SAN FRANCISCO - Duran Duran, British hitmakers from the '80s, are fashionably cool once again.
More than 14,000 retro-rock fans nudged their way into a sun-drenched meadow in Golden Gate Park Sunday to hear the re-formed band, who played to two large Southern California crowds before arriving in the Bay Area.
Lead singer Simon LeBon led the band through a lengthy energetic set of favorites such as "Rio" and "Planet Earth" during their performance in Sharon Meadow.
Keyboardist Nick Rhodes told The Associated Press the idea to begin Duran Duran anew came over a Los Angeles lunch he had earlier this year with John Taylor. A few well-placed cell phone calls later and the band was back together.
"Twenty-four hours later it was decided," Rhodes said before Sunday's sold-out performance.
How difficult was it to launch back into the old hits of the mid-1980s?
Not very, Rhodes said. "The first old song we actually jammed was `Hungry Like the Wolf.' When you've lived it, it comes easy."
Rhodes said the band has matured enough to take advantage of its popularity once again.
"We were lucky that we became successful at an early age because some of the stuff we went through, you wouldn't want to do that in your 30s and 40s," he said.
