Duran-Ronson show

The band and producer speak to 6 Music in Paris before their one off show

02 July 2008 - Famed for his work with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, uber producer Mark Ronson has now teamed up with Duran Duran.

Together, they are performing a one off concert tonight (2 July) in an intimate Paris venue for the Smirnoff Experience show and speaking to 6 Music, both sides dish all on the collaboration.

They claimed that the unique collaboration came about because of, “Dr Smirnoff,” as Ronson put it.

To which Simon Le Bon continued: “We have it on good authority that it is the result of a vodka binge, which we’re quite familiar with in our own little way.”

He explained: “We all got phone calls around the same time. Mark was asked if he fancied hooking up with Duran Duran and we were asked if we wanted to hook up with Mark Ronson - and we all said yes, resoundingly.”

Mark Ronson on Duran Duran

Ronson has previously confessed to being a huge fan of Duran Duran - even once sporting a similar haircut to his idols – and was thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely with the band.

He told 6 Music: “It has been amazing, they’ve welcomed me in and basically they gave me all the tracks so I could make my dream Duran Duran medley, and they’re letting me play guitar with them. It’s pretty amazing.”

Ronson went on to say how awe-inspiring the process has been for him: “We were in rehearsal on Thursday and I’m sitting there playing Planet Earth, rhythm guitar, and I’m thinking this has to be one of the top five moments of my career for sure.”

"My favourite thing that Mark came up with was sticking the Prince groove for Sign of the Times under I Don’t Want Your Love."
Simon Le Bon

Simon Le Bon on Mark Ronson

The feelings of respect were mutual as Simon Le Bon revealed that he will be singing Ronson’s Stop Me at the show, which he said was his favourite dance floor hit of last year.

Le Bon expressed his admiration for Ronson’s work: “I love Mark’s work very much. He’s a real musician and he knows about having emotional impact and I think that’s why when he started producing music with horns and strings, he brought a romanticism that had been lacking in music back - and that was appealing.”

Working together

Le Bon went on to say that he has high hopes the collaboration will continue in the future.

He told 6 Music: “It has been so much fun digging out all the old things and for us we’ve had to relearn things that we’ve been playing, in some of the songs, in the same way for decades - and suddenly it has changed a bit.”

Working with Mark Ronson has seemingly modernised some of their tracks as Le Bon mentioned one highlight of their partnership.

“One of my favourite things that Mark came up with was sticking the Prince groove for Sign of the Times under I Don’t Want Your Love,” he said, “we would never have thought of that but it has given the song a whole different slant.”

They all concurred that a, “mash up of Duran Duran songs with some other stuff too,” is what we should expect from the fruits of their joint labour.

Georgie Rogers