Live music

IN the ’80s they said their ambition was to be dancing “when the bomb dropped”. The threat of World War III may have receded, but Duran Duran are still dancing, 30 years on, and so are their fans. At the O2 in Dublin on Tuesday night, the largely 40- and 50-something crowd were in festive form, with a fine mix of Santa and the DD staple — trilby hats — in equal measure.

Simon le Bon bounded onto the stage in silver sparkly trousers, looking slim and fit for 53, thrilling the largely female audience. With two of the three original Taylors, and Nick Rhodes, in tow, Simon proved that the ’80s pop kings never went away. Kicking off with Before the Rain, the first part of the show saw the running order liberally sprinkled with new songs, causing a few furrowed brows among the “here for the hits” audience.

Having met in art college, aesthetics are important to the group who pioneered the high-glam pop video, evidenced by their impressive big-screen visuals. Scenes from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis provided a backdrop to the 2010 release Blame the Machines, but John Taylor’s and Rhodes’s monologues on social networking and Michael Caine seemed pretentious for a band known for frolicking with models on Indian ocean beaches. They were back on message with new single Girl Panic, and its supermodel-laden video. Returning to their extensive back catalogue for the final hour, classic ballads like Come Undone and Ordinary World stood up well, as did poptastic hits like The Reflex, Careless Memories, Bond theme A View to a Kill, Notorious and the encore of Rio. Their cover of Grandmaster Flash’s White Lines showed that these boys don’t only sing well, and look well, but they can even play their instruments. No wonder they went far.

Siobhán Cronin