MatthewCho

DURAN DURAN HOT AHEAD OF NEW ALBUM DEAL:

Duran Duran's new business manager is David Ravden. He also manages
Garbage.

David has been a busy man, as it seems the Duran boys are pretty hot in UK right now, with a bidding war breaking out for their services.

The new studio album will be out early in 2003.

Here's a UK press story on the search for a label:

Duran must diet for £10m deal - From: This Is London

After recording their first album with the original lineup for 15 years,
the band have triggered a bidding war between labels keen to release it.
Universal, EMI, Sony and BMG are among those offering a massive advance
for rights to a three to five album deal.

The tracks recorded by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor, Andy
Taylor and John Taylor are said to be some of their best. But there
remains one stumbling block.

"There has been some concern that they won't match up to what pop band
members look like today - but they're pretty fit now," said a friend of
the band. "They are all now in great form, physically. The music is some
of their best and they really look the part. It's incredible to think
that they are in their forties."

The £10 million contract is one of the largest offered to a band who have
reformed with an original line-up after such a sustained absence.

__________________

From Billboard.com comes fresh news of the new Duran Duran album:

Duran Duran Deep Into Reunion Album

Duran Duran has recorded 15 songs for its reunion album, which will
feature the band going back to its modern rock-meets-dance music roots,
Billboard.com has learned. Speaking from a London studio where the band
is recording the still-untitled set, producer/Chic founder Nile Rodgers
says the song Taste of Summer appears to be a frontrunner for the first
single.

Rodgers says the album sounds like "the Clash meets Blondie meets the
Ramones with smooth songwriter stuff thrown in, but it's still very much
Duran Duran. There's a sophisticated smoothness, which is at the essence
of their songs."

Rodgers previously collaborated with Duran Duran on the 1984 hit singles
The Reflex (the band's first No. 1 song in the U.S.) and Wild Boys, as
well as the platinum-selling 1986 album Notorious. He says, "It's not
like I've had a bad track record with Duran Duran. Every single record
I've produced with them has been a hit."

He observes that the songwriting dynamic of the band "hasn't changed all
that much. It's like going back to the way it was, just picking up where
we left off before. Andy [Taylor] is still the bad boy," he laughs.

Rodgers says that Duran Duran is "very close" to announcing a new label
home, on which the reunion album is expected to be released in the fourth
quarter of this year [new release date = first quarter 2003]. A tour in
support of the set is also in the works.

"There are two big dreams of mine - one is to produce a Van Halen record
with David Lee Roth on vocals, and the other dream was to produce an
album with the original Duran Duran lineup," Rodgers says. "One of those
dreams has come true. The guys in Duran Duran look and sound amazing.
Doing this album has been a phenomenal experience for me."

At the height of its popularity, Duran Duran splintered off into side
groups -- John and Andy Taylor with the funky hard rock band Power
Station; LeBon, Rhodes, and Roger Taylor with the avant-garde pop outfit
Arcadia. Rodgers says those musical differences have been resolved with
the new album, and he hints that the new music is more open to the
guitar-oriented, funky side of the group.

"The Power Station was a direct release for John and Andy," he says. "I
can say this knowing where the band is at and the direction that Duran's
music has taken, there's no reason for John and Andy to leave the band
now."