Reportage - Behind the Myth

If there is one subject guaranteed to generate clicks, it’s mentioning Duran Duran’s great ‘lost’ album of 2006 – Reportage. And so here’s hoping that splashing its name all over the Cherry Lipstick website works.

The subject of Reportage always gets fans in a froth, and periodic lifts from interviewers mentioning it. The current Classic Pop special edition (available here) went to town on it. There is a whole article which gives a decent round-up of the various quotes and known stories about it over the past 18 years. Let’s take a quick look at some of the mouth-watering mentions Reportage has had over the years:

John: We delivered an album that was a natural-sounding, almost rock album… It’s our misunderstood masterpiece.

Simon: ’48 Hours Later’ is one of the best Duran Duran songs I’ve ever heard. You could easily have it on All You Need Is Now.

Roger: [Reportage was] a homage to our roots as a band.

Andy (2023): We have to finish Reportage.

Nick (2023): We all want Reportage to come out… we’d need 3 weeks to finish it.

Well that sounds just great! Let’s go!

Except…

Haven’t we heard all ‘this new album is completely great’ before? Sports stars often say that their fans love them the most when they are not playing because they would definitely have scored the winning goal / points / home run if they’d been in the team.

Let’s play another word-fart game of Duran Duran bigging up their new album. Can you match these quotes to the correct album? Choose from Red Carpet Massacre, All You Need Is Now and Paper Gods (answers at the end of the article).

Simon: We had to dig and dig until we found something that sounded like the Duran Duran we think of as the experimental, cutting edge band.

John: I never have a sense of being ‘over it,’ or of our best work being behind us. I always feel optimistic, positive about possibilities.

Roger: The moment that we heard that mix, and it was so cool, that was the moment.

It is understandable that the band ALWAYS think their new stuff is great – but does this mean that, perhaps, the band are not the best judge of their own work? And that, perhaps, everything that they say about Reportage needs to be taken with a massive heap of salt? Perhaps. Let us consider the history of the band and their own judgement of their output:

Seven and the Ragged Tiger: The very essence of ‘Oh crap, we’re out of time, money and ideas. THAT’LL HAVE TO DO.’ (To be almost exactly repeated with the same group of individuals 21 years later – see below).

Skin Trade: Picture of lady’s backside removed from cover of the single.

Liberty: Universally hated by the band ever since. Even Sterling, in 1990, said, “Some of it sounds too mainstream. When I look back there are so many things I wouldn’t have done on that record. When I was there for the mixing and I would say ‘no’ and everybody else would say ‘yeah it sounds good’ I would just go with it and not stick to my gut feeling.” Simon added, “we finished the album in March so the list of things I’d change is as long as my arm now.” Various superior demos ignored in favour of Hothead.

Thank You: Duran-approved Ken Scott version rejected by the record company in 1994.

Pop Trash: Duran-approved Ken Scott version rejected by the record company in 1999. (Something of theme developing here).

Astronaut: Roger: “Two years of going round in circles, trying to find the right grooves, the right songs. There were arguments, even scuffles. In the end we just put our hands up and said, ‘That’s it, we’re done. This is what we have to offer’.” Duran's judgement was so shot they ended up ‘offering’ Bedroom Toys over Beautiful Colours.

Reportage: The nearly-finished album comprehensively rejected by Sony in 2006. Band have to junk everything they have recorded and start again and go with company-approved producer.

So, in the context of the quotes that led this article, let’s cast ourselves back to May 2006 and that infamous meeting with the Sony record execs. You know, those horrid people with money (that are paying for the whole thing). The scene is a top floor office building with those big plants in the corner and large windows overlooking Central Park. Mr Big is behind an oak desk smoking a fat cigar. Words by the band taken from comments in Classic Pop:

Mr Big: So boys, what have you been up to? How’s the new album coming along?

Nick: It’s an angry sounding record – it’s pretty political. One of my favourite songs is about the decay of the world. It’s a song of desperation.

Mr Big: Oh, right… What are the songs called?

Simon (excitedly): One’s called Transcendental Mental!

Mr Big (Thinks): So not ‘Save A Prayer’… Anything else?

Simon: One’s called Judy, Where Are You? It’s about our friend who went missing after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans!

Mr Big (thinks): Sounds like Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine by that rather good new group The Killers who I wish I was talking to right now.

John: There’s another called Criminals in The Capital – it’s about the Iraq war!

Mr Big: That sounds... great. Really... great. Really, really great... And how are you boys getting on together? All still good for the tour?

Nick: Oh yes, we’re best of friends.

Of course, a few weeks later, Andy would leave the band once more. In May 2008, promoting Red Carpet Massacre, Nick would say:

“We had finished an album, We sort of felt that we needed . . . I don’t know, I suppose more direct tracks. We decided we would do a couple of tracks with someone else. Timbaland came up as an option and we said “perfect.” The one person who didn’t make those sessions was Andy, which was a surprise to us, but we obviously forged forward anyway. We just follow the path and see where it takes us. I don’t think any of us really know why, including Andy. It was just one of those things when it completely . . . the wheels came off, it sort of fell apart. I don’t think it was anything that any of us had particularly foreseen. He’d been a bit difficult with a few issues, with live dates and things. As with a close-knit band of people, we weren’t seeing eye to eye over everything.”

‘Obviously’ despite Andy’s “few issues” they ‘forged forward anyway’, just like in 1986 and 1997.

So maybe Reportage can be finished in 3 weeks. That would in time for the MSG Halloween show. And maybe it will be brilliant.

But of course it won’t be. It can't be. We will just be lucky to hear the Fab Five back together one last time. And that is more than enough. Until then, clickbait articles are not needed, but won't stop.

And, finally: The answers to the albums the band were speaking about:

John RCM, Roger All You Need Is Now, Simon Paper Gods. John later went on to say, rather more truthfully, about RCM, “That whole project was a fucking nightmare.”