|
Nick Rhodes (born Nicholas James Bates in Moseley, West Midlands, England, June 8, 1962) is the keyboardist for Duran Duran. Rhodes and singer Simon Le Bon are the only members to have been with the band throughout its 27-year professional career (beginning in 1980). Furthermore, Rhodes is the only member that has been with the band since its creation in 1978. He has also released albums with Arcadia in 1985 (a Duran Duran side-project), as well as The Devils in 2002 (with Stephen Duffy who was the former lead singer of Duran Duran before they were signed in the early 80`s.)
Nick Bates was the only child of well-off parents, the owners of a Birmingham toy store. In 1978, Bates left school at the age of sixteen, and founded Duran Duran with his art school friend John Taylor. At about the same time as the name Duran Duran was chosen for the band, he decided to change his name, for "aesthetic reasons", to Rhodes after the Greek island.
As the band coalesced into its final lineup in 1979-80, Duran Duran started playing at a local Birmingham club called "The Rum Runner". The club owners became the band`s managers, and Rhodes began working at the club as a disc jockey.
The band achieved rapid success, and Rhodes was a driving force throughout. An unschooled musician, he loved experimenting with the sounds his analog synthesizers were capable of, but shied away from the "novelty" sounds of some other early synth bands. The distinctive warble of "Save A Prayer", the keyboard stabs of "A View to a Kill", and the string sounds of "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World" are some of his most recognizable creations. He also popularized the Crumar Performer on the early records.
Rhodes was also quick to recognize the potential of the music video, and pushed the band to put more effort into their early videos than seemed warranted at the time (before the advent of MTV).
His contributions to the band were sometimes underestimated by contemporaries and critics. Barely twenty when the band hit major stardom, he cultivated an androgynous and sometimes flamboyant image, wore heavy makeup, and changed his hair color at whim. As the band "grew up" in the public eye, however, Rhodes`s intelligence, determination, and incisive dry humor became well-known to fans and fellow musicians. He is known as the holder of the Duran Duran flame and in fact owns the rights to the Duran Duran name.
By the late 1990s, Rhodes had begun writing lyrics for Duran Duran, as well as music. His digitally altered voice is heard on the title track to the 1997 album Medazzaland.
In 2001, the original five members of Duran Duran reunited to record new music; see Duran Duran for details. Andy Taylor again left the band in 2006 on good terms with the remaining band members.
Rhodes studied production techniques while in the studio with Duran Duran, eventually helping to mix several tracks on the Rio album, and was a co-producer on many of the band`s later albums.
In early 1983, he discovered the band Kajagoogoo and produced their debut album White Feathers. He jokingly said he would never do so again because their hit single "Too Shy" was the song that kept Duran Duran`s "Hungry Like The Wolf" out of the #1 spot on the UK charts.
Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo wrote and produced three tracks for the Blondie reunion album in 1996; the tracks were not used, but one song called "Pop Trash Movie" was later recorded by Duran Duran for
|
Never say never,never say end
Super Star Sites
Silver Sites
Star Sites
Profile
Married
Relationship
"Encounter"
Comments
Continue the Conversation