Barclays Arena, Hamburg, Germany5th October 2026
Duran Duran - “UK + EU Autumn Tour”
More than four decades after reshaping the sound and image of modern Pop, DURAN DURAN returned to Hamburg for a major arena show at the Barclays Arena. The British icons arrived with a career-spanning set that connected the sleek New Wave and Synth-Pop of their early years with later classics and current material, proving once again that their history is not a museum piece but a living catalogue that still works remarkably well on a large stage.
The evening carried a special sense of occasion. Songs such as ‘Rio’, ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’, ‘The Reflex’, ‘Girls on Film’ and ‘Ordinary World’ have long since become part of international Pop culture, yet hearing them performed by the musicians who created them gives them a different weight. At the same time, newer material such as ‘INVISIBLE’ and the 2026 single ‘Free to Love’ prevented the concert from turning into a simple retrospective.
The only unfortunate detail was the date itself: a Monday night is never ideal for an arena concert, and one could easily imagine an even larger crowd had the show fallen on a Friday or Saturday. Still, those who came were rewarded with an emotionally rich, visually impressive performance. By the end, my strongest thought was simply that I did not want it to stop. I wanted the show to continue, one more song after another.
Formed in Birmingham at the end of the 1970s, DURAN DURAN became one of the defining bands of the New Romantic and New Wave era. Their combination of sharp Pop songwriting, danceable bass lines, synthesizers, Rock guitar and a strong visual identity helped redefine what an international Pop band could look and sound like in the age of MTV. The classic line-up of Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor created a sequence of records that moved effortlessly between club culture, art-school experimentation and stadium-sized hooks.
DURAN DURAN have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. The current core of Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor continues to tour and release new music rather than simply relying on the past. Their 2023 album ‘Danse Macabre’ revisited the band’s darker and more theatrical side, while the 2026 single ‘Free to Love’, recorded with longtime collaborator Nile Rodgers, once again connected their contemporary sound with the sophisticated Disco and Funk influences that have always been part of their musical DNA. https://www.facebook.com/duranduran / https://www.instagram.com/duranduran / https://duranduran.com
Music & Performance
The concert opened with ‘Is There Something I Should Know?’, the 1983 single that once took DURAN DURAN straight to number one in the UK. It was an ideal opening statement: bright, immediate and unmistakably theirs. ‘The Wild Boys’, originally released in 1984 and later included on ‘Arena’, followed with far more physical force. Its pounding rhythm and dramatic chorus gave Simon Le Bon the first real opportunity to take command of the arena, and from that point onward his charisma became one of the central features of the evening.
A short passage of John Barry’s ‘The James Bond Theme’ led naturally into ‘A View to a Kill’, DURAN DURAN’s 1985 Bond theme. The transition underlined how cinematic this music has always been. That cinematic quality was strengthened throughout the show by excellent video installations: large-scale visuals, stylised archive imagery, colour fields, graphics and specially designed sequences constantly changed the atmosphere behind the musicians. The screens were not merely decoration; they became an additional layer of storytelling and gave even familiar songs a fresh visual frame.
‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ from the 1982 album ‘Rio’ predictably produced one of the loudest early reactions. More than forty years after its release, the song still has an extraordinary sense of movement, and John Taylor’s bass remains crucial to its tension and momentum. The contrast with ‘INVISIBLE’ was interesting: released in 2021 on ‘Future Past’, it represents a much newer chapter, yet its darker electronic pulse and controlled atmosphere fit naturally beside the classics. This was one of the strengths of the set as a whole - the band did not divide the evening into ‘old DURAN DURAN’ and ‘new DURAN DURAN’. The material was presented as one continuous body of work.
The cover of ‘Evil Woman’ by ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA brought a different colour into the show and reflected the band’s recent fascination with reinterpretation and darker Pop textures. Even more playful was the combination of ‘Lonely in Your Nightmare’ from ‘Rio’ with Rick James’ ‘Super Freak’, presented as ‘SUPER LONELY FREAK’. It was one of those moments that demonstrated the musicians’ experience: they know their own songs intimately enough to take them apart, place them beside another classic and rebuild the result without losing the original identity.
‘The Reflex’, from 1983’s ‘Seven and the Ragged Tiger’, turned the arena into a giant sing-along before the concert moved into its most emotional section. ‘Ordinary World’, from the 1993 self-titled album often known as ‘The Wedding Album’, remains one of DURAN DURAN’s most moving songs, written from a place of loss but ultimately searching for a way to continue living. In Hamburg, Simon dedicated it to Ukraine. For me, this was one of the most important moments of the evening. It was genuinely moving to hear musicians of this stature acknowledge what is happening in our country and to speak about it from the stage.
