Release Athens 2024: Photo-story Duran Duran

After the seminal performance of Massive Attack, the back-to-back of Release Athens 2024 was completed with a larger-than-life performance by a larger-than-life band.

But let’s start at the beginning. Well-known DJ, radio producer and Duran Duran super-fan Spyros Pagiatakis was responsible for the warm-up DJ set that focused on the 80s (e.g. Human League – Being Boiled) or songs influenced by the same decade (e.g. Boy Harsher – Machina). Irish singer-songwriter JC Stewart followed immediately after, making his first appearance in Greece, and we are sure we’re going to hear from him again in the future.

Shortly after 10pm it was time for the pop super stars, the legendary Duran Duran. With a packed venue in front of them, the legendary Brits, with the confidence that only a great band can have, put on a stellar show with a setlist that spanned their entire discography and the various phases of their career: from the more contemporary “Invisible” and “Black Moonlight”, through fan favourites “Chaffeur” and “New Moon On Monday”, to their first self-titled album, which took the lion’s share of the night. Nick Rhodes, John and Roger Taylor and a very upbeat Simon Le Bon confirmed that this is a band that will continue to sweep the stage and gave us a show full of highlights: the superb rendition of “Friends Of Mine”, the timeless “A View To A Kill”, the wonderful mix of “Girls On Film” with Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” and of course the mind-blowing encore with the singalong to “Save A Prayer” and the finale with “Rio”.