Tomorrow I am flying to Las Vegas for my 10th Duran Duran concert. I have second row tickets!

I find it hilarious that when I tell people I am doing this, no one says anything like, “Wow, that sounds kinda wild and irresponsible considering how much is going on and broke you are most of the time” or “why not just see them next time they come to New York?” or even “Wait. Duran Duran are still a thing?” 

Instead, no one blinks. I guess it tracks.

I’ve been a fan since 1982, the first time I heard “Girls on Film.” I’m pretty sure it was in a roller rink. 

I used to own a pair of those sneaker-skates. I don’t mean rolling sneakers, the modern kind with little wheels that pop out the bottom like they were invented in the Secret Service for athletic spy missions. But instead of a Q-style innovation, those were invented by a man named Roger Adams who happened to pass last week, unfortunately. 

I’m talking about the roller skates that looked like regular sneakers (or trainers, depending on where you’re reading this) with wide wheels affixed to the bottom. So here’s me with long hair and bangs, wearing blue jeans with embroidery on the butt pockets (designer knockoffs) and a ring collar t-shirt, skating along with my friends. When I heard music that was different from the standard disco hits or even pop like Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” something changed in me. 

So for me, “Girls on Film” was the road to “Rio” by way of “Is There Something I Should Know?” I loved their sound before I even saw what they looked like. 

And then I saw what they looked like. 

But I still love their sound (and in their mid 60s, they’re still pretty cute)! What I’m flying out to see is not a 1980s nostalgia tour. The set will be full of hits, but they have continued to evolve. Just last week Duran Duran were on Jimmy Kimmel to play a new song, “Free to Love”, composed with Nile Rogers, recently named by the Times as one of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters. The song is a funky celebration of the right to be free to love what and whom you love, and how to love yourself. It’s very much needed these days. My friend Elisa Lorello wrote a great post about it in her Substack. 

Twelve year-old Amanda never could have imagined that mid-50s Amanda would twice be featured on the band’s official website (once for a silly-fun cocktail Duran Duran-themed article I wrote a few years ago and once as a fan Q & A) and they would promote my third book in their social media because one of the cocktails—Her Name Is Rio by Abigail Gullo—splashed its way in to Signature Cocktails. To paraphrase Simon LeBon, that meant more to me than a birthday or a pretty view. 

So yeah, I’m off to Vegas, babies! I’m ready for a howl (like the wolf). 

More next week!

--A