Duran Duran: There's Something You Should Know

A well produced history of Duran Duran who began life as a nightclub band, and then in walked Simon Le Bon. The stories of those early years are well told and interesting; that a bunch of 18-22 year olds managed to launch a career and make great decisions stylistically to promote their music. It follows their career from Planet Earth 1981 to Paper Gods 2015, and for the sake of time can't cover all areas but achieves an entertaining review of theIr path from adulation to derision and back to comfort in the limelight as their legacy is recognised.

Two stars...only because it'd been a while since I've heard the music... memories. Duran Duran is an iconic band, providing the soundtrack for life thru the 80's...90's.....but if this were to be a documentary on the band ?

You didn't just "miss the mark"...you never SAW it !

Duran Duran has such an interesting story to tell, and it spans decades. Music that you'd love to write off as typical bubble gum pop garbage...but it was just too good....too catchy...and you realized back then..."hey, I'm listening to top 40-- and it's really good !!

But this documentary? Huge ripoff. A very fast and superficial look, at a band where the real story, the individual stories are a whole lot more complex...involved... interesting... But you didn't expand on the real story offering "fluff" instead.

And the problem with offering"fluff" ALL the time is that your never taken seriously, and if that happens....the story suffers.

Was this a documentary or a commercial?

This documentary gave an insight into the characters and personalities that make up the band. Stripping away conceit and convention, the band's story was told through the device of 7 of their 14 albums. Relaxed and illuminating interviews about the chaos that surrounds a band at the height of their fame as well as the downside, the moments when record producers have moved on to the next young things. With star turns from Mark Ronson, Nick Egan and designer Antony Price.

It's a hefty task to cover almost 40 years of ups and down and history in a short hour but this doc covers the basics nicely.

An interesting segment had Simon visiting the old church where he sang in the choir, discussing how 4 years of choral singing helped his development. And when this confident young vocalist met three young musicians at Birmingham's New Romance nite club it was a match made in chart-topping heaven.

As for omissions, there was no discussion of the band's name - based on the villain from sexy space romp Barbarella - or its major hit Bond title View to a Kill (probably due to copyright issues with EON). In addition, content totally focused on the band's career with no discussion of individual private lives - except for the fact they generally had a pretty good time.

Duran-Duran endured because they were great tune-smiths who always seemed to find new hits to stay relevant in new decades. Looking back it was revealing to see how much the UK's music press dismissed them for their glamour - and how little that mattered to the band's global success.

'We all love each other, apart from when we don't. We're all great musicians, and always have been.' Apart from looking unwell nothing much has changed, including a serious dose of self denial. One for fans and those nostalgic for '80s headonism.