In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain , in Budapest and Warsaw .
Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100 , and was a Top 20 hit in Canada.
Although the song ” Notorious ” was a US and UK top ten hit, the album was a relative failure globally, reaching number 16 in the UK and spending one week in the top 50 album chart. The band found they had lost much of the momentum and hysteria they…
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In 1985, the group re-formed as a ” beat combo ” (a joking reference to early 1960s beat music ), with greater use of electronic musical instruments . Wire announced that they would perform none of their older material, hiring Ex-Lion Tamers (a Wire cover band from Hoboken, New Jersey…
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Released in 1985, Low-Life refined and sometimes mixed the two styles, guitar-based and electronic, and included ” The Perfect Kiss ” – the video for which was filmed by Jonathan Demme – and ” Sub-culture “.
While Cook was in Brighton, Heaton formed a band, the Housemartins . When their original bassist quit in 1985, Cook moved to Hull to join them. Cook said he learned to play the bass guitar in about a week. In 1986, the Housemartins reached number one on the UK singles…
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Even with Duran Duran on hold, band members were soon anxious to record new music, leading to a supposedly temporary split into two side projects. John Taylor and Andy Taylor wanted to break away from the Duran Duran sound and pursue hard rock material; they collaborated with lead vocalist Robert…
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Partly recorded in Slane Castle , The Unforgettable Fire was released in October 1984 and marked a major change of style. It was ambient and abstract, and featured a rich, orchestrated sound. Under Lanois’ direction, Mullen’s drumming became looser, funkier, and more subtle, and Clayton’s bass became more subtle. Complementing…
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In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one “sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose.” In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were…
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This changed in March 1984, when they released the single ” People Are People “. The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country’s…
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