British bassist and member of Duran Duran
Musical artist
Nigel John Taylor (born 20 June ) is a British musician who is best known as the bass guitarist for new wave band Duran Duran, of which he was a founding member. Duran Duran was one of the most popular bands in the world during the s due in part to their music videos which played in heavy rotation in the early days of MTV. Taylor played with Duran Duran from its founding in until , when he left to pursue a solo recording and film career. He recorded a dozen solo releases (albums, EPs, and video projects) through his private record label B5 Records over the next four years, had a lead role in the movie Sugar Town, and made appearances in a half dozen other film projects. He rejoined Duran Duran for a reunion of the original five members in and has remained with the group since.
Taylor was also a member of two supergroups: the Power Station and Neurotic Outsiders.
Born in Solihull, which was then in Warwickshire, John Taylor grew up in nearby Hollywood, Worcestershire, England. As a child, he attended Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic School and the Abbey High School, in Redditch, wore glasses (due to severe myopia, over dioptres), enjoyed James Bond movies and was interested in the hobby of wargaming with hand-painted model soldiers. In his early teen years, he discovered music, choosing Roxy Music as his favourite band, and before long was collecting records and teaching himself to play the piano. His first band was called Shock Treatment.
In , Taylor and school friend Nick Rhodes formed Duran Duran with Stephen Duffy while attending the School of Foundation Studies & Experimental Workshop at Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University). Soon after, Taylor underwent an "ugly duckling" transformation—ditching the glasses for contact lenses, adopting the ruffles and sashes of the fashion that would become known as the New Romantic style, and learning to wear eyeliner and lipstick. He stopped using the name "Nigel", and has been known throughout his professional career as John Taylor.
Taylor played guitar when Duran Duran was founded, but switched to bass guitar after discovering the funky rhythms of Chic, and learned to enjoy playing in the rhythm section with Duran's newly recruited drummer Roger Taylor. He has frequently cited Chic's Bernard Edwards and the Clash's Paul Simonon as his strongest influences, in addition to Paul McCartney, James Jamerson, and Roxy Music players Graham Simpson and John Porter. Duran Duran released their first album in , and went on to worldwide success in the early s.
In , after recording the theme song to the Bond movie A View to a Kill, Duran Duran split into two side projects. John Taylor and guitarist Andy Taylor joined forces with former Chic drummer Tony Thompson and Robert Palmer, who earlier met at Duran Duran's charity concert at Villa Park , to form the band the Power Station. With the guidance of producer Bernard Edwards, they released one album, The Power Station, which produced the hit singles "Some Like It Hot" and the T. Rex cover song "Bang a Gong (Get It On)". That year, Taylor also launched his first solo effort, recording the single "I Do What I Do" for the soundtrack to the movie 9½ Weeks starring Kim Basinger.[2][3] He also wrote some instrumental music for the movie's score with collaborator Jonathan Elias.
When Andy and Roger Taylor left the band, the three remaining members reformed Duran Duran for the Notorious album, and continued to record and tour throughout the s with new guitarist Warren Cuccurullo.
On 24 December , Taylor married Amanda de Cadenet, who was already pregnant with his daughter Atlanta (born 31 March ). He moved from England to Los Angeles to help further his wife's acting career, as well as to escape constant attention from the British tabloids. Taylor's marriage declined even as Duran Duran's star rose with the success of 's Duran Duran, also known as The Wedding Album. He and de Cadenet separated in May
Duran Duran's success rapidly waned with the widely derided covers album Thank You. Following that album's supporting tour, Duran Duran spent part of the summer of in London working on the album Medazzaland. Concurrently, Taylor devoted time to the side project Neurotic Outsiders, recording and touring with that band from the end of through the start of
In January , Taylor announced at a Duran Duran fan convention that he was leaving the band.[4]
During and , Taylor built and toured with a band called "John Taylor Terroristen" (Gerry Laffy on guitar, Michael Railton/Tio Banks on keyboard, Larry Aberman on drums, John Amato on sax and flute) which played numerous shows in Southern California before touring the East and West Coasts of the United States. Terroristen released a live EP and the accompanying video Better Off Alive through the Trust The Process website. After 9/11, Taylor said he would never use the band name "Terroristen" again.
Taylor also began making forays into acting. His long friendship with Allison Anders led to a starring role in her independent film, Sugar Town, in He also appeared in small roles in several other movies and TV programmes over the next couple of years.
