Yet Duran Duran, named after the evil villain Dr Durand Durand in the sci-fi classic Barbarella, formed in a squat in Birmingham. They may have later embraced the Thatcherite me-me-me philosophy with their videos heavy on materialism, but their roots, believe it or not, were in punk rock. Indeed, they formed to fuse that genre with glam-rock and, unlikely as it may sound, disco.

This live DVD captures the last two shows from Duran Duran’s record-breaking 2004 run of sold-out concerts at London’s Wembley Arena. The band had imploded in the mid-80s, around the time guitar player Andy Taylor recalls he and the unrelated bassist John Taylor were "snorting half of Peru." Nearly two decades on, the original five, the aforementioned Taylors and LeBon along with keyboardist Nick Rhodes reformed and recorded a reunion album, Astronaut.

The concert actually opens with the first track off Astronaut, the instantly forgettable ‘(Reach Up For The) Sunrise’. Duran Durannies will recover from that initial disappointment as the band soon launch into early hits ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’, ‘Something I Should Know’, and ‘Union of the Snake’. Then comes the Cure-esque 'Come Undone' which impresses like the later 'Ordinary World', both taken from 1993's surprise comeback, The Wedding Album.

The main feature of the DVD finishes with a hat-trick of classics, 'Wild Boys', 'Girls on Film', which the ever-poncey LeBon introduces in his best plebian paparazzi, "How about a nice photograph then?", and 'Rio'. Their name is Duran Duran. Despite their image, they, as an excitable American would say, rock.
(4/5)

Release Date: 07 November 2005

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