Duran Duran are touring: Seven '80s heart-throbs who are still going strong
Watch: Duran Duran at 40: Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor on embracing the 1980s
1980s pop-lords Duran Duran have announced more dates for their upcoming 40th anniversary celebration tour. The run, which features shows across the UK and Europe, will kick off with a three-night immersive experience in Ibiza called Touch The Sunrise.
Fans will be able to join the band for the May bank holiday weekend which will include DJ sets, outdoor film screenings, and a headline show.
Singer Simon Le Bon said: “Touch The Sunrise is going to be an extraordinary experience – and something we’ve never done before.
“Everyone in the band has a tremendous love for the island and over the years I have personally spent many summers there with friends and family – so it’s become somewhat of a home away from home for us.
“People often think of Ibiza as just a party island – which of course it can be – but there’s a side to it that we really hope our fans get to explore while they are there – that’s about the natural beauty of the place, the incredible food and the warmth of the people who live there year-round.
“Our set is going to be dancefloor-heavy – and after what we’ve all been through these past two years, we just can’t wait.”
The show will be Duran Duran’s first performance in Ibiza since 1987.
Clearly, the Duran boys aren't ready to hang up their headbands just yet. But staying in the pop game is a tricky business - so which of their fellow 80s heart-throbs have lasted forty years?
A-ha
This year saw the 35th anniversary of the Norwegian band's hit album, featuring mega-hit Take on Me - and the Norwegian pop magicians are still together, and setting off on tour i January, Covid willing.
Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket and Pål Waaktaar-Savoy formed A-ha in Oslo in 1982. They finally announced their split in 2009, then reunited in 2015.
Lead singer and chief heart-throb Harket is now 62, and has five children by three different partners. His enthusiasm for singing Take on Me to a venue packed with screaming women remains undimmed.
Read more: Bros are at it again: Watch Luke Goss insult Matt's outfit on live TV
Bros
They were the biggest twins since The Shining when brothers Matt and Luke Goss burst upon the teenage world in 1986, with their friend Craig Logan, now a hugely successful music executive.
After selling 16 million records and being responsible for nationwide teen heartbreak, they split in 1992.
But the chiselled Bros have gone on to separate musical fame - and reunited in 2017 to play two dates together at the O2 arena. Matt had his own Vegas residency as a lounge singer at top hotels such as Caesar's Palace. Luke became an actor, appearing in Blade II and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. He starred in the UK film Interview with a Hitman, and has branched into directing. In 2018, they starred together in hit documentary Bros: After the Screaming Stops, and now have fresh plans to go on tour together. All together now: Screeeeaaaaam!
Watch: "It was a never-ending loop of bull****" - Bros talk press accountability
Adam Ant
Mr Ant, AKA Stuart Goddard, upended the charts with Ant Music, followed by number one hits Stand and Deliver, and Prince Charming.
His Dandy Highwayman outfits, warrior nose stripe and piratical plaits made many teen girls of the early 80s go a bit funny - and forty years on, the new tour starts in January.
He's now 67, and though he disbanded the Ants back in 1982, he's continued touring, making music and acting - and despite troubles with his mental health, and brief periods in psychiatric hospitals due to bipolar disorder, he 's now back in (show)business, looking forward to his postponed tour.
John Bon Jovi
As the front-man of Bon Jovi, the most-loved soft-rock big-hair band of the 80s charts, teens swooned over Livin' on a Prayer and You Give Love a Bad Name from mega-hit 1986 album, Slippery When Wet.
Ever since, they have toured and recorded as a band, with Jon taking time out to act, but always returning. They are amongst the best selling American rock bands of all time - and John, now 59, is still happily married to his high school sweetheart, Dorothea.
Billy Idol
The original pop-punk is touring again in 2022, 40 years after his debut album.
Now 66, the sneery heart-throb started out as lead singer of Generation X, then went solo, and enjoyed massive MTV hits with Dancing With Myself, White Wedding and Rebel Yell. After a '00s comeback, he recently duetted with Miley Cyrus on her Plastic Hearts album, and his tour kicks off in Glasgow next June. Old punks never die...
Jason Donovan
The original boy next door, Jason, now 53, started out on Neighbours playing Scott Robinson, married Charlene, played by who else but our Kylie, and launched a solo singing career.
After four hit singles- including 'Especially For You' with Kylie - he moved into musicals, starring in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the early 1990s.
After a period of gloom and drug addiction, he returned to TV on various reality shows, and now presents an 80s radio show on Heart FM - and he's touring again with his own songs in the spring. Altogether now,
"No more dreaming about tomorrow
Forget the loneliness and the sorrow..."
Watch: Kylie Minogue reunites with Jason Donovan for a rare performance of Especially for You
Additional reporting, PA
