Andy Taylor

Andrew James Taylor (born 16 February 1961) is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of Duran Duran and the Power Station.

He 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, and Gun.

Andrew Taylor was born in Tynemouth and raised in the town of Cullercoats, Northumberland in North East England, and attended Marden High School.

He began playing guitar at the age of eleven and was soon playing with local bands, even producing one at the age of 16.

He received guitar tuition from Dave Black, a member of the short-lived, post-David Bowie version of Bowie's sometime backing band The Spiders from Mars.

He dropped out of school early to tour England and Europe with several different bands, playing working men's clubs and air force bases.

Then in April 1980, as Taylor puts it, "I made that fateful train journey down to Birmingham."

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 disco music, which had fused with punk and electronic to create the sound and look adopted by various "New Romantic" acts of the time.

Andy Taylor joined the band in April 1980 and has been credited for playing a vital role in shaping and developing their early songs, working creatively with Nick Rhodes playing around the keyboardist's patterns and solidifying the melodies, and assisting in forming the band's "rough, undisciplined mixture[s]" of punk, disco and electronic styles into tight, cohesive structures.

The band signed to EMI Records in December 1980, only seven months after completing their 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.

While Duran Duran were on hiatus in 1985, Andy Taylor and bassist John Taylor joined renowned session drummer and former Chic member Tony Thompson and Robert Palmer to form the Power Station.

Their eponymous album, recorded mostly at the New York studio after which the band was named, reached the top 20 in the UK and top 10 in the US, spawning two hit singles with "Some Like It Hot" (UK number 14, US number 6) and a cover of the T. Rex song "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" (UK number 22, US number 9).

Palmer performed live with the band only once that year, on Saturday Night Live.

The band toured and even played Live Aid with singer Michael Des Barres after Palmer bowed out at the last moment to go back into the studio to further his newly revitalized solo career.

Taylor also performed with Duran Duran at the Live Aid event.

Palmer recorded the album Riptide in 1985, recruiting Thompson and Andy Taylor to play on some tracks and Power Station producer Bernard Edwards, who worked with Thompson in the group Chic, to lead the production.

Palmer recruited Wally Badarou, another Compass Point Star, who had laid synthesizer tracks on the Power Station album plus his long-term drummer, Dony Wynn, for this production as well.

Taylor said: "I don't think any of us could have known at the time that this little venture would lead to the breakup of DD but it did or at least it exposed the cracks in the pavement. I think we were all surprised at the amount of success the project achieved, particularly Robert, whose career was reignited in the USA. It was an extraordinary time, everything we were associated with just flew off the shelves. As well as being the opportunity to express a major musical statement, I guess it was also as much of a statement against the label demands."

After six years of being a member of Duran Duran, Taylor had realized both the band and he were in freefall.

He and the other members rarely spoke to each other with the band now living on three different continents.

Taylor himself was based in Los Angeles, where he met with ex-Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and they began collaborating for Taylor's forthcoming solo album.

In the meantime, he recorded the hit single "Take It Easy" (US number 24), which was used as the theme song for the movie American Anthem.

Ex-Missing Persons members Terry Bozzio and Patrick O'Hearn performed drums and bass, respectively, on the song and video.

Two other songs by Taylor and Jones also appeared on the album: "Wings of Love" and the instrumental "Angel Eyes".

Taylor also contributed to the Miami Vice II soundtrack with the song "When the Rain Comes Down" (US number 43), as well as making an appearance on said show with Power Station in 1985, season two, episode three titled "Whatever Works".

It was followed by his first solo album, Thunder (1987).

O'Hearn again played bass for him on the album and during the following tour.

Also on the Thunder world tour were guitarist Paul Hanson (guitarist) and drummer John Valen.

Hanson, Valen and O'Hearn also appeared with Taylor in the music video for the second single from the Thunder album, "Don't Let Me Die Young".

Despite moderate success in the US, Taylor's solo material failed to catch on in his native UK.

Throughout 1987 and 1988, Taylor co-wrote and co-produced Rod Stewart's multi-platinum album Out of Order along with Chic members Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson (the latter of whom had also performed with him in Power Station), spawning the Billboard hits, "Lost in You", "Forever Young", and "My Heart Can't Tell You No".

Taylor also contributed a cover of "Dead on the Money" to the Tequila Sunrise soundtrack in 1988.

(Taylor's former band Duran Duran also allowed one of their own songs, "Do You Believe in Shame?", to be included on the album.) A second solo album, consisting of entirely cover versions, entitled Dangerous, was released in 1990.

Taylor then moved on to producing full time, working with several successful UK bands during the 1990s.

He produced the debut album Back Street Symphony by London rockers Thunder and their follow up Laughing on Judgement Day.

It was followed by the Almighty album Soul Destruction and then Mark Shaw's album Almost.