The Seventh One - Nassau Colisseum - 18 January, 1989

• The Date:18 January, 1989
• The Place: Nassau Colisseum 
• Current Events: Broken-hearted Cynthia NEEDS to go and see Duran Duran in concert to boost her spirits, but she can't find anyone to go with her. Finally, she thinks of asking her friend, Lou.  

When I heard that Duran Duran was coming back in January to play at Nassau Coliseum, I bought two tickets. As the day of the concert got closer and closer, I couldn’t find anyone else to go to the concert with me. I didn’t really mind going alone, but I really didn’t want to lose the money. Most of my new friends were into very different music, and even my Duranie friends weren’t interested. Eileen and I STILL weren’t speaking, so I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) call her.

About two days before the concert, I called my friend Lou and asked him to go with me. Lou was into Bauhaus and New Order/Joy Division, but he had always liked Duran Duran and he was a fan of Nick Rhodes.

“Come on, Lou….you know you wanna go. I’ll drive and everything”

“Ok, fine. I’ll go”

“Yay!!”

The night before the concert, I woke up with chills.

I spent the whole day leading up to the concert in a blanket cocoon on my parent’s couch. I was roasting hot, and I felt awful.

“Are you going, tonight?”

My mom wanted to know, but I had to make it sound like I wasn’t really as sick as I felt.

“Oh yes...I have to go. I promised Lou that I would take him”

I thought it was pretty clever of me, how I had turned that one around.

John Taylor
(from the tour program)

When the time came to leave my house to go pick up Lou, it was snowing. By the time I rang his doorbell, the flu was creeping back up on me, I felt horrible, and it must have showed.

(Lou’s mom has the cutest New York accent, and it is the most vibrant part of my memory of that night)

“Oh my Gawd, Cindy…you look awwful!”

“I’m ok, Mrs. DiGennaro. Is Lou ready?”She put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me into the living room.

“Dahling, come in heyah”Then, she shouted up the stairs:“Lou-eee!!!! Cindy is heyah !!!!”

When Lou came down he took one look at me and said:

“Hey, Cyn…you look awful”

I tried to be brave.

“Yeah…I’m fine. Let’s go”Lou made the sweetest face at me and gave me a hug

(Now, I should also mention that at one time Lou’s Mom had been a nurse, and she had x-ray vision when it came to sick people) and then she put her hand on my forehead.

“Louie, go get me a thamomatah”

Lou rolled his eyes, and I groaned.

Nick Rhodes
(from the tour program)

Simon LeBon
(from the tour program)

"Oh, that’s not really necessary”

I tried to get out of it, but Lou grabbed my hand.

“Cyn, she won’t let you out of here, unless she takes your temperature”

I laughed, and I gave in. Lou’s mom took my temp, and it ended up being 103.9

“Cindy, you really shouldn’t be goin’ anywayah”

“I appreciate that Mrs. DiGennaro, but I HAVE to go. I’ll be fine”

“Mom, she’s right. You can’t stop her. She’s gonna go anyway”

Lou’s Mom looked at us, and smiled.

“Can I give ya some Tylenol, at least?”

“Oh yeah….that would be great”

I took two Tylenol, and I drank a glass of OJ. Only after that would Lou’s Mom let me leave the house.

As for the concert itself, I remember that it was really great. The set at Roseland had been kind of short, but this time, the set was about 2 hours.

I remember that ‘Winter Marches On’ was especially excellent that night.The irony was that when we left to drive home, it was still snowing. 

my ticket stub

review from Newsday. Wayne Robbins wrote it. Surprise, surprise, he didn't like the show *rolls eyes*

The Tenth One - The Academy, NYC 12 February, 1993 - Performance #2

At the beginning of the second encore, I went outside and joined Kim on line. We had to wait about another hour before they let us go in. Once we were in, Kim took my jacket from me.

“I’ll check this for you, now get up there!” and she pushed me toward the front of the stage.

“Aren’t you coming with me?”

“Nah, I’ll check the jackets and I’ll hang out by the bar. I don’t like crowds”

“Are you sure, you don’t mind?”

“No, now get up there before some bitch takes your spot!”

She laughed and pushed me forward. I laughed and then I ran. When I got up front there were only two people in front of me. One of the girls was named Brandi, and she never stopped talking. She drove me nuts.

