Where's My Gingko? : Duran Duran in 2000

By Claudia Rebaza

(c)2000

At 7:15 we were packed in like still cool sardines to the dark confines of the House of Blues, Orlando, June 21. A variety of 80s tunes were being piped in, which were a welcome relief after the endlessly depressed tunes being sung outdoors. For over two hours, as the crowd stood in a line snaking around the building, a singer with acoustic guitar sat on the porch of the building and sang one tune after another, the most notable one giving thanks for cable TV. Since most of us couldn't see him we were wondering how long a CD could run until we actually spotted the auteur in need of Prozac.

The weather, however, cooperated by neither raining (heavily) nor baking the waiting audience. Instead, an overcast, breezy afternoon kept people in decent temper until they were let in at 7:00 and began the two hour wait for the band to take the stage, half an hour late.

It could have been worse, as two afternoons of nasty storms threatened to become a trio and our troupe of concertgoers, armed with comfortable footwear, salvaged a wasted trip when one asked casually, "You have the tickets, right?" just before we hit the crawl of rush-hour traffic.

Despite the respite from 96 degree heat, the wait inside grew increasingly tiresome as restless children in the all ages crowd grew weary of the wait, and even the cheers to tapes of "Love My Way" and "Personal Jesus" got more impatient. At 8:30, the DJ announced that the band would be playing soon and encouraged people to stay after the concert. He also announced upcoming shows by the likes of Brian Setzer, Psychedelic Furs and Run DMC, obviously taking full advantage of a certain demographic.

When Elvis's "Teddy Bear" began playing, most people were sure this was it and then the "Fragment" from Pop Trash began to play as the band took the stage.

Simon was wearing a white muscle shirt with pink and black paint on it which looked like Persian writing. This was combined with white athletic shoes, a red leather bracelet, and light blue twill pants perhaps chosen to match the blue puka-shell necklace. Nick was in black pants an off-white polo type shirt with a drawstring bottom. Warren was in black jeans with a pink satin shirt, with a backwards black baseball cap with sunglasses perched on top. Wes Wehmiller seemed to be hallucinating Warren in a black muscle shirt with leather pants and sunglasses.

The set itself was nonexistent with the exception of a screen backdrop used to occasional efffect during the show. "Last Day on Earth" was a rousing opener, which Simon closed with arms raised in a flexed stance, then ended with hands in prayer. "View to a Kill" followed. The backdrop screen on stage, which had been showing random patterns, began to show a gun sight target over an eye, then a woman in Goldfinger style whirling with a gun, a closing shutter, and other Bondish themes.

"Thank you, I missed that," Simon said as the song ended. "We are on stage at the House of Blues, Orlando, right? I don't see many mouse ears out there. You know you've got them, and you know you're being watched."

"As most of you probably know we have a new album called Pop Trash, and to those of you who went out to the shops and bought it, thank you! Spread the word, please, because ain't nobody else doing it. Yes. So we're now going to be playing some new songs off of that. And we've got a song we're going to do for you now that we haven't done since 1984. And do you know what that is? All together please..."

There are a wide variety of answers. Simon shook his head, "No, no, no."

Warren interjected "Yes, some of them are very correct."

"Don't interrupt my patter, man," Simon turned to him.

Warren replied something and Simon went on, "There's just no surprises left in this world, are there?" Simon complained. "So take it away, whoever takes it away in this band."

"New Moon on Monday" began playing. After "clues you've left behind", Simon forgot the lyrics completely for two lines, but there was such audience participation that the song continued on until he could pick up the chorus. The crowd was practically yelling "Last time La Luna" as if to keep him on track.

As the song ended, the audience sang the closer around Simon singing drop-ins, heralding one of the evening's themes, great audience participation in most songs. The band seemed equally cheerful. At one point, a child sitting on her father's shoulders and singing along to the tune waved at Nick and received a smile and a wave back.

"Playing With Uranium" followed, after which Simon commented, "It's hot out here, isn't it? It really gets you to sweat. It seems that you like that though or you wouldn't be here. Well, those of you who maybe know this band will recognize the next song as our Christmas song, for the one reason that it contains the word 'snow'."

This baffled most people in the crowd until "Come Undone" began to play. Pink lights washed over the stage, and there was particular sing along with the female vocalist parts. At one point, Simon extended his hand as far as he could over the audience, then licked his finger and dragged it down his neck.

Nick began to shuffle papers hurriedly at the end of the song, and Simon continued to baffle the crowd with his next comment, "We're going to play a song from Medazzaland it's "Electric Barbarella." However what followed was "Big Bang Generation", much enjoyed by the audience, as green lights bathed the stage.

