Last time La Luna :: #ThrowbackThursday

New Moon on Monday (1984) :: Duran Duran

“Shake up the picture,
the lizard mixture,
with your dance on the eventide.
You got me coming up with answers,
all of which I deny.“

About the song:
New Moon on Monday is a song by Duran Duran, released as the band’s tenth single in early January 1984 in the US and on January 23, 1984 in the UK.

The second single to be lifted from the band’s 1983 album Seven and the Ragged Tiger, the song was another success, reaching the Top 10 on both the British and American music charts. On February 11, 1984, the single reached # 9 on the UK Singles Chart and on March 17, it reached # 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, after entering on January 14, 1984 at # 56.

The music video (see above) for New Moon on Monday was filmed by director Brian Grant during the icy first week of January 1984, in the village of Noyers in France. It has a loosely sketched story line in which the band appear as members of an underground rebellion called “La Luna“, organizing a revolt against a modern, oppressive militaristic regime, apparently in France.

“We set out to make a little movie“, recalled Grant. “I’m not sure we succeeded.” He was not the first choice to shoot the video, as Russell Mulcahy, director of many of the band’s other videos, was unavailable.

Several versions of this video exist. The longest is a 17-minute “movie version” (see below) which includes an extended introduction before the song starts, and is set to an extended remix of the song. A shorter version, with a spoken French-dialogue intro, was originally submitted to MTV (see above), who then later requested an even shorter version without the prologue.

Yet another version was produced for the Dancing on the Valentine video collection, showing blue-lit scenes of the band members in front of a full-moon backdrop. All but one of the versions were included as easter eggs on the 2004 DVD compilation Greatest.

Both Andy Taylor and Nick Rhodes say this is the band’s least favorite video. “Everybody … hates it, particularly the dreadful scene at the end where we all dance together“, Taylor wrote in his memoirs. “Even today, I cringe and leave the room if anyone plays [it].” He recalls that they were miserable since their Christmas holiday had been cut short to shoot the video, and spent most of the day on the dark and cold set drinking, to the point that he was “half cut” by the time the last scenes were shot. “It’s one of the few times I’ve seen Nick dance“.

New Moon on Monday (extended version) :: Duran Duran

My thoughts:
Tied for my favorite song from the Seven and the Ragged Tiger album (tied with The Seventh Stranger), New Moon on Monday was one of my favorite music videos of theirs. Watching it now I can see how it may be some of the members least favorite, but it was those dreadful dance scenes that me and my fellow “Duranies” adored (Nick does look terribly stiff, doesn’t he? Hell, I still find it adorable).

We did wonder what was up with that kite that Roger and Andy set free over France, and why did it seem to have lasers that shot out of it? Or was that supposed to be lightening adding to the lit torches in the night? I also may, or may not have, fashioned an entire outfit from the female spy at the start who talks to Simon Le Bon (I wish I still had the sweater, actually).

Seven and the Ragged Tiger came out right in the height of my Duran Duran frenzy. Though I would continue to be a fan for years to come, it would never be as crazy and obsessive and fantastic as it was that year. I wrote my first fan-fiction back then, stories penned that included the band and my friends and I traipsing around the world with them, and of course, falling in love with each other.

My friends and I had countless slumber parties which would be filled with endless watching of our VHS copies of their videos and live show, and the documentary, Sing Blue Silver (you can watch the entire thing on YouTube), that came out that year. We kept scrapbooks and photo albums filled with magazine clippings and carefully cut-out pictures from imported fan books from Japan and Australia and the United Kingdom. This was my first time falling hard for a band, and this was “my band” in so many ways. This was my first experience of being a real fan of something.