Friends of Mine: Thirty Years in the Life of a Duran Duran Fan

Friends of Mine: Thirty Years In the Life of a Duran Duran Fan by Elisa Lorello, felt like reading bits, pieces, snippets and crumbs of my own life as a Duran Duran fan. While I share many similarities as a fan, our family lives were quite different.Nevertheless, this Duranie sister captured my attention and reflected on Duran Duran’s impact and I found myself agreeing, or relating or laughing and even crying. Her memories sparked mine and brought them from the depths of my mind and emotions, to the forefront. My best friend is also a Duranie. While several states or oceans have separated us for the majority of our friendship (38 years!), we’ve never lost touch for long and Duran Duran always helps us reconnect.For me, this book is not just a journey from childhood to adulthood and how Duran Duran’s music supported and lent strength, but also about music, all music. I’m a little jealous that her siblings were so musical! That would have been so awesome. Friends of Mine also feels like a tribute to the self. And I mean that in the highest regard. It is not an easy feat to be introspective and at times, it’s near impossible to love ourselves. I appreciate her journey of loving herself and the timeliness, relatable-ness of new Duran Duran music is inspirational. Not only that, but I can totally relate albeit for different reasons.Overall, I found it difficult to put this book down. A compelling read to be certain, especially for me, a fellow Duranie from their US beginnings too. Elisa really knows how to write, build suspense, create anticipation and I loved everything about her memoir.

"Friends of Mine: Thirty Years in the Life of a Duran Furan Fan" authored by Elisa Lorello (EL) is an exuberant lively memoir of EL growing up "Duran Duranged", in a home surrounded by live music, the youngest twin of 5 brothers and a sister, from Long Island, NY.EL earliest memories are of her father and older brothers playing on Marshall amplifiers, a Vox organ, a Ludwig drum kit, guitars covered every space. Recording, rehearsing, music lessons, and lots of practice and singing. "We Live in Harmony" was the family motto. Paul, her twin had perfect pitch, and EL played the violin at school until losing interest when she was 15.As a teen, she and her best friend Elisa would watch Duran Duran: Simon Le Bon (lead vocals), Nick Rhodes (keys), Roger Taylor (drums), Andy Taylor (lead guitar), John Taylor (bassist), on MTV. The band transformed the sounds of glam, punk, and disco with synthesizers and sequencers. While most teen girls emulated Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, she copied the fashion style of Duran Duran. Identifying with their music, it helped EL cope with her parents separation, her brothers growing up moving out, and school. John Taylor became her "creative muse" she made a series of 5 drawings of him in the 9th grade, and attended their concert at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY.EL wrote about "Live Aid" on July 13, 1985, watching the broadcast shown from JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, PA and Wembley Stadium, London. Spandau Ballet, Sade, Allison Moyet, performed also with Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Who, David Bowie. "This is your Woodstock!" Joan Baez told young viewers.Duran Duran split the group into two bands following their mega world wide tour in 1984: Power Station and Arcadia. EL would become a fan of Power Station.By the 1990's EL followed the new sound of garage bands and Grunge, and put her Duran Duran memorabilia in storage. EL attended dance clubs all over Long Island with her serious boyfriend Derrick, in a relationship of "toxic co-dependency", lasting for 5 years. After working and dropping out of college/art school she applied to the University of MA- Darmouth in 1995, majored in psych "organizational behavior" and graduated in 1999. Attending a graduate program at the same school, she finished her education in 2003, and began teaching.After living in North Carolina for many years, EL, single, moved back to "the Bay State"- MA. and reconnected/living closer to family/old friends. Unable to find a literary agent, she overcame the stigma against self-publishing, explored promoting her KDP books through FB and Twitter. In 2011 EL identified teaching as her "Spouse" and writing novels as a "Mistress". EL attended a new Duran Duran concert in Madison Square Garden with her lifelong friend Elisa. John Taylor also responded to EL post on Twitter, and she and Elisa traveled to NYC to his book tour. Taylor signed a copy of his memoir: "In The Pleasure Grove: Love, Death, and Duran Duran" (2012). There is a great photo included in this memoir, along with several other photos. Today, EL is no longer a fan, she just appreciates/admires good music as always.Many thanks to Amazon for the Kindle value priced e-Book for this review.

