SmartLess: "Simon Le Bon"

Wondery | Amazon Music | SmartLess LLC 4/17/23 - 59m - PDF Transcript

Transcript
Show Notes

Ду-ду-ду-ду

Ду-ду-ду

Ду-ду-ду-ду

Ду-ду-ду

Ду-ду-ду-ду

Ду-ду-ду-ду-ду

Ду-ду-ду-ду

Что-то, что мы делаем здесь, это рэп, что Уилл всегда был,

в том числе с музыкой.

А там, наверное, музыка, которая идёт с ней.

О, мой бог.

Теперь, вы хотите нам сделать бит?

Моя имя зовут Уилл, с W,

перед X, Y, Z, после T, и у вас.

Вы слышите мой дефрайм.

Это время прайм.

Нет.

Как many times have the boys heard that on the way to school?

Что-то, я просто сказал.

Это не...

Он просто... Он тоже grabs the microphone,

как он шокенеет.

Но вы вывели effort into that.

Нет, я не делал это.

Нет, нет, нет. Я думаю, что...

Я сказал это в тюрьму, когда он в машине.

И потом я просто сказал это...

Это как-то бедный...

Ты знаешь, фристалл в том числе.

Ну, в какой-то момент, Шон, мы будем идти в вашу поп-коррер.

Кто-то тоже.

Кто-то точно тоже.

Но я тоже хамстрон.

Я скажу вам, кто не хамстрон.

Это сегвей.

Это очень хороший сегвей.

Я чувствую, что мои сегвейы становятся worse.

Я скажу это лучше, но сейчас я думаю, что это кажется worse.

Ты знаешь, наш...

Я не хамстрон, но у нас есть талант.

У нас есть гест, и ни у него есть он.

О.

Этот человек как-то знал его голосом.

О.

В любом случае...

И он знал его голосом так долго.

В так many iconic ways.

This is one of my bucket list...

All Rubens.

...guests...

All Rubens.

...who I have not stopped talking about and quoting and singing and listening to and type for years and years and years.

I've bored you guys with it, and I've just always wanted to know.

They played...

He has played such a huge part in my musical experience throughout my life in so many different ways and different incarnations.

Phony Var.

Again, one of our guests who, once I start to list things off, you're just going to immediately know who it is, even though you guys already...

He has done it at all.

He's an Englishman who, along with his buddies Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, decided to create a little band called Duran.

Duran is Simon LeBon.

What?

Will, how do you do it, Will?

Oh my god.

Come on!

Oh, that's so cool.

Come on, you fellas.

Nice to meet you.

Simon, how do you know Will Arnett?

Will, how do you know Simon?

I mean, I know you're a fan of Simon.

That's a great question.

It's completely irrelevant, because we don't know each other.

That's right.

They just...

I just got a call from the production company offering me a huge amount of money to do your podcast.

I thought, how come they pay me that much?

How can they possibly make a treat?

It's out of my own pocket.

I went out of my own pocket for this.

Simon, I've been trying to get you on the podcast since we started.

We've had to cut out clips of your music just because of your publishing and royalties reasons.

I would constantly come on to the show playing Duran Duran.

I'm such a massive fan.

We all are massive fans.

It's such an honor to have you here.

I've seen you in concert like two or three times and it just blows me away every time.

So, Simon LeBon.

We're coming back.

We're back on tour in America this year.

When?

Don't push it.

I'm not trying to flog it to you.

I'm coming.

I'll come.

Are you playing at the Tabasco Theatre?

Are we?

No, that's where Sean is.

Do you mean I've got to look at my itinerary?

No, no, no.

Sean is playing at the Bellasco Theatre.

His new play, Good Night Oscar, opens in April at the Bellasco Theatre on Broadway.

Oh, the Bellasco.

Not Tabasco.

On Broadway.

Jason was just being cheeky, as you might say.

We have played at the Bellasco.

Have you?

I'm in New York.

And it's next door to the Mayan, isn't it?

I've never been there.

I leave in a week.

I think it's next door.

We've played at both the Bellasco and the Mayan Theatre downtown LA.

Or is it downtown?

Or is it sort of?

No, this is in New York.

Are we played at the other Bellasco?

Right, yeah.

The Annex.

The Bellasco too.

Okay.

The Bellasco too.

You've played everywhere.

First of all, you are.

You have a new record.

And you guys are going on tour.

You did some dates at, did you do four shows at the Hollywood Ball?

Am I right about that?

We did three.

Three.

Three amazing shows.

The first one, it was absolutely pissing with rain.

Really?

Oh really?

And it was.

But rain shows are always special ones.

But in Los Angeles, rain falls like chemicals from the sky for people in Los Angeles.

Everybody scurries.

They don't.

Is that why everybody runs around with their tongues sticking out?

Yeah.

People just don't know what to do with it.

I always say that rain in LA is a chance for all the people on the west side to get out

their fancy all-weather clothing.

