Danger! High Voltage (part 1)

What started out as a fun way to bring Robert Palmer and Chic to Duran Duran's mass audience ended up becoming one of the most successful - and chaotic - supergroups in music history. As The Power Station toast their 40th anniversary, Andy Taylor and (in his only interview) John Taylor celebrate creating a unique groove while being totally on the rampage. "The skillset in that band was enormous," they tell us.

If you want to encapsulate just how huge Andy Taylor and John Taylor were in the summer of 1985, consider this: when Live Aid took place in July, Duran Duran's Bond theme A View To A Kill was at No.1 Stateside. Their new band, The Power Station, were at No.18 with a cover of T. Rex's Get It On (Bang A Gong) on its way to the US Top 10, where their debut single Some Like It Hot had hit a few weeks previous.

At the time, John was 25 and Andy 24. John's explanation for forming another band with Andy - roping in Robert Palmer and Chic drummer Tony Thompson - is simple: "We just wanted to rock." In their view, the delicate balance between pop and rock in Duran had swung too far towards pop on the band's most recent album, Seven And The Ragged Tiger. John laughs: "To be basic, Andy and I both felt we needed to express a bit of a grunt."

Andy, meanwhile, is determined to remind Duran fans of a more practical reason why a second band was possible in the first place: Simon Le Bon's yacht Drum. Duran Duran might have been the biggest band in the world in 1985, but their singer's decision to take part in the Fastnet yacht race that August meant the rest of the group suddenly had excess time on their hands. "I have to constantly remind people that a certain singer took off on a boat for a year," cackles Andy. "It meant there was a little bit of a gap."

The guitarist bursts out laughing whenever Drum is mentioned, but it should be noted it's fond laughter. Forty years on, Andy can afford to smile about how Duran's singer was trapped underwater when his yacht capsized. Still, if Le Bon hadn't been so keen on seafaring adventures, one of music's most successful supergroups might never have happened.

The Power Station's original line-up

"Everything was firing for us," says Andy. "It was our moment when we were able to get shit done. The thought of another band horrified people, doing something else away from Duran. But we had a lot of currency, and we were constantly on the move, meeting loads of people. Nothing was out of bounds to challenge our limitations."

For John, The Power Station was a natural byproduct of Duran's power. He considers: "Part of success is that everyone gets to emote individually and grow their own identity. One of the band will buy a house in the country, one in Mayfair. One of you will buy a Ferrari, one a Land Rover. Everyone around you says: 'Absolutely, John, let me do that for you, John'."

There's a saying in Alcoholics Anonymous - an organisation John would later become familiar with - which states: "Instincts on rampage balk at investigation..." John repeats the phrase and laughs: "My instincts at the time were totally on rampage."

Duran's internal tensions weren't helped by either Drum or The Power Station, as John remembers: "I was doing what the fuck I liked, while Simon was doing what the fuck he liked, sailing his boat around. I'd tell Simon: 'What are you doing? You're the fucking singer and you're putting all our careers at risk!' and he would tell me: 'What are you talking about? You've formed another fucking band with another fucking singer!' Everyone was on the rampage."

The other "fucking singer" was, of course, the debonair Robert Palmer, while their drummer was Tony Thompson, whose patent playing brought to life the ideas of Chic leaders Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards on their mighty singles.

Initially, John, Andy and Tony - befriended when they met backstage in France while Thompson was drumming on David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour - were simply going to back John's new girlfriend Bebe Buell on a cover of Get It On that John planned to produce for the supermodel. "I fell out with Bebe, but the idea stayed," smiles John.

Original adverts for The Power Station album and single

Duran's success made it easier to approach potential bandmates but, as Andy points out, the band had been driven from day one. "From the start, we were deadly serious about what we were trying to achieve," he insists. "Then we got to the level where, if we said we were going to do something, we had an entire organisation which would follow, and none of us had stepped out in this way before."

Andy believes Thompson's role in Chic is undervalued, saying: "I always thought Tony deserved a little more credit in Chic than he got. When you listen to those grooves, there's a happiness to what Tony does, an optimism in his playing." John agrees: "Duran were a club band. We loved spending time in clubs, and Tony was one of our favourite musicians to hear in them. We all loved his playing on Upside Down for Diana Ross, Believer, Debbie Harry's Backfired. Tony could stretch out as a drummer, doing these amazing breaks, and you always knew in a club when it was Tony playing on a song."

In New York on Duran business, the Taylors met Thompson, who introduced them to Bernard Edwards. As John says: "Nile's career was skyrocketing. He'd produced Bowie and was in the middle of working with Madonna on Like A Virgin. Of course, we had done The Wild Boys with Nile, who by now was bigger as an individual than he had been in Chic. Bernard had only released one solo album, which hadn't done anything, so he was very much in the shadows. Then Tony told us: 'Bernard is the secret weapon in Chic'. He insisted we meet Bernard."

Tony Thompson, Andy Taylor and Bernard Edwards at The Power Station

It helped that Edwards was John's hero as a bassist. "Bernard didn't make a thing out of that," smiles John. "He found me amusing and kept things down to earth. He was always: 'Don't stop practicing, John!' Everyone was able to maximise their personality. We all stood back to let each of us take turns on the bonfire. The elders in Tony, Bernard and Robert played really well with the kids, me and Andy. And we let the elders do what they do."

Andy is similarly full of praise for Edwards but admits: "Bernard had an instant ear for what was and wasn't cool. It meant you had to be instantly prepared. I did a solo once, ripping it up, and Bernard just looked at me: 'That's your fucking solo?' This was late at night, and, the next morning, Bernard was: 'Let's do that solo again...' He wouldn't torture you with it, but you had to raise your game. There's no click-track or metronome on 'The Power Station', none of that. It was purely from instinct." Of John's hero worshipping of Edwards, Andy chuckles: "It was as if I was making an album produced by Jeff Beck. Sitting next to Bernard would be an experience for any bass player."

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Naked Ambition

Despite the power of the band's collective image, the sleeve of The Power Station was a painting. Young Spanish artist Montxo Algora's work was spotted by John in "a coffee table art book doing the rounds at the time, with a lot of semi-pornographic artworks."

'The Power Station' album artwork

Helped by Frank Olinsky, who later designed Duran Duran's Notorious sleeve, John carried Algora's image throughout The Power Station's sleeve and videos. John explains: "The woman in that image became a symbol for the band, a god of some kind."

The music video for 'Some Like It Hot'

In the videos, this goddess figue was played by trans model Caroline Cassey, who appeared in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. "Caroline fitted John's vision perfectly," says Andy. "Caroline was stunning, a really lovely person. We didn't publicise that she was trans, because the reason Caroline was there is because she worked with the art. We weren't trying to be trendy in working with a trans model, it was just how we lived. There were a lot of gay and trans people at Rum Runner (a club in Birmingham where Duran Duran started their career), so it's what coloured our life."

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