"There's a dream that strings the road with broken glass for us to hold ..."Elisa Lorello's highly-emotional memoir Friends of Mine is a journey back to a time where a lot of Generation X kids had begun to find the world around them, which had been pulling away from Reagan's 'Morning in America' - and stepping into the late afternoon of a super-charged pop music scene that had been climbing to reach its zenith, going worldwide with Live Aid in 1985.Taken directly into the proliferation of the culture via MTV, cassette Walkmans, glossy wall posters of Madonna, Madness and Duran Durans' Patrick Negal iconic album cover, Lorello walks us through the hallways of her 80s childhood like a sun cast shadow clinging lovingly to every forgotten surface that you've longed for ever since which she wonderfully resurrects. Reading about her life back then is touching, tragic and many times teary.In an era where large vinyl collections were the touchstone of almost every middle-class home and Rio was ever present, the effect of Duran Duran on a young girls heart and mind is an all too dangerous proposition from the start.Friends of Mine is the story of a young Elisa's journey through a turbulent adolescence, finding herself relating more to the music of Duran Duran than most of the people outside of her own house, including her friends caught in the same cultural new wave of sound that was coming from almost every speakered surface of the time. She found herself coming of age in a family of frenetic, talented siblings that buzzed around her, growing musically, like an 80s rendition of the Partridge Family, but with a greater factor of cool, angst and far more interesting.The deepest message of the story is about the power of music and the power it has on the listener over the long passage of years when we've somehow moved on from our youth, and achingly into adulthood. We cling to the comforting icons of that time and for whatever the reasons, we take them with us, forever paired.Music effects everything about who we are, where we're going and the times in which we have lived. You'll hear echoes of it when you hear people drone on about how the 1980s was easily the greatest time to have lived through. Having been through it, you find yourself on the outside of it, not disagreeing at all, and the music being the last and only delivery system to the past. For those that hadn't, the effect of those years travels with them almost as indelibly.The author gives us something better to think about when our faded hits are now no more than just the three minutes on whatever classic rock station while driving through our lives.Elisa Lorello's very touching and hypnotic memoir is a powerful tale, evoking shadows of all of our years through one very different and lasting decade. Having shared the journey, the best antidote to being without - is that we can always find it in others....This review covers the Advance Review Copy of the book I received earlier in Summer. What a fantastic gift to anyone who is a fan of Duran Duran, the eighties or Elisa Lorello. Thumbs up....

Having been a die hard duranie back in my youth I reveled in this book. I loved the way that the events of her life were 'connected' with Duran songs. Even though Elisa is an American and I am a Brit I could relate so much to the things that happened in this book, and it was a real nostalgia fest reading it. I was even tempted to go into the loft to find my box of Duran Duran related newspaper & magazine clippings (although I have not actually got around to doing so yet. It will not doubt give my daughters a laugh when I finally find them. I loved it when I discovered that she has actually met John Taylor. I remember an incident when I was a fully fledged 'duranie' and my best friend was a 'Wham' fan. Her father was sailing in Cowes week ( a very big sailing event over here in the uk) and upon his return delighted in telling us that he had met and had a very interesting chat to Simon LeBon ! He did not understand why we both screamed at him "why did you not get his autograph / photo" :) I don't think I have ever quite forgiven him.

I really liked this, it was fun to read. I could relate to everything re Duran Duran, it reminded me of myself growing up in the early eighties, the only difference being the author grew up in America instead of Yorkshire! Still, I would recommend to Duranies.

Bought for my wife who is an old school DD fan ( someone has to be 😛 )She loved this book and the way it was written

I really enjoyed this book. Strictly for Duran fans , many bits to make you smile. Brought back memories a plenty.

I got the book for my girl,who is a pure Duran Duran fan,and she loved this look at the era through the eyes of a kindred spirit in the fandom.She saw a lot of herself in the words of another fangirl. Highly reccommend