Get to accessorize.

Yeah.

It starts to drizzle and people have their great boots and their fucking hoodie and coat.

And the safari vehicle.

And the snow tires.

Just to make it to Trader Joe's.

And the snow tires.

And the safari vehicle with the snow tires on the chains come out.

And a rhubar on the front.

So, Simon, and we're going to get into how you guys became, what you became, and who you

became in terms of musically and what an influence you are.

But I kind of want to, I want to get back to the start because I know so little about

it.

I want to know, first of all-

This is so thrilling.

It's such an unbelievable thrill.

It's so cool.

You started as an actor.

You went to drama school.

Is that right?

Well, really?

I started as an acting student, as a student actor.

Yeah.

And I had a few roles.

I did a few things.

I was more of an advert kid, I did personal adverts, that's like washing powder.

I did a few commercials, and I did a run at a theater in the West End when I was a teenager.

But I was an aspiring actor, and I went to university, and I studied acting in university.

That's so crazy.

And at the same time, I met a bunch of guys called Gerand Gerand, who were looking for,

wait for it, a lead singer.

And I had had, I had had my own punk band.

Well, me and my three mates, we'd had a punk band.

Back in Pina, the little suburban town that I grew up in, and I fitted right into Gerand

Gerand.

And that was the end of-

How did you know you could sing?

You auditioned for it?

Well, because I was always a singer.

Oh, you were always a singer, too?

Yeah, I was singing from the cradle.

I sang in church choir, I used to do singing competitions, I got a guitar, and I thought I taught myself

to play guitar.

Well, actually, Mr. Shuri, the folk guitarist who gave ten lessons at the school I went

to taught me how to play guitar.

And I learned the rest of it.

I learned to play slow down, you move too fast, you gotta make the morning less just, kicking

down the cobblestones, looking for fun and feeling groovy.

That's the reach right there.

If you can hit that, then you pick the right.

You're one of those few singers, too, because of the training and stuff.

And I said this to another friend of mine that sings, you have the proper training to

know how to use it so you can tour and you can do night after night and you can sing

properly, as they say, where other people who don't scream lose their voice and they don't

know how to take care of it.

Isn't that true?

Well, I make no mistake, I used to go out on tour and scream and lose my voice.

I think we all did.

A lot of us did in the early days, mainly because we didn't have ear monitors, so we were competing

with the guitar.

You can only turn the vocal monitors up so loud before they start feeding back.

So there's a point at which you can't amplify the voice on the stage any higher.

And of course, the guitar can just get louder and louder and louder and louder and louder until

the only way you can hear yourself singing is if you shriek your head off.

We also don't forget, in a lot of places, we were competing with tens of thousands of

screaming teenagers, many of them female, with very loud, high voices.

And one in the way back.

And then they're shy.

And one bloke.

That was you, was it?

And one young.

I bet you had a great time.

With a smoky eye.

Just come from behind the soda machine, from a make-out session with another guy.

But wait, so Simon, so by the way, were you always like giving...

It's true, by the way.

He was true.

So were you giving shitty glances over to the guy, who was an Andy Taylor on guitar at

that point, where you were like, hey, man, tone it down?

Yeah, well, I mean, I knew that it wouldn't make any difference what I said to him.

So, honestly, you know.

I love learning what the ear monitor is for, because I feel like that's a recent thing,

those ones that are formed right to your ear, like that's over the last ten years.

Well, the first time, they're older than that.

You'd be surprised.

The first time we went on tour and I had ear monitors was 1993.

1993?

1993.

So we've had them for 30 years.

When you first got it, were you like, oh man, this is...

Yeah.

It was extraordinary.

I could just turn, I could turn the guitar down, so there was nothing at all in my ears.

And then, of course, you know, if you take all the other instruments out, you sing out of tune,

so that's no good.

But I found, you know, you've learned to make a really good balance of the things that are

in your head and it works.

And it is much easier to save your voice.

What's more satisfying when a huge crowd starts singing the words that you're singing, like

they know the song, they love the song, or when they're completely silent and they're

just totally engaged and you have them in the palm of your hand and they're listening

to you doing your great singing.

Like I've always wondered that.

Well the way you put it makes it sound a little egotistical, me listen, them listen to my great

singing.

This is a safe zone.

So it's not really like that.

See what they do, really, is that they sing along with the big old favorite songs, songs

like Hungry Like The Wolf, Planet Earth, Come Undone, Every World.

And the list does go on.

They sing along with those ones.

But when we play new music, especially sort of like the new ballads and things, so off

our latest album, which by the way is entitled Future Past, that's when they listen because

they're not so familiar with the songs.

So you get that chance with the new album, with the new material, you get that chance to just

for them to hear it the way you want them to hear it.

And we will be right back.

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When I ask a dumb question, Durand-Duran means what?

Well, it's like Smith-Smith.

