Reunion sparks tour, new music from Duran Duran (Updated January 31, 2013)

Duran Duran has never disbanded, per se, but the band's lineup has changed over the years to include guitarist Warren Cuccurullo (1989-2001) and drummer Sterling Campbell (1989-1991). It was the reunion of the original five members at the turn of the century, however, that caused a stir among both fans and the media.

Now 12 albums and several decades removed from their eponymous debut project in 1981, the three Taylors of Duran Duran – Andy, John and Roger – are most responsible for the band's members reuniting. In March 2001, they met up in Wales and worked with each other for about three weeks. It was around this time that rumors of a full-fledged reunion began to circulate. Those rumors were denied, of course, but two months later Duran Duran was back.

Post-reunion, the band recorded on and off over the next three years and also toured sporadically. They released two albums inside a three-year span, then in 2011 delivered their 13th studio effort, "All You Need is Now." The following year they headlined the London Summer Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony in Hyde Park, representing England along with Snow Patrol and a number of other acts. The stop came toward the end of their two-year world tour, though they were forced to cancel the rest of the North American leg after Nick Rhodes became ill with a viral infection.

Rhodes and Cuccurullo will finally release a long-shelved album, "Bored With Prozac and the Internet?" on March 11, 2013. Duran Duran is also back in the studio to work on their 14th album.

A History of Duran Duran tickets

Check out Duran Duran tour dates. For a brief but heady span in the 1980s, Duran Duran were the kings of the New Wave sound and repeatedly occupied the hit charts. Much of the British band's success was ushered in by the early advent of MTV and the genius Duran Duran employed in exploiting the medium, with sexual suggestiveness and risqu? footage. Duran Duran was formed in Birmingham, England, in 1978, when schoolmates John Taylor, guitarist, and Nick Rhodes, keyboards, inspired by David Bowie and Roxy Music, pulled together friends Simon Colley (bass and clarinet) and Stephen Duffy (vocals) and chose the band's name from the cult sci-fi film Barbarella. Aptly, Duran Duran's early gigs took place at the Birmingham club called Barbarella, a joint frequented by such punk pioneers as The Sex Pistols and the Clash. Studio Technique Pioneers_Duran Duran proved to be ahead of their time. Before the trends of electronics, sampling and synthesizers had set in, Duran Duran experimented with recording techniques that gave their productions a thick, multi-layered texture. Duran Duran's first album, _Duran Duran, released in 1981, recorded by EMI following a record company bidding war, was a sensation in the United Kingdom, though largely ignored in the U.S. That changed the following year with the band's second album, Rio, featuring breakout hits like 'Rio,' 'Hungry Like the Wolf,' 'New Religion,' 'My Own Way' and others. Though Duran Duran continued a steady succession of albums they never quite matched the success of Rio. Nonetheless, the band has persisted, and Duran Duran tickets are a chance to see a pioneering act of the New Wave era that swept the world in the 1980s.