DURAN DURAN – LIBERTY LP – Nr MINT A1/B1 1990

Duran Duran – Liberty
(Parlophone Records  1990  PCSD112)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing

Sleeve & Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
– still in original shrinkwrap

Vinyl in Nr MINT/Excellent+ condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from some light pops/crackles)

Duran Duran are an English new wave and synthpop band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band grew from alternative sensations in 1982 to mainstream pop stars by 1984. By the end of the decade, membership and music style changes challenged the band before a resurgence in the early 1990s. The group were a leading band in the MTV-driven “Second British Invasion” of the US. The band achieved 14 singles in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the Billboard Hot 100, and have sold over 100 million records worldwide.

When the band first emerged, they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene, along with bands such as Spandau Ballet. Duran Duran however would soon shed this image, by using fashion and marketing to build a more refined and elegant presentation. The band has won a number of awards throughout their career: two Brit Awards including the 2004 award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, two Grammy Awards, an MTV Video Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a Video Visionary Award from the MTV Europe Music Awards. They were also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The video age catapulted Duran Duran into the mainstream with the introduction of the 24-hour music channel MTV. Many of their videos were shot on 35 mm film, which gave a much more polished look than was standard at the time. They also collaborated with professional film directors to take the quality a step further, often teaming up with Australian director Russell Mulcahy for some of their most memorable video offerings. In 1984, the band were early innovators with video technology in their live stadium shows.

The group was formed by keyboardist Nick Rhodes and bass guitarist John Taylor, with the later addition of drummer Roger Taylor, and after numerous personnel changes, guitarist Andy Taylor and lead singer Simon Le Bon. These five members featured the most commercially successful line-up. The group has never disbanded, but after separation of Andy and Roger Taylor in 1986, the line-up has changed to include former Missing Persons American guitarist Warren Cuccurullo from 1989 to 2001 and American drummer Sterling Campbell from 1989 to 1991. The reunion of the original five members in the early 2000s created a stir among the band’s fans and music media. Andy Taylor left the band once again in mid-2006, and guitarist Dom Brown has since been working with the band as a session player and touring member.

Liberty is the sixth studio album by Duran Duran, released on 20 August 1990. It entered the top 10 in the UK albums chart, and garnered a #6 hit for the single “Serious” in Japan.

Liberty is the first Duran Duran album to feature songwriting credits outside the original five band members. Guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and drummer Sterling Campbell were made permanent band members and given songwriting credits, although Campbell would leave in early 1991, before the band began work on their subsequent hit The Wedding Album.

Writing and rehearsing for the album took place intermittently between May and July 1989; demo sessions took place in August and September, and final recording began on 9 October at Olympic Studios, with producer Chris Kimsey and engineer Chris Potter. Recording, production and overdubbing of the many keyboard and vocal layers dragged on until March 1990.

In a 1998 interview with Goldmine magazine, bassist John Taylor admitted that he was struggling with his drug addictions during recording of the album. He said, “When we were in rehearsal, it seemed like we had a great album, but we weren’t able to parlay it into a great album in the studio, whatever. I can just remember smoking hash oil, that’s all I can really remember about making that album.”

Vocalist Simon Le Bon commented “We went into a barn in Sussex and started jamming away, and before we got finished, it was like, ‘Right we’ve got the album, let’s go and record it now.’ And I don’t think we got it right; I don’t think we were paying enough attention. We were quite self-conscious at the time as well, the way things had been going, and it kind of made us stand outside of ourselves to do the album. But out of that came two of the best songs Duran’s ever come up with, ‘Serious’ and ‘My Antarctica,’ they’re really, really beautiful songs. I don’t think it’s a bad album, but there’s definitely weak spots on it, definitely. I mean, something like ‘Violence of Summer,’ it just didn’t have a proper chorus, great verse though. Just not paying enough attention, we just lost our concentration.”

A bootleg recording of the demo sessions for the album, titled Didn’t Anybody Tell You? surfaced in 1999. Many unreleased, scrapped songs from the Liberty sessions were heard by the public for the first time:

• “Bottleneck”
• “Money on Your Side”
• “Dream Nation”
• “In Between Woman”
• “Worth Waiting For”
• “My Family” (played live 1989)

When asked about the bootleg, John Taylor said, “I like coming across things that I’ve forgotten about. That I’ve forgotten that we recorded. That’s what’s really exciting about the Didn’t Anybody Tell You bootleg, because there’s so many songs on there that never got finished. They just take me back to that moment. Actually, what I like about that album is that the Liberty album – when we were rehearsing it, when we were writing it was gonna be a great album. I really felt it was gonna be a great album. When we got in the studio I fell apart and the production just wasn’t right. It turned out to be a very mediocre album, but at the demo stage, which is what that [bootleg] album is all about, I think there’s a great album in there. Could have been great songs.”

Track listing

All tracks written by Duran Duran, except where noted. As with the previous release of Big Thing, Toshiba-EMI would release Liberty in a two-disc set, with a 3-inch CD (CD3) of remixes.

Personnel

Duran Duran

• Simon Le Bon – lead vocals
• Nick Rhodes – keyboards
• John Taylor – bass guitar
• Warren Cuccurullo – guitars
• Sterling Campbell – drums

Additional musicians

• John Jones – Programming and additional keyboards
• Tessa Niles – background vocals
• Carol Kenyon – background vocals
• Bernard Fowler – background vocals
• Stan Harrison – saxophone
• Roddy Lorimer – trumpet
• Luís Jardim – percussion