In , Taylor released two albums of earlier material. The first, Résumé, was made up of unreleased music that he and Jonathan Elias had worked on together during the sessions for the 9½ Weeks movie soundtrack. The second, Meltdown, was a collection of tracks Taylor had laid down in , during the extensive delays in Duran Duran's recording of The Wedding Album.
Later in Taylor signed a recording contract with the Japanese record label Avex Trax, and released an album labelled simply John Taylor on the cover, but listed in his official discography as The Japan Album. He continued recording for Avex in , and early in released Techno for Two (featuring the international hit "6, Miles" co-written by Matthew Hager), a decidedly non-techno album filled with very personal songs. Shortly after, as talks began for a potential Duran Duran reunion, Taylor decided to create a retrospective package called Retreat into Art demonstrating his development over the previous five years.
Taylor's final solo release, completed after the Duran Duran reunion was under way, was the collection MetaFour released in It features a minute Q&A interview with fellow bass player Christopher Maloney at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California.
In October , Taylor released an autobiography called In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran.[5] In , the Writers in Treatment organisation awarded Taylor with the "Experience, Strength and Hope" award for his work.[6]
In , Taylor was approached at his home in Los Angeles by singer Simon Le Bon about a possible reunion with the original Duran Duran lineup, and he was enthusiastic about the idea as long as the other Taylors (Roger and Andy, who had left the band in ) were willing to rejoin as well. An agreement was soon reached, and Taylor demonstrated his renewed commitment to the band by getting an enormous linked-D's tattoo on the upper side of his right arm.
After a highly successful tour of Japan in , the reunited band was signed with Epic Records, and released the album Astronaut in October They toured throughout the first half of before returning to the studio to work on their next new album. Guitarist Andy Taylor left the band again in October , and recordings from this session (with the working title Reportage) were set aside when the band got a chance to work with famed producer Timbaland. The resulting album, Red Carpet Massacre, was released in November To celebrate its release the band took the unprecedented step of performing the album in its entirety for 10 special performances on Broadway in New York City, with a world tour in
In December , the band released its 13th studio album, All You Need Is Now, on its own record label, Tapemodern. Initially, an abbreviated version was offered to iTunes, but the physical album arrived in shops in March
In February , he placed 29th in MusicRadar's greatest bassist poll.[7]
In December , Bass Player magazine awarded Taylor a Lifetime Achievement Award.[8]
Taylor's side project Neurotic Outsiders has re-convened for an occasional live show or two since a surprise four-show stint at the Viper Room in [9]
Taylor made his first film appearance outside of Duran Duran as "The Hacker" (alongside then-girlfriend Virginia Hey) in the pilot episode of Timeslip, a TV programme that was not further developed. He later made a guest appearance in the Miami Vice episode titled "Whatever Works". In the episode, he, along with Tony Thompson, Andy Taylor, and Michael Des Barres played the Power Station's hit "Bang a Gong (Get It On)". John was the only band member who had spoken lines, introducing character Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) to new lead singer Michael Des Barres. Taylor also made cameo appearances in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher in , and A Diva's Christmas Carol in starring Vanessa Williams as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and That '80s Show in He also appeared on BBC Two comedy panel game Never Mind the Buzzcocks as a panelist in April
In , he contributed bass to the debut album by Swahili Blonde with ex-Weave! drummer Nicole Turley on the track "Tigress Ritual".[10]
In , he was interviewed in the Michael Cumming/Stewart Lee documentary King Rocker – a film about Robert Lloyd and the Nightingales, in regards to the early punk music scene in Birmingham and his band Shock Treatment.[11][12]
From to , John dated Danish model Renée Toft Simonsen, to whom he was engaged. John married Amanda De Cadenet at Chelsea Old Town Hall's register office on 24 December , and they had one daughter, Atlanta Noo, on 31 March They officially separated in May [citation needed]
In late , Taylor sought treatment for his alcohol and substance abuse, and has remained sober since.
John met his second wife, Gela Nash, co-founder of Juicy Couture, in , and they married in Las Vegas on 27 March [citation needed]
Taylor and Nash-Taylor reside primarily in Los Angeles, but spend several weeks a year at South Wraxall Manor, which they purchased in In Taylor became an American citizen, maintaining dual citizenship.[13]