Nick Rhodes facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nick Rhodes
Rhodes in 2023
Background information
Birth name	Nicholas James Bates
Born	(1962-06-08) 8 June 1962 (age 63) Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
Genres	Pop pop rock synth-pop new wave hard rock heavy metal
Occupation(s)	Musician producer
Instruments	Keyboards
Years active	1978–present

Nick Rhodes (born Nicholas James Bates; 8 June 1962) is an English keyboard player and music producer. He is best known as a founding member and the keyboardist of the famous band Duran Duran. He has been the only member of the group who has been there since they started in 1978.

Nick Rhodes has also worked on other music projects outside of Duran Duran. In 1985, he released an album with a band called Arcadia. This band included other Duran Duran members, Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor. In 2002, he recorded music as the Devils with Stephen Duffy, who was the first lead singer of Duran Duran. In March 2013, he released a project called TV Mania with former Duran Duran guitarist, Warren Cuccurullo.

Early Life and Duran Duran's Start

Nicholas James Bates was born in Birmingham, England. His parents owned a toy shop. He went to Woodrush High School and left school in 1978 when he was sixteen.

After leaving school, he started Duran Duran with his childhood friend John Taylor. John Taylor played guitar back then. They also started the band with Stephen Duffy, who sang and played bass and guitar. They thought about different names for the band, like 'RAF' and 'Arcadia'. They finally chose "Duran Duran" after a character from the sci-fi movie Barbarella. They made their first recordings on a cassette recorder above Nick's parents' toy shop. Their first show was on April 5, 1979, in Birmingham.

After some changes in who was in the band, Duran Duran finally had its well-known lineup. This included guitarist Andy Taylor and lead singer Simon Le Bon by May 1980. Soon after, they signed a record deal with EMI.

Nicholas Bates decided to change his name to Nick Rhodes because he liked how it sounded. He made this decision during the band's first official interview.

As the band became more settled, they started playing at a local club in Birmingham called the Rum Runner. The club owners became the band's managers. Nick Rhodes also worked at the club as a DJ.

Nick Rhodes reportedly owns the name "Duran Duran." This was mentioned in the diaries of artist Andy Warhol. In 1986, when Andy and Roger Taylor left the band, Nick still owned the name, so the band continued as Duran Duran. Andy and Roger Taylor later returned to the band in 2001.

Nick Rhodes's Role in Duran Duran

Rhodes in 1986

Nick Rhodes did not have formal music lessons, but he was very creative. He loved to experiment with the sounds his synthesizers could make. He avoided making sounds that seemed like a joke, focusing on unique and interesting music.

You can hear his special touch in many Duran Duran songs. For example, the unique sound in "Save a Prayer" and the sharp keyboard sounds in "A View to a Kill" are his creations. He also made the string sounds in "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World". He helped create the futuristic synth sounds on Duran Duran's first album.

Rhodes was also one of the first to see how important music videos would become. He encouraged the band to put a lot of effort into their early videos, even before MTV made music videos popular. When the band became very famous, Nick was only around twenty years old. He developed a unique and sometimes flashy style, often wearing makeup and changing his hair color. By the late 1990s, he also started writing lyrics for Duran Duran songs. You can hear his digitally changed voice on the song "Medazzaland" from the 1997 album.

Music Production Work

Rhodes performing on stage in 2015

Nick Rhodes learned a lot about music production while working in the studio with Duran Duran. He helped mix several songs on their Rio album. He also helped produce many of the band's later albums.

In early 1983, he discovered the band Kajagoogoo. He helped produce their first song "Too Shy," which became a number one hit in the UK. He also produced their first album, White Feathers.

In 1996, Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo wrote and produced three songs for the band Blondie. These songs were not used at the time. However, one of them, called "Pop Trash Movie," was later recorded by Duran Duran for their 2000 album Pop Trash.

In 2002, he helped produce and played synthesizers on nine songs for the Dandy Warhols' album Welcome to the Monkey House. In 2004, he produced the British pop group Riviera F for their first EP, International Lover.

Other Music Projects

While Duran Duran took a break in 1985, Nick Rhodes formed a side project called Arcadia with Simon Le Bon. This band had a moody sound with lots of keyboards, which was different from Duran Duran's usual style.

Arcadia had a big hit song called "Election Day." Their only album, So Red the Rose, sold very well in the US. The band never went on tour and broke up when Duran Duran got back together in 1986.

In 1999, Rhodes worked again with Stephen Duffy, Duran Duran's first singer. They created new music based on some of the earliest songs they had written together. This resulted in the album Dark Circles, released under the name the Devils. Also in 1999, Nick Rhodes had a small voice role in the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

In 2006, Rhodes and John Taylor worked together on a collection of songs called Only After Dark. In 2011, Rhodes, along with Andrew Wyatt and Mark Ronson, remixed the song "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode. This remix was for Depeche Mode's album Remixes 2: 81–11. Also in 2011, Rhodes wrote the afterword for a book about 1980s vinyl record covers called Put the Needle on the Record.

In March 2013, TV Mania, which is Nick Rhodes and former Duran Duran guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, released the album ... and the Internet?. They had worked on this project throughout the 1990s. To celebrate the album's release, Nick Rhodes had an exhibition of his photographs called BEI INCUBI (Beautiful Nightmares) in London.

In 2021, Rhodes worked with Wendy Bevan on a series of albums called Astronomia. In 2022, he collaborated with other musicians on a cover of the song "Mahogany Wood" by the Residents.

Personal Life and Interests

Nick Rhodes met Julie Anne Friedman in 1982 during a tour in America. They got married on August 18, 1984. They have one daughter named Tatjana Lee Orchid, who was born in 1986. They divorced in 1992. Nick Rhodes has had other long relationships but has not remarried.

As a former art student, Nick Rhodes became very interested in the art world early in his career. He became friends with the famous pop artist Andy Warhol and often went to art shows around the world. In 1984, he released his own book of abstract art photos called Interference. Many of these photos were shown at an exhibition in London. He still shows his photography sometimes, including in British magazines. He also sometimes attends the Cannes International Film Festival.

In November 2011, Nick Rhodes received an honorary degree from the University of Bedfordshire. This was to recognize his important contributions to the music industry.

Rhodes has been a vegetarian for a long time, sometimes eating fish. In a 2012 interview, he said his favorite foods are Italian, Lebanese, and Indian. He moved to central London a couple of years after Duran Duran became famous and still lives there.

Discography

with Duran Duran

• Duran Duran (1981)
• Rio (1982)
• Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983)
• Notorious (1986)
• Big Thing (1988)
• Liberty (1990)
• Duran Duran (1993)
• Thank You (1995)
• Medazzaland (1997)
• Pop Trash (2000)
• Astronaut (2004)
• Reportage (2006; unreleased)
• Red Carpet Massacre (2007)
• All You Need Is Now (2010)
• Paper Gods (2015)
• Future Past (2021)
• Danse Macabre (2023)

with Arcadia

• So Red the Rose (1985)

with the Devils

• Dark Circles (2002)

with Star Stunted II

• Mahogany Wood (2024)

with TV Mania

• ... and the Internet? (2013; recorded in 1996)

Compilation albums

• Only After Dark with John Taylor (2006)

Nick Rhodes and Wendy Bevan

• Astronomia I: The Fall of Saturn (2021)
• Astronomia II: The Rise of Lyra (2021)
• Astronomia III: Heaven and Hell in the Serpent's Tail (2021)
• Astronomia IV: The Eclipses of Algol (2021)

See also

In Spanish: Nick Rhodes para niños