Simon Le Bon Reveals the Secret to Duran Duran’s Long-Lasting Lineup

Simon Le Bon has talked about how Duran Duran have managed to remain together for nearly five decades.

The pop band has kept the original line up of Le Bon with John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes since their formation in 1978, and the singer says the reason they have lasted so long comes down to mutual respect and a shared approach to money, including an equal split of earnings. He told ITV News: "We like each other, we like working together. We rely on each other for musical ideas, as well. We split all the income equally; it doesn’t matter if you write something or if you don’t write on it, you get an equal share of the publishing.

"And that way, everybody is happy and crucially only the best material gets on the album. It means there’s no resentment for financial reasons within the group. I don’t know how many other bands do that."

Le Bon also said he would be open to Duran Duran returning to the James Bond franchise now that Amazon MGM Studios is in charge, after their 1985 hit A View to a Kill became a major theme for the series. The singer said: "Let's see what Amazon wants to do with it. I'm keeping an open mind. Would we do it? Of course we would. 100 per cent."

He went on to restate that the band still has ambitions to headline Glastonbury, although he made it clear they would only accept a proper headline position rather than an early or lower billed slot. He told ITV News: "Absolutely would love to do it. But we're not going to do it unless we get the right slot. We have been offered the disco tent at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and that's not really where we're at."

When asked about other possible appearances at the festival, Le Bon suggested they would be open to performing in the famous Legends slot on a Sunday afternoon. He said: "That is a kind of headline slot for me. Yeah sure we would do that."

Le Bon has also recently shared that Duran Duran are interested in performing at the Sphere in Las Vegas and are intrigued by the idea of a hologram style show similar to ABBA Voyage. Le Bon told The Sunday Times’ Culture magazine: "I’d love to do one [hologram show]. But I’d also like to do the Sphere in Las Vegas."