Simon seemed to have a spitting problem, as all throughout the first part of the set he kept going back to the drumset and spitting. Hopefully the stage set will be prepared for this. Perhaps it was related to the shortness of breath problem because he was as energetic as possible at the close but tired quickly and seemed to be a tad sheepish about it.

As the song ended Simon asked, "See what time it is. Do you all want a rest? Because I do," Simon paused at the microphone, out of breath and cradling a bottle of water. The audience disagreed. "But obviously I'm not going to get much of it," he decided, "You know," he struggled on, "When you're surrounded by a world that's getting faster and faster, the madness is growing, the hardest thing to find in this world is some peace, some tranquility..."

"How about this song?" Nick interrupted.

"That's what this song is about," Simon concurred, "This is 'Ordinary World'." This was obviously a song the bulk of the audience could relate to as a massive sing-along took place with red lights flooding the stage. Le Bon's voice stood the test of the closer to the relief of all.

"Save a Prayer" followed with images of stone carved angels, stained glass, and other medieval images from a cemetery on the screen. Simon came and sat on the edge of the stage as he sang most of the song.

Simon went off on stage left after "Save" closed, and returned with a shiny metallic shirt and large pink sunglasses which heralded "Hallucinating Elvis" to anyone attending the "Let It Flow" tour. Images of Elvis, especially an Elvis figurine twisting on screen went along well with the song's campy nature. At the end of the song, Simon even mimicked the rotation with his waving "Elvis"'s. He then duck walked around the stage with his arms raised over his head to great audience reaction.

At the end of the song, Simon removed the shirt and glasses, looked around and asked "Where am I?" The audience laughed along with the joke.

There was a long intro to "Skin Trade" in which Simon recounted some of the band's history. In 1987 the band reunited "but no Roger and no Andy." Simon opined that Nile Rodgers was greatly responsible for keeping the band together at that time, and on track with Notorious. He also talked about how he was coming up with the chorus for "Skin Trade" and Nile said "No, Simon, not like that, like this," and began to sing the song with its current more syncopated rhythm. Simon dedicated the song to Nile Rodgers "Wherever he is, hopefully he's having fun."

Simon definitely did, singing with enthusiasm, strutting the stage and at one point going "Ssssss," and touching his butt, then laughing. At song's end he commented how much he enjoyed doing the song, "It just seems like ages since we've done that song," he said. "It's like being with an old friend."

"White Lines" followed, with its usual ability to jazz up the crowd. Simon seemed to have his second wind and continued to pump up the crowd.

"Thank you. Uhm, I wonder if you guys have, I'm sure you have, everybody has, you know the personal ads in magazines, have you ever looked at, has anyone ever done that? Come on, you can own up to it. You all take a piss, almost, cause you see some amazing things, people advertise themselves. Have you ever done that Nick?"

Nick laughed, and said "I've looked at them."

"You've looked at them," Simon teased him, "I suppose that means I did. You know, GY American, foxy... oh let's get to the song, this is "Mars Meets Venus"" he finally interrupted himself.

The song had male and female glyphs on the screen behind the band as the song played. Text of ads scrolled by and swirled around, accentuating the band's fast pace.

At song's end Simon seemed to consult with Warren and then launched straight into "Pop Trash" without any introduction. This was followed by "Too Much Information" which began with hypnotic circles on screen, and scenes of people participating in experiments. Then a melange of b&w negative rapid images of the band's videos came on screen, almost subliminally distracting the audience into a game of "Spot that scene". Then the words "Too Much" came up on screen and span around.

At the song's end, Simon appeared to confess "We're completely lost" as there was a delay to the next song. In the meantime a chant started at the back of the room that spread and became intelligible as "All She Wants Is". The band seemed to be straining to understand and then Simon nodded. They quickly began "Rio" instead, which the audience happily accepted.

Simon, however, was unhappy with the mic provided for his harmonica break and during the second verse was gesturing and rolling his eyes at someone on stage left. He gave the mic a try but although it was broadcasting, he gave up and used his usual mic to do the part. At the end of the song he went over to Nick and put his arm around him appearing to ask "How're you doing?" to which Nick smiled and nodded with "All right."

Simon then introduced the band, "On the stage tonight on drums, Joe Travers. On bass guitar, Wes Wehmiller, guitar Warren, keyboards Nick, Simon sings." At the end he smiled at a group of women up on the balcony at stage right and the band left the stage. The lights were left off so the audience kept cheering and started up a call for "Re-flex, re-flex."

When the band returned to the stage, Simon asked "I think it would be true to say that some words in the English language, when someone says them to you, you immediately say something back. Do you get my drift? See, what if I was to say to you, what if I was to say to you -- No, what does that make you think of?"

