Nick Rhodes
Encyclopedia
Nick Rhodes is an English musician, is best known as the keyboardist of the pop rock
band Duran Duran
. Rhodes is the youngest band member and the only member to have been in the band since its creation in 1978.
He has also released albums with Arcadia
in 1985 (a Duran Duran side-project), as well as The Devils
in 2002 with Stephen Duffy
.
toyshop. In 1978, Bates left school at the age of sixteen, and founded Duran Duran with his art school friends Stephen Duffy
and John Taylor
. At about the same time as the name Duran Duran was chosen for the band, he decided to change his name, allegedly due to being taunted by classmates with the moniker "masterbates/Master Bates", to Rhodes
after the Greek island (or after the Rhodes keyboards, according to early magazine articles and interviews). He attended Woodrush High School in Hollywood Birmingham.
While in Woodrush, he and John Taylor formed a band called 'RAF' with other classmates.
As the band coalesced into its final lineup in 1979-80, Duran Duran started playing at a local Birmingham
club called "The Rum Runner
". The club owners became the band's managers, and Rhodes began working at the club as a disc jockey.
", the keyboard stabs of "A View to a Kill
", and the string sounds of "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World
" are some of his most recognizable creations. He also popularised the Crumar
Performer on the early records.
Rhodes was also quick to recognise the potential of the music video, and pushed the band to put more effort into their early videos than seemed warranted at the time (before the advent of MTV). Barely twenty when the band hit major stardom, he cultivated an androgynous and sometimes flamboyant image, wore heavy makeup, and changed his hair colour at whim.
By the late 1990s, Rhodes had begun writing lyrics for Duran Duran, as well as music. His digitally altered voice is heard on the title track to the 1997 album Medazzaland
.
In 2001, the original five members of Duran Duran reunited to record new music; see Duran Duran
for details.
album, and was a co-producer on many of the band's later albums.
In early 1983, he discovered the band Kajagoogoo
and co-produced their debut single Too Shy which became a UK no.1 (prior to any of Duran's singles reaching no.1).
Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo
wrote and produced three tracks for the Blondie
reunion album in 1996; the tracks were not used, but one song called "Pop Trash Movie" was later recorded by Duran Duran for the 2000 album Pop Trash
.
In 2002, Rhodes co-produced and played additional synthesizers in nine tracks of the album Welcome to the Monkey House
by The Dandy Warhols
. In 2004 he produced British-based pop group Riviera F
for their debut EP International Lover, published on Pop Cult/Tape Modern (Rhodes & Stephen Duffy’s label).
and Roger Taylor
, Rhodes formed the side project Arcadia
while Duran Duran was on hiatus in 1985. The band had a moody, keyboard-heavy sound, far more atmospheric than Duran Duran (or the hard rock of the other Duran splinter group of 1985, Power Station
). The band scored a major hit with "Election Day" and the band's only album, So Red The Rose, went platinum in the US but was less successful in their native UK. The band never toured and was dissolved when Duran Duran regrouped in 1986.
Throughout the 1990s, Rhodes worked on a side project called TV Mania
with Duran bandmate Cuccurullo. They created a self-described "social junk culture triptych opera" composed of music, dialogue, samples, and "found sound," and hoped to make it into a Broadway play. The music and packaging have reportedly been finished, but they have not found a label to release it.
In 1999, Rhodes reunited with Duran Duran's original vocalist, Stephen Duffy
, to create new music based on some of the earliest Duran music the two had written together. The result was the album Dark Circles, released under the name The Devils
.
Also in 1999, Rhodes had a small guest appearance (in voice only) as a Canadian bomber pilot in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
.
In 2006 Rhodes and John Taylor collaborated on the compilation album Only After Dark
.
Rhodes became enamoured of the art world early in his career, making friends with Andy Warhol
and The Factory
crowd, and attending exhibitions worldwide. At the end of 1984, he released his own book of abstract art photographs called Interference. Many of the photos were displayed at an exhibition at the Hamilton Gallery in London.
