Duran Duran, 1984: A 12-Year-Old’s Front-Row Time Capsule at MSG
Travel back in time with me to March 19, 1984.
I’m 12 years old, sitting at my dad’s desk in the living room, doing math homework. It was a Monday night, and to my surprise, my dad walked through the door at around 5:30pm. He worked at a newspaper in Manhattan and he never came home before 10:30. Something was up.
“Get dressed. We’re going to a concert.”
I knew exactly which concert he meant. As the biggest Duran Duran fan at the time, I knew they were playing at Madison Square Garden.
If you’re not familiar with Duran Duran, they are a “new wave alternative” band that was hugely popular in the early 1980s. Their dominance of MTV, based on their catchy, colorful videos, helped their popularity in the United States, and they were considered part of the British Invasion — a reference to the Beatles invasion of the early 1960s.
I ran upstairs and got my Duran Duran shirt, (a recent Caldor’s purchase) and ran downstairs with a blue eyeliner, begging my mom to show me how to put it on.
As we walked out the door, I remember my younger brother running up to me and saying “You’ve got front row tickets! You’ve got front row tickets!” I knew he loved pranks, so of course I didn’t believe him and I didn’t give it another thought.
We went down to the Woodlawn subway and made our way to the city.
I had never been to a “real” concert before, and certainly nothing at a venue like Madison Square Garden. We climbed ramps and stairs, and we made it all the way to the top of the venue before we paused to look around. We were a little early, and this massive, mostly empty hall was about to be filled with thousands of screaming fans. I couldn’t believe I was actually here.
Then we started to walk down the steps.
My dad loved to do things like this. Set one expectation, and then overdeliver with some kind of amazing surprise.
We kept walking further and further down until we finally arrived on the main floor of the Garden. We walked right up to the center of the aisle, behind rows and rows of black metal chairs.
My dad handed the tickets to the usher, and I remember that moment clearly. The usher looked at the tickets, pushed his shoulders back, smiled and said, “Alright, man! Right this way.”
He put out his arm and escorted us down the center aisle, all the way up to the very first row of seats.
We did indeed have front row tickets to Duran Duran.
My head was exploding.
The opening act was a band called Prince Charles & The City Beat Band. They performed a song called “Cash Money”, but I will always remember it as “Pennies! Nickels! Dimes! Quarters! Dollar Bills! Hundred Dollar Bills!” It was fun and catchy and for several years my dad thought that he had seen Prince. But both of us have always remembered that song and it’s been a running joke in our family for years. How many opening acts can you say that about? It was a great start to the night.
The energy was building.
It was finally time for the main event. The audience was absolutely electrified, and you could feel the anticipation in the room.
Duran Duran’s early music had a magical dark, brooding anticipation about it. Their newest album at the time, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, added eerie horns and thumping beats. Those iconic sounds perfectly capture the feeling right before the band came on stage.
The music started, boom boom. The backup singers sang “Please please tell me now.” Boom boom. “Please please tell me now!” Boom boom. And then, boom. Out they came, running. Simon LeBon burst into song and the crowd went wild. It was an incredible moment, seeing a music video come to life in front of my eyes, exploding with light and sound and music.
You can hear the opening moments of the actual concert, thanks to the magic of the internet.
Now, picture a stadium filled with 20,000 screaming teenage girls with their Duran Duran T-shirts and their blue eye liner and their big hair. They were just as excited as I was, and they wanted to get as close to Duran Duran as they could.
As the band played the first song, hundreds and hundreds of screaming girls crushed forward towards the stage. There were two bouncers standing next to us at the top of the aisle. As the crowd pushed forward, they were obviously outmanned. My dad, who was 48 at the time, stood like King Kong with these men trying to hold back that crowd. Girls were climbing on top of each other to try to get towards the stage. There was screaming and shoving and the noise transformed from actual sound into an intense combination of flashing light and thunder.
You would think I would’ve been horrified (and looking back, I really should’ve been), but here, 15 feet away from me, were Simon LeBon, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor.
I was oblivious.
The surge of the crowd eventually subsided, and the concert continued as the band played songs from their first three albums.
I was lucky to capture pictures with my little 110 camera. Many of the photos are terrible, mostly band members with their heads cut off. A few of the photos turned out pretty well. I showed them off at school and made a few copies for classmates.
I wrote a journal entry about the night in my spiral notebook, and I tucked it away with my snapshots and ticket stubs. My notes captured the excitement and depth you’d expect from a 12-year-old girl, including “This was the best day of my life!” and “Dad didn’t like Andy’s long hair.”
It’s been 40 years since that concert, and in just a couple weeks, Duran Duran will be back at the Garden performing again. I did look to see how much it would cost to recreate the experience.
If anybody has spare $5,168 lying around, consider grabbing the single front row ticket that’s available. Don’t forget to walk all the way to the top of the stadium, and feel your heart pound as you make your way to your seat. It will be a night you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
