Blaming a show promoter who “defaulted on the contract,” Duran Duran today canceled a planned five-date South African tour set to begin next Monday — and serve both as a debut of the band’s new album All You Need Is Now and mark “the start of an enormous global campaign” to promote the record.
Duran Duran’s current members — Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor — are “extremely sorry to be disappointing their fans, having spent months planning for the tour,” according to a statement posted on DuranDuran.com earlier this evening. The band doesn’t offer details on the contractual issues surrounding the South African tour, but says they were left with “no other option but to cancel the shows.”
In the band’s statement, Le Bon says:
“The worst part of this for us is disappointing our South African fans, who we were really excited to be performing for again. We had planned to debut some of our new record on this run, as well as playing many of the familiar songs from our catalog. We haven’t been to South Africa for a long time — and were looking forward to reconnecting with the audiences there. Our hope is that we are able to reschedule these dates shortly as part of the world tour next year.”
Duran Duran is set to release a nine-track digital version of All You Need Is Now — its follow-up to 2007’s Red Carpet Massacre — exclusively via iTunes on Dec. 21 (see tracklist here); an expanded 12-track CD and LP will follow in February. The record’s first single, the title track “All You Need Is Now,” will be released, also via iTunes, on Dec. 14.
See Duran Duran’s canceled tour dates after the jump…
Duran Duran tour dates:
Dec. 8: International Convention Centre, Durban, South Africa
Dec. 9: The Big Top, Carnival City, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dec. 10: The Big Top, Carnival City, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dec. 11: The Grand Arena, GrandWest, Cape Town, South Africa
Dec. 12: The Grand Arena, GrandWest, Cape Town, South Africa
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Cover art: Duran Duran, ‘All You Need Is Now’
- Duran Duran’s ‘All You Need Is Now’ out on iTunes in December, CD in February
- Audio: Premiere of Duran Duran’s ‘Being Followed,’ off ‘All You Need Is Now’
- Duran Duran’s ‘Notorious,’ ‘Big Thing’ reissues pushed back to late September
- EMI defends Duran Duran remastering, won’t replace CDs over ‘Girls on Film’ glitch
