TAYLOR
Andrew

• 1. Duran Duran
• 2. Personal life

Andrew Arthur Taylor is an English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer, best known as a former member of both Duran Duran and the Power Station.

Taylor has also recorded and performed as a solo artist, and served as a guitarist, songwriter and record producer for the likes of Robert Palmer, Rod Stewart, the Almighty, Thunder, Love and Money, Mark Shaw, Then Jerico, C. C. Catch, Paul Rodgers (with The Law), Belinda Carlisle, Gun and many more.

Duran Duran

Duran Duran began their rise to fame at a Birmingham club named the "Rum Runner". The club was owned by their managers and mentors, brothers Paul and Michael Berrow. It was centred on the music and ostentatious fashion of the era, particularly house & disco music, which had fused with punk and electronic to create the sound and look adopted by various "New Romantic" acts of the time. The band was heavily influenced by the 12 inch cuts of the day. Taylor says... "Anybody who is familiar with early DD (Duran Duran) will be aware of the Night Versions concept… the underlying influence of the 12" mix – Edwards & Rodgers – Giorgio Moroder ... It was all part of the matrix – we tested our first hits on the dance-floor before going anywhere near the radio – it was the way you defined your style and who you were, through the club you were associated with – where you hung-out ... I'm a rock fan, but the girls hung-out at the disco – I recommend a large portion of both."

The band signed to EMI Records in December 1980, only seven months after completing the line-up. Their debut single "Planet Earth" was released shortly after that, with their self-titled debut album, Duran Duran, released in June 1981. By 1983, the band was a global success story.

Personal life

Taylor met Tracey Wilson in 1981, when she worked for Duran Duran as a hairstylist. After five months of engagement they married on 29th July 1982. They have 4 children: Bethany, Isabel, Andrew James and Georgina. The couple currently reside in Ibiza, Spain, where in 2006 Taylor founded Andy Taylor Studios Ibiza (ATSI).

When Duran Duran were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, Taylor was unable to attend the ceremony. During the event, Simon Le Bon read part of a letter that Taylor had written revealing he'd been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer four years prior, and a recent setback with his treatment kept him from attending. The rest of the letter was posted to the band's website later, in which Taylor said he has "the Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of doctors and medical treatment that until very recently allowed me to just rock on," and that his condition is incurable but not immediately life threatening.