Robert Palmer And The Duran Duran Twins Refuel At The Power Station (part II)

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Robert Palmer And The Duran Duran Twins Refuel At The Power Station (part II)

John Taylor and Andy Taylor first "got on" with Palmer at the Rum Runner Club in England about three years ago, at which they discussed the possibility of a project together. Not long after, of course, Duran Duran took off worldwide and the Taylors' time for jam sessions became rather limited. But as often happens to those with a few multi-plantinum albums under their belts, a vacation presented itself, and John Taylor sent a demo tape he and Andy had put together to Palmer.

"He'd actually got it going and got some tracks down without my knowing after this three-year period of discussing it," recalls Palmer, "and when he sent me the cassette, I said 'Who on earth's the guitarist?' He said, "It's Andy, from the group.' I said, 'You're kidding.' I had no idea. He's just a layer in the group, but he's unleashed now. On the other hand, I saw them live in New Jersey, and I knew John was solid as a player. He plays deep, he plays big. I didn't know Chic - they went in one ear and out the other. They didn't know me."

When the album was done - and the project, for lack of a better moniker, named after the New York studio where it was mixed - the lads broke the news to their record company, Capitol, gently.

What photo? What album sleeve? What album?

What photo? What album sleeve? What album?

"The management, the record company - nobody knew," Taylor recalls with pride. "As far as they were concerned, me and Andy were on holiday, living it up. And then we sent them the bill for the photo. 'What photo?' The photo for the album sleeve. 'What album sleeve?' For the album. 'What album?' It was fantastic. It was so neat for me not to have people breathing down my throat all the time - 'Oh, how many number ones have we got on it?'." He winces, "With Duran Duran, I'm under a hell of a lot of pressure."

"Also," interjects Palmer, "when he dreamed up the idea of Duran Duran, the idea was to mix the dance grooves with heavy metal/hard rock/punk. When Duran came together and all the elements came together, it turned into something else - no problem. But here, he had a chance to take a break and get back to that, get closer to that than the original."

Robert Palmer And The Duran Duran Twins Refuel At The Power Station (part II)

Not being a fan of Duran Duran's, though, wasn't Palmer afraid that having two members of Duran Duran writing most of the Power Station melodies would cause the group to come out sounding a little like, um, Duran Duran?

"Of course not!," he says, like a teacher reprimanding a particularly stupid child. "Music comes from a meeting of personalities and feelings, it's not an academic process. We got on great. He plays solid. That's nothing to do with anything. You don't think when you play. In fact, if you do think when you play, what you hear in the grooves is somebody thinking and not playing. That's the first thing you learn. The second thing you learn is not to talk to the press. I'm breaking all the rules - but it's OK, I'm in a big group now."

"Ok, pop star," chides Taylor. But, he acknowledges, "It's so broad between him and me on the face of it. Especially in England, people will..."

"Look at that," interrupts Palmer. "Ooh, that's good." A certain someone is back on the belly.

"It's not bad, is it?" agrees Taylor. "But the record's more about spirit than product. But it's a fact that it's a piece of product as well."

"To the best of both worlds," says Palmer, holding up his double-brandy. "I propose a toast."

Promo adverts for The Power Station (1985)

Promo adverts for The Power Station (1985)

"It does look rather suspicious, the lineup, whatever the reasons - what he would have to gain from it, what I would have to gain from it," says Taylor. "There's nothing of that intended. It's basically four mates getting together and playing. It was like the ultimate garage band in a way."

"We want to make sure it stays that way," says Palmer. "It's so much fun to work like this, it's almost illegal. So we want to make sure that if circumstances dictate that we take it any further, we can keep it like this."

"It would be such a shame if... I mean, I certainly wanted to get out of the millstream a bit to do this, and ironically I'm finding myself back in it exactly the same."

"More intensely, perharps."

"More intensely. But at least differently, for a change. I'll do an interview, and I'll tell you about Duran Duran  now, and I'll read you a book at the same time. This was a refreshing thing to do. The last thing I want this to become is a circus, and so anything we do has to be so precise and exactly what we want, or else that's when we're going to shortchange the project."

Robert Palmer during the filming of the Some Like It Hot music video (1985)

Robert Palmer during the filming of the Some Like It Hot music video (1985)

"Right. That's why we went to the length of doing the video and everything else, because otherwise, it would've been almost snobbish to put it out in a brown paper bag and not to worry about it, saying 'Oh, it'll work anyway.' While we were doing it we were far too busy having a good time to think about any of this stuff. Now we're just concerned to make sure the motivation behind this is known before the music comes out."

"And now, of course, the question is: are we gonna play live, right? We don't know. We're not saying yes, we're not saying no. It'd be nice, though," says Taylor. "It'd be a laugh," agrees Palmer.

Does the same thing go for making another album?

"No," says Palmer. "This thing was so spontaneous, we couldn't do the same thing again and wouldn't want to dilute and trash it by attempting to. But the Power Station itself can be a platform for all kinds of collaborations in different directions. But we'd never try to reproduce this as a Part II. It would be pushing our luck."

What happens if the Power Station becomes bigger than planned? Say like, really big?

Taylor offers enigmatic comfort, "We've got the best contigency plans in the world," he says.

Chris Willman (BAM - May 1985)

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