London, Oct. 4th 2004: HMV record store signing

The first question that needs to be addressed is just how early do you need to get there. Not many of us would join the handful of truly hardy souls who camped out overnight to ensure first place in the queue. For the vast majority that meant turning up at some point in the afternoon - fortunately several of the readers of this fanzine were dedicated enough to make sure that they were there promptly enough to be among the five hundred admitted. Your dedicated contributor scuttled in among the final dozen. Sadly this gave me a front row view of the reactions of those being turned away by security.

Photo by Jackie Dent

Anticipation increased as an hour or so before the band were due to appear those fortunate enough to be in the queue were herded into the store to find ourselves in a barricaded area in front of a small stage behind which was a large video screen. You can well imagine that with five hundred keen Duranies in the building the reaction to the inhouse DJ's ever more frequent playing of DD songs was quite something. Goodness knows what the casual shopper who'd popped in on the way home from work thought of so many seemingly sensible thirtysomethings singing and dancing to Duran songs from both way back and then Astronaut. The giant video screen was by this time showing the singing fans. Then, after a couple of obligatory false alarms and on a tidal wave of screaming, onto the stage walked Le Bon and co with their every move shown on the giant screen.

So now comes the crucial moment. Yes, you're about to meet the original five members of Duran Duran and as you're only going to have a few seconds with each guy, what on earth do you say. Really, what would you ask them as it's unlikely they're going to initiate the conversation?