Eight famous musicians you didn’t know were in Duran Duran

Brummie band Duran Duran rocked its ways into public consciousness in the 1970s and are there is no slowing them down. Once known for their wild partying, the members Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor have left that era behind and focus on their music and family now.

Known as the Wild Boys - despite being in their 60s and in Simon’s case, a grandfather - they continue to front sold out concerts in the UK and North America. They also released Duran Duran: A Hollywood High, a Paramount+ documentary film celebrating their 40th anniversary, in theatres last year and on the streaming service in June 2023.

They performed in Birmingham for the second year in a row and got the audiences moving with their top hits at Utilita Arena in May 2023.

The New Romantic band was originally formed by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick and guitarist/bassist John. “I had never met people with such ambition before,” Stephen told VH1 years later, according to Classic Pop. “They wanted to be famous – I was the lead singer, shrieking in a sort of effeminate manner.”

Despite being a founder member, he left the band in 1979 to focus on his solo career, and he is not the only one who decided to part ways with Duran Duran. There were seven others who left the band either before they became a chart-topping band or during their career.

Some were long-time members, like Warren Cuccurullo and Andy Taylor left Duran Duran to go their separate ways. Here are the eight former members of Duran Duran and where they are now:

1. Stephen Duffy

One of the founding members, Duffy never revealed the reason for leaving Duran Duran in 1979. He has formed several bands like Tin Tin, The Lilac Time, Me Me Me, The Devils, Dr Calculus and has had an illustrious solo career. However, he likes to stay away from the public gaze. He is married to Claire Worrall AKA Claire Duffy, who joined The Lilac Time.

“I now live in Cornwall with my family,” Duffy told Classic Pop in 2014. “We didn’t mean to… it was a spur of the moment thing. Or it could be a witness protection programme I’ve forgotten about.”

2. Andy Wickett

He left the band in 1979 right before they became famous and rich. Despite having written top 10 hits, he didn’t gain much wealth from them having sold the songs to his bandmates on the cheap.

The writer of Girls on Film and former member of TV Eye later became part of The Xpertz, and then World Service. He performs locally in Birmingham and has been part of the vibrant music scene for decades.

3. Warren Cuccurullo

Warren, 66, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, restaurant owner and former body builder. He first worked with Frank Zappa during the 1970s and formed Missing Persons in the 1980s. He joined Duran Duran in 1986 and left in 2001. He lives in Venice, California and focusses on film score compositions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Duran Duran last year.

4. Sterling Campbell

He was a drummer with Duran Duran but left in early 1991 to work with Soul Asylum - American alternative rock band - that won a Grammy Award. He also played drums for David Bowie and joined his band in 1992. They worked together until 2004. He still performs as a drummer and is a human rights advocate.

5. Simon Colley

He joined the band on clarinet and bass during its early years but left in 1979 along with Duffy. They left after a few gigs including a performance at Barbarella’s in Birmingham. They formed Obviously Five Believers/The Subterranean Hawks but has seemingly retired after the early 2000s.

6. Alan Curtis

He is a self taught guitarist who was a member of punk band London Pride in the late 1970s. He joined Duran Duran in 1979 and was part of 2nd and 3rd official line-up.

He left the band in early 1980 and missed a gig after the band hired Birmingham‘s Rum Runner nightclub owners as managers. In a 2003 interview published in the Notorious: The Unauthorised Biography book, John Taylor said: “Straight away Alan Curtis skipped town, thinking getting involved with two nightclub owners meant he would end up in pieces down a city alleyway.”

He returned to London and formed Dif Juz with his brothers Dave and Richard Thomas - who were part of London Pride. He hasn’t been active in the last two decades.

7. Jeff Thomas

Jeff Thomas joined the band after Andy Wickett left. He was a vocalist for The Scent Organs and a friend of Roger Taylor. At the time, the group was a resident band of Rum Runner in Birmingham. Jeff and band manager and Rum Runner owner Paul Berrow had frequent disagreements. He hasn’t been active in the music scene since then.

8. Andy Taylor

Guitarist Andy Taylor is one of the famous former members of the band having been part of it since 1980, around the time Simon Le Bon joined. However, Andy has had an on again, off again relationship with Duran Duran. He left in 1986 after Roger Taylor left.

About Andy’s departure, Simon Le Bon wrote in 1987: “I think Andy thought, well, one guy’s gone so isn’t that important any more. He used this as an excuse to back out on everything. What Andy always really wanted was to be centre-of-the-stage guitarist. He was bored or not satisfied being just the guitarist in Duran Duran. He wanted a lot more than that. So he started his own solo project going.”

However, Andy revealed a different reason. In 2008, he wrote in Daily Mail: “The booze, the drugs and the carnage that surrounded my life in Duran Duran were all too much. I knew I was heading for a nervous breakdown if I didn’t change my lifestyle. That’s when I made up my mind that I’d just do the Bond video and get the hell out of there.

Both Andy and Roger returned in 2001 but Andy left in 2006. The band was reported to have said: “We have reached a point in our relationship with him where there is an unworkable gulf between us and we can no longer effectively function together.”

He was forced to miss the band’s 2022 Hall of Fame inductionas he is terminally ill. He reunited with the group and record his first album with them since the abandoned Reportage sessions in 2006, according to Smooth Radio. The last album he recorded with the group was 2004’s Astronaut.