taking sides: Duran Duran v. Spandau Ballet

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This is surely shooting fish in a barrell, as Duran Duran are AWESOME while Spandau Ballet are suckass, but maybe someone wants to expose themself to ridicule by disagreeing?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Saturday, 12 August 2006 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

That's almost as one-sided as Spiritualized vs. Evanescence, fgs.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Saturday, 12 August 2006 14:49 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I suppose, but at the time they were the two big defining bands of their era, even if in retrospect one of them was complete shit.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Saturday, 12 August 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

All I'd keep by the Spands are "To Cut A Long Story Short," "Gold," and "Only When You Leave" (Duran never wrote an MOR ballad this solid).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 12 August 2006 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

Duran Duran were great
Duran Duran were also considerably better than Spandau Ballet overall
Spandau Ballet were not suckass though!

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 12 August 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, SD have like a half-dozen singles worth remembering, but for what they do, competition for Duran Duran just doesn't exist.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Saturday, 12 August 2006 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

"True" is fantastic.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 12 August 2006 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't they fight it out on Mike Read's Pop Quiz? Won't that tell us the answer? In any event, I think lots of Spandau Ballet songs were quite good, so To Cut a Long Story Short, Chant No.1, Lifeline, Communication, Gold and so on. Agree with Alfred on Only when you leave, and raise it I'll fly for you, which is great too.

Agree with Geir that Duran Duran were better, but Spandau Ballet were quite good too.

― KeefW (kmw), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:02 (nineteen years ago)

It is particularly album-wise that Duran Duran stick out as better. The first three Duran Duran albums were all great albums, while Spandau Ballet never did a consistent album ("True" being the closest they ever got - and Tim OTM about the title track)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:13 (nineteen years ago)

I greatly prefer Duran Duran to Spandau Ballet, but I still love Spandau Ballet. I too am of the opinion that there are some things SB specialized in that DD didn't, and vice versa. SB certainly couldn't have produced something as gorgeously lush as 1988's "Land", and DD couldn't have created anything like the funktastic "Paint Me Down".

By the way, that Duran Duran vs. Spandau Ballet "Pop Quiz" is available for download online (just right-click and save to your HD, then view it at your leisure).

― Phoenix Dancing (krushsister), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:15 (nineteen years ago)

I've long thought that "True" existed only so that PM Dawn could sample it for "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:19 (nineteen years ago)

Aw, you people are my people. It chokes me up knowing that there are people on this board who are Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet fans, that not everyone here would sneer at either one of them. I just wish our party were more vocal about this.

― Phoenix Dancing (krushsister), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:23 (nineteen years ago)

Yo, John Taylor learned bass by playing Chic basslines over and over again...this is such a done deal.
Plus, Duran Duran could easily be the best band name of all time.

― astronautagogo (astronautagogo), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:24 (nineteen years ago)

It chokes me up knowing that there are people on this board who are Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet fans, that not everyone here would sneer at either one of them. I just wish our party were more vocal about this.

The people at ILM are good people when they talk about 80s music. They tend to fail whenever they talk about music from any other decade, though. Particularly 90s or 00s :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:27 (nineteen years ago)

I'm with Geir on the 90's. Best decade in music history IMO...

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:31 (nineteen years ago)

That would either the 80s, the 70s or the 60s. Music is never ever likely to be as good again as it was during the 1963-85 golden age.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:32 (nineteen years ago)

spandau ballet is so much better than duran duran it's not even funny, but I don't have the energy to work up my Spandau Ballet schtick any more

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:38 (nineteen years ago)

Rockism = pessimism

xpost

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:39 (nineteen years ago)

The 90's sucked, no question.

John Taylor by himself is hotter than anyone in Spandau Ballet, no question. Factor in Roger Taylor and you have hawtness of incendiary proportions.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:43 (nineteen years ago)

If I were to preserve music from one decade only it would be the 90's, followed by the 00's. I appreciate that there's a major taste difference here, though, and more pertinently, two vastly different musical philosophies in motion.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:52 (nineteen years ago)

Personally, I'm partial almost to the point of exclusivity to the '80s, but that is for another thread altogether.

Alfred brings up something interesting: Nick Rhodes and John Taylor together convinced me of my heterosexuality and comprised a large part of my fantasy life when I was a teenager. I still believe they're gorgeous (and there has never been an unattractive member of DD), but I ceased having a crush on Taylor in 1999, and on Rhodes in 2001. Yet I'm still a huge Duran fan and continue to be wildly in love with their music. Take that, haters.

