In The Pleasure Groove
Love, Death and Duran Duran
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4.3 • 72 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
With Duran Duran, John Taylor has created some of the greatest songs of our time. From the disco dazzle of debut single 'Planet Earth' right up to their latest number one album All You Need is Now, Duran Duran has always had the power to sweep the world onto its feet.
It's been a ride - and for John in particular, the ride has been wild, thrilling... and dangerous. Now, for the first time, he tells his incredible story - a tale of dreams fulfilled, lessons learned and demons conquered.
A shy only child, Nigel John Taylor wasn't an obvious candidate for pop stardom and frenzied girl panic. But when he ditched his first name and picked up a bass guitar, everything changed. John formed Duran Duran with his friend Nick Rhodes in the spring of 1978, and they were soon joined by Roger Taylor, then Andy Taylor and finally Simon Le Bon. Together they were an immediate, massive global success story, their pictures on millions of walls, every single a worldwide hit.
In his frank, compelling autobiography, John recounts the highs - hanging out with icons like Bowie, Warhol and even James Bond; dating Vogue models and driving fast cars - all the while playing hard with the band he loved. But he faced tough battles ahead - troubles that brought him to the brink of self-destruction - before turning his life around.
Told with humour, honesty and hard-won wisdom, and packed with exclusive pictures, In the Pleasure Groove is a fascinating, irresistible portrait of a man who danced into the fire... and came through the other side.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Duran Duran was one of the most successful pop groups of the early 1980s and is still performing today outliving such contemporaries as Spandau Ballet and Culture Club. Founding member and bass player Taylor delivers a straightforward look at the band's career that will be of interest primarily to its still sizable fan base and anyone who once was a Duran fan. Like Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran, guitarist Andy Taylor's 2008 biography, Taylor covers most of the band's high points: its groundbreaking music videos that put MTV on the map, its success in America and its starring appearance at Live Aid in 1985. But unlike Andy Taylor in Wild Boy, John Taylor doesn't back away from describing the heavy drug use that later led to his entering rehab. Taylor offers some fascinating insights into the way London's pop music scene shifted from punk rock's "three-chord angry noise" to "New Romanticism," a revival of 1970s glam rock with a heavy disco beat: "Multimedia, fashion, dance, art. We wanted it all in the mix." Taylor also insightfully notes that the Live Aid concert perhaps the band's peak performance created "an immense sea change" in pop culture. "Things that you could get away with in 1984, you could not get away with twelve months later" as the stripped-down "indie rock" of bands like the Smiths swept away the excesses of the New Romantics.
Customer Reviews
Great read
Nice easy read . Being a brummy & a Duranie as a kid - it really was a great trip down memory lane
JT DD
A very open and honest account of Nigel aka John Taylor's life and times in and out of Duran Duran. After their superb first album I was never a big fan, but you don't need to be a Duranie to enjoy this. Excellent.
Insightful
An awesome look into the life of a band that fundamentally had a huge impact on my life, Duran Duran were the book of my life from planet earth to all you need is now DD were songs for so many moments in my life good and bad. In 2011 tried everything in power to get them to South Africa. I will continue with that dream. Thank you John for taking inside the world that is Duran Duran