Early History
Bates was the only child of well-off parents, the owners of a Birmingham toyshop. In 1978, Bates left school at the age of sixteen, and founded Duran Duran with his art school friends Stephen Duffy and John Taylor. At about the same time as the name Duran Duran was chosen for the band, he decided to change his name, which was given to him by John Taylor before the first interview they had together for their band.
While in Woodrush, he and John Taylor formed a band called 'RAF' with other classmates.
As the band coalesced into its final lineup in 1979-80, Duran Duran started playing at a local Birmingham club called "The Rum Runner". The club owners became the band's managers, and Rhodes began working at the club as a disc jockey.
Read more about this topic: Nick Rhodes
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or history:
“An early dew woos the half-opened flowers”
—Unknown. The Thousand and One Nights.
AWP. Anthology of World Poetry, An. Mark Van Doren, ed. (Rev. and enl. Ed., 1936)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)