![]() By mid-1984, the band was ready for a break. Each album release was accompanied by heavy media promotion and a lengthy concert tour. Three more albums followed in quick succession: Rio (1982), Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983) and Arena (1984). The band's first album, Duran Duran, was released in 1981, and they quickly shot to fame as part of the New Romantic movement. Le Bon never returned to his acting career. Within six weeks the band was playing steadily around Birmingham and London, and a national tour supporting Hazel O'Conner led to a record deal with EMI Records in December. Le Bon agreed to "try out for the summer" and his first show was on the 16 July 1980 at the Rum Runner club in Birmingham. After listening to the songs the band had already composed together, Le Bon spent some time fitting one of his poems (" Sound of Thunder") to one of the instrumentals, and found they had a good match. As band legend has it, he turned up for the audition wearing pink leopard-print trousers, and carrying a notebook containing a large collection of poetry he had written - some of which would later become tracks on the early Duran Duran albums. ![]() Le Bon's ex-girlfriend Fiona Kemp (a barmaid at the Rum Runner nightclub where Duran Duran was rehearsing) introduced him to the band in May of 1980, recommending him as a potential vocalist. The band had a powerful pop sound flavored with disco, funk, and electronics, built on a solid rock rhythm section, and all they needed was a charismatic singer with a distinctive voice. The band had been through a long succession of lineup changes since Duffy's departure, but had recently settled on a guitarist and drummer. Simon also sang with Bolleaux - a pub style R&B band, Eddie and the Hotrods - a rock band, and a Electro punk band called Rov Ostrov before meeting the fledgling band Duran Duran.ĭuran Duran had been founded by childhood friends John Taylor and Nick Rhodes along with singer/songwriter Stephen Duffy in 1978, but Duffy left a year later, convinced they weren't going anywhere. Simon first performed with a punk band called Dog Days when he was 17, at one gig they were fourth on the bill and were not allowed to play on the stage, they had to play on the floor!. He worked on a kibbutz - an Israeli collective community - in the Negev desert in Israel in 1978, and then returned to England to attend drama school at the University of Birmingham. He appeared in a few television commercials and also in several theatre productions making his West End stage debut in Tom Brown's Schooldays, which premiered at the Cambridge Theatre in London (UK) on. He worked as a theater porter at Northwick Park Hospital accident and emergency, and also auditioned for a punk band at Harrow College of Science and Technology. Simon went to Pinner County Grammar School, the same high school that Elton John attended some years earlier. He appeared in several amateur stage productions such as The King and I when he was 7, Bless the Bride with the Harrow light opera company, Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Man For All Seasons. Le Bon was a member of the local Pinner church choir from a young age, but was also trained as an actor. The family shortly moved to 25 Tewksbury Avenue, Pinner, North London where Simon lived from a young age. The family origin is said to be of Huguenot (an ethnoreligious group of French Protestants) descent (Source), perhaps linked with Henry IV "le Bon roi" (Info). Le Bon originates from the Latin word "bonus" meaning good, and in French the name 'Le Bon' means "The Good". He has two younger brothers, David and Jonathan. ![]() Simon was the first-born son of John and Ann-Marie Le Bon.
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