Durand is the most common name in France.

Well, it's the second most common name, actually, because the most common one is Dupont.

But we didn't like the sound of Dupont-Dupont.

Durand-Duran, I'm looking for Durand-Duran from Planet Earth.

Durand-Duran from Planet Earth, yes, Durand-Duran from Planet Earth.

From which we got the band name and the name of our first single.

Gotcha.

And the name of your first record, Durand-Duran, obviously, was Planet Earth the first single

from...

Yeah.

We didn't actually take that from the Roger Vadim film, Barbaraella.

You did not.

No, it was only afterwards, when we watched the film again, that we realized that the title

was of our first single was in it.

It was a wonderful coincidence.

Yeah, because that's the character's name in the film, right?

So Milo O'Shay played a character called Durand-Duran, and he had done a bit of a...

He was a scientist, but he'd done a naughty bunk with some kind of pleasure machine.

And also this deadly weapon called depositronic ray.

Anyway, this old pervert, back in the Earth Foundation, got the youngest, most attractive

astronaut, which is Jane Fonda, as Barbaraella, to go out and find it.

I kind of see this movie.

I've heard about it for years.

It's a wonderful film.

If you haven't watched it recently, watch it.

What's the name of the movie?

Barbaraella.

It's called Barbaraella.

You've heard of it, right, Sean?

It's a very famous film.

Yeah, of course.

And then Pam Anderson remade it, I think.

Did she really?

Did she?

I don't know.

Maybe I got that wrong.

Maybe it was a different girl's name.

Chances are high.

Chances are high that Sean just likes to throw things out there.

So Simon...

So Durand...

And the character's name...

It was Durand-Durand, right?

If I'm not mistaken.

Was the D on the other?

It is.

I think so.

Anyway.

Which gives you even more...

Disappointments.

No, no, I'm sorry to...

Ну, you know...

We...

You know...

Because John and Nick were sitting there, say, in their Birmingham living room, watching

the movie.

And all they could hear was Durand-Durand, say.

Right.

So...

So that was the name of the band at the time.

So you guys formed Durand-Durand, Planet Earth, a big hit.

And then, if I'm not mistaken, was Girls on Film also on that first record?

I think it was, yeah?

Yeah, it was, yeah.

And you guys, that was one of...

That video, and I don't know if you guys remember, that video was, like, really too hot for American

audiences.

Oh, yeah.

Yes, I remember that.

Right?

Walk us through that one.

What we did was we made two versions of that video.

And it was...

Kevin Godley and Lol Krim were the video directors.

We made one version, which was quite tame, and you could put it on MTV during sort of,

you know, sort of family hours.

And then the other version, the night version, which was a longer...

It was a longer video, and we actually wrote an extended piece of music for it.

That was...

You could only see that on Video Duke Boxes, Rock America, Video Duke Boxes, in night clubs

around the United States.

And speaking of which, night versions, you guys actually, and I found this out just...

You guys went and re-mixed all your own songs and did night versions so that they...

Am I right about that?

No, we didn't re-mix them.

We re-recorded them.

So we actually recorded longer versions.

We didn't just cut and paste the...

Which you couldn't do that anyway.

Right.

Because it was all on tape, it was all on magnetic tape.

We didn't try to kind of copy anything and stick it on later.

We wrote 12-minute versions of the song, of all the songs that we did night versions of.

So that it would lend itself better to sort of dance clubs and whatnot, as opposed to...

Yeah, because that was the only way we could do it.

That was the only way we knew how to make long versions, 12-inch records, was to go back

in and record them as 12-inches.

Isn't that amazing?

And so they have this whole...

You can go and you can look it up, and they've got all the release of all these night versions

of these extended versions that I did not know that you re-wrote and re-recorded, which

is pretty heavy lifting.

I know, but that was just the job that there was to do.

And if you listen to the girls on film version, the girls on film night version, it has a completely

different last verse.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

It goes...

How's it go?

God.

I'm touching close, I'm holding right, shutters in a whisper, I'm coming closer, take me high

till I'm shooting a star.

Oh.

Only it's more like...

Sharing a star!

That's the backup section.

Oh, sorry, Mum.

Am I going on a bit too long?

Did you?

I've always wanted to know whose laugh is at the beginning of Hungry Like the Wolf, which

is one of my favourite intros to a song ever.

Yeah, that actually was...

It was a girlfriend, her name was Cheryl, she was my girlfriend, and then funny things that

happened in this life, she became Nick's girlfriend.

No way.

How did that happen?

I would imagine that's not the only time that happened.

You guys have been together for quite some time.

Okay, we're going to move right along now.

Speaking of being together for a long, long time, you guys have been making music for so

long and been relevant for so long and been able to do what it is you want to do for

so long for such a great big audience.

What is the process of staying true to where you guys want to go, changing your musical

sound and having that kind of progress, and then also trying to stay as aware of and

is in touch with as possible, what the changing of music is in popular music.