“Oh my God, there she is!” 

“Who…who’s here?” I asked.

“John’s wife, that’s her…up there”

She pointed to Amanda DeCadenet in the balcony. Amanda was wearing a really pretty burgundy colored, ruffled shirt.

“Oooh, I like her shirt!” I said,

Brandi rolled her eyes at me.

“Oh, she thinks she’s so special. John has the same shirt in black. He’s wearing it tonight. She’s only wearing that shirt so everyone will know who she is”

“Well, wouldn’t you?” I asked her. She rolled her eyes again. This girl was being so petty and jealous, and she was really irritating me.

“And look how fat she is!”

I looked up at the pretty blonde lady in the balcony. She was not fat.

“Ok, now you’re just being ridiculous”

The Marquee

Simon and Warren

Yup, he was THAT close.

John and Nick

He was so close, I could smell the sweat on him. 

The Man who stole metallic leopard pants.

*LeSigh* I wish I could remember what he was saying.

ticket stub from performance #2

 That quieted her down for a little while, but sure enough about ten minutes later she started prattling on again. She babbled on and on about nothing I was really interested in. She told me all about this fanzine she had, and how dedicated she was to Duran Duran. It was her general attitude that bugged me. She acted like she was better than everyone else, and I had started to tune her out.

“Did you hear about Simon’s accident?”

That got my attention and I was finally interested in something she had to say.

“No! What happened?”

“Simon had a crash on his motorcycle, and he slid off his bike and into a telephone pole. His nuts were all swollen”

I shuddered at the thought of it.

“Yikes, that musta hurt”About ten minutes later Duran Duran came back on. For the rest of the night all I could think about was Simon’s swollen testicles. I couldn't help it. Also, because of where I was standing, his crotch was pretty much right in my face the whole night.

It was awesome.

The show was so cool. With the acoustic arrangements, and the strings that were added, even the older songs sounded new. ‘The Wedding Album’ had not been released yet, and when I first heard ‘Come Undone’ I actually got goose bumps. It sounded so great!

For ‘Save a Prayer’ Simon brought out a stool to sit on, and his legs were spread wide open, right in front of me.

It was awesome.

If only that *cursing* monitor wasn't in the way *LeSigh*

At the end of the show, I met up with Kim again, and we took the train back to Northport. By the time I pulled into Kim’s driveway, it was around four in the morning.

Duran Duran came back to New York that summer and played at Jones Beach, but I didn’t go. I wouldn’t see them again for six years, and by that time, everything was different.

Again.  

The Ninth One - The Academy, NYC - 12 February, 1993 - Performance # 1

In December of 1990, I got married. My husband (Don) likes Duran Duran, but he prefers ‘the old stuff’. I had warned him that I was a Duranie, but I’m sure he really had no idea what that meant until the day he came to help me move out of my parent’s house.

(I have written a blog about that day called ‘I married a Duranie – Episode 1 – The Boxes’ and it goes into that day in detail)

1990 (as any Duranie will tell you) was a very quiet period for Duran Duran. They had released ‘Liberty’ but they didn’t tour to support it, and they weren’t even on television all that often. I think that’s why 1993 came as such a surprise for most people. The general public was under the impression that Duran Duran had disappeared. They had not; they were just working under the radar. That all changed with ‘Ordinary World’

Without warning Duran Duran was everywhere. “Ordinary World’ was everywhere. Even my mother’s radio station was playing it, and the word ‘comeback’ was being used way too often. For me (and most Duranies) Duran Duran had never gone away, so the term ‘comeback’ just seemed wrong.

Don was rather shocked the first time he ever saw me watch Duran Duran on television.

I squealed, and I sat on the floor about six inches from the television. I cranked up the volume, and I started shaking.

“Are you actually shaking?”

“Yes”

I know it probably sounds silly, but the same thing still happens, even today. Now that Don had finally seen me in a full Duranattack, I had to break the news that Duran Duran were playing a concert in New York City, and that I needed to go.

“You NEED to go, are you serious?”

“Yes. I need to go. I haven’t gone since 1989”

“What would happen if you don’t go, Will Simon die if you don’t?”

Don used the funniest voice when he asked me that, and I started cracking up.

“Yes! Do you want to come?”