Rhodes' father, Roger Bates, to whom he was close, died in 2008. Duran Duran's 7 July 2008 concert at the Birmingham NIA was dedicated to Rhodes' father.
In November 2011, Rhodes received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts degree from the University of Bedfordshire, for his services to the music industry as a songwriter, performer, and producer.
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
band Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
. Rhodes is the youngest band member and the only member to have been in the band since its creation in 1978.
He has also released albums with Arcadia
Arcadia (band)
Arcadia were the pop group formed in 1985 by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran, during a break in that band's schedule. However, Roger Taylor appeared in only a few band photographs and in none of the music videos, and stated he was only to be involved in the recording side...
in 1985 (a Duran Duran side-project), as well as The Devils
The Devils (band)
The Devils is the name of an English electronic pop band, formed by Nick Rhodes and Stephen Duffy.The first incarnation of Duran Duran in 1978 included Rhodes as keyboardist, John Taylor on guitar and Duffy as songwriter/vocalist and bassist...
in 2002 with Stephen Duffy
Stephen Duffy
Stephen Anthony James Duffy is an English singer/songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He was a founding member and vocalist/bassist of Duran Duran. He went on to record as a solo performer under several different names, and is the singer and songwriter for The Lilac Time with his older brother...
.
Early history
Bates was the only child of well-off parents, the owners of a BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
toyshop. In 1978, Bates left school at the age of sixteen, and founded Duran Duran with his art school friends Stephen Duffy
Stephen Duffy
Stephen Anthony James Duffy is an English singer/songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He was a founding member and vocalist/bassist of Duran Duran. He went on to record as a solo performer under several different names, and is the singer and songwriter for The Lilac Time with his older brother...
and John Taylor
Nigel John Taylor
John Taylor is an English musician who is best known as the bass guitarist and co-founder of pop rock band Duran Duran....
. At about the same time as the name Duran Duran was chosen for the band, he decided to change his name, allegedly due to being taunted by classmates with the moniker "masterbates/Master Bates", to Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
after the Greek island (or after the Rhodes keyboards, according to early magazine articles and interviews). He attended Woodrush High School in Hollywood Birmingham.
While in Woodrush, he and John Taylor formed a band called 'RAF' with other classmates.
As the band coalesced into its final lineup in 1979-80, Duran Duran started playing at a local Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
club called "The Rum Runner
Rum Runner (nightclub)
The Rum Runner nightclub was opened on Broad Street, Birmingham in the city centre in 1964. It was demolished in 1987 to make way for the Hyatt Hotel....
". The club owners became the band's managers, and Rhodes began working at the club as a disc jockey.
Contributions to Duran Duran
The band achieved rapid success, and Rhodes was a driving force throughout. An unschooled musician, he experimented with the sounds his analogue synthesisers were capable of, but shied away from the "novelty" sounds of some other early synth bands. The distinctive warble of "Save A PrayerSave A Prayer
"Save a Prayer" is the sixth single by Duran Duran, released on 9 August 1982.The song was the third single from the band's second album Rio...
", the keyboard stabs of "A View to a Kill
A View to a Kill (song)
"A View to a Kill" is the thirteenth single by Duran Duran, released in May 1985.It was a stand-alone single, created for the James Bond movie A View to a Kill, and it remains the only James Bond theme song to have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100; it also made it to #2 for 3 weeks on the UK...
", and the string sounds of "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World
Ordinary World
"Ordinary World" is the first single from Duran Duran's self-titled 1993 album, better known as The Wedding Album. The song peaked at No. 3 in the American charts and No. 6 in the British charts...
" are some of his most recognizable creations. He also popularised the Crumar
Crumar
Crumar is an Italian company which manufactured synthesizers and keyboards in the 60's, 70s and 80s. Its name is taken from that of its founder, Mario Crucianelli...