There was a time when it was all the music, the instruments were plugged in and then they

were not plugged in and then there was more like, you know, how does that go, or do you

guys just make music for you and hope that it catches on?

I think you've got to, there's a couple of ground rules here.

Number one is you can't follow trends.

You can't make, you can't be following a trend as your major kind of writing inspiration.

That cannot be your major inspiration.

You have to make music that you like, that you enjoy, otherwise there will be no passion

in it and people can hear, they can hear the difference between something that you really

mean and something you're just going through the motions with.

And I, but also I think you've got to be aware of where music is at the moment, I mean, and

I think, and we all are, and we always have been.

We, you know, there's stuff that we did in the 1980s, we never dream of doing now because

it just wouldn't be relevant to us now.

What do you do when your taste in where things have gone is not aligned with your bandmates?

What does that kind of creative negotiation like was you guys are starting to work out a new

song?

Well, you know, there has been times when somebody's gone in the studio, laid down some parts and

somebody's come in after them and laid down completely contradicting parts that don't work

with the ones that went down before.

The strong usually survives.

The strong, strong music or the strong personality.

The strong, the strong, the music.

And what are the politics of that like, like sort of navigating that within?

Well, nobody's got any, there's nobody who's more, whose opinion is more important than

anybody else's.

It's gotta be hard, though.

And you know, when you went off and did, went solo on projects, I've always wondered, what

is that dynamic?

How do you have that conversation like, guys, I love you, but I'm going to go do this for

a second.

Do they have any animosity here?

Well, none of us have really gone solo.

Oh, I thought you had solo stuff.

No, not really.

I mean, I've done a couple of, I've done a couple of things.

Nick and I did the Arcadia project, John and Andy did the Power Station project, and Roger,

God bless him, he did drums on both projects.

Oh wow, okay.

So he was a, he's the only guy who was in both Power Station and Arcadia.

Yeah, I love both.

By the way, the fact that you guys weren't named the Taylors is incredible considering there,

it's Roger, Andy and John in the band.

All unrelated.

Unrelated, yeah.

Unrelated.

Yeah.

So you guys do, you guys do, you and Nick do the Arcadia thing, those guys go and do Power

Station.

Yeah.

And then that, and then sort of five years later, you guys, you do the wedding album.

Is that right?

No, it wasn't quite like that.

So in the last, we did, we did Seven of a Ragged Tiger, went on tour throughout sort of 84.

Then we, then we got back together and we did View to a Kill.

Oh yes.

Yeah.

And that was the last recording that the original five members made before the hiatus and the

Power Station and Arcadia.

Then Power Station and Arcadia happened, and then we got back together, but in the getting

back together, it turned out that ultimately we would only have, well not ultimately, but

when we, when we tried to get back together to reconvene the original Juman Javan, we weren't

able to get Andy Taylor back in the band really, and definitely weren't able to get Roger Taylor

back.

So Andy was kind of in it and kind of out of it.

Roger was definitely out of it.

And sort of after a while, we realized that it would be, you know, be me and Nick and

John, Andy wasn't going to be a guitarist and Roger was not going to be our drummer.

So we looked for other guys to work with.

And quite happily, we really kind of developed our friendship and working relationship with

Niall Rogers at that time, and that's when we kind of had the Notorious album.

That's when that's what, that was what made that.

Is there a story you can share that you're comfortable sharing about why those two guys weren't

able to come back in that new incarnation?

Well, yeah, sure, Roger, he really had his, he, it all became a bit too much for Roger.

I don't know the, I don't know the exact term for the, the sort of the psychological problem

that he was having, you know, it wasn't a nervous breakdown.

It was, it was, but it, something happened to him and it, and the anxiety was too much

for him and he wasn't able to carry on with the band.

And Andy just wanted to be a rock and roller, and he just didn't think that Gerand Gerand

was the right vehicle for the kind of music he wanted to make at that time.

You know, he went off and he recorded the band Thunder, and he did, he did some of his own

rock records, heavy sort of American style rock record.

Whereas we wanted to be Gerand, the rest of us wanted to be Gerand Gerand.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I have a question about touring, like, because I think people, when people go see a live show,

you know, and they go nuts for you guys, and then the show's over, they go home, and they're

like, what an incredible show.

Not realizing you have to do it night after night after night after night, or sometimes

with just a little break in between.

What do you do to get ready for a tour?

Because I can't imagine how grueling that is on your voice, on your body, on your sleep

schedule and like the food that you have to, like you just have to maintain all of that.

And second part is, you know, I live for horrific live stories, like what's the worst, some,

what a fan did, like, did they rush to stage, and something happened, or I love those

kinds of stories if you're having it.

Right.

Just, let me just try and unpack.

Yeah, just take a, put two in there.

Just go ahead and take the first one.

Let's do the first one, which is, the first part of that question was, what do you have

to do to kind of get ready for a tour?