"Notorious," the crowd chanted back.

"No-no," he continued to chant with crowd, "I want more! Everybody! Come on I can't hear you! Yeah!"

"Notorious" began and Simon popped in his earplugs and grinned at Warren. The crowd continued to chant the "Notorious" line through the song.

"Late Bar" was a surprise crowd pleaser which it was obvious many people knew and appreciated. "Girls on Film" then closed the set with images on the back screen that were used on the previous tour. Simon and Nick looked at each other and began to laugh before Simon started the first verse. Later he gestured back at Joe Travers as if to say, "Can you believe how crazy that guy is."

When the band went offstage this time, the lights stayed low and the crowd continued to chant. When the band returned, Simon commented "They just told us there's no curfew. Hey, we never do two encores -- don't you have homes to go to?"

The band then began "Wild Boys". At one point, Simon seemed to complain to Warren for an error, and Warren responded by dumping a bottle of water on Simon's head. Simon then tossed water from it on the crowd.

At the end Simon waved to the blondes again, and Nick also smiled up at them. Then Wes came up and put his arm around Nick and his head on Nick's shoulder. Nick hugged him back and said something to him as they waved at the crowd and the band departed.

On July 22, the scene was much the same, only more humid, and an older, drunker crowd who was much ruder about shoving their way to the front of the equally packed crowd. Both dates had been sell-outs.

The band had signed CDs for approximately 300 people at the Virgin Records megastore who had purchased CDs the weekend prior to the show. Apparently at the signing a fan's question as to why "Hungry Like the Wolf" had not been played led to a discussion between Nick and Warren about the set list. Coincidentally the song was indeed played on the 22nd, bumping the welcome "Late Bar."

This may have been due to the introduction of cameras at the concert as part of a BBC documentary. The band's set was less relaxed, and the crowd, reminded of the cameras several times, was still pumped by the band for greater enthusiasm.

The band again ran "Teddy Bear" and "Fragment" prior to appearing on stage, and again opened with "Last Day" (during which Simon seemed to be counting the beats in the break) and "View" (during which he forgot to start a verse). This evening Simon was wearing white pants, a black and white leather bracelet, and a beige zipper front shirt which halfway through the show was plastered to his back.

Warren was in a white muscle shirt with a red flower print, and black jeans. Nick apart from white athletic shoes, appeared to be a living silk screen print in an extremely loud, multicoloured print suit which was to draw attention later in the show.

"This is for the people who have been waiting around since 6:00 this morning, and for the rest of you who have been around since 1984, here's the next song. It's 'New Moon on Monday'," Simon announced, and again got a very good sing along. It was just as well as after "Breaking away" he forgot part of the lyric.

"The next song is a true story. It's written about what little boys get up to during their summer holidays. A couple of years ago a 15 year old schoolboy built a nuclear reactor in his garden shed. Some men in white coats came along, and the police came along they put him in handcuffs and took him away, and now he's working for the government! This is "Playing With Uranium"."

The song went along fairly well, and then was followed by "This is a love song we're going to do for you now, so if you're with somebody you love grab hold of them, and if you're not, grab hold of somebody anyway, this is 'Come Undone'."

The beginning of "Big Bang Generation" took people a bit by surprise as it had no introduction. At one point in the song Simon, whose spitting problems seemed to continue, simply turned and spit backwards, then looked at Wes (who probably should have been getting nervous) and seemed to chuckle. While singing "so much fun", Simon sidled up to Nick, who grinned at him. As the song ended, Nick looked up to the right in a pose.

Also at song's end, Simon really tried to get the crowd going, likely for the cameras, and concluded with "In case you hadn't noticed, this boy really can play guitar," he said of Warren, and prompted by the cheers went on to add "and looks magnificent with his clothes off either." Realizing how that sounded he shook his head and said, "The things that people say on stage, and then wish they hadn't."

"The song we're going to do now is a song about peace and tranquility and understanding and dedicate it to anybody anywhere who is trying to make that happen, whether it's the Balkans, whether it's the Middle East, Northern Island or anywhere else in the world."

"Excuse me, please sing the song," interrupted Nick, prompting wild screams.

"The mouse has spoken," Simon said as he looked over at his laughing synthesist.

Simon went over to Nick who made a comment about his mic not being on very loud, and Warren cut in, "His outfit makes up for it."

Simon brought Nick to the center of the stage and made him twirl around to show the audience the eye-poking outfit. Nick returned to his mic amidst the cheers and said, "I wore this today because I didn't want anyone to recognize me while I wandered around Disneyland." Simon mock frowned at him as if annoyed at Nick's rejoinder.

