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John Taylor is a bloody nice bloke.
14October 6th, 2012Guest post by Fraser Levey
Back in March I had an idea.
Well, I should codify that statement. I probably had several ideas, but most of them involved what I should have for lunch.
One of those ideas was good though. I was watching the Duran Duran video for Rio.
Here it is:
Good isn’t it?
Anyway, I wondered if anyone had ever got John to sign a copy of that magazine he was reading during the solo bit of the video.
This one:
Then a plan hatched in my brain. John Taylor tweeted that he was writing his autobiography, so he must be going to do a book tour, right? Ah…
Well, I was straight off to the Internet to find out about the comic.
“Fightin’ Army was a bimonthly war comic published by Charlton Comics from 1956–1984 (though it was primarily a reprint title from 1978 to the end of its run). Telling fictional stories of the United States Army, it was a sister title of the other Charlton war comics Fightin’ Air Force, Fightin’ Marines, and Fightin’ Navy.”
Brilliant, right? Which one was it though? When did they film the ‘Rio’ video?
Hmm.. Off to the Duran Duran Timeline.
May 1982.
Excellent. Lets try looking for the April ’82 edition of Fightin’ Army on Ebay then, shall we?
Bingo.
Found it, bought it, got it.
Now all we have to do is wait.
Now here is where @jamievjb comes into the picture.
He, being the lovliest man in the world, buys me a ticket to see John do a book reading in Manchester.
Here we are, waiting.
We make a cute couple, huh?
John Taylor’s book, In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran, is well worth a read. You should definitely get it if you like Duran Duran or ’80s music in particular.
Well, it was made clear that John would not sign any memorabilia, which is fair enough, Waterstones needed to get 500 odd books signed, and if everyone got him to sign a t-shirt too, it would take all bloody night. So that part of my plan didn’t come off.
But what did happen was probably even better.
I showed him the comic and asked which page he was reading. He laughed, and asked where I’d got it from. He then said that he’d just had it pushed into his hands and he coudn’t remember what was inside.
I put the comic down next to him whilst he signed my book, he looked at it, grinned and said ‘I should look like this’.
They say never meet your heroes. Rubbish… just make sure you choose ones like John Taylor.
Bloody nice bloke.
Tags: In the Pleasure Groove, John Taylor
14 responses to “John Taylor is a bloody nice bloke.” 
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Awesome! I love that!
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Tin Hotha October 6th, 2012 at 10:28
He’s a treasure. One of the few that get what it means to be a fan, and gives us those moments we all crave.
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Brenda November 14th, 2012 at 04:29
What a great story, love it!! And yes I couldn’t agree more he is such a nice guy, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him a few times and each time he has been lovely
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Georgia November 14th, 2012 at 07:45
I totally agree about choosing the right heroes. Last year, when I learned Duran was going to play at a festival in Brazil (where I live), I was determined to meet JT, didn’t know how. A friend of mine asked me if I wasn’t afraid of being disappointed by somebody I loved and admired so much if he weren’t as nice as I expected. I answered I wasn’t afraid at all, I was sure this wasn’t going to happen. Well, I managed to enter the restricted artists area with a borrowed artist badge, alone, afraid of being caught, 20 minutes before the show, and find him. He was obviously busy and in a hurry. Even so, he took the time to talk to me, was supernice, smiling all the time, took a pic, said something funny, and I was SO happy! Even more admiration, love and respect now. He could have disappointed me in 2 seconds, but chose to make me happy in 2 minutes. A true star but also a great person. Luv him! twitpic.com/bcw0it
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He is nice. I got lucky and met him ON HIS BIRTHDAY this year. I got my AYNIN record (yes, the vinyl kind) signed by him and everyone else in the band, Sugartown signed, and when I asked, he gave me a hug. I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world.
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Michele October 6th, 2012 at 10:27