Unrequited

Test Run - March 2001

As he walked into the small studio in Wales, John carried his bass and a lot of hope for the future. He was meeting Andy and Roger for some "secret" sessions, which were really a way for the three of them to get back into the Duran groove. He and Arianna had seen the current incarnation of Duran perform the previous night in New York City and then had flown to Wales for these sessions.

While he was at the studio, she and the kids were at their rented house, settling in before going grocery shopping. Unbelievably, Allegra was already two months old and growing like a weed. She was just as precious to him as the other kids, but there was a definite connection between daughter and Daddy. And Luc, at sixteen months, was assuming the proud big brother role well.

John started to unpack his bass, caressing it as many memories of years of playing began to march across his mind. Remembering the past was often a mixed bag for him, half good, half bad, and always tainted by his addictions. And intertwined with the memories of the music, the shows, the drugs, and the girls was Arianna. She was his rock, his everything. As long as he had her, his life would be complete.

John heard the door open and looked up to see Roger enter the room. He had only seen him a few times since the reunion had become official. The original five had previously held meetings basically to see if they could even stand to be in the same room together. He and Roger had always had musical chemistry and a bond that the others could not get inside of. The two of them were the backbone of the music, the rhythm. He wondered if they would be able to recapture how well they had meshed before.

Roger greeted him with a warm hug and then some idle chit-chat about the weather. John was just about to ask about his kids when Andy came breezing in with his guitar. As Andy got his guitar out of its case, John felt the room fill with electric excitement. They were doing it. The original "fab five" were going to reunite, and they were going to dominate again. He just knew it.

"What's the plan?" Andy asked as he slung his guitar over his shoulder, starting to tune it.

John put on his bass, plugged it into his amp, and plucked one of the strings, filling the room with its low-frequency vibration.

"Let's just jam for a bit, yeah?" John offered, and the others nodded, smiling.

Roger took his place behind the small drum kit as Andy plugged into his amplifier. Roger began a simple four-beat, just marking time, nothing fancy. John nodded to the beat, letting it fill him and move him before he started to play the random series of notes that were coming into his head. What the two of them were playing was complimentary and fit together well. Their chemistry was still there, and that thrilled John. Andy then started lightly strumming, filling out the sound they were creating quite well.

They played continuously for nearly ten minutes, just playing whatever came to mind and feeling each other out. They all smiled as they played, happy at how well they were coming back together musically. When they finally stopped, they looked around the room at each other, grinning.

"We still have it," Roger said excitedly, and John nodded enthusiastically.

Andy was exuberantly bouncing on the balls of his feet like he was dancing to a silent beat.

"We're back! We're back!" he chanted, making John laugh. Indeed, they seemed to be, and it was fantastic.

When John came into the house later that night, he felt like he was floating on air. The three Taylors of Duran Duran were back together with a force that would not be stopped. They were planning on working through the Duran catalog of songs over the next few weeks, especially the songs written in their absences. Luckily for John, there was only a handful that he needed to work on. For the other two, there were several albums worth. At least he would be able to take the lead and help them through most of it.