Here is an article from the January 1998 issue of the publication ICON - This magazine is a Canadian Publication and is issued monthly. (I know, I know, so many ICONs! -Barb)

Duran Duran's Pop Romeo converse
Written by Elio Iannacci

Nick Rhodes has always been considered the pink sheep of Duran Duran. Constantly in pursuit of a popular icon to subject for a song or video. He has always been associated with DD's re-inventive flare. From its formation in Birmingham twenty years ago, Rhodes has built up the band's gallery of images and lyrics with a camp sensibility in mind. With flaming salmon-coloured shirts, tight pastel suits and brushes of lipstick and blush to accompany the fedora and glammed-up, cavalier attitudes toward pop, he has become New Wave music's adopted Romeo. Unlike the playboy images the rest of DD subscribe to, NR's androgynous hallmark is the queer accent that gives the group substance. Decadence and the new romantic scene may be a large part of DD's fragrant cool, but NR's stylistic satire has always been the most talked-about dynamic in the group's media.

DD's powerful new album Medazzaland shows Rhodes and the boys at their best, crossing musical boundaries once again. Based on a blue-print of kitsch, pop-chic, extravagance and trusty decadence, Rhodes returns to his Romeo-izm in good humour.

Elio: There has always been a mythic quality to the NR persona which both the media and DD band members have alluded to. It pertains to the style and attitude DD pushes. Is your exclusive image of DD the one we see now or has it been altered drastically throughout the years?

Nick: I think it changes with time, and as I get older I just tweak it every time and move it round. The early vision of DD - really the ethics, the ethos of it - hasn't changed a lot to what it is now. We are going to be a multi-media band, we're going to be very different than everybody else out there and we don't want anything to do with rock n' roll. It's dirty, greasy jeans, t-shirts, sweating in little clubs... that is not DD. We want the band to be something eclectic of its times. We still want to eat up all the pop culture around us, chew it all up and spit it out as DD. That is what the Medazzaland album is all about; future technology, kitsch things, insanity and obsession. In that way we've just developed but it is still the same thing.

Elio: The album cover for Medazzaland is like a vandalized Rio sleeve. Do you think the music of Medazzaland is also a vandalization of the band's other sounds?

Nick: Yes I do. The Rio painting is like our Dorian Grey. That's what's happening to it upstairs in the loft. The music is more demented and intense than it was back then. DD discovered irony before a popular cinch. Even back then I remember doing things with the first couple of records saying "look at this, I wonder what this is going to look like in 15 years." I mean look at all those pink suits. I grew up with glam rock in the '70s with David Bowie and T-Rex, so already when we formed DD, I knew which records and images worked and which ones had been terrible failures.

Elio: DD is known for having an incredibly long relationship with irony. Did it begin while you toured with Blondie at the beginning of your career?

Nick: Oh totally, Blondie were my favourite! Actually Warren and I have just written and produced 2 songs for Blondie's reunion. One of the songs is called "Studio 54" which Junior Vasquez has already done a mix for. The other song is called "Pop Trash Movie". I Love Debbie (Harry) and I think she is the total female rock icon. She's the one they should all look up to. Madonna wouldn't have had a career without her and Gwen Stefani from No Doubt certainly wouldn't. Just about every female singer in a female band wouldn't. Blondie was so influential, they got all that great stuff from the '50s girl groups and turned it into their own thing for the '70s and '80s. Blondie were going to be on EMI America but EMI America has closed down. It should all be resolved by the spring time.

Elio: DD's videos have always been linked to the ideal enforcing the oppression of women. Do you feel with regards to "Electric Barbarella" and "Girls on Film" getting banned that the public does not understand DD's sense of irony?

Nick: Yes I do. Completely. You look at "EB" and it was made by my favorite fashion photographer in the whole world, Ellen Von Unwerth. She has the best sense of style and an incredible sense of humour, and I just don't know how its been misread. Frankly, with the stuff that is in video now - like kids getting their heads blown off - everyone accepts it easily. Yet when you put a pretty girl in a video you're suddenly oppressing her or doing all of these terrible things. We're about as frieendly towards men and women a any band you'll ever find. The whole banning is absolutely preposterous. I like the video, it's funny and it's us laughing at ourselves. There's more fuss in Canada than in anywhere else. MTV has the (mantra) of 'Censorship is Un-American' and it's quite ridiculous. I'm all for censoring violence but it seems people are allowed to hate, but they aren't allowed to love.

Elio: You've represented a type of Romeoism in pop that has lasted throughout your career. What do you think it is that keeps the world fascinated in the Romeo persona?

Nick: Optimism I suppose. It's very easy to become cynical in any business. Certainly the music business gives you every opportunity. I think I still have to look at things and find positives. I still find new artists that I like, in lots of fields. These are people that are unspoiled, people that are so excited about what they are doing and I put myself in that position. I've always felt that DD is a brand new band every time we make a new record. I always think that there's bound to be some critics out there saying 'oh, they're trying to make another comeback!' so I pretend we're a new band again. That's how I go through life - just renewing all the time. From leather and plastic to satin and silk, my ways are elements I always stick with, it's like the food or design you like or don't like. I've built up a cast library of images that I can react to. These images make me.

Elio: You've also started to make your own clothes. Was this motivated by your frustration with fashion or is it purely experimental?

Nick: I met a fantastic tailor in Hong Kong and I actually physically just drew some suit shapes and shirts for him. It was out of a desire to have something unique that I wanted and looked around for but couldn't find. I just designed a lovely black suit that was rather like the one Marcello Mastrianni wears in 'La Dolce Vita'.

Elio: Were you hassled with homophobia with regards to the way you dressed in the '80s?

Nick: Yes, to a degree. But it's not something that bothers me. Actually, it does not bother me at all. Obviously, I don't particularly like being harassed by belligerent people, but that's part of life. You have to look above it really and just know that they don't understand at all. I come up against all kinds of things as you can imagine! When we get to the midwest and I'm standing next to a few truck drivers discussing life, things can get interesting. But I have always believed in individualism and I believe that you should always stick your neck out because it is always worth it.

Elio: Do you hear DD in many new bands?

Nick: When I look at music around us and other acts - throughout the '80s DD took so much hammering from the serious rock media for wearing decadent clothes and being associated with designers and for making videos that were glammy and hammy. We also got a lot of flack for being involved with a lot of technology and doing things with movies. Now, if you look at what happens, so many bands come out of style movements and so many bands rely on video and technology. It has changed so much. I do notice bands that I think have come from where we have come from. I was pretty shocked when I heard there was a DD tribute album. The album has everything from speed metal to ska, not things that I thought DD would inspire. I was touched because it was so diverse. The new British bands - and particularly with the electronica coming out now - are doing what DD have been doing from the beginning: mixing rock with dance. It seems that that went away when grunge came along and scared us all to death. Now it seems electronica has come full circle.

Elio: JT was quoted in Q Magazine as saying that after Live Aid happened in '85 the world was like "U2 was in and Duran Duran was out". With regards to what has happened to U2 now, do you agree with this now?

Nick: No, not necessarily. I know what he's saying because that event was the first time the entire music industry had been focused on something that was for a very positive cause. What John was probably saying about U2 was certainly true. It was at that point where they really broke through because they were damn good on Live Aid. U2's seriousness then became taken on by many but for me, it wasn't something DD was going to be about. We were much more pop-culture - I see the great irony in what U2 have turned into now. I think U2 have moved into our market; they just discovered stylists and dance music - it's taken them a while though, huh? Style and dance music has always been what DD has been about.