Tag: Duran Duran

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Episode Recap Featured New Broadcast News

New episode: Duran Duran

Duran Duran, 2021. Photo by Scott Newton.

Austin City Limits Season 47 rocks on with an epic hit-filled hour starring the great Duran Duran in their first-ever appearance on the ACL stage.  One of the most acclaimed and exciting live acts of all time, the music superstars deliver a thrilling, ten-song hit parade in a brand new installment premiering January 22 at 9pm ET/8pm CT. Check local PBS listings for times. The episode will be available to music fans everywhere, streaming online the next day beginning January 23 @10am ET at pbs.org/austincitylimits. Despite the challenges facing live music during the past year, ACL is proud to deliver a full season of performances for viewers, all recorded at ACL’s studio home in Austin, Texas in 2021, in front of limited live audiences. The Peabody Award-winning program continues its extraordinary run as the longest-running music television show in history, providing viewers a  front-row seat to the best in live performance for a remarkable 47 years. ACL airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings) and full episodes are made available to stream online at pbs.org/austincitylimits following the initial broadcast.

Influential British music icons Duran Duran light up the ACL stage as they kick off this entertaining hour with a new song: “INVISIBLE,” a synth-funk gem that fits right into the band’s canon, and the lead track from their 15th studio album and first record in six years, FUTURE PAST. Legendary frontman Simon Le Bon and longtime bandmates, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor, showcase their undeniable chemistry in a career-spanning performance featuring fan-favorites including “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “A View To A Kill,” “Planet Earth” and “Girls on Film.” 

Hailing from Birmingham, England, Duran Duran first arrived on the UK scene with their critically acclaimed 1981 self-titled debut. Four decades on, these musical pioneers perform their latest single “ANNIVERSARY,” a pop banger that doubles as a nod to an incredible forty years of making music together. A set highlight is the 1993 smash “Ordinary World,” given new resonance in our current reality, which Le Bon dedicates to everyone who has been struggling to get back to ordinary life over the course of the pandemic. The band caps the swagger-fueled set with an anthem for the ages, “Save A Prayer,” from their 1982 landmark Rio, as the standing ovation crowd raises their cell phones in an appreciative sea of lights, with Le Bon letting the fans sing the chorus for a memorable close.  

Duran Duran on ACL, 2021. Photo by Scott Newton.

Duran Duran setlist:

INVISIBLE

A View To A Kill

ANNIVERSARY

Ordinary World

TONIGHT UNITED

(Reach Up For The) Sunrise

Planet Earth

Hungry Like the Wolf

Girls on Film / Acceptable in the 80’s

Save A Prayer

Season 47 Broadcast Schedule (Second Half):

January 15 St. Vincent | Joy Oladokun

January 22 Duran Duran

January 29 Terry Allen

February 5 Olivia Rodrigo | Phoebe Bridgers

February 12 The Best of Nanci Griffith

ACL’s Season 47 premiered on October 2021 with standout performances featuring many 2022 Grammy nominees, including New Orleans musician/bandleader Jon Batiste, country superstar Miranda Lambert, bluegrass star Billy Strings, legendary Jackson Browne, R&B singer-songwriter Leon Bridges, country standout Brandy Clark, alt.rock icon St. Vincent and Americana singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz alongside acclaimed performances from eclectic groove trio Khruangbin, celebrated singer Brittany Howard, UK singer-songwriter Jade Bird, “Gulf & Western” country sensation Charley Crockett, breakthrough singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun and more. ACL returned in January 2022 with a special installment, Austin City Limits 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors, celebrating a new class of inductees: Wilco, Lucinda Williams and Alejandro Escovedo, featuring all-star music salutes and collaborations from Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Japanese Breakfast, Rosanne Cash, Sheila E., John Doe, Lenny Kaye, Bill Callahan, Terry Allen and more. 

Tune-in, log on, and let ACL be a trusted sidekick for entertainment during these challenging days. Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding live streams, future tapings and episode schedules or by following ACL on Facebook, Twitter, IG and TikTok. Fans can also browse the ACL YouTube channel for exclusive songs, behind-the-scenes videos and full-length artist interviews.

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Featured New Broadcast News

ACL announces the second half of Season 47

Wilco with Japanese Breakfast at the ACL Hall of Fame ceremony, Sept. 2021. Photo courtesy Austin City Limits.