“No thanks. I don’t think I can handle the screaming”

“It’s going to be an acoustic show, I don’t think there’s going to be a whole lot of screaming”

“Acoustic?”

“Yes, with violins and everything. It’s supposed to be really cool”

“I think I’ll pass. If I can’t dance, I don’t really want to go”

So then I had to find someone to go with me. I think by this point, Eileen and I were speaking again, but I don’t think I knew where she was living. For a few years there, Eileen moved a round a lot, and I had a hard time keeping up with her. But I knew one other Duranie that I could call. Her name is Kim.

I first met Kim back in 1984. We had mutual friends, but it was Duran Duran that brought us together. The day after the tickets for MSG went on sale was the day that we met. She was sitting with my friends Karen and Deirdre when I ran up to tell them that I had gotten Duran Duran tickets.

“I got tickets! I called my mom at work, and she got us tickets!”

The girl they were sitting with smiled at me.

“Oh, who are you going to see?”

“Duran Duran!”

“Really? I’m going, too!”

“Do you like Duran Duran?”

“Oh yeah!”

That was all it took. Kim and I were now friends. Kim was the first girl I knew that had the Duran Duran video collection. Every time I went to her house we would watch it over and over. Kim was really good at freezing the image from the video and then taking a picture of the television.

Between 1988 and 1990, Kim and I spent almost every weekend together. We went to nightclubs, and we went to concerts. We would stay out all night, and then go right back out again as soon as work was done. When I got married in 1990, Kim was my Maid of Honor. So when it was time to go see Duran Duran again, I called Kim.

“Even though there’s no Roger, I’ll go”

My son Teddy was almost three at the time, and he was going to sleep over at my parent’s house. I drove out to Northport, and dropped him off. As soon as I walked into my parent’s house, I turned on MTV. My Dad came into the room and said,

“Some things never change”

“Well, you guys have cable, and we don’t”

About ten minutes later, the video for ‘Ordinary World’ came on. I squealed, and I jumped up and down. I cranked up the volume on the TV.

My Dad just walked out of the room muttering to himself,

“Some things never change”

I got to Kim’s house around 4:00. She made us some dinner, and we were hanging in the kitchen talking with her mom, when her brother Wayne came home.

“Wow, Cynthia! I haven’t seen you in a long time. What are you doing here?”

“Kim and I are going to see Duran Duran”

Wayne just laughed and said,

“Some things never change”

When we got into New York City, we slipped into this dark bar in Penn Station, and had a few beers. Then we walked over to the Academy. Outside the Academy, the marquee read:

“Duran Duran SOLD OUT”

It was so exciting to see that on the sign. There were lots of people milling about on the street. We took our place on line, and we waited.  

That night there were going to be two sets. One set was at 7:30 and the second one was at 11:00. I had tried to get tickets for the 7:30 show, but it sold out really fast. I was lucky to get tickets for the 11:00 show, because that one sold out as well. Sometime around 8:00 we could hear the show begin.

We could feel the bass, but we couldn’t really hear it.  A short time later, a girl came down the line.

“I have an extra ticket for the 7:30 show, my friend didn’t show up. Does anyone want her ticket? It’s free”

I didn’t really believe her. I couldn’t imagine that she would give it away fro free, so I didn’t really pay attention to her.

Kim grabbed the ticket out of the girl’s hand.

“My friend will take it!”

“Huh, what?”

Like I said, I wasn’t really paying attention, and all of a sudden Kim was stuffing the ticket into my hand and pushing me out onto the sidewalk.

“Are you sure it’s OK? I mean, I don’t want to leave you all alone”

“I’m not going to be alone. I’ll hang out with these guys, and I’ll save your spot, for later”

“Are you really sure?”

Kim pushed me up to the door.

“YES. Now get in there and start screaming!”

I gave Kim a big hug, and I went in.

I turned a corner, and there they were.

They sounded really great. I knew that my friend Laura (Hahn) had gotten tickets for the 7:30 show, and I tried to find her. I made my way around the fringes, and then I found a great place to watch. While I was standing there, I thought that I recognized the voice behind me, so I turned around. It was my friend Laura. I couldn’t believe it.

“Laura Hahn! I didn’t think I would ever find you in here”

We gave each other a hug.

