Dadblog

Big up and big thanks to Speechification for the archiving of Pete Paphides’ glorious programme on the “lost” Duran Duran album Dark Circles. Bullet point reasons:

• Stephen Duffy is a candidate for anyone’s list of Greatest Living Englishmen
• Nick Rhodes is not, as it turns out, a brain-dead dandy, but a witty bloke with a very Brummie line in self-deprecation
• The stuff from Dave Unsworth of a rival Brummie band, who says Duran Duran had money thrown at them, were offered the world and a career being worshipped by legions of young women, but “you can’t blame them, they were only 18.” Ah, the vigorous self-righteousness of the failed pop musician
• A reminder to me that the best English music comes from insufferably pretentious teenagers whose ambitions are completely out of whack with their musical ability. If you get a sufficient number of these insufferably pretentious teenagers and stir them up, you end up with Joy Division. This is important to remember when you’re a father whose son is organising a gig for his band despite the fact that they can only play half of Teenage Kicks.

Thanks, Speechification lads.