The original 1981 band line up consisted of John Taylor, Andy Taylor, Roger Taylor, Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon. Along with their musical popularity they also became leading fashion icons of the 1980’s when they fell pray to the hair liquored mullet hair style and frilly shirt look. In an effort to present fashion as part of their image they worked with designer, Vivienne Westwood in the late 1990’s and with Giorgio Armani in the early 2000’s. 

During the 1980’s the band gained approval from non less than Princess Diana when she revealed in an interview that they were her favourite group and the band were dubbed, ’The Fab Five’ by the British press, a play on the title held by The Beatles in the 19760’s, the ‘Fab Four’. Moving on through the 1980’s the new Romantic era subsided a little and Duran Duran’s new rivals were Boy George’s ‘Culture Club’ and George Michael and Andrew Ridgley’s ‘Wham’.

When Bob Geldof and Midge Ure put together their charity benefit Band Aid single, ‘Do They Know its Christmas?’, they included the boys of Duran Duran in the line up along with Paul Young, Sting, Phil Collins and girl band, Bananarama. In 1985 the band recorded the James Bond movie theme to ‘View to a Kill’ which starred Roger Moore as Bond. It was the only Duran Duran single to reach number one in the USA. At the end of 1985 Simon Le Bon married model Yasmin Parvenah. 

As favourites of the late Princess Diana it was only fitting that her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, should request the attendance of Duran Duran at the Concert for Diana which they  organized in July 2007 to commemorate ten years since their mother’s death. Duran Duran's next album ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ is due for release in November 2007 in both the USA and UK. The single to be released from the album was produced by Justin Timberlake.