"Ok, you can turn his microphone off now, Kevin," Simon directed their sound person. Laughing at Nick, he added, "Just kidding."

"Ok," Simon began and the guitar started playing, before he cut it short hastily with "maybe later, maybe later, we're going to play 'Ordinary World' for you."

Simon looked up at the end as if knowing his voice had barely made the finale. Nick, meanwhile, seemed to be doing neck exercises during the next song which was "Save a Prayer."

Simon went off for a water break and Nick almost got caught short on his own as "Hallucinating Elvis" began. "I think Elvis is turning into John Travolta," Simon commented as he finished and removed the shirt and glasses he had donned.

In the interval between songs another chant started up for "All She Wants Is".

"That was last year," Warren commented as they began "Skin Trade."

This was followed by "White Lines" and then Simon introduced, "If you are looking for a girlfriend or boyfriend, this song is for you, this is 'Mars Meets Venus'."

At the end, sweating copiously, Simon licked some of his sweat from his fingers and commented, "I taste good tonight -- and smell good too," he shook his head before "Pop Trash" began.

His voice was definitely in weaker form this evening as it started to go at the end of the song. "Too Much Information" followed, and something was tossed on stage at the end of the song. Their roadie brought out a box to Simon's mic as "Rio" started, but Simon later glared at him, shaking his hand as he raised a dripping harmonica from it. It appeared he had gotten an electrical shock from it.

As the song ended Simon seemed to chat something with Wes as they left the stage. Joe Travers decided to toss a drumstick to the first few rows of people in the crowd. When the band returned, Simon held something up, and momentarily put on a pair of glasses.

"Hey wait a minute, you're supposed to wait for me, wait," Simon said, a tad annoyed as, at the first strains of the "Notorious" intro, groups in the crowd began singing. "For those of you who didn't happen to be at last night's show, oh, I love this guitar part," Simon interrupted himself as he danced around a bit to the groove. "Ok we're going to do a little bit of group singing, all right? I give you a word, you give me a bigger word, you know what that is?" Simon asked. "No -" "Notorious," the crowd chanted back.

"No, I do 'No', you do 'Notorious'," he explained as groups of the crowd failed to catch on that there was first one No, then two. After a bit, most picked it up. "I like this," he grinned, then laughed as the chanting went on for a bit. "Ok, you'll do it on your own in a minute. Okay now hold it!" he called as he stopped singing and the crowd kept it up.

After "Notorious", "Hungry Like the Wolf" was substituted for "Late Bar", likely for the filming cameras. Then Nick had some technical problems that delayed the start of "Girls on Film". Simon drank from a coffee cup while he had the chance. During the song he seemed to say "I love that" after "water comes in where she lies" and exchanged grins with Nick.

"It's been great to be at the House of Blues for two nights in a row," Simon said, "and it's only because of you. Good night!" The band went offstage again then returned for "Wild Boys".

"I tell you what, this is a crowd of screamers, that's for sure," Simon commented as the chants for "Re-flex" died down. "Sorry, that's not what we're not doing that tonight. But there even might be something better. No, no, I want to hear that noise again," Simon smiled as he took out his earplugs and encouraged the crowd to scream again.

"This is a great audience, you can tell by how loud they are," Warren commented.

"I'm very impressed, I have to say," Simon agreed. "But you're really going to have blown out voices tomorrow, I'll tell you," Simon chuckled. "Some of you are going to be," Simon mimicked a hoarse rasping voice trying to talk. "But I tell you, save it, save it for this song. Because we're going to have a big, big chorus, and I want a big, BIG 'Wild Boys'," Simon encouraged.

As the song ended and the band prepared to leave the stage, someone tossed a bead bracelet to Nick which he picked up. He seemed to forget about it however as he later waved to the crowd and let it fall from his fingers.

"Thank you, by the way," Simon commented, "They used to chuck stuffed animals on stage at us, well, now they throw jewelry. Good night!" as more bracelets fell on stage and he picked one up. Joe Travers put one hematite looking one on his wrist and showed it off to the crowd. Then the band made final waves and left the stage.

The tossed jewelry, of course, is not the only change in the last 20 years, but the July 21 performance showed that while the venues have changed, the performances have become stripped down, and the playlists continue to have more and more material to draw from, there are still some constants. One is that the band can still provide an entertaining evening with good music and the occasional surprise, as long as they continue enjoying themselves on stage. The other is that there will always be groups of people out in the audience, some not even born when "Ordinary World" hit the airwaves, who know the lyrics at least as well as the band, and will be there to have a good time if the band will come to play.

For other stories, visit http://www.geocities.com/mrebaza/duranfic.html

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