Live music beacon Austin City Limits announces the second half of Season 47, with five new episodes to begin airing in January 2022 as part of the program’s thirteen-episode season. ACL returns with a stellar slate of new broadcast episodes, showcasing iconic performances featuring legends and highly-anticipated debuts from some of today’s most talked-about live acts. The program returns on Saturday, January 8 at 8pm CT/9pm ET with a special broadcast, Austin City Limits 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors. Despite the challenges facing live music during the past year, ACL is proud to deliver a full season of performances for viewers, all recorded at ACL’s studio home in Austin, Texas in 2021, in front of limited live audiences. The Peabody Award-winning program continues its extraordinary run as the longest-running music television show in history, providing viewers a front-row seat to the best in live performance for a remarkable 47 years. ACL airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings) and full episodes are made available to stream online at pbs.org/austincitylimits following the initial broadcast.

A special installment, Austin City Limits 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors, premieres January 8 at 8pm CT/9pm ET. Austin City Limits celebrates the newest class of Hall of Fame Inductees, honoring a trio of Americana greats: Lucinda Williams, Wilco and Alejandro Escovedo, with best-in-class performances and collaborations from the 2021 ACL Hall of Fame induction ceremony, recorded live in Austin, Texas on October 28, 2021.  Music greats Jason Isbell, Rosanne Cash, Margo Price, Sheila E., Lenny Kaye, Terry Allen, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner and more salute the newest class of inductees with one-of-a-kind collaborative performances and tributes. 

Season 47 returns in January with a line-up showcasing multiple 2022 Grammy nominees, including seven-time nominee, multi-platinum Olivia Rodrigo; the chart-topper shares the hour with a fellow LA act making her ACL debut, indie-rock original Phoebe Bridgers in a captivating double-bill showcasing two of today’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters. (The installment had an initial airing in December 2021 as a mid-season bonus for fans). Grammy-winning art-rock icon St. Vincent, nominated for a 2022 Grammy, makes her third appearance on the ACL stage, in an electrifying performance, sharing an hour with breakthrough singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun in a must-see ACL debut. A Season 47 highlight is the first-ever appearance by international superstars Duran Duran in an epic hour-long installment, performing a hit-filled set along with new gems. ACL spotlights a Texas legend enjoying a late-career high-point, iconoclastic sculptor-songwriter Terry Allen, in a must-see hour, joined by his longtime Panhandle Mystery Band featuring all-stars Lloyd Maines, Charlie Sexton, Shannon McNally and more. ACL salutes one of songwriting’s finest talents and closes out the season with a tribute to a Texas icon we lost during 2021, Nanci Griffith. The Best of Nanci Griffith features historic highlights from the influential songwriter’s seven appearances on the ACL stage. The hour-long installment offers a fascinating look at the late ACL legend’s evolution dating back to her debut on the series in 1985 through her multiple appearances on the ACL stage. 

Duran Duran on ACL, 2021. Photo by Scott Newton.

“ACL kicks off the new year with a mix that celebrates the past, present and future,” says ACL executive producer Terry Lickona. “As always, we love to celebrate the great music of the past while showcasing the most exciting and inspiring new music of today. ACL continues to bring out the best in artists across genres and generations!”

Season 47 Broadcast Schedule (Second Half):

January 8 Austin City Limits 7th Annual Hall of Fame Honors

January 15 St. Vincent | Joy Oladokun

January 23 Duran Duran

January 29 Terry Allen

February 5 Olivia Rodrigo | Phoebe Bridgers

February 12 The Best of Nanci Griffith

ACL’s Season 47 premiered on October 2021 with standout performances featuring many 2022 Grammy nominees, including New Orleans musician/bandleader Jon Batiste, country superstar Miranda Lambert, bluegrass star Billy Strings, legendary Jackson Browne, R&B singer-songwriter Leon Bridges, country standout Brandy Clark and Americana singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz alongside acclaimed performances from eclectic groove trio Khruangbin, celebrated singer Brittany Howard, UK singer-songwriter Jade Bird, “Gulf & Western” country sensation Charley Crockett and more. The series will continue to broadcast fan-favorite encore episodes through the end of 2021. 

Tune-in, log on, and let ACL be a trusted sidekick for entertainment during these challenging days. Viewers can visit acltv.com for news regarding live streams, future tapings and episode schedules or by following ACL on Facebook, Twitter, IG and TikTok. Fans can also browse the ACL YouTube channel for exclusive songs, behind-the-scenes videos and full-length artist interviews.

About Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits (ACL) offers viewers unparalleled access to featured acts in an intimate setting that provides a platform for artists to deliver inspired, memorable, full-length performances. Now in its 46th Season, the program is taped live before a concert audience from The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in television history and remains the only TV series to ever be awarded the National Medal of Arts. Since its inception, the groundbreaking music series has become an institution that’s helped secure Austin’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World. The historic KLRU Studio 6A, home to 36 years of ACL concerts, has been designated an official Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark. In 2011, ACL moved to the new venue ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. ACL received a rare institutional Peabody Award for excellence and outstanding achievement in 2012.Austin City Limits is produced by Austin PBS, KLRU-TV and funding is provided in part by Dell Technologies, RigUp, the Austin Convention Center Department and Cirrus Logic. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Austin City Limits. Learn more about Austin City Limits, programming and history at acltv.com.