― Phoenix Dancing (krushsister), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:52 (nineteen years ago)

Nick Rhodes got ugly so fast it was like watching Joan Crawford age in time-lapse

Also, Pathways to Glory trumps Duran Duran's whole career

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:53 (nineteen years ago)

But how old are you, Louis? ;)

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:53 (nineteen years ago)

The interesting thing about the 80s is that acts would aim at being mainstream and making the charts and in the same breath also aim at doing something artistically creative. There wasn't this scisma between art and pop, music could possibly be art and pop in the same breath.

The only other time in music history where this has been the case (other than Britpop, which was never able to become the dominant mainstream trend among the kids) was during the heyday of The Beatles and similar acts in the 60s.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:55 (nineteen years ago)

TS: "She rides the soul train while she fights the law" vs "Funny, it's just like a scene out of Voltaire/Twisting out of sight"

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:56 (nineteen years ago)

I mean, Gary Kemp vs Simon Le Bon in the lyrics department is the kidn of meaningless fracas which keeps Paul Banks up at night.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

I think the Moldy Peaches' girl sang a song called D2 Boyfriend about how much she loved each and every Duran Duran member. It's a hazy memory, but I think that's what she was on about. They're clearly much liked for their bodies as well as their music.

Alfred, that is surely the point I was getting at. We two, we do not share an upbringing.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

I think the confluence of Geir and Louis on a lot of threads proclaiming the greatness of English rock will hasten the return of Christ to earth & the subsequent apocalpyse

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Saturday, 12 August 2006 23:59 (nineteen years ago)

Once opened for the Moldy Peaches...afterwards the drummer lamented to me how much he thought their music sucked. I didn't say anything...cause I knew he was right.

― astronautagogo (astronautagogo), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:00 (nineteen years ago)

in re: the lyrics, both are insane, but Spandau Ballet's are kind of elegantly vapid - Duran Duran's start out mildly intersting and take a quick nosedive and before you know it you've got "Union of the Snake," the lyrical aesthetic equivalent of First Blood Part II

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:00 (nineteen years ago)

Duran Duran were probably better overall, but they never did anything I like as much as "True." Neither band is a huge favorite of mine though.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:02 (nineteen years ago)

The Spands never recorded a "Hold Back The Rain," because Martin Kemp and the drummer with the fucking ridiculous fringed jacket aren't even a rhythm section.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

if you can find something that passes for rhythm in Duran Duran then my hat's off to you man, I'm stickin' with the carnival beats of Pathways to Glory

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)

Dude, you don't like the beat of "Rio?"

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:10 (nineteen years ago)

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

Tim + Geir + Louis is some kinda holy trinity here

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:12 (nineteen years ago)

Both rhythm sections are hindered by hamfisted productions, but the closest I hear in Spandau to what Duran achieved on, say, "My Own Way" or "Careless Memories" or "The Reflex" is on "Chant #1" and "To Cut A Long Story Short."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:13 (nineteen years ago)

(I'm out of my league in discussions of bands like these. I've never liked synth-pop (that's what I remember some of this stuff being called, okay, so don't nomenclature me--and I know that's not a verb) as much since the 80s as I did during the 80s (and they were by no means my favorite thing then). If I were hearing "True" for the first time now, I think I'd just be too annoyed with the singing to like it.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

Gary Kemp is a credible Bryan Ferry replicant in the "True" video.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 13 August 2006 00:24 (nineteen years ago)

A couple of things:

1. Despite being their biggest hit, 'The Reflex' is one of Duran Duran's worst songs.

2. 'True' is a very annoying song. 'Gold' is just about tolerable, but the faux soul of 'True' leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

Other than that, great thread guys, keep it up.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Sunday, 13 August 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

True kept (Keep Feeling)Fascination off number one which is unforgivable.

― leigh (leigh), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 08:58 (nineteen years ago)

Geir and Louis in conversation is true prime time material.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 09:04 (nineteen years ago)

Duran Duran probably "better," but of the two I much more often spin Spandau, and that's because I find great, guilty pleasure in the soporific second side of the "Diamond" LP.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

Apparently the Spands had a little mock-up pub (including dartboard) underneath the drum riser, so Steve Norman could go and hang out with the roadies when he didn't have anything to do during the gig (i.e. most of the time). So, Spandau Ballet win.

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 19:46 (nineteen years ago)

That frightens me, because I bought both the Reflex and Fascination, but I was sure they were different times. Actually, I thought Fascination was about a year earlier. How odd. Still, Reflex was one of the first singles I remember that was 'custom designed' to be no.1. with a video that 'told you' that it was amazing, and you should buy it.

― KeefW (kmw), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 22:37 (nineteen years ago)

Oh... Hang on... True kept it off no.1. That probably follows. I thought you meant the Reflex. Well, that probably works. Sorry; carry on.

― KeefW (kmw), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 22:39 (nineteen years ago)

TS: "Notorious" vs "Fight For Yourselves"

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 16 August 2006 22:59 (nineteen years ago)

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