My DD Confession (for Duran Duran fans only)

I was so happy - no: excited! elated! - when I read the news about Duran Duran going to perform in Amsterdam. I'll finally be able to go to their concert!

First, a short flashback of my affairs with Duran Duran. How long ago was it - 20? - when I first heard their songs, being a fresh 13 junior high school girl, and liked them rightaway. My cousin Chica was even a member of the Fans Club so I was lucky to be able to enjoy her photos, books and all. My parents used to bring us teen magazines when they went abroad and I was sooo happy to get them. Sadly, some of the magazines got confiscated (along with a couple of MAD magazines) because I brought them to school and, sadly, never got them back. Anyway, pictures in those magazines were my first models when I started learning to draw celebrities - most of the times on requests from friends - and Duran Duran was amongst the most wanted ones.

By then, in my early teens, you supposed to pick one band member as your favorite. Chica picked Nick and I at first picked Roger because I thought he was the coolest one. But since Chica's (then) best-friend already picked Roger I had to pick someone else, so I picked John and stayed faithful to him . I remember also that my wallet was like a mini photo-album, full of DD and John photographs and only a bit of money. So one day, when that wallet was picked from my pocket in a city bus, my greatest loss was that photo collection (the amount of money was only 4000 IDR - or barely 0,50 EUR). I hope the pickpocket liked DD, too, so he's not too dissapointed .

I remember a rather embarrasing scene: we had a big official family dinner but I insisted on wearing my yellow DD polo shirt. I really refused to go unless I'm allowed to wear that shirt to the dinner and that has caused a fight with my brother (nothing new here, but still..). Finally my parents let me have my way and so we went to the restaurant to meet my aunts, uncles and cousins, who were all wearing proper dresses and shirts. Of course my outfit started some discussions and I quietly asked my cousin Chica (who was wearing a pretty maroon dress) why she didn't wear her awesome Nick T-shirt and she said, "What?! My parents would kill me first!". Luckily I didn't get nagged at all by anyone for what I did so I supposed they could see how embarrased I felt that night..

My parents used to bring us Duran Duran LPs from abroad, while I was happy to buy cassettes out of my earnings. Then we moved to another house when I turned 16, exactly when I started going to senior high school. My bed at one corner of my room looked like a Duran Duran shrine, full of their photo's all over the bed shelves and sides. It was 1991 when I moved to another house, in another city. By then my Duran Duran knowledge has blended with my other 80s memories..

Life continues and I heard about them on and off, whenever broadcasted on the radio news.

2004. I'm married (2 children), currently living in Amsterdam and pursuing my study. I heard about their reunion and saw the news about their tours on TV. I found Nick's and Simon's account on Friendster, applied to them and was accepted, sent my testimonials and were accepted - only to find much later that those accounts are not actually theirs! *another embarrasment* But from a respond to my testimonial at 'Nick's' Friendster I found out that they actually did perform in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1995! No wonder I had no recollection of that, since that was the year I spent in Germany, working in a design office. Boy did I miss something!

Therefore, I thought I have to go to this show in Amsterdam, 31 May 2005. When else do I get the chance?! Because I plan to move back to my home country next year after finishing my study here and surely DD won't have a tour around South-East Asia in the near future?! After purchasing a couple of tickets (one for Ayu if she can make it) I rightaway got hooked up at the Duran Duran website, their Message Board and the mailing list of Dutch-speaking DD fans. The photo's I put here are from the DD website and there are some drawings of mine concerning my recent aDDventure here. I'll surely post more, approaching the concert and afterwards