Well, we rehearse, but I think, you know, we made, we kind of have…

Which is like physically and mentally.

Yeah.

Well, physically, we try not to leave it too long between shows.

So, we had a before, we had, even though it was a little one, we had a performance at

New Year in Times Square, and that kind of just keeps, just keeps you nudging that, nudging

your personal fitness up, and we're ready, we're going back out again in April, so we'll

be rehearsing before that, and we'll all be physically capable of the job, of doing

the job properly.

And psychologically, I mean, just once you get to a certain kind of state in your career,

and you know that the more you try, the harder it is, so you need to just go up there and

just do it, and not try too hard, it's a bit like, you know, hitting a tennis ball, or

a golf ball, or a cricket ball, or even a baseball, let's say.

You know, it's that relaxed swing that has, gives you the best results, and performing

is a bit like that.

You've got to be relaxed, but accurate, and to do that, you've got to be confident.

You've got to really believe in yourself and believe that you can do it.

Yeah, because you're going from just, you know, not running around the stage for a year

or whatever, to mounting a tour, to all of a sudden, you have to run around the stage,

you have to keep that endurance up.

It's just got to be, I can't imagine.

John, you had to do, I mean, you were on Broadway, you did it, you did a couple of musicals, and...

Yeah, and it's, yeah, that's why I ask, is because, well, I'm gearing up to do it again,

and it's, you know, mentally, just have to...

That's a Tabasco.

Mentally, can I ask you a question?

Do you suffer from nerves?

Oh God, yeah.

So I have something for you.

I have something for you.

This is my gift to you.

It's my litany against nerves, and it goes like this.

It's not fear, it's adrenaline.

It's just your mind and your body preparing you to do something extraordinary, and you

will do something extraordinary.

Yeah, I love that.

Amen.

God, if you're at home, record that, and pay that back for yourself.

I love that too.

Honestly, it makes such a difference when you realize, I'm not frightened, it's just

the butterflies.

It's just the side effect of me sharpening up.

Did you have those, but like, when you guys...

When you started, you released Durand Durand, sort of in the early 80s, those first, I don't

know, five years of the 80s, 80 through 85, maybe the most in-demand band in the world,

it must have been like, you just rocketed up.

All your records were top of the pops, and you had so many singles, and you're on tour

all the time.

Did you have time in that, were you young enough to not be nervous and just to be fucking cocky

and just...

Ну, I mean, I've been nervous with every single performance I've done, but I've learned

to cope with it.

And also, when the music starts and you walk on stage, the nerves becomes, it's more

like that little shower that you go through on the way to the swimming pool, you know,

the hygiene shower, where they spray you with sulfuric acid, that's what they do in

this country.

You know, you walk through it, it's like a shower bath that you walk through, and you

come out and you walk on stage and the music starts, and the nerves just, they just recede

into the darker back part of your brain, and suddenly you're there with the music and

the audience.

And that's, in a way, the importance of that overcomes all the rest of it.

One of the other things that I would think that you would need and want is the desire

to be out there and to be playing the same set every night, could get monotonous, same

thing with theater, right, Sean, where you're doing the same material every night.

How do you find the excitement to do it as good as, or if not better than last night?

It's a good question.

It's a really good question.

What is that?

Are you channeling into the audience?

What is more to it?

No, no.

No, I think what it is, is I think this...

So you have to, the audience is part of it, I think, because that's the audience's one

time to see you on that tour.

Maybe they won't come, maybe some of them will come back next tour, a few of them will come

and see more shows on that tour, but for most of the people in that room, it's their one

time seeing Juran Juran, maybe for two or three years, four years, five years, maybe the only

time in their lives they can see Juran Juran.

And then you just remember that they deserve the best show they can get.

And then you start to, then you let the music, you just have to give yourself to the music.

I've got another, I've got a little mantra before I go on stage as well, and that is, let

the songs do the work.

I don't have to go out there and give a performance.

I have to let the, I just have to serve the songs.

And then everything else about the performance falls into place.

And when you do that, and the music, the music has got a great way of putting you right in

the moment.

And you're not thinking about what you're going to go and have for dinner in a restaurant

after the show.

And you're not thinking about what somebody said to you back in the hotel or something

else.

You become very much in the moment.

And when you're in the moment, you can't be bored because every little thing that you're

doing is so important that it's, you're, as I said, you're serving the songs, you're doing

the best you can to, to deliver these really good songs in the best way they could be, could

be presented.

I'm the opposite.

When I'm on stage and doing a player musical and it's, and it's performance, you know, 135,

I'm completely thinking about what I'm having for dinner later.

All right.

I know it does happen.

And it's, it's, that's, we call that autopilot, right?

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

You just go on to auto.

That's when it's time to move on and do something different.

How involved are you in another part of the shows that I always love in any rock show?

Is, is the, is, is the show around it, the lighting, the stage work?

