Careless Memories: Duran Duran’s New Romantic rise to the top

Photographer Denis O’Regan had unprecedented access to the band during their peak

Sunday 18 December 2022 12:36 GMT

Armed with perms and synthesisers, the group made their mark (Denis O’Regan)

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With pioneering music videos and chart hits like “Girls on Film”, “Hungry like a Wolf” and “Rio”, Duran Duran cemented their place as leaders in the Eighties New Romantic music scene.

Selling over 100 million records, they continue to be one of the UK’s most popular bands, with their fanbase also spanning the globe.

Containing hundreds of restored Denis O’Regan photographs, taken mostly during the North American and Japanese legs of the band’s 1984 Sing Blue Silver tour, Careless Memories provides a visual history of Duran Duran’s ascent to the top, with commentary from the band members themselves.

Rehearsing Wild Boys at Nomis Studios in London, 1984, before shooting the video (Denis O’Regan)

Fans gathered below the band’s dressing room on Duran Duran’s 1984 US tour (Denis O’Regan)

Leaving the stage at The Budokan in Tokyo, Japan, early in 1984 (Denis O’Regan)

The morning after the night before. Simon Le Bon and Andy Taylor’s limousine New York City, 1984 (Denis O’Regan)

Simon Le Bon on O’Regan: “Denis got to see a different side of the machine –he saw the cogs going around, and there were times when that wasn’t popular with everybody ... Once we saw the photographs, however, we were able to appreciate the potency of it.”

Denis O’Regan joined the band in France, where they were filming their “New Moon On Monday” video, and stayed with them until the end of the tour. His unprecedented access to the band gives the book an insight into the lives of Simon, Nick, John, Roger, and Andy, documenting the excitement of shows and mayhem that surrounded them.