Danger! High Voltage (part 2)

The Power Station's initial plan was for the Taylors and Thompson to be a house band in the vein of Stax Records for a cast of guest singers. Although Mick Jagger, Billy Idol and The Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler's names have been rumoured, John and Andy are both hazy on the exact details, beyond confirming Chic's backing singers - who had sung on Seven And The Ragged Tiger - were considered. Andy ponders: "Billy Idol would have never been viable then. Mick Jagger was downstairs from us when we recorded the album, but we already had Robert by then. Jeff Beck was recording upstairs, and I'd have liked that. But singer names was only ever: 'He or him might be a good idea', nothing serious. I don't think me or John were ever really that into the idea of a lot of singers."

Coinciding with more Duran duties in Paris, the new trio jammed their cover of Get It On and built up the instrumental of what became Some Like It Hot, which they subsequently sent to Robert Palmer. All of Duran loved Palmer, who had supported the band duting their Birmingham homecoming at Aston Villa's ground in July 1983.

John first met Palmer in 1982 at New York's The Peppermint Lounge, when Duran's publicist Doreen D'Agostino brought Robert to a Duran party. "Talk about 'Get It On'," grins John. "Robert and I, we really fucking got it on." That's a hint about Palmer's louche partying ways echoed by Andy, who had already met Robert at Steve Strange's squat the year before, where Palmer was "really off his head."

"Robert's songs 'Looking For Clues' and 'Johnny And Mary' were massive for me," enthuses John. "When Duran were making Seven And The Ragged Tiger in the south of France, I was totally into 'Double Fun'. I was a massive fan, yet also able to meet Robert on equal terms. He was probably struck by my beautiful naivety, while Robert was a musical deep northerner, just like Andy."

John and Robert's first meeting at The Peppermint Lounge in New York (1982)

Before they could get it on in the studio, however, John and Andy had to return to the day job, for the small matter of making a Bond theme. "That was challenging," deadpans Andy. Not only were Duran barely on speaking terms, they were contractually obliged to let John Barry co-write the theme - and contend with the fact that the James Bond bosses thought Duran Duran were a bunch of disposable pop herberts. "We charmed our way in," reckons Andy. "The size of our fanbase meant the studio was persuaded. They were very 'Hmmm' about us at first."

A View To A Kill began as "a little chord thing" that Barry played at John Taylor's home; what Andy describes as: "The beginning of something that could work." The composer continued to craft small motifs that could be assembled into a song... only Duran had no producer to make that happen. Nile Rodgers was too busy with Madonna so, before actually producing any Power Station music, Bernard Edwards was flown to Maison Rouge studio in Fulham.

"Duran getting into the studio was a little difficult at the time," acknowledges Andy. "But Bernard was very stoic, so I knew he'd be good for us. Whatever bullshit was thrown at Bernard, he could handle it; he'd dealt with Diana Ross. Bernard was always on it, so he'd be great at whatever bullshit was going on."

There was, however, a more unexpected layer of extra bullshit: John Barry. "We didn't know John had had four heart attacks," Andy grimaces. "As soon as he'd thrown his song ideas at us, it was: 'Right, off to the pub!' John wasn't supposed to drink, but there he was, happy as Larry, pissed."

Edwards did indeed help keep everything together, sorting the orchestration while Andy and Roger Taylor created a hybrid of Linn drum samples. Meanwhile, Andy recalls of Barry: "Nick didn't necessarily see eye-to-eye with him. That's perfectly understandable; because John was a little... intolerant."

Andy summarises A View To A Kill as: "A hard song to make, but one which turned out amazing. It was the first Bond theme to make No.1, and it's still the biggest selling. Bond is so huge, but we still have the gold medal. Our view was: 'If we're doing a Bond song, let's nail it'. We had the pop sensibility in droves of positioning the chorus right."

Robert Palmer opening for Duran Duran at Aston Villa's ground in Birmingham (1983)

While at Maison Rouge, Andy and John worked up Communication, with Palmer writing its lyrics on the plane over to New York to record his vocals for Some Like It Hot. It's a song largely about The Power Station's ethos, as John explains: "It's about connectivity. Anybody who's got drunk knows what it's like to hit it off with somebody you've just met, then think the next morning: 'We really got it on... or did we?' That can be with a woman, but it's often how boys bond, too, over substances. The question then is: Was it just a one night stand? 'Communication' was Robert saying: 'No, really, I'm in!' At the mic in New York, Robert knocked out 'Communication' in one."

That made it three tracks, with Murderess a "banging" Palmer song title he worked up, John "planking Still In Your Heart on the piano" and Edwards instigating Lonely Tonight. Add in Palmer's Go To Zero and Andy suggesting a cover of The Isley Brothers' Harvest For The World and, as John says: "Voila, there's the album! The key to making it is that all those ideas were maximised by their production, each idea taken to its ultimate conclusion by Bernard and our engineer, Jason Corsaro, who was also hugely key to The Power Station."

Andy, too, cites Corsaro, additionally stressing the importance of the session musicians who worked on the album. "The players on that album are absolutely sterling," eulogises Andy. "Man, the tightness of those players! Those guys had incredible timing. The sharpness and the pop in the timing on that record was one in a million."

The Power Station's first photo session with Eric Boman: "Oh, so we are a band!"

As exemplified on Some Like It Hot, the sound of The Power Station's self-titled album was a minimal, spare way of getting across a mighty groove. "It's very stripped, very bare and it's sensitive to all of its individual parts," summarises Andy. "It's also a sound no-one had done before. That's one thing I like when I look back to Duran and The Power Station: we created the sound of a band people loved."

John is more modest about the achievement, saying: "Whereas Duran came out of the New Romantic grounding, The Power Station had a broader spectrum of influences. People like Rod Stewart listened to our album and thought: 'OK, this is how I can get back into the game'. We assembled the ingredients, but nobody knew what it was going to sound like. Bernard and Jason's production team took it way beyond anything any of us imagined."

With Palmer a suave contrast to the Taylors' voguish look and Thompson adding a further layer of NY cool, The Power Station were immediately one of the hippest bands around. That was brought home to John at the band's first photo session with Eric Boman - chosen because he'd photographed Roxy Music's Country Life cover. "Going into Eric's studio was the first time we went, 'Oh, so we are a band!'," remembers John. "What I'd learned with Duran is that, in a band, you create a cast of characters. We'd always tell interviewers: 'We're like a box of Quality Street: everyone is someone's favourite'. The Power Station was even more like that, because there were such extremes of personality."

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Live Aid's Double Shift

In 1985, both Duran Duran and The Power Station played at Live Aid's Philadelphia concert.

The Power Station at Live Aid in July 1985

On meeting "The Parisian Arcadia contingent" of Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor, John recalls: "It was hugs, going into a rehearsal room and trying to come up with a four-song set. We were No.1 in America, but barely speaking to each other."

While reflecting on Duran's live appearance, he says: "Our relationship was so tenuous then, but I love that performance. I didn't watch it for 20 years but, when I finally did, I thought: 'This is incredible!' It was the big band version of Duran: horns, percussion, backing vocals."

At the time, Andy Taylor was livid that Duran had to follow the reformed Led Zeppelin: "I was cursing the promoter, Bill Graham, for our slot. I stood at the side of the stage with a popcorn bucket full of ice and white wine, thinking: 'Bastard!' Even though Duran were No.1 at the time, that crowd wanted Led Zeppelin. It didn't matter Zeppelin were a shambles, because the place went nuts. Live Aid was crazy, but it was a fun day. Everyone had a party. I'd never seen everyone's guard come down so much. Eric Clapton was lovely; he helped me back onto the bus afterwards."

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