The insult that landed Duran Duran a lucrative James Bond theme duty
Not since Beatlemania had a UK pop group conquered the American pop charts like Birmingham lads Duran Duran.
Wrapped in Roxy Music’s exotic glam shimmer and borrowing plenty from the John Foxx-led Ultravox’s neon electronics, the 1980s’ true pop cultural arrival was heralded the moment Duran Duran were cavorting with a bevvy of beautiful women in snappy Anthony Price suits, yachting around the Antiguian waters for 1982’s ‘Rio’ video.
Such lavish gratuity helped cement the decade’s Gucci piggy excesses, all material flaunting and raining cash that seemed to eagerly embrace the neoliberal revolution sweeping both sides of the Atlantic.
However, you don’t win US pop fans’ hearts by flashy promos alone. It certainly helped, the nascent MTV machine’s rapacious maw ‘hungry like the wolf’ for the latest big budget video from the UK, well ahead of the States in the music video game and propelling Duran Duran to the fore of the Second British invasion. Yet, you may hate them, view them as a paragon of everything awful about Thatcherite yuppie aspiration and apolitical escapism in the midst of brutal class war at home, but the lads knew how to pen a good tune.
It was ultimately their secret weapon. After cracking the US with Rio and holding steady with 1983’s Seven and the Ragged Tiger, their knack for seriously infectious popcraft had served Duran Duran well, if the five-man classic line-up was nearing exhaustion point. They had one big hit in the bag, however, before Notorious’ member slimming down to singer Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes on keys, and John Taylor holding firm on bass.
It turns out, Taylor was a massive James Bond fan. He also had a loose lip. Drunk at a party, the Duran Duran bassist spotted 007 movie producer Albert R ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and staggered over to enlist themselves for theme duties, “When are you going to get someone decent to do one of your theme songs?” One plastered insult led to an introduction to the famous Bond composer John Barry, who allegedly secured the deal at Taylor’s house, and legend has it imbibed numerous drinks with Duran Duran into the evening.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Eon Productions was gearing up to shoot what would be a very ropey Roger Moore’s final appearance as 007 in 1985’s A View to a Kill, a tired entry in the spy series well into self-parody territory and only saved by Christopher Walken’s villainous turn as the comically evil Nazi genetic experiment Max Zorin.
Still, such a nadir of the franchise didn’t stop Duran Duran’s official theme from scoring another chart smash, shifting aside everybody from Paul McCartney, Shirley Bassey, and Adele as the only Bond single to ever top the Billboard Hot 100, staying at number one for two weeks across July.
It was a realised boyhood dream the lads never forgot. After Barry’s death in 2011, Duran Duran at that year’s Coachella Festival treated the audience to an encore with Le Bon tuxed up and backed by an orchestra to perform a special rendition of ‘A View To Kill’ in memory of the late composer. “We lost a dear friend of ours this year,” Taylor revealed to the crowd. “A great English composer familiar to Hollywood, his name was John Barry. We’re gonna play this for him.”
To many longtime fans watching, the band’s entrance to the Bond song canon likely marked their last classic pop offering.