Performer on the early records.
Rhodes was also quick to recognise the potential of the music video, and pushed the band to put more effort into their early videos than seemed warranted at the time (before the advent of MTV). Barely twenty when the band hit major stardom, he cultivated an androgynous and sometimes flamboyant image, wore heavy makeup, and changed his hair colour at whim.
By the late 1990s, Rhodes had begun writing lyrics for Duran Duran, as well as music. His digitally altered voice is heard on the title track to the 1997 album Medazzaland
Medazzaland
Medazzaland is the ninth album by British pop rock group Duran Duran. It was released by Capitol Records on in the U.S., where it reached #58 on the Billboard album chart. It was never officially released in Europe....
.
In 2001, the original five members of Duran Duran reunited to record new music; see Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
for details.
Record production
Rhodes studied production techniques while in the studio with Duran Duran, eventually helping to mix several tracks on the RioRio (album)
Rio is the second studio album by the British rock band Duran Duran, originally released worldwide on 10 May 1982. It reached #2 in the UK and #1 in Australia....
album, and was a co-producer on many of the band's later albums.
In early 1983, he discovered the band Kajagoogoo
Kajagoogoo
Kajagoogoo are a British pop band, best known for their hit single, "Too Shy", which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 5 on the U.S...
and co-produced their debut single Too Shy which became a UK no.1 (prior to any of Duran's singles reaching no.1).
Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo
Warren Cuccurullo
Warren Bruce Cuccurullo in Brooklyn, New York is an American rock musician who worked with Frank Zappa, was a founding member of Missing Persons, and has been a long term member of Duran Duran. He also has some notoriety in the porn industry after making nude appearances in a magazine and...
wrote and produced three tracks for the Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
reunion album in 1996; the tracks were not used, but one song called "Pop Trash Movie" was later recorded by Duran Duran for the 2000 album Pop Trash
Pop Trash
"Last Day on Earth" directs here. For the 2009 song by Kate Miller-Heidke, see The Last Day on EarthReleased in 2000, Pop Trash is Duran Duran's tenth album. The album marked their first release not under Capitol Records/EMI, with whom they'd been signed since 1981. It was also the last to...
.
In 2002, Rhodes co-produced and played additional synthesizers in nine tracks of the album Welcome to the Monkey House
Welcome to the Monkey House (album)
Welcome to the Monkey House is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band The Dandy Warhols. "We Used to Be Friends" was a popular single from the album, which later went on to be the theme song for the cult TV show Veronica Mars....
by The Dandy Warhols
The Dandy Warhols
The Dandy Warhols are an American alternative rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1994. The band was founded by singer-guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmström, with keyboardist Zia McCabe and drummer Eric Hedford later joining. Hedford left in 1998 and was replaced by...
. In 2004 he produced British-based pop group Riviera F
Riviera f
Riviera F is an electropop band created in London, United Kingdom. The band consists of Alexa Marlen and Kairo Sin. Other members included Taylor Sloane, Nikki Paris, Logan Sky,Yves Cecil and Etienne LeBeau . They were known as Riviera up until 2003, then changed the name to Riviera F. To date they...
for their debut EP International Lover, published on Pop Cult/Tape Modern (Rhodes & Stephen Duffy’s label).
Side projects
With his bandmates Simon Le BonSimon Le Bon
Simon John Charles Le Bon is an English musician, best known as the lead singer, lyricist and musician of the band Duran Duran and its offshoot, Arcadia.-Early life:...
and Roger Taylor
Roger Andrew Taylor
Roger Andrew Taylor is an English double grammy award winning musician who is best known as the drummer of British rock band Duran Duran from their inception until 1985, and again from 2001 onwards, the band selling in excess of 80 million records worldwide in the process.-Early life:Taylor began...
