Recording
Duran Duran intended to spend a year away from the United Kingdom as tax exiles, as their income had increased dramatically after the fantastic success of Rio and the reissue of their 1981 debut album Duran Duran the previous year. Thus during May 1983 the band began writing and making demo recordings at a châlet near Cannes on the Côte d'Azur in the south of France with producer Ian Little. The band was having some trouble writing material there but still came up with ideas for most of the songs that appeared on the album. Several were completed, including a track called "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", for which the album was named. This song was never officially released, but parts of it would eventually evolve into the album track "The Seventh Stranger". A demo version of the original track leaked onto the internet, albeit in very rough, warped shape. No quality recording of the song is said to exist.
With the songs written during their South of France adventures, the band started recording at George Martin's Air Studios on the Caribbean island of Montserrat in May. The sessions, which saw producer Ian Little joined by the vastly more experienced Alex Sadkin, would keep Duran Duran in Montserrat for five weeks. During one of these sessions, keyboardist Nick Rhodes collapsed and had to be airlifted to a hospital; newspapers later reported it was due to an episode of paroxysmal tachycardia (abnormally fast heartbeat).
Prior commitments brought the band back to the UK in the summer of 1983, including a July charity gig playing in front of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales at the Aston Villa ground at Villa Park. It was later revealed that the Irish Republican Army had plotted to plant a bomb at the concert in order to injure Charles and Diana, but the IRA member sent to carry out the plot, Sean O'Callaghan, was in fact an informer working for the Irish Government and successfully helped to pull the plug on the operation.
It was around this time that the Princess of Wales publicly named Duran Duran as her favourite band. During their time in the UK, the band worked on a few more songs in a studio in London, before returning to Montserrat for one final late summer session.
After the island's isolation, the band moved the operation to downtown Sydney, Australia at the end of August. Producers Ian Little and Alex Sadkin continued working with the band on the album, now titled Seven and the Ragged Tiger, at 301 Studios. An argument during this period between John Taylor and Alex Sadkin over the prolonged mixing is said to have been the germination of the Power Station side project that happened in 1985, as Taylor contemplated leaving Duran Duran for the first time.
The album's cover photo was shot on the steps of the State Library of New South Wales.
Read more about this topic: Seven And The Ragged Tiger
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
—Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)