio taken from the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA on July 27th.

    Audio taken from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.
Again, while the audio of this beauty is in fact from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Simon's intro comes from the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

    Audio taken from the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA on July 27th.
The very beginning of the spoken intro to this has been removed, and the part where Simon mistakenly said, "And when I was a little boy, my mum sat me on my knee" was replaced or fixed with "... her knee". Finally, when the bass comes in, it is all the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

    Audio taken from the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA on July 27th &
    from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.
Apparently, the band was not quite happy with the performances, since the audio of SKIN TRADE is a mixture of those two shows above. While Simon's vocal improvisation at the beginning is from the Irvine show, the two verses and the first chorus have been taken from the Mountain View gig. Afterwards it's Irvine again.

    Audio taken from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.

    Audio taken from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.

    Audio taken from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA on July 31st.

    Yeah, we all know that The Bangles have joined Duran Duran on stage while being in California. Actually, I was searching for the date and the venue when this has happened, but I soon learned that the Internet has lots of different information about this matter. One site says this, other say that... confusion! Researching can be tough sometimes, but it finally turned out that the confusion only came from the fact that The Bangles have been on stage at not only one show. It is confirmed that they shared it with Duran at the LA Forum (24th & 25th), at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre (27th) and also at the San Diego Sports Arena (28th). It is a pity that none of these appearances had been used for WORKING FOR THE SKIN TRADE.

    While both the audio and video had noticeably been taken mainly from the same two shows, a third concert has crept in for the visual part. However, the filmed footage from the Shoreline Amphitheatre (31st) at Mountain View is quite easy to spot, the Meadows Amphitheatre (27th) in Irvine is also recognisable and confirmed. The third location is more or less only to be identified by process of elimination. Although it is said that some filming was done at the LA Forum, and the San Diego Sports Arena has been considered for audio, none of those indoor arenas can be found on the release. It is kind of like the 'Find-The-Mistake Game', the third location was used marginally and can only have been the Cal Expo Amphitheatre (30th) in Sacramento.

    It took nearly a year between the filming of the material and its release. I guess it must have taken a huge amount of effort for the post-production to put this concert film together. Matching the audio-to-video synchronisation in nearly perfection, when the visual part did not come from the same show as the music. In fact the source of the filmed footage keeps changing permanently, deceiving us by trying to make us think that these approximate 57 minutes all came from one and the same gig.

These are helpful hints, if you are looking for distinctions:

• the stage itself
• spacer bars and fences (audience)
• floodlights, fairy lights, far away lights
• the camera positions
• the audience itself
• the band's wardrobe (at which show and at which point is the band wearing which costume)
• Simon's lip synchronisation (audio / video)
• the back of Simon's microphone
• Simon's hairstyle
• John w/ vest, w/o vest during the encore for THE WILD BOYS
• John's microphone-cable
• Nick's white towel
• Warren's coat sleeves (rolled up to the inside or to the outside)
• Warren w/ earrings, w/o earrings during VERTIGO

There are so many more highlights from these concerts, which would have been worth to be used, that makes it a real shame that a full version of WORKING FOR THE SKIN TRADE was never released. It is highly unlikely that any of the remaining footage would, if available, be revisited, edited, mastered and released.

Anyway, the re-master, which was done in 2010 for the DVD, hasn't also turned out as it should have. In my opinion, the best possible source to enjoy WORKING FOR THE SKIN TRADE still is a transfer of the Japanese LaserDisc version.