Danger! High Voltage (part 3)

That The Power Station became so successful, especially in the States, started out as an accident. Andy recalls: "It was a lot freer than Duran. This wasn't: 'Let's make something for the American Top 40'. When it started to smell that way, we had the guys to make it happen. But initially The Power Station didn't have that, because it's what we were already doing in Duran. We weren't dead set on getting three hits out of that album, and one thing people enjoyed about the album is that it's so different. It's not just: 'Can you sing the chorus?'."

John believes a certain amount of dues were being paid in the band to his and Andy's heritage. "There was a little bit of flexing in introducing Robert, Bernard and Tony to Duran's mass audience," he considers. "When you're super-successful, you get to produce your old schoolfriend's song, or you rediscover an old artist, like David Bowie taking Dana Gillepsie and Lulu into the studio. That paying it forward payback is fun."

The original Power Station line-up didn't get to capitalise on that success. After one TV appearance on Saturday Night Live - "I love that performance, we look so different to how we sound," says John - The Power Station's tour was in chaos when Palmer quit two weeks before the first night. John points to Palmer's subsequent LP Riptide - which featured Addicted To Love - as "a companion album to The Power Station" in its timing, and for featuring all of The Power Station bar John, as well as their session musicians. Andy is more damning of Palmer's departure, fuming: "I don't know what Robert was running from. There were a lot of strange people around him, giving Robert whisky-fuelled advice."

The Power Station's performance on 'Saturday Night Live' in February 1985

Either way, Michael Des Barres instead sang on the tour; his band Chequered Past had supported Duran. "There wasn't really anyone else who would come in in time," admits Andy. "Michael had paid his dues and knew what he was doing." John adds: "Michael had a strong onstage personality and he'd written Animotion's hit Obsession, so he had some currency and was fully committed to the idea."

Andy concludes of losing Palmer: "Michael stuck closely to Robert's vocals and we had two great backing singers. Michael wasn't Robert, who was one in a gazillon, but you've had people doing Freddie Mercury's job in Queen, so... I don't know how we pulled it off. Our view was simply: 'Fuck off, we're not going to stop'."

Ultimately, Des Barres' biggest influence in The Power Station was possibly being a reformed addict. During the tour, John and Andy's substance intake made it, well, notorious. "Any excuse to go out on tour was great fun," considers Andy. "I had nothing else to do that summer. So what's a young man to do? That tour went from extremely clean to extremely dirty. There's levels of hedonism, and we weren't as bad as some, not by a country mile."

John offers: "Oh, that tour was messy... It was so messy that I was eating McDonald's every day, that's how fucking messy it was." Both Taylors praise Des Barres as a calming influence, as Andy says: "Michael was sober and dead straight. At that time, that was very valuable for us."

The Power Station's tour line-up with Michael Des Barres replacing Robert Palmer

There was one final postscript for the period, when Des Barres used his film connections to land The Power Station a one-off single, We Fight For Love, on the soundtrack to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando. By then, as John admits: "It was the last fading embers of that time. Michael had the basis of the lyrics, and we knew the song would have that film placement. But I didn't care all that much."

Exhausted by the tour and fed up with how many cover versions it involved, John wanted to go back to Duran Duran. Andy did not. "Live Aid had been difficult," he assesses. "I'm glad I had the outlet of The Power Station then, because that was fun."

Immediately after Live Aid, Duran manager Michael Berrow told Andy that Roger Taylor was quitting. "That was the first time I knew there was a crack, that something really bad had happened," says Andy. "When things were that difficult, the options of doing more Power Station or solo records became more of a reality. But, after that Power Station tour, I wasn't going to do that either. I'd never thought about getting into the music business for it to become a job, where I'd be told: 'Before you do anything, the expectancy is...' I felt like: 'I want to get off, but the roundabout won't slow down'."

John was horrified at Andy's decision, admitting: "Andy was very calm, telling me: 'No, I'm not doing it'. I told him: 'What do you mean? I'm going back and we're going together!' But Andy was very determined. I thought: 'Fuuuuck!' I thought that I might as well go back to Duran, as I was feeling the same at the end of that Power Station tour as I'd felt at the end of Seven And The Ragged Tiger. Clearly, I was the problem. But then Simon, Nick and I had the most amazing 12 months."

The Boys Of Summer '85: Andy Taylor, Tony Thompson & John Taylor

Forty years on, The Power Station's album still resonates as a formidable and deeply odd move from the biggest band on the planet. It's a total groove. And it's also undeniably by a supergroup, even if Andy and John Taylor ran a mile from the notion in 1985.

"We have had enough time now to see The Power Station for what it is," considers John. "Going back through the demos, I thought: 'Oh man, it really was a supergroup!' We made supergroups cool again. After us, you had bands like The Traveling Wilburys and Tin Machine. We reminded people that it was fun to be in a band."

"I've total respect fo what everyone in that band did," summarises Andy. "The skillset of those people was enormous. I talked to John about it recently. And we both said: 'How did we pull that off'?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Life Of Vice

The Power Station interrupted their tour to appear in an episode of Miami Vice, whose star Don Johnson was a good friend of Michael Des Barres.

The Power Station's appearance in an episode of 'Miami Vice' (S2 E3)

"That was a fucking mad day," laughs Andy Taylor. "Hanging out in Miami with Don Johnson was the first time anyone in Duran Duran had hung out with someone more famous than we were. We went around Miami in an open-top car with Don. Everywhere we stopped, everyone would go: 'Aaargh! Don! Don!' I'd go: 'Look! It's me and John from Duran Duran here, too!' Don really was the guy you saw on screen. Doing the show was fun, one of those things done on a passing whim. The producers said: 'We want one of you to act,' so I told John: 'You're the one with a future in acting, off you go'!"

John takes up the theme, adding: "Miami Vice was the show to be seen on that summer. The list of guests they had is incredible. But I haven't seen our performance since we filmed it. I only had one line, which is the only time on that tour where I can say I only had one line."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 40th anniversary reissue of The Power Station is released via Warner on 23 January 2026.

John Earls (Classic Pop Magazine - 2025)

classicpopmag.com

Voir aussi :

• The Power Station: 40 Ans  (Music & Style - 2025)