, Rhodes formed the side project Arcadia
Arcadia (band)
Arcadia were the pop group formed in 1985 by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran, during a break in that band's schedule. However, Roger Taylor appeared in only a few band photographs and in none of the music videos, and stated he was only to be involved in the recording side...
while Duran Duran was on hiatus in 1985. The band had a moody, keyboard-heavy sound, far more atmospheric than Duran Duran (or the hard rock of the other Duran splinter group of 1985, Power Station
Power Station (band)
Power Station was a 1980s supergroup made up of singer Robert Palmer, former Chic drummer Tony Thompson, and Duran Duran members John Taylor and Andy Taylor . Bernard Edwards, also of Chic, was involved on the studio side as recording producer. For a short time he also functioned as Power...
). The band scored a major hit with "Election Day" and the band's only album, So Red The Rose, went platinum in the US but was less successful in their native UK. The band never toured and was dissolved when Duran Duran regrouped in 1986.
Throughout the 1990s, Rhodes worked on a side project called TV Mania
TV Mania
TV Mania was an electronic band founded in 1995 that consisted of keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, both of Duran Duran and producer/multi-instrumentalist Anthony J. Resta...
with Duran bandmate Cuccurullo. They created a self-described "social junk culture triptych opera" composed of music, dialogue, samples, and "found sound," and hoped to make it into a Broadway play. The music and packaging have reportedly been finished, but they have not found a label to release it.
In 1999, Rhodes reunited with Duran Duran's original vocalist, Stephen Duffy
Stephen Duffy
Stephen Anthony James Duffy is an English singer/songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He was a founding member and vocalist/bassist of Duran Duran. He went on to record as a solo performer under several different names, and is the singer and songwriter for The Lilac Time with his older brother...
, to create new music based on some of the earliest Duran music the two had written together. The result was the album Dark Circles, released under the name The Devils
The Devils (band)
The Devils is the name of an English electronic pop band, formed by Nick Rhodes and Stephen Duffy.The first incarnation of Duran Duran in 1978 included Rhodes as keyboardist, John Taylor on guitar and Duffy as songwriter/vocalist and bassist...
.
Also in 1999, Rhodes had a small guest appearance (in voice only) as a Canadian bomber pilot in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a 1999 animated musical comedy film based on the animated television series South Park, created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The film was directed by Parker, who also stars along with the rest of the regular voice cast from the series, including Stone, Mary...
.
In 2006 Rhodes and John Taylor collaborated on the compilation album Only After Dark
Only After Dark (album)
"Only After Dark" is a compilation CD album that was compiled by Nick Rhodes and John Taylor from Duran Duran, and recreates a night at Birmingham's Rum Runner nightclub, during the post punk days of the late 70s/early 80s when a new sound of glam/punk/electronica started to crystallize...
.
Personal life
Rhodes met Julie Anne Friedman (heiress to the Iowa, USA Younkers Department Store fortune) at a yacht party while on an American tour in 1982, and married her on 18 August 1984. They have one daughter together, Tatjana Lee Orchid (born 23 August 1986). After a brief separation and an attempt to reconcile, they filed for divorce in 1992.Rhodes became enamoured of the art world early in his career, making friends with Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
and The Factory
The Factory
The Factory was Andy Warhol's original New York City studio from 1962 to 1968, although his later studios were known as The Factory as well. The Factory was located on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street, in Midtown Manhattan. The rent was "only about one hundred dollars a year"...
crowd, and attending exhibitions worldwide. At the end of 1984, he released his own book of abstract art photographs called Interference. Many of the photos were displayed at an exhibition at the Hamilton Gallery in London.
Rhodes' father, Roger Bates, to whom he was close, died in 2008. Duran Duran's 7 July 2008 concert at the Birmingham NIA was dedicated to Rhodes' father.
In November 2011, Rhodes received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts degree from the University of Bedfordshire, for his services to the music industry as a songwriter, performer, and producer.
External links
- DuranDuran.com Official Site of Duran Duran.