As the lights go down

A few years ago John Taylor made a joke about Duran appearing on the 'scampi and chips circuit'. When I first heard that the band would be playing on August 19 at the Horseshoe Casino in Robinsville, Mississippi, I thought that things had gotten even worse than that. But it turns out that the casino is practically a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee, and makes a special effort to attract big name performers to its concert hall (but you have to go through the casino to get in!).

The show was a complete sell out, despite tickets being rather expensive at $42 each, and there was no reserved seating. Since I got there just as the show was starting, I had to watch the whole show from the back. Still, it was great to see such a big turnout, and most of the audience was already standing on the chairs and cheering as the band opened with Girls on Film.

From what I could see, Simon, dressed in black, looked taller and slimmer than ever (he can't still be growing, can he?) while Warren, also in black, was bigger than ever (almost ready to compete for Mr. Universe, in fact), and Nick looked like - Nick. Unlike the other shows I've been to, Nick lived up to his image and didn't move from behind his keyboards. I'm not even sure he knew we were there. Simon was jumping, kicking and whirling all over the stage, though. He probably thought he was dancing...