Duran Duran - Planet Earth (Manchester Square Demo)

The original Planet Earth performed by Duran Duran in the days of the Rum Runner. This Demo was recorded in late 1980 in Manchester Square studio. The Demo runs an extra minuet longer than the version that features on their debut album ''Duran Duran''. The song also features an extra verse towards the end.

This song is NOW available for purchase on iTunes from the ''Duran Duran (Remastered)'' album and will be released onto a 2 disc album sometime in April with more unheard demos with remastered remixes and songs.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Duran
• Planet
• Earth
• Demo
• 1980
• 1981
• manchester
• square
• remastered
• new
• romantics
• single
• vmanoover
• 2010
• simon
• le
• bon
• john
• taylor
• andy
• rodger
• nick
• rhodes
• rum
• runner
• 80s
• band
• awesomeness

[CrypticoJak]

Wow, what happened to musician's voices? Simon's voice sounds almost like the studio album recording. Unbelievable!!!

I don't think artists need to have a good voice anymore. They'll just alter it with technology. And that's unfortunate.

This sounds like no alteration was done. Good stuff! Great song, great voice!

[vmanoover]

@CrypticoJak I agree, you don't need talent to be successful nowadays. Just a big wallet.

[Shapersofthe80s]

This is a priceless glimpse of DD’s first gig, filmed in summer 1980 at the Rum Runner, the Birmingham nightclub where they worked, with the final line-up that signed to EMI later that year. (The original live soundtrack has been lost.) The dancers are the local New Romantics and that has to be Gay John at 3:12 in drag, natch. At 3:30 we glimpse him dancing in the official promo video when PE was released in1981.

[vmanoover]

@Shapersofthe80s lol as cool as it would be, that isn't John dancing in the background of the original music video. The 2 dancers were just friends of the band, Simon confirmed this in an interview which is floating around YouTube somewhere.And i don't think John was into cross dressing and let alone being gay.

[JeremyThirlby]

Most of this lot were drafted in actors. The Rum Runner had its fair share of out of the ordinary folks but most regulars were excluded from this polished up presentation. I was there around this time and it is The Rum Runner- why this is called Manchester sq demo ??

[vmanoover]

@JeremyThirlby Because the Audio is taken from the ''Manchester Square Demo'' from the new remastered debut Duran Duran album (Which i mentioned in the info tab). The video was featured on the ''Greatest'' DVD, but because the demo has new lyrics and is longer i had to muck around with the footage (loop/repeat things and add the planet earth music video). Took me a while to get the lip sync right.

[Blissbomb2]

kids, if you were wondering how your parents spent their youth check this out. They were freakier than you are lol.

[marquisDesign]

You're welcome Lady Gaga.

[grandabell]

@CrypticoJak I agree with you 100%. The huge difference between a great band like Duran Duran and the majority of todays "artists" - though, not all - is that Duran could sing, play their instruments, write their own music AND do it live. Today we mostly get pretty faces lip-synching to a tuneless row, surrounded by dancers to distract you from how weak the artist is and not a great deal more...

[miraeja]

wow just wow! WOW

[gummiman01]

the 80's was really experiemental and artistic. i loved that about that decade. hopefully we come back to that, but i don't think so. there's too much shit to worry about now that isn't going to go away. we were blissfully unaware ck then

[42bluey]

*OMG* like WOW this is unreal talk about sounding different

[GizziesGirl2]

You know Simon looks kind of like some sort of live action anime character in this. :) Cool vid.

[Talkingforfree]

@vmanoover

He wasn't referring to John Taylor.  There was a guy on the Birmingham scene at the time who was known as "Gay John".

[Shapersofthe80s]

@vmanoover -- No of course the dancing John isn’t John Taylor! Gay John was one of the regulars at the Rum Runner who were followers of the designers Kahn & Bell. Along with Mulligan of the band Fashion, Whiskers, Patrick, Slag Sue and Martin Degville, they formed the core of Duran’s immediate circle.