“I didn’t recognize you…with that hair!”

I had blond hair at the time, so I wasn’t surprised that she had had trouble recognizing me.

The rest of the show was really great, but it wasn’t very long. The acoustic arrangements sounded really good, and the female back-up singer (Lamya) was amazing. Each song sounded so different from what I was used to hearing and that made it really exciting. The set itself only lasted for about and hour and ten minutes. Right before the second encore began, I said goodnight to Laura and I left to go meet up with Kim on the ‘Outside’

I will never forget how Kim grabbed that ticket for me. It was so awesome of her. It was cold and raining and she stood out there with a group of strangers (albeit Duranies) just so that I could watch the show twice. Thanks Kim!

The Marquee

Simon and Warren

Simon

review from the Island Ear

Nick

The First One - Madison Square Garden - 19 March, 1984

If you've ever watched 'Sing Blue Silver' and wondered if it really was THAT loud let me tell you straight off.....YES, it really was THAT loud.
Maybe even louder...and it was glorious.

and this is how it began.


One morning upon my arrival at school Eileen happens to mention:
”Oh by the way, Duran Duran tickets are going on sale at 10:00 this morning”
She was so calm and casual about it I wanted to smack her. I didn’t. Instead I grabbed her arm and started screaming
”Oh my God! We MUST get tickets!”
”How can we do that? We’re stuck in school”
”Follow me!”
I grabbed her arm, and I pulled her upstairs to the main office. I slapped my hands down on the Secretary’s desk and yelled
”I have to call my mother at work!”
The Secretary looked at us, and she asks me
”Is this an emergency?”
Eileen and I look at each other and scream,
”YES!”
(I am laughing as I type this, it was so funny)
”Well, ok”
says the Secretary, and she hands me the phone.
My mother was working in New York City at the time, and I figured that she could call Ticketron for us. I wasn’t exactly sure, but I knew that we HAD to get tickets. And I knew that my mother would help us.
”Mom! It’s me!”
I shouted into the phone
”Are you OK, why are you calling me? You sound funny”
”MOM! Duran Duran tickets go on sale today in an hour and you HAVE to get tickets for us!”
My mother was silent, and then the Secretary frowned at me.
My mom didn’t ask me any annoying questions. She didn’t ask, ‘Do you really need to go?’ or ‘Is it on a school night’, nothing like that. She only asked me,
”How many should I get?”
”Get as many as you can, I know at least eight people that want to go”
”And they’ll pay me back?”
”Of course!”
”Ok, I’ll try. I can’t promise, but I will try”
”Thanks, Mom…you’re the BEST!
”OK, I’ll call you back later”
I hung up the phone and the Secretary frowned at me again.
”THAT was the big emergency?”
”YES!”
Eileen and I shouted in unison at her, and we ran down the stairs and back to the Commons to try and calm down. I was so distracted for the rest of the day. Around lunchtime, I was paged to come up to the main office because I had a phone call. When I got to the main office the Secretary tells me that my mother called, and that she’ll be calling me back in two minutes. So I waited. Then, the phone rang, it was my Mom.
”Ok, I got the tickets”
”All right how many? Where are they? How much were they?”
”I don’t remember all that but I could only get six tickets, which was the maximum. I couldn’t get through on the phone, and I was just about to call a messenger service and have them go to the box office at Madison Square Garden, but then I finally got through”
I started getting the evil eye from the Secretary and I told my Mom that I had to go.
”Thanks Mom, you are the best, I love you”
”I love you, too. See you later”

I hung up the phone, and thanked the Secretary
”Thanks so much. I really appreciate this”
She smiled at me and said,
”You’re welcome”

Finally the day of the concert arrived. School that day was practically unbearable. After school Eileen, Traci and Colleen came over, and Mickie walked over from across the street. We piled into my Dad’s Nissan Station wagon, and we drove onto New York City. We were listening to WLIR and they mentioned the concert. We started screaming, and my poor Dad had to cover his ears.
When we got to New York City, we parked the car and headed over to the McDonalds that is across the street from the Garden. The dining area is upstairs, and I’ll never forget the sight of that dining room packed full of Duranies. They were everywhere, and most of them (including myself) had grey fedoras on.

