Duran Duran - Planet Earth

I Love 1981 - pt. 3
Although relative latecomers to the "new romantic" hit-makers clique, after Spandau Ballet, Visage, Ure-Vox et al, Duran Duran were always poised to become one the biggest sensations of 1981 and indeed for much of the decade and beyond. After undergoing many Beatles-esque personell changes, the band first got on to the intercity from Brum to London in 1979 to make their first demo tapes for EMI. Simon Le Bon soon ousted the dourly named Andy Wickett as lead vocalist in 1980 (although Stephen Duffy was famously their first vocalist) and thus the Duran Duran formation as we know it was born.
Much clubbing and a support slot to Hazel O'Connor ensued before they finally got round to recording their material proper in London in December 1980. "I remember two things about recording "Planet Earth". Staying in a horrible hotel in Fulham where I got very sick, and John Lennon dying", recalls John Taylor.
Planet Earth as a single finally saw the light of day in February 1981. Although Duran Duran were already causing quite a stir with a full page feature in NME and Richard Skinner Radio 1 sessions, bizarrely Duran's first scheduled television appearance on Feb 24th was cancelled because of Prince Charles and Lady Diana's engagement announcement (Princess Di would confess her love of the group some years later). On Feb 27 Noel Edmonds' Multi-Coloured Swap Shop broadcast a performance of Friends of Mine and Girls on Film. By the time they finally made it to TOTP, boosting Planet Earth's trajectory into the charts, they had already begun their first national tour.

Wherever they performed, be it on Cheggers Plays Pop or at Leicester Polytechnic, frilly blouses, sorry, shirts and floppy fringes abounded with Le Bon's flamboyant style as lead vocalist perhaps slightly giving them the edge over the rather more dour rivals Spandau Ballet.

Oh yes, the track itself was also good too, with it's well-balanced mix of proper guitars (including John's bass much to the fore) and rock-drums, with Nick Rhodes' electronics sweeping to and fro to make it sound 'modern'. It also had the catchy 'bah-bah-bahh-bah bah bah bah-baaahh' sing-along bit which made it excellent radio, club and live gig fodder, and the line "I saw you making patterns rhyme like.... some New Romantic looking for the TV sound" was at once an auto-celebration and a tongue-in-cheek stab at the genre.

That said, the single reached a relatively modest no. 12 in the charts, held back by such significant top-tenners as Shakin' Stevens, Kim Wilde and, er, Tony Capstick And The Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band. The follow up single Careless Memories fared even less well, just scraping into the Top 40 in May.
But there were even better times to come...