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Featured News Taping Recap

Taping recap: Duran Duran

Duran Duran, 2021. Photo by Scott Newton.

At a time when so many of their early eighties peers have succumbed to nostalgia tours and the revival circuit, Duran Duran has remained on top, not only popular but relevant. That’s partly because the Birmingham superstars still clearly enjoy what they do – no paycheck-cashing cynicism here. But it’s also because the band acknowledges its past while continuing to move forward, making new music with the same interest and passion as it has since its eighties beginnings. As they proved with their debut taping for Austin City Limits, and with new album Future Past imminent, Duran Duran still has the fire. 

When Terry Lickona introduced the band, the crowd gave a roar like a tidal wave, the likes of which we rarely hear. Following a couple of minutes of funky instrumental groove building anticipation, the superstar act took the stage and the roar returned, singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor, drummer Roger Taylor, joined by guitarist Dom Brown, saxophonist Simon Willescroft and singers Anna Ross and Erin Stevenson, reveling in the kind of attention a group that’s thrived for decades deserves. The Durans opened with new song “Invisible,” a minimalist synth funker from the upcoming record that bodes well for the new music to come. Bona fides thus established, the band went right into one of its biggest hits: the 1985 #1 smash “A View to a Kill,” the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name. The energy level went up even higher with “Notorious,” the song’s funk beat clearly galvanizing Le Bon and John Taylor, to the audience’s delight. “Anybody celebrating a birthday tonight?” the perpetually smiling singer asked. “We celebrate our birthday every night!” That was the lead-in to new single “Anniversary,” a pop banger that doubles as a nod to the forty years that have passed since the release of the Durans’ first album. 

Backup vocalist Ross joined Le Bon at the front of the stage to duet on the melodic 1993 top ten hit “Come Undone,” from the group’s second self-titled album (AKA “The Wedding Album”). Doffing his white jacket, Le Bon got his groove on for “Pressure Off,” a late-career high point from the 2015 LP Paper Gods that reminded everybody that this band has never forgotten how to be danceable, the vocalist leading the eager crowd into a disco clap-along. The Durans then dug deep into their catalog for the cheeky rocker “Friends of Mine,” a highlight of the band’s very first album, and a song Le Bon seemed to particularly enjoy singing. “This is one of the best little shows we’ve played all year!” he claimed after the song finished. The band then got serious for a minute, with Le Bon dedicating the next song to everyone struggling in the past eighteen months. That song was, of course, “Ordinary World,” the band’s massive, ice-melting ballad from 1993, given new resonance in 2020s reality. From that undeniable classic the Durans offered up another new song, another upbeat dance rocker entitled “Tonight United,” driven by John’s grooving bass. 

The band kept the energy level high with “(Reach Up For the) Sunrise,” a vibrant, guitar-heavy rock anthem from their 2004 album Astronaut. “Put your hands up,” the song demanded, and the audience eagerly acquiesced. Ross and Stevenson returned to the front of the stage to assist the band for their outside-the-box cover of Grandmaster Flash’s anti-cocaine protest tune “White Lines (Don’t Do It),” just in case anyone had forgotten Duran Duran’s essential eclecticism. The group then boomeranged back to the beginning, with the distinctive synth intro and new wave groove to the band’s first hit, the still-thrilling “Planet Earth.” The audience went wild, but really upped their game when Le Bon asked, “Did you drink your champagne and eat your caviar…or is anybody hungry?” That led, of course, into “Hungry Like the Wolf,” the band’s hit of all hits, and one that turned the Moody into a monster dance party. The band wasted no time going right into “Girls On Film,” taking the performance and the crowd straight up to nirvana. The song segued into an appropriate cover of Calvin Harris’ “Acceptable in the 80s,” the groove of which Le Bon used to introduce the band, before going into the song’s chorus of “shooting star” – as appropriate a send-off to the set as could be hoped. The Durans quit the stage to wild cheers and applause. 

They returned, of course, as Le Bon extolled the crowd to raise their cell phones and turn the lights on. Sea of lights thus established, the band performed “Save a Prayer,” letting the fans sing the chorus and taking them out on a wave of  beauty instead of the expected bombast. “Austin City Limits, thanks for having us!” John Taylor said, with firm agreement from Le Bon, and Duran Duran left the stage for the final time. It was a terrific show, one for the ACL ages, and we can’t wait for you to see it when it airs early next year as part of our Season 47 on your local PBS station. 

Duran Duran tapes Austin City Limits, Oct. 2021. Photos by Scott Newton.