‘Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know’ Is Perfunctory Portrait Of Band

“Good songs. That was what it was about,” keyboardist Nick Rhoades says at the beginning of the 2018 documentary Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know. Given the staying power of the group’s biggest hits, it’s hard to argue with him. Produced by the BBC and currently streaming on Showtime, the film runs through the band’s career highlights in a scant 58 minutes, though I’m not sure lengthening its running time would make a difference either way.

“What did I want to be when I grew up? I wanted to be adored,” perpetually handsome lead singer Simon LeBon tells us at the outset. He’s racing around some English city – Birmingham, I think – in a vintage sports car, an age-appropriate echo of the globe trotting jet setters the band made themselves out to be. If you hated Duran Duran as a kid because they were good looking guys who got all the girls, I’ve got bad news for you; they’re still pretty good looking guys now that they’re pushing 60. Likable and talented, too. Maybe their image wasn’t so much construction as projection, a manifestation of the men they would become. Chalk it up to the power of positive thinking or just hard work plus dumb luck.

Currently down to four out of five original members, the band still seems to get along, and enjoy rehashing the old days. They cram into their first “tour bus,” a tiny 4-seat Citroën automobile, pop their first demo into the tape player and are amused by their freshman mistakes. Admirers, collaborators and friends will pop in to share their thoughts and memories of the group, as is to be expected in a proper rock doc.

Despite their glamorous image, Duran Duran’s origin story is as humble as any other garage band made good. The group was formed in Birmingham, England, by Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, two only children who “became brothers,” bonding over their love of music. They liked glam rock, later moving on to punk and its various offshoots. They soon enlisted drummer Roger Taylor, who tells us he would have followed his father into manual labor if rock n’ roll hadn’t gotten in the way.

Though known as the birthplace of heavy metal thanks to fellow Brummies Black Sabbath, Birmingham was also pivotal to the New Romantic scene, a heavily stylized synthesis of glam, dance and pop music that would be hugely influential during the early ’80s. “Birmingham at that time might as well have been the center of the world,” John Taylor tells us.

The nascent group soon began frequenting the Rum Runner club, which no less an authority than Boy George calls the “premier New Romantic club in Birmingham.” They eventually got jobs there and met the other musicians who would form the classic Duran Duran lineup. Guitarist Andy Taylor gave the band their rock edge while singer Le Bon had a book full of lyrics, which impressed his bandmates. “I thought this guy’s a star” says John Taylor.

The group were signed to a record deal in 1980, which included a clothing budget. Duran Duran quickly enmeshed itself in the world of fashion, their swashbuckling New Romantic look replaced with designer suits in various pastel shades. “None of us were afraid of color,” says Rhodes, while Boy George calls them “Birmingham’s peacocks.”

An early meeting with upstart cable network MTV pushed the group into making music videos, which helped break the band in the United States. Duran Duran’s videos were cinematic in scope and often shot in exotic locales, inspiring other artists to up their game. Their growing popularity with hordes of teenage girls drew the enmity of Britain’s “serious” music press. It was unfair; they were good musicians to a man and good songwriters to boot. They must have cried all the way to the men’s boutique.

Duran Duran’s 1982 sophomore album Rio made them global superstars, its heavily stylized cover illustration of a beautiful young girl becoming “a symbol of that whole decade,” according to Rhodes. Of course, as always happens, fame brought fortune but also trouble, too much touring, frought relationships and COCAINE!!!!! The band split into factions before shedding members and reconfiguring around the trio of Rhodes, Le Bon and John Taylor.

A rethink begat 1986’s Notorious, made with super producer Nile Rodgers, which would sell 3 million copies. The 1990s found the band operating in a very different musical world and they again sought to redefine themselves. Their 1993 hit single “Ordinary World” fit in on alternative rock radio and introduced them to a younger generation. There were reunions that didn’t work out (Andy Taylor) and others that did (Roger Taylor) and world tours which took their toll on the band. In 2015 they teamed up with producers Nile Rogers and Mark Ronson for Paper Gods, which went top 10. And that’s about where it ends.

Duran Duran: There’s Something You Should Know is over before you know it and pleasant enough but doesn’t contain any information or insights you couldn’t learn by just reading their Wikipedia page. It’s a lost opportunity, as many aspects of the group’s history, such as the New Romantic movement or the advent of music videos, would make interesting stand alone documentaries. The film ends with John Taylor saying, “I don’t even know what’s in the future for us. I just know it will be interesting,” a perfunctory final statement for a perfunctory film.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC. 

Stream Duran Duran: There's Something You Should Know on Showtime