Blaming a promoter who ‘defaulted on the contract,’ Duran Duran today canceled a planned five-date South African tour that was scheduled to begin next Monday — and serve both as a debut of parts of the band’s forthcoming album ‘All You Need Is Now’ and mark ‘the start of an enormous global campaign’ to promote the record.

The new album from Duran Duran — ‘All You Need is Now,’ which Nick Rhodes declares ‘the best record we’ve made in over two decades’ — will be released exclusively on iTunes on Dec. 21, but won’t come out on CD until February.

With its as-yet-untitled new record nearly complete, Duran Duran today announced its first South African concerts in 17 years, a five-date run in December that’s being billed as ‘the start of an enormous global campaign around the release of their next studio album.’

The first taste of Duran Duran’s long-in-the-works 13th studio album hit the Internet this evening after Mark Ronson — who’s producing the disc — played 30 seconds of ‘Blame the Machine’ on his East Village Radio show.

Monday, Duran Duran co-founder Nick Rhodes — who today celebrates his 48th birthday — posted a short video update on YouTube to bring fans up to date on the band’s lengthy sessions for its 13th studio album.

  Tweet The lone album from Arcadia — the mid-’80s, studio-only Duran Duran spinoff that scored a Top 10 hit with “Election Day” — will […]