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When Duran Duran was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame last November, just reward for a 40-year-plus career of hits and flashy music videos which helped ignite the format, one essential bandmate was missing from the picture — founding guitarist Andy Taylor.
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Duranies — the enduring collective noun for Duran Duran fans — had hoped for an on-stage reunion with Taylor and his former bandmates, the first in 17 years. It wasn’t to be.
As Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor (none of the Taylors are related) accepted their Rock Hall induction, a message was read out from the axeman, addressing for the first time his cancer battle.
“Four years ago, Andy was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer,” LeBon said, breaking the news, before reading a portion of a letter.
Taylor returns to his health battles for a new interview for U.K. TV, and explains how music and creativity has lifted his spirits.
The diagnosis came when Andy was 56 years old, and presented when he went jogging and felt what he describes as “arthritic sort of pain.” He began to “have these symptoms, and didn’t recognize them for what they could be.” Lumps would appear on his neck, a troubling sign that the cancer had metastasized. The biopsy results confirmed the worst, an illness he describes as “a death sentence.”
On hearing the extent of his illness, “no one can be prepared for that.”
Due to his poor health, Taylor missed the ceremony in Los Angeles, for which he’d planned to break out a new guitar.
Now that the word is out, Taylor, 61, uses his platform to tell others to get checked, and urges female fans to apply gentle pressure on the men in their lives. “Give him a nudge, go get a test,” he tells 5 News.
In a fight with cancer, time is precious. “Every minute is like an hour, every day is like a week,” he explains. “You really want to get the most out of life. And I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve had so much in terms of living the dream.”
Taylor has lived the dream like few others. With a string of hits, including “Girls On Film,” “Rio,” “Hungry Like The Wolf,” “Is There Something I Should Know,” “The Reflex,” “Wild Boys,” Duran Duran was arguably the most popular band on the planet in the first half of the 1980s. All those numbers came with slick music videos which either looked like shorts from blockbuster movies, or, in the case of “Girls On Film” and “The Chauffeur,” were too risqué for mainstream TV.
With his rock ‘n’ roll attitude and playing style, Taylor was something of an outlier in the band, contributing a rawness to Duran Duran’s sound during those golden years.
Without Andy Taylor’s contribution, many fans and critics argue, Duran Duran wouldn’t be the Hall of Famers they are today.
When the group split in two in 1985, following the release of the James Bond theme “A View to A Kill,” Taylor and bassist John Taylor formed The Power Station with the late Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson, while the others created Arcadia.
Taylor contributed to sessions for the 1986 album Notorious, then went his own way with a solo career. He’d reunite with DD for 2004’s Astronaut album, and for tour dates in support.
Taylor has recorded three albums since learning of his illness, and continues to perform when possible.
Playing guitar has had an unexpected benefit. “It’s really helped me to live with the pessimism of an incurable disease,” he notes, “but the optimism of creating music.”
Watch the interview below.
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The late Jeff Beck’s career was marked by an abundance of excellence. And surprises.
From his playing choices to his stylistic maneuvering and frequent changes of personnel, Beck made a career out of keeping everyone guessing — including those who played with him. He was a restless chameleon, starting in rock and blues and then incorporating jazz – mostly of the ‘70s electric fusion variety – into his mix, achieving mastery on all fronts. But it was never just for change’s sake; Beck’s experiments and diversions almost always had purpose.
It worked out, of course. Beck – who passed away Tuesday (Jan. 10) at the age of 78 in England – was a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (with The Yardbirds in 1992 and on his own in 2009) and won eight Grammy Awards, five of them for best rock instrumental performance. He also received the British Academy’s Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music in 2014 along with a slew of other honors. He’s universally acknowledged as one of the greatest guitar players of all-time, in any genre.
His skill on the instrument could and often did leave our jaws on the floor. But some of his decisions did the same — or at least made us raise our eyebrows. As we continue to celebrate one of (and to some, the) best proponent of the electric guitar, here’s a look back at a dozen of the most surprising moments in Beck’s long career.
It’s a New Year, and Nick Cave has the Bad Seeds on his mind.
