Pleasure & Pain

I listened to 'In the Pleasure Groove' whilst in lockdown in the UK this past week.

Hardly your conventional 'spiritual' reading yet strangely I have found it is surprisingly well written (or co-authored), honest and insightful.

I came to it because a friend sent me some photos recently from a holiday we took in France when I was 18. At that time I bore something of a resemblance to John Taylor, and Claire, my girfriend at the time, was something of a Duran Superfan. We had been to see them in concert at the Liverpool Everyman on their first UK tour, in 1981 and again around Christmas that year at Manchester Apollo. I grew and dyed my hair, started dressing like him, and half formed a band (playing bass guitar badly). Actually come to think of it I was the Superfan..

A few years later along with Claire, I eventually I used my 'credentials' as a journalist for the University newspaper and 'friendship' with the Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell, to gain us access to the recording of the "Oxford Road Show" where we got to meet and spend an afternoon in the company of the entire band backstage at the BBC studios in Manchester.

We were introduced to JT in hair and makup' as he was in the middle of having his hair washed /trimmed. Peter Powell introduced us; "John. I'd like you to meet a couple of Friends of MIne'.

We shook hands,& I said "Hi ,nice to meet you' & tried to stay and look 'cool'. Claire however was completely starstruck and tongue tied. I genuinely thought she was about to faint. . Peter Powell broke the somewhat awkward moment, and said" Guy's, we'd better let them finish up. John, catch you later "..

We turned to leave just as Simon Le Bon entered the room towelling his hair dry, and again introductions were made;

"Simon I'd like you to meet some Friends of Mine." ( Later I wondered if this introduction was a deliberate pun or in-joke, since Peter Powell obviously knew them all well , and "Friends of Mine" is one of the tracks on their debut album. He's a really tall guy I remember thinking, and glanced at Claire who still looked ashen, but she at least managed to regain some composure, & blurt out a muted 'hello',as she shook his hand and smiled weakly.

Over the course of the day, hers (and mine) anxieties lessened somewhat ,and we relaxed a litte, as we had several more opportunities to 'interact' and chat with each of the band members... keyboard player NIck Rhodes; very cool and somewhat aloof, Andy Taylor the guitarist, seemingly a chain smoker in the Keith Richards tradition, and the one who most obviously liked a drink. But it was the drummer Roger Taylor who stood out for me as being basically a nice bloke. He came across as unassuming & 'grounded'. Devastatingly handsome, he had an air of quiet confidence, and self awareness, looking on at the 'fuss' and horseplay around the band with a sort of bemused detachment. The older brother in the room if not the adult.

They do say you should never meet your heros; If I am honest my overall impression of them was slightly mixed. Duran Duran tend to split people into 2 love/hate camps.

They are/ were often accused of being 'superficial' pretentious, and affected, Manufactured Art School nancy boys. making manufactured pop, All image, flouncy clothes, and fluffy hair. And to be fair there was plenty of evidence of this on display that day.

At one point late in the afternoon, we stepped into an elevator with John Taylor ( and Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics who were also there for recording that day). As the lift doors closed, the conversation stalled for a moment as happens in lifts, and the silenced settled around us uncomfortably. Or at least it was uncomfortable for me. As we began our ascent I struggled for something to say and then noticed the lift manufacturer nameplate above the floor numbers: OTIS.

"Aha! I blurted out!!'. My Dad made this lift!" ( He used to be an engineer for OTIS). "What's his name?" said JT. "Mr. Otis?" and everyone laughed including me.

But it's a lousy joke, and I have to admit that apart from feeling a tinge of embarrassment at having been the source, I also felt a momentary flash of anger at the humiliation.

Part of me wanted to shout; "No you wanker!, his name is Ted Cummings and he's actually a really clever guy! He's made the worlds smallest 2 Stroke petrol engine, and nearly won the World Model Helicopter flying Championships."

Thankfully I kept this retort to myself.

But Duran Duran wer'e HUGE and this day was them at pretty much the peak of their fame. They were there to record 'Is there Something I should Know" which would be released a week later, & entered the UK charts at Number 1.

( at at a time when to reach number one meant something like 200K record sales a week.)

I have no idea how exactly I would have behaved if I had achieved that level of fame/success/ money in my early twenties but I think it's fair to say that it would probably have gone to my head, and warped my view of both the world and my place in it.

Listening to 'In the Pleasure Groove" now it's very clear that this is exactly what happened to John Taylor, and indeed was happening to him on the day that we met.

What is even more interesting from my perspective is how his journey continued from that day and almost inevitably spiralled dangerously close to self destruction. I can draw several parallels with my own life albeit for quite different reasons to those of excess drink and drug use, but this is perhaps a different story for a different day.

Rehabilitation clinics aren't something I knew much about, but clearly for those wealthy celebrites and others for whom money and life has lost meaning, they can actually be a life saver.

Ironically despite the title 'The Pleasure Groove - Love, Death and Duran Duran' it is only when John Taylor gets out of the pleasure groove that he begins to find salvation/understanding and perhaps even enlightenment, through the Love and Death of the books subtitle; Love of family/friends/music, & the death of his father in particular.

Rehab gives him the chance to reappraise, reflect & take stock, and of course sober up. Ultimately this leads to a re-set of his own his own values system, a chance to forge stronger relationships with those that matter, reform the band he founded, and pursue music for the love of it rather than fame, accolades, and money.

So what do the rest of us mere mortals do?

Ironically I think this pandemic may have shown us some possibilities, and given the world an opportunity for rehab.

We have all (most of us) had time to think/ reflect / recharge. It's been a time to reassess and perhaps think about changing aspects of our own life, relationships, to both friends and, and family, and 'lifestyles which are harmful to the ecology of the planet as well as ourselves.

Time in fact to rethink our own 'Pleasure Groove'?