Well, I was going to get to that, Jason.

Do you know that these guys, I mean, Simon, you guys were one of the first acts to really

incorporate the video aspect of the show, right?

You guys, yeah.

Wall.

We, we were the first act to use a video wall behind us.

Wow.

Yeah.

Wow.

We're very involved in it.

The, with the designer, we've got a fantastic guy called Vince, who, he's an amazing designer,

I mean, amazing sets and lighting, and he, he does that, but we're sitting with him on,

in all the way up to the, the production rehearsals, looking at the stuff he's doing, because he's always

redoing it and, and, and developing it.

And the imagery, the actual images.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

And that's, that's another thing.

The synchronization of that with the music, with the, when you're going to go with the,

the upbeat or the outer, whatever the heck all that stuff is.

Do you remember, do you remember the reflex that, that the video for that was from a concert

and used the, the video wall, and then it had that sort of, that image of the wave.

Yeah, Simon?

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

The wave that came out of the video, at the top of the video screen.

And the one guy in the audience who got a bucket of water thrown in his face.

Yeah, yeah.

I remember that.

But it worked.

Yeah, yeah.

But people came up to me, people were coming up to me in, in, in, you know, in, in the street

or in shops.

I'd be, I'd be, I'd go out to like record shops in Toronto and somebody comes and say,

hey, that, that screen, how did you make the water come out of the video screen?

Because they were, they were so taken in by the effects that they really thought it was

real.

Yeah, of course they did.

And of course now we watch it.

It looks so, you know, compared to modern CGI, it's, it's obviously very fake.

That was me.

I was the guy in Toronto.

Oh, that was you.

Yeah.

Who came up to you.

I was living in Toronto.

I grew up in Toronto.

I thought I recognized you.

Yeah.

And I gotta remember that so vividly.

That video was so huge.

And, and the other thing I want to know in that time.

So you do all these great things and then walk me through a little bit, getting the phone,

the call from Bob Geldof to appear, because I played it a little bit in our intro.

Oh, that's what you're playing.

Yeah.

And do they know it's Christmas?

Yeah.

I have tried to, I've bastardized what you do, but I love your solo at the beginning

of that.

It's so fucking good.

He has literally sung that a thousand times.

Yeah.

And if you opiate, they're starving and dying.

I wanna, I wanna, I wanna do something about it.

And I thought we could make a record.

We could all make a record together.

Would you be up for being on that record?

ave this?]

And then, and then, and Bob later told me that he called two people.

He called me and he called Sting and he reckoned that if he got the two of us on it, then

everybody else would say yes to his team.

Oh, for sure.

And this was, you know, he planned.

He had, he had the whole thing planned.

I went and did the demo.

Я в Лондоне работал с Мидж Юра и Боб и делал демо.

Когда мы все приехали в студию, в Сан-Вест, я думал, что я выиграл все версии.

О, боже!

Что это боно-гай делает здесь?

Я думал, что я выиграл.

Это интересно, потому что ты и Стинг выиграли.

И все-таки, когда они вернули боносы между ты и Стинг.

Да, это правильно.

И ты видишь все мои...

Боже, я помню, когда я тоже был такой фанатом.

Я видела, что Павел Уеллор, который просто выиграл в студию.

И я думал, что, боже!

Симон Лабан, Павел Уеллор, Боно и Стинг.

И они все в том же форме.

Никто не видел ничего.

Да-да-да.

Ты чувствуешь в моменте, как это было...

Ты понимаешь в моменте, что это что-то удивительное?

Да.

Потому что нет другого времени.

Все эти...

Вариоти.

И этот номер.

От огромных успехов.

Рокстар.

Были в том же доме вместе, делая что-то такое.

Не даже на...

Не даже на сентябряной телевизоре.

Ты хотел знать, но я помню эту историю.

Что было на сентябре.

Да-да.

Ну, это было несколько.

Песня.

Но было один.

Я не знаю, если ты знаешь это, но я влюбил в команду за 20 лет.

Потому что...

Я не мог бы выиграть на это.

Я не мог бы выиграть на сентябряной телевизоре.

Абсолютно.

Но я не мог бы выиграть на сентябре.

Я не мог бы выиграть на сентябряной телевизоре.

Я не мог бы выиграть на сентябре.

в следующие 20 лет, потому что...

Нет смысла.

Да, абсолютно.

В любом случае, в какой-то момент я был на сцене в Роттадаме, в Хой, в театре.

Вы помните эти?

Вы помните Мадонна, Пуинти Браа, Джонбур Готиэ Браа?

Это как-то кунг на них.

Ну, он сделал то же, как и корреспондент Пантс,

для парня, с кунгами на бутчиках.

И они...

И, вместо того, как у них один зип в середине, как нормальные трои,

они были две зипы, как один, которые идут за каждой ногой,

Which meant they had a seam down the front.