Writing on his blog The Red Hand Files, the Australian alternative rock icon confirms his 2023 wishlist includes a new record with his long-standing band.
Responding to a fan’s question, Cave writes, “My plan for this year is to make a new record with the Bad Seeds. This is both good news and bad news. Good news because who doesn’t want a new Bad Seeds record? Bad news because I’ve got to write the bloody thing.”
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The album that transpires will be the followup to 2021’s Ghosteen, a two-disc album that explores Cave’s exposure to grief and pain, following the sudden death of his son Arthur in 2015. Ghosteen, the 17th recording from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, cracked the top 5 in Australia (peaking at No. 2) and the U.K. (No. 4), and was shortlisted for several major music awards, including the Australian Music Prize and the U.K.’s Ivor Novello Awards.
Cave is making headway. The process started Jan. 1, and, by Jan. 6 he’d “written a few things but they aren’t very good, or maybe they are, it’s difficult to tell. A kind of doldrums has set in, perennial and predictable. It’s the same with every record, I feel that familiar feeling of lack, like I’m a big, dumb blank thing in a suit.”
The creativity is there, deep down, hopefully, he points out. “I have to call it forth, provoke it from its slumber. It becomes a nasty, punishing, baggy-eyed business. I’m starting to get an infuriating sing-song voice in my head that actually rhymes, like a madness. Like sadness.”
Those first few lines include a dark tale that harks back to 1996’s The Murder Ballads: “Ushering in the year he knelt down/And crushed his brother’s head with a bone.”
That “felt like an okay way to start a record,” he notes, and additional lyrics would flow.
Cave recently wrapped a well-received tour of Australia with his longtime Bad Seed and Dirty Trio collaborator Warren Ellis, in support of 2022’s Carnage, the first album of material they’d cut and released as a duo.
Last September, Cave announced the release of a new book Faith, Hope and Carnage, co-written with journalist Seán O’Hagan, in which the two examine questions of faith, art, music, freedom, grief and love over 40 hours in conversation.
The prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader, novelist and screenwriter is a national treasure in Australia, where he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007, and he’s considered something of a living legend in the U.K., his adopted homeland.
Read Cave’s blog post here.
Shakira and Bizarrap have blessed fans with their highly anticipated “BZRP Music Sessions #53,” which dropped Wednesday.
Truth be told, fans weren’t sure what to expect from the latest edition of the music sessions, which are popular collaborations between Bizarrap and artists such as Nicky Jam, Paulo Londra, Residente and Snow Tha Product where they rap over a unique beat created by the hitmaker.
Shakira doesn’t rap; instead, it’s very much a therapy session between Biza and his guest.
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The singer-songwriter doesn’t hold back and is as blunt as ever about her ex, Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué. “A wolf like me doesn’t have time for novices like you/ I was too much for you, that’s why you’re now with someone more like yourself,” she sings over a futuristic pop-electronica beat. “You left me the in-laws as my neighbors, media outlets at my door and in debt with the Treasury./ You thought you hurt me, but you made me stronger/ Women don’t cry anymore, they cash in.”
Shakira joins a number of artists who’ve jumped on one of Bizarrap’s zealously streamed music sessions. His session with Spanish act Quevedo, “BZRP Music Sessions #52,” scored both their first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. Currently, it has more than 400 million views on YouTube. Bizarrap’s Music Session with Shak follows his latest sessions, including ones with Duki and Villano Antillano.
This new song will follow Shakira’s Ozuna-assisted “Monotonía,” which peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart (dated Nov. 5). It currently sits at No. 1 on the Latin Airplay chart, where it’s ruled for four weeks.
Recently, Shakira shared a heartfelt message of hope to start off the new year. “Even if our wounds are still open in this new year, time has a surgeon’s hands. Even if someone’s betrayed us, we must continue to trust others,” wrote the Colombian singer. “When faced with contempt, continue to know your worth. Because there are more good people than indecent ones. More people with empathy than indifference.”
The message came after a difficult year due to her separation from Piqué, the father of her children. The singer has spoken openly about the breakup since it was confirmed in June, and has posted material — including releasing the heartbreak song “Monotonía” — alluding to her pain. This music session is no exception.
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