Duran Duran announce series of intimate homecoming shows

Duran Duran have announced two intimate homecoming shows in Birmingham next month.

The shows will take place on September 14 and 15 at the O2 Institute in Birmingham ahead of the release of their upcoming new album, ‘Future Past’, on October 22.

Tickets for the gigs go on sale at 9am on August 27 here.

Members of the ‘Duran Duran VIP Community’ will have first access to tickets on August 24 at 9am. For more information, members are being told to log in here and click the pre-sale page.

The upcoming album from the group will have 12 tracks, and features appearances from the likes of Blur’s Graham Coxon, long-time David Bowie pianist Mike Garson and guest vocals by Lykke Li.

A deluxe edition of the record is set to contain three bonus tracks, while fans can access a series of bundles including coloured vinyl and artwork autographed by the band.

It comes after keyboardist Nick Rhodes told NME in 2019 that the record would see the band heading in a “different” direction.

“There’s one song so far that’s a frontrunner to be the first single. It’s just so different from anything I’ve heard from us before, or actually anyone else,” said Rhodes. “There’s a dance element to it. The construction of it, the melodic content, the lyrics, some of the sounds… they’re very different for us.”

Frontman Simon LeBon also recently called for streaming services to reform their payment models so that emerging artists receive a larger share.

At present, the majority of streaming services pay less than a penny per stream – with a legion of musicians warning that this is severely impacting their livelihood and ability to perform music as a full time profession.

“Artists need to get paid properly for music that is streamed, that’s where the money should be coming from,” LeBon told NME. “What do artists get? It’s like 0.2 of a penny per stream and that’s not just for artists, a percentage of that will go to the record company as well who then don’t give it to the artists, they’ll give it to the people they consider to be the most successful artists.”

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