Duran Duran pay respects to John Barry at California concert

JamesPage

Pop legends Duran Duran gave late Bond composer John Barry respects on Sunday as they played a show at the Coachella Valley music and arts festival in California.

The British band performed their old hits in the Sunshine state, performing classics such as Rio and Save a Prayer.

After they finished the set, Duran Duran returned for an encore and performed "A View To A Kill", a Bond hit released in 1985 co-written by Barry and used in the film of the same name.

Frontman Simon Le Bon look every inch James Bond as he sang a version of the song with an orchestra, dressed in a white tuxedo. Eventually the song became more upbeat moving into the catchy fast paced hit which could arguably be one of the best James Bond songs ever made.

John Barry was known throughout the British music industry as a well respected musician, and composed a total of 11 James Bond soundtracks.He died of a heart attack in January of this year at the age of 77 and left behind a string of beautifully composed films.

Le Bon told the crowd at Coachella, "We lost a dear friend of ours this year - English composer John Barry. This for him."

DarthDimi

Quoting JamesPage: "We lost a dear friend of ours this year - English composer John Barry. This for him."

That's nice. I wish I can at one point see this on YT or whatever. Would A-Ha do the same, I wonder...

Samuel001

It's great to see this. Duran Duran get a lot of respect for doing this. @DarthDimi I'd like to think A-Ha would do the same but you never know....bad blood shouldn't stop them paying their respects to Barry.

flashfilms

I posted some screen grabs from the YouTube feed here:

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=78280&forumID=1&archive=0

And incidentally, it was bassist John Taylor who addressed the crowd mentioning John Barry as their dear friend. Le Bon was changing into his white tux at the time, but the quote has been inaccurately assigned to him in the press. It was a nice tribute.

DarthDimi

Thanks for the link, flashfilms. It's a heart warming tribute and well-deserved for Barry. I understand that the response to his passing away couldn't be as intense as when, say, Michael Jackson died but for me, personally, Barry was a grand artist whose contributions to filmmusic cannot be neglected.

webside80

I went to see Duran Duran at Shepherds Bush for their BBC Radio 2 gig (which was awesome), and they opened with a tribute to John Barry. An orchestra and Dom (guitar) played Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, James Bon Theme, then into a soft rendition of A View to a Kill flowing into the rockier second half. If only I could get a copy of the radio 2 show, that was excellent.

dragonsky

wow that is great.is there some video of the concert?

NicNac

Quoting Samuel001: I'd like to think A-Ha would do the same but you never know....bad blood
shouldn't stop them paying their respects to Barry.

The problem there was that John Barry didn't understand or appreciate the greatness of a-ha! Boy they could've taught him a few things if he had only listened. :-"

Tracy

I think A-Ha will mellow.....life is really too short for grudges.

mixter_

The boys have been playing the Barry orchestral medley into AVTAK throughout the US Tour including their AMEX Unstaged performance as well as Coachella. This piece was arranged with the help of super-producer Mark Ronson. The performance including a string quartet accompaniment at Los Angeles' Mayan Theater can be found here...

http://www.vevo.com/watch/duran-duran/a-view-to-a-kill-unstaged/USXG31090016

A small correction from the Colonists...

California = The Golden State
Florida = The Sunshine State

;-)

fassbonder007

I dont care what you guys think of AVTAK , but I love that song!!!! lol