И поэтому, в таком, в таком, в таком диалоге,

were this kind of cross seam,

where all four bits of material joined up.

Anyway, I kept running across to do my star jump

in Hungry Light in the World,

where I jump off the rise and put my arms out like that.

And I'd never worn these pants before,

and the sweat on my knees grabbed hold of the jeans material.

Я сделал стар.

И эта стена в середине крошки открыла как пляж.

И там мне и мой пляж,

встанет на паузу,

в революцию.

И я думаю, что...

О, боже!

И все-таки девушки, они думают, что это всё-таки мы хотим в

...всё-со-со-со!

Д Lions happened, finally!

看看 кто я.

sorrow inanimate.

Finally.

И я покkienWell,

И меня audience

нач transacted.

As he met me,

And my screen was

ductenует.

А потом я был очень, очень кой, очень фей.

Оу, я totally naked under here, everybody.

Что?

Думаешь, что я подхожу?

Шон, у вас есть ли у вас любые папы?

Сами, ты не знаешь, но Шон,

в один момент решил, что он будет папстар.

Он писал много пап-сонг.

Да, я и делал, да.

Шон, у вас есть ли у вас любые пап-сонг?

Ты серьезно?

Шон, просто по-симонски, потому что он один из лучших пап-сонг-пап-сонг.

Я люблю это.

Ну, сьемка.

Я буду делать, что не тьмя,

без чувствования,

тьмя, тьмя, тьмя.

О, там музыка, которая могла туда идти.

Когда она была 5 лет, моя дочь Талула

пришла с этой музыкой.

О, мой господин, я не знаю, что делать.

И я должен сказать, что я люблю мои дочери.

Да, да, я понимаю.

Я понимаю.

Но это было неплохо, я был...

Ну, я не знаю, что делать.

Я не знаю, что делать.

Это оченьembarrassно.

Эти пацаны слышат, но я...

Никакого никого не слышал эти песни.

И теперь мир будет.

И теперь мир будет слышать.

Да.

Я честен.

Симон, я знаю, что ты...

Мы тебя держали слишком долго.

И ты должен идти.

И, опять...

Что-то неважно,

я очень рада тебя встретить.

Я очень рада тебя встретить.

Ты такой массивный фанат.

Все, что ты делаешь, все время.

И мы даже не получили...

Встреча.

Мы даже не получили...

Мы не получили...

Мы должны сделать это в следующий раз.

...тут нотикол дезастер.

Я вернусь и я вам скажу, что все о дешевле.

Если вы мне хотят, я вернусь.

Я люблю это.

Я вам вернусь.

Репетительное спасибо.

Пар2.

Пар2 с Симон Лабан.

Он будет в следующий раз.

Мы говорим о дезастер.

В meantime,

мы просто рады вас встретить.

Спасибо, что вы меняли.

Спасибо.

Это было огромное удовольствие.

Спасибо, друзья.

Спасибо, Симон.

До свидания.

Встреча.

Мы очень рады.

Да, конечно.

Пока.

Пока-пока.

Мы очень рады.

Шон...

Как и пабстар,

Can you imagine Young Sean Hayes,

who had written...

He's got a handful of songs written on the backs of what I'm guessing are napkins.

These songs are so...

By the way, I wrote these songs with Jordan Roseman,

who's known as DJ Earworm now.

No way.

Yeah.

Do you know DJ Earworm?

Of course, he did that.

All those mashups.

Oh yeah.

So I wrote all these songs with him.

By the way, this is so bizarre.

I sent these songs to Bennett and Rob last night just to have,

just so I could play them for you guys.

I didn't know Simon Le Bon obviously was going to be on today.

No, and I didn't know that you would send them to Bennett and Rob.

I did not connect with them.

Oh, really?

This was not a setup.

Oh, I thought maybe you heard that.

But I remember when you were saying that you had them,

you called me after we talked about them one time

and you said I found all those songs.

Can we just hear a little bit, please?

Okay, so we'll play a little bit of the song.

No, this is terrible.

Hang on, shut up.

Listen to my chipmunk vibrato.

Because I wanted to sound like the patient.

Oh my god.

I feel like a goat getting hammered.

Wait a second.

Here comes the drop.

That's right.

Okay, and you're in shorts with suspenders, no shirt.

Leader Hosen.

There's a drop.

Oh my god.

It's so 80s.

Glowstick in the teeth.

You didn't want to be professional.

You were trying to be Andy Bell.

Let's be real.

You were trying to be a racer.

I was 100%.

I was totally trying to be a racer.

And we can cut that now.

Wait, that sounds pretty great.

It's a pretty good shot.

Now what are you singing?

What is it?

I want to watch.

It's so bad.

The words are so bad.

It's like, I walk the road.

I walk the road.

Between my happiness and despair.

Like what?

How old were you when you were writing this?

20.

2052.

There should be some sort of a reward program for diehard smartlist listeners.

