DURAN DURAN: FUTURE PAST with special guests Bastille and Nile Rodgers & CHIC (GRANDSTAND)
DURAN DURAN
Duran Duran are icons of British music, continuing to perform to huge concert audiences around the world since the band first formed in 1980. Their career has seen more than 100 million record sales worldwide, 21 U.K. Top 20 tunes, 18 American hit singles, six platinum-selling records, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2022, the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, truly cementing the multi-GRAMMY, BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award winners as one of the most successful and influential bands of all time.
Consistently fusing art, technology, fashion and a signature sense of style with their unique and infectious music, singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor have proven themselves timeless, always innovating and reinventing to remain ahead of the curve. In October 2021, Duran Duran released their latest album, “FUTURE PAST,” with several exciting collaborators, including Erol Alkan, Giorgio Moroder, Mark Ronson, Graham Coxon, Tove Lo, Mike Garson, Ivorian Doll and CHAI. This, their 15th studio album, was their highest charting album in 16 years and met with widespread critical acclaim. The past 12 months alone have seen Duran Duran perform live at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace, headline London’s Hyde Park and, in a full circle moment, close the iconic opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in their hometown of Birmingham. The band then embarked on a huge headline tour of North America that included sold-out shows at prestigious venues such as New York’s Madison Square Garden and three nights at the Hollywood Bowl.
Bastille
Over the course of a decade together, Bastille’s unique sound – that cinematic, melancholic pop that masks the bleak realities reflected in their lyrics – has connected with audiences across the globe like no other British band in recent memory. In 2011, South Londoner Dan Smith started Bastille alone, releasing 300 copies of Bastille’s debut single. After relentless gigging, genuine word of mouth, some smartly curated mixtapes – and with Chris Wood (drums), Will Farquarson (guitar) and Kyle Simmons (keyboards) added to the lineup, Bastille became a global phenomenon. The band’s chart-conquering No. 1 debut album “Bad Blood,” which featured the international hit “Pompeii,” drove Bastille to become 2013’s biggest-selling global breakthrough act, with more than a billion Spotify streams, earning them the British Breakthrough Act award at the 2014 BRITS, along with two GRAMMY nominations. Bastille’s second album, “Wild World,” retained the vivid, rich, filmic songwriting of its predecessor, but pushed the band’s distinctive sound in exciting new directions. The album scored a No. 1 in the U.K. and Top 5 in the U.S., with the record’s lead single “Good Grief” achieving the most week-one streams ever for an alternative single. In 2018, the band collaborated with Marshmello on the hit single “Happier.” The track has cumulative streams exceeding 3.5 billion and is now certified 5x Platinum in the U.S. Bastille’s third album, “Doom Days,” charted in the Top 5 in both the U.K. and U.S., the only U.K. band to have achieved this landmark alongside The Beatles and Queen. Their fourth album, the masterful “Give Me The Future,” was hailed by critics as their best release to date. Since the release of the record, Bastille has created an immersive experience at their sold-out gigs, bringing the themes of the album to life in arenas across the U.K. and the world. With more than 10 million records sold, Bastille continues to be one of the world’s most streamed bands.
Nile Rodgers & CHIC
Among music legends, Nile Rodgers is truly exceptional. He amplifies his legacy as a multiple GRAMMY-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist by constantly traversing new musical terrain and successfully expanding the boundaries of popular music. As co-founder of CHIC and chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rodgers pioneered a musical language that generated chart-topping hits such as “Le Freak” (the biggest-selling single in the history of Atlantic Records) and sparked the advent of hip-hop with “Good Times.” He transcends all styles of music across every generation with a body of work that’s garnered him inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Currently, Rodgers serves as the first-ever chief creative advisor for the incomparable Abbey Road Studios and helms the critically acclaimed Apple Music 1’s “Deep Hidden Meaning Radio with Nile Rodgers.” He co-founded the We Are Family Foundation and has served as chairman since 2002. His unforgettable live performances with CHIC have been included in “festival best performances” at both Glastonbury and Coachella, resulting in a BBC Music Awards nomination for “Best Live Performance,” and the L.A. Times stating, “Nile Rodgers’ influence stretches all over Coachella, beaming the sound of a better future.” His work in the CHIC Organization and his productions for artists such as David Bowie, Diana Ross and Madonna have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide, while his trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Keith Urban, Disclosure, Sam Smith and Lady Gaga reflect the vanguard of contemporary music.