After that, we walked over to the Garden, and it was crazy. There were girls everywhere and they (like us) were all hyped up and crazy. We hit the souvenir stand first. I got the grey tour shirt, the program, the set of buttons and the set of posters. My dad got the blue tour shirt, and a program as well.
”Do you really want the shirt with their picture on it?” my Dad asked,
”Of course!”
”Well, I don’t think I can get away with that, so I got the blue one instead”
I laughed, and we walked to our seats. When we got there, I could barely sit. I was so antsy and excited. I couldn’t believe that I was finally going to get to see Simon in person. About twenty minutes before the opening act came on all the girls started screaming. Over in one of the luxury boxes there were five guys who looked kind of like the Duran guys. They were probably just look-alikes, or decoys or something but MAN the Garden went nuts. We all started screaming. I knew it wasn’t really them but it just made me realize how crazy it would get once the real Duran Duran came onstage. As the minutes went on, I got even more impatient.
The opening band was totally lame. They were called ‘Prince Charles’ or something like that and they were pretty crappy. The only thing I remember about their performance was that they had a song that went “Pennies, nickels, dimes quarters, dollar bills’ and that they kept repeating that line over and over. It was awful, and we were all so relieved when they finally left the stage.
There was music playing in between the sets (I don’t remember anything in particular) and then all of a sudden, in the middle of a song, the lights went out, and Madison Square Garden turned into complete and utter chaos.
The instant the lights went out, and the first strains of ‘Tiger Tiger’ came over on the PA system we all started screaming. 20,000 (mostly) girls screaming like crazy. My heart was racing, and Eileen and I grabbed each other’s arms. As ‘Tiger Tiger’ was ending, the anticipation was almost too much to handle. The curtain (which looked like the Coca Cola logo) twitched, and the volume of us all screaming went up by about a hundred decibels.
”Please, please tell me NOW!!”
 sang Simon and Andy together as the curtain finally opened.
The volume of the screaming went up again, and my poor Dad began stuffing tissue in his ears.
The show had finally begun, and I only hope that I can accurately describe the joy of it.
I couldn’t believe it. Simon was right THERE. He was not on television, he was right there and I just couldn’t control myself. We were in the 300 section, and on the side so I wasn’t really that close, but it was close enough and even though there was the video screen above them, I hardly ever looked at it. For years, I had only ever seen them on TV so I didn’t want to look at the screen because it wasn’t as good as watching Simon on the stage. There he was. He was dancing and singing and just being…well…Simon LeBon.
There’s really no other way to describe him. He seems totally unique to me. He doesn’t move like anyone else (for better or worse) and he doesn’t sound like anyone else. I was enthralled.
Meanwhile, Eileen (who began that night as Nick girl, BTW) kept pointing out to me how hot John Taylor was.
”I know, but Simon is STILL hotter!”
I screamed back
”No he isn’t!”
”Yes he is!”
”Can we argue about this later?”
”OK!” said Eileen and we went back to screaming.
There were some quiet spots in the concert (relatively speaking) and we used those times to rest ourselves. ‘The Seventh Stranger” and “Save a Prayer’ were particularly amazing.
By the end of the show, I had no voice left. Eileen had no voice left, and we were all exhausted. You should have seen the faces of all the girls as they left the building. It was hard to imagine that this was the same group of girls that had been so hyper only hours before. As we emptied out of the Garden we all had this kind of glow. It sounds silly, I know but it’s true. It seemed as if we all had nothing left, but we didn’t care.
Duran Duran had debuted at Madison Square Garden to a sold out crowd, and they had given us everything they had.
So we gave it back to them.
If you don’t believe me, just anyone else who was there. It was truly historic, and I’ll never forget it.