That you get, how many songs are there?

Three or four?

There's two that are done and then two that are kind of...

They should be able to get those two songs.

Now, if I could say to you, well, hang on, no anyway, no fucking anyway,

hold on a second.

How happy would you be if we dropped your tunes, but we brought in,

and here are some of the names who are going to come in and sing,

and we re-recorded them.

You ready?

It's going to be you, Andy Bell, obviously.

Oh my God, I would fucking die.

I would love that.

He's like my hero.

Andy Bell is the lead singer of Erasure.

And also we're going to get...

What's his name?

We were just talking about from Erasure, the other...

Who used to be...

Oh, Vince Clark.

Vince Clark, one of the founding members of the Pesh Mode

and who founded Erasure.

And Yas.

And also Yas with Alison Moyet.

So we're going to get Vince Clark.

We're going to get Andy Bell.

So everybody from Erasure.

We're going to get...

How are you going to get these people?

Martin Gore.

Okay, Martin Gore.

He just got Simon Le Bon.

Dave Gahan.

And we're going to have Simon.

And we're going to have...

What's his name?

Is it Jimmy Somerville from...

Jimmy Somerville from...

Yeah.

...Broski, who actually did Band-Aid II

when they did a second one in 1989.

Jimmy Somerville was on that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

I don't know all this.

Because I love music.

He's like showing me a side of his Canadian youth.

Did you have one of those mopeds

with the raccoon tail and everything?

No, I was...

I wrote around like I was in Quadrophenia,

you know, with a long parka.

No, I didn't have that.

I was a huge Smiths fan, obviously.

Huge, yeah.

Massive...

We listened to the exact same music.

I know, I know.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

Wait, so yeah, no, but it was...

I'm so glad we didn't play that while Simon was on.

We waited till it's up.

I mean, Simon Laban,

when I remember seeing that video

for like Hungry like the Wolf in Rio,

and he talks about nerves,

he was so confident.

That was the other thing.

Everybody in the band was so confident and cool,

and they were kind of doing...

They were wearing mascara in their things,

and they were just kind of like...

They were just like...

It's also the start of MTV.

It was really the first time our generation

really got a look at rock stars.

That's right.

And what they do and how they do it.

They weren't a boy band in the sense that...

And no offense,

but they were actual musicians,

and they were actually really good and handsome.

They weren't like a corporate transaction.

No, those guys formed.

I mean, they all kind of came together,

put ads out in Melody Maker Magazine,

and they met each other and had a bar,

and they formed the band,

and they worked at the bar.

They really earned it and wrote all these great songs.

But it's a testament that that's why

they have longevity, I think, right?

Because they're the real deal.

I'd love to hear their new album

and see how their musical styles have changed.

But they had hit records, hit records, hit records,

and they break up, do other things,

and they come back, and then 10 years later,

have another huge smash hit record

in the middle 90s with the wedding album.

They just keep doing it.

Yeah, it's a testament.

You're going to their show when they come here, yeah?

Guarantee.

I didn't know that they were at the Hollywood Bowl last year,

and somebody said to me,

Will, you're definitely going to Duran Duran, right?

And I was like, what?

Yeah, I'm going to that.

I'm going to Depeche Mode in September.

I was out of town.

Yeah, we're going to Depeche Mode together.

Wait, Depeche Mode is playing out in September?

Do you really love, I love, I know every word.

I love Depeche Mode.

And, you know, one of my biggest regrets,

I have a lot, as you guys both know.

I think I'm looking at one right now with that sweater.

Just look at your hair.

One of my biggest regrets.

We didn't miss that.

We both swung hard at that one show.

You can't get a softball by us.

Go ahead, Will.

I mean, Jesus Christ.

Thank God, I'm batting clean up in this crew.

You know what I mean?

We're so eager.

Is, in 1995, God, I might have messed up on the date.

I can't believe it.

But it's so hurtful still to this day.

I had the ability to go see the Smiths play.

One of their only shows they ever did in Canada.

And I couldn't go because I had to leave with my family.

And I was like, can we just, can I just stay an extra day

to see them?

They were playing at Canada's Wonderland outside of Toronto.

And I couldn't go see them.

In 95?

Yeah, 85.

Get to go on a family vacation?

Go out, yeah.

Go be with my family for the summer.

And then, of course, you know, within two years,

they released The Queen is Dead, then they break up.

Thanks, Jim.

Thanks, Alex.

But anyway, I want to stay in the present because I don't want to spend

a lot of time talking about...

Bye, girls!

Bye!

Редактор субтитров И.Бойкова

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.

Put on your smokey-eye and come out from behind the soda machine, because we’ve got a le-bona-fide rock star on our hands this week, with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran. And y’heard it here first: “It’s not fear… it’s adrenaline. It’s just your mind and your body preparing you to do something extraordinary. And you will do something extraordinary.” -Simon Le Bon

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