Rhodes: Duran Duran to play Arcadia song on tour

“Election Day” to play in Election Year
By Jon Chattman

Nick Rhodes, longtime keyboardist for Duran Duran, told thecheappop.com that the band plans on rehearsing “Election Day” soon and include it in their current Red Carpet Massacre tour. The song, which the band has never played live, was a big hit on Rhodes’ 1985 side project Arcadia, which featured Duran Duran bandmates Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor. The band only recorded one album (So Red The Rose, which went multiplatinum), but has never toured together.

“Funny enough,” Rhodes told the pop humor website that Duran Duran guitarist John Taylor actually came up with the idea for the band to include it in their set list.

“John said recently he’d really love to do ‘Election Day.’ We sort of prepared it and figured out what certain things are and what sounds we need and all these kind of things. We haven’t rehearsed it yet [but] yeah that’s going to be coming into the battalion.”

He added, “We like to keep adding things to our repertoire so that we’ve got some choice. We can draw from so many songs now. That one, we haven’t gotten around to.”

Looking back, Rhodes said he’s very proud of the Arcadia record and was delighted to find it has held up so well throughout all these years. “I hadn’t heard it for literally about 15 years until a few years ago, and was very pleased with how its held up sconicly and the kind of ideas that we had musically then. I mean we played with some amazing people on that record…Sting, Grace Jones, Herbie Hancock – amazing people.”

For Duran Duran tour dates check out, DuranDuran.com. The full Nick Rhodes interview on thecheappop.com will be posted next week on the site.