Sometimes it feels as if only a small number of artists continue to do this publicly, while the scale of the tragedy in Ukraine becomes increasingly distant or invisible to much of the outside world. The level of support still feels far below what would be needed to bring a just and lasting peace closer. Hearing Simon speak before ‘Ordinary World’ was therefore more than a polite gesture. It was a reminder that empathy must remain visible and that all of us can still do more. As he suggested, the hope is that an ordinary world can return again - and that we should invest more of ourselves in bringing that world closer.
‘Come Undone’, also from ‘The Wedding Album’, continued the reflective mood with its sensual, slowly unfolding arrangement, before ‘Notorious’ shifted the concert back toward rhythm and Funk. Released in 1986, ‘Notorious’ marked one of DURAN DURAN’s major stylistic transitions, and live it still feels elegant rather than dated. ‘New Moon on Monday’ followed in its ‘NEW MOON DARK PHASE’ version, giving the familiar 1983 song a slightly more nocturnal character, while ‘I Don’t Want Your Love’ from 1988’s ‘Big Thing’ brought another burst of late-eighties dance-pop energy.
The newest song of the evening, ‘Free to Love’, was especially interesting because it did not feel inserted merely to advertise a current release. Created with Nile Rodgers and released in 2026, the track is built around freedom, connection and a bright Disco pulse. It sounded confident and completely at home in the set. The audience may naturally react most explosively to songs they have known for decades, but ‘Free to Love’ showed that DURAN DURAN can still create music that belongs on the same stage as their established catalogue.
After the band introductions, ‘Planet Earth’ returned to the very beginning: the 1981 debut album and the moment when DURAN DURAN’s mixture of electronics, bass-driven rhythm and futuristic Pop first became visible. From there, the show moved into ‘White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)’, their cover of GRANDMASTER MELLE MEL, and then into ‘(Reach Up for the) Sunrise’ from the 2004 reunion album ‘Astronaut’. The latter carried exactly the expansive, optimistic quality its title promises, with the audience responding to its huge chorus as if it had been part of the set for far longer than two decades.
The main set finished with ‘Girls on Film’ merging into ‘Psycho Killer’. ‘Girls on Film’, one of the defining songs from the band’s 1981 debut, remains sharp, provocative and rhythmically irresistible, while the reference to TALKING HEADS’ ‘Psycho Killer’ added a clever art-school edge. Again, the arrangement showed that DURAN DURAN are not afraid to reshape their own classics rather than reproducing studio versions mechanically.
The encore was perfectly judged. ‘Save a Prayer’ transformed the arena into a sea of voices and phone lights, its melancholy melody creating one last intimate pause before ‘Rio’ delivered the inevitable final celebration. Few songs could close a DURAN DURAN concert more effectively. The saxophone, bass line, chorus and sheer familiarity of the track turned the last minutes into a collective release, and the audience responded accordingly.
Throughout the evening, Simon Le Bon was energetic, playful and exceptionally charismatic. He has the rare ability to make a large arena performance feel spontaneous, moving constantly between theatrical frontman, storyteller and genuinely enthusiastic participant in his own music. Around him, the musicians played with the calm assurance that comes only from decades of experience. What impressed me most was not simply that DURAN DURAN have achieved enormous commercial success or accumulated awards, but that they have reached an extremely high professional and artistic level. There is a difference between being famous and mastering one’s craft, and this concert was a reminder of that difference.
The sound, staging and video production all supported that professionalism. The visual installations were often spectacular, shifting from elegant graphic design to cinematic imagery and darker, more abstract sequences depending on the song. They gave the concert a sense of scale without overwhelming the musicians themselves. Even after so many years on stage, DURAN DURAN still understand that a great arena show is a complete experience in which music, light, movement and image have to work together.
By the final notes of ‘Rio’, the concert had become so emotionally saturated that the ending felt almost unfair. I wanted another encore, another sequence of songs, another hour. That is perhaps the best compliment one can give a band with more than four decades behind them: the audience was not waiting for the past to be recreated, but wishing the present moment would last longer. DURAN DURAN left Hamburg with their history fully intact, but also with the unmistakable impression of artists who are still moving forward.
Setlist
01. Is There Something I Should Know?
02. The Wild Boys
03. The James Bond Theme (John Barry song)
04. A View to a Kill
05. Hungry Like the Wolf
06. INVISIBLE
07. Evil Woman’ (ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA cover)
08. Lonely in Your Nightmare / Super Freak (aka ‘SUPER LONELY FREAK’)
09. The Reflex
10. Ordinary World
11. Come Undone
12. Notorious
13. New Moon on Monday (‘NEW MOON DARK PHASE’ version)
14. I Don’t Want Your Love
15. Free to Love
16. Planet Earth (preceded by band introductions)
17. White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) (GRANDMASTER MELLE MEL cover)
18. (Reach Up for the) Sunrise
19. Girls on Film / Psycho Killer
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20. Save a Prayer
21. Rio
All Pictures by Iryna Kalenska