The Eighth One (My Nick Rhodes Moment) - Radio City Music Hall - 10 March, 1989

When I heard that the ‘Big Electric Thing’ was coming back to New York I decided that this time I would only buy one ticket. I didn’t want to have to find someone to go with me, so I figured I would just go by myself. I don’t remember how I found out, but a few days before the concert I learned that a bunch of people I knew were all going. One of the people going was my friend Lou (see ‘The Seventh One’)
”You’re going too?”
”Oh yeah, they were so great last time, I figured what the hell”
”That’s funny. Do you want to ride into the city together?”
”Ok, we can have lunch first”
”That sounds great”

The day of the concert, I picked Lou up at his house and we drove into the City.
”Oh, I just found out that Grant knows what hotel they are staying at and he gave me the address”
”No shit!”
”Yeah, we’ll check it out after we eat”
When we got into the City, we drove around St. Marks Place, and looked for a place to park. It wasn’t easy to find a parking space, but I finally did (or so I thought) and we got out. We had lunch at Dojo and as we were walking back to my car, I saw a big yellow ticket on my windshield.
”Damn, what the hell is this?”
Lou pulled it out of my hand
”It looks like a parking ticket”
”I figured that. But why?”
Lou’s eyes skimmed down the length of the ticket
”It says here that you parked in a crosswalk”
I looked down at the road and I could see that the front bumper of my car was about 8 inches into the yellow of the crosswalk.
”This sucks. How much do I have to pay?”
Lou flipped the ticket over
”a hundred bucks”
”A HUNDRED BUCKS!”

(In 1989, this was a lot of money)
”Yup, that’s what it says $100.00”
I pulled the ticket out of Lou’s hand, and I stuffed it into my jacket pocket.
”Great, just what I need. Oh well, let’s go”

I don’t remember the name of the hotel, but it was very small, and it didn’t even really look like a hotel, it just looked like an apartment building. We were circ ling the block, looking for a parking space when Lou spotted Grant walking up 8^th Avenue.
Lou rolled down the window and shouted to him,
”Hey Grant!!”
Grant stopped short, and started looking around. He had the funniest look on his face. It was a look like ‘Who the hell is calling my name out in the middle of new york City?’
I pulled over to the curb, and Lou jumped out.
They shook hands and Grant told us that the hotel the guys were staying at was just up the street, on the very next corner.
I turned off the car, and got out to read all the traffic signs. I couldn’t see anything that said I couldn’t park there. I asked the guys to read the signs too.
”It says no parking between on Sundays between 9:00am and 1:00pm” said Lou
”Are you sure?”
Grant read the sign too
”Yes, that’s what it says”
”OK, good. Because one parking ticket is enough for one day”
We locked up the car and left. We were only about three blocks away from Radio City Music Hall, and I couldn’t believe that we had:
A) Found Grant AND the Hotel

and
B) Found such great parking for free!

As we approached the Hotel, there were only about six other kids there. There was a doorman, and he did not look too happy that two MORE kids (i.e. Me and Lou) had just shown up.
I tried to ignore the steely glare of the Doorman, and we found out what the situation was. One of the other kids said,
”Nick Rhodes came out about 2 hours ago. He was going to meet his wife and her parents for dinner. Hopefully he will come back here, and not go directly to Radio City”
I don’t remember what time it actually was then, but I do recall that it was dark out, so maybe it was around 5:00.
We didn’t have to wait long.

All of a sudden there was movement down the block.
Heading directly at us, was Nick Rhodes.
I’ll never forget that he was wearing this gorgeous full-length red wool coat. He saw all of us, and he put his head down. It seemed as if he had sighed, ad then he increased his pace. As he was approaching the Doorman, he glanced up briefly. Nick’s shoulder brushed against mine, and he whispered,

”Excuse me”
I gulped, and nodded, and stepped out of his way. He smiled back at me and then……. he was gone.

“Wow, he’s so beautiful in person”
Lou laughed at me and said,
”Don’t let Simon hear you say that!”
”Ha ha, very funny”

We waited outside a while longer. Around 8:00 we left because the doorman told us that they wouldn’t come until we all left, anyway. It was probably a lie, but it was cold, and we were tired so we left and walked en masse to Radio City Music Hall.

When we got there we met up with the rest of our friends from Northport. There was a bunch of them, and even though they were spread out all over the place, none of them were sitting where I was. It was weird breaking from the group, and going to sit by myself.

My seat was in the second balcony, and it was the first time in a long time that I had not been close to the stage. It sucked. I mean, they were great seats and all, but compared to being on the floor, right in front, it was nowhere near the same. The show was great however, and the sound in Radio City is always good, so Duran sounded extra amazing that night.

That was the last time I ever went to a Duran Duran show alone, and it was also the last time I ever saw Duran Duran as a single person. BY the time I saw them again, it was 1993 and everything was different.
Everything.