UCLA's symposium celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Internet will be webcast LIVE this Thursday, October 29, here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/internet-40th-anniversary-ucla

Log in starting at 11 a.m. PST to watch our very own John Taylor airing his views on pop culture, music and the Internet. If you're on Twitter and have a question for John on the subject, tweet #UCLAIA40. For more information, visit: http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/IA40/

As some of you may have heard, Simon recently lent backing vocals to the Beautiful Small Machines track "Simple Joys." BSM is led by Simon's friend Bree Sharp, and they've been cool enough to gift us with the Medilixer Mix of the song as a free download. You can listen here:

http://www.musicallies.com/bsm/simplejoys/simonsgift/

The EP goes on sale today (October 20) as well and can be purchased on iTunes via this link:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=302106370&v0=itunes.com%2Fbeautifulsmallmachines#

Mark Ronson had a surprise for listeners of his East Village Radio podcast. Click on the October 2 segment for a little bit of Duran Duran!

East Village Radio

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Simon contributed a chapter to the new book THE ATHEIST'S GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS. His portion has been selected as featured exclusive content on the book's website.

Click below to hear Simon read his chapter:

Atheist's Guide to Christmas

As I'm sure many of you know, the 27th of this month will mark our favorite front man's birthday. To celebrate his birthday month, Monsieur Le Bon has offered up a new playlist for October (or Oktober, if you prefer).

Here it is, with Simon's comments:



All off of the first album (or close to it!)

Late Bar - The song everyone wants to hear from us.

Faster Than Light - I love this song. I'd like to do it live.

Friends of Mine - Georgie Davis is now dead, unfortunately.

Khanada - It's a b side, it's b side itself. And it's written after Jane Khan, a girl I had brief relationship with.

Secret Oktober - It's my birthday month man!

Careless Memories - Just cos i like it - and i love the guitar.



And because we've got a little extra room on the featured playlist, I added a few more songs (sticking to Simon's theme):

Planet Earth (Night Version)
Fame
Sound of Thunder
Anyone Out There


Enjoy the playlist, everyone, and later this month join me in wishing Simon a happy birthday.

Nathan

The members of Duran Duran were honored to be invited to perform at the the Oxjam @ Matter event in London on October 16, and whilst they won't be able to make it because they're currently in the studio with Mark Ronson, working on their next album, they wanted to do their part to help this worthy cause. With this in mind, they are offering a very special "Money Can't Buy" VIP experience concert package that will include two tickets for one of their concerts in the 2010-2011 calendar year, backstage access at the show, a meet & greet with the band members, and a Duran Duran goody bag for you and your guest (which will include CD's, DVD's, tour book, a merch item and an item signed by the band.)

You will be able to bid for this amazing package the night of the event, along with many other incredible, exclusive items. Tickets for the event can be purchased through Ticketweb, or by going to c2bk for further details.

For those of you on MySpace you can also support the cause in another way by adding Oxjam (MySpace OxFam) as one of your top friends and leaving a comment on the page! Quote Duran Duran at the beginning of your comment and we will be running a prize draw where the lucky winner will be treated to a gift bag with a selection of Duran Duran CD's, and DVD's, including an autographed copy of the band's last album 'Red Carpet Massacre'.

Hope you agree it's a winning combo of music and charity. The band members are happy to be able to help support this cause and look forward to seeing you on the road soon...

The two-disc "Rio" special edition CD and vinyl, plus the "Live at Hammersmith '82" DVD are out today in the USA.

The "Beds 'r Burning" charity single for Climate Justice, featuring a vocal by Simon, is available today, October 1st.

Learn more about the cause and downloading the single here:

http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org/media-center/?id=410

EMI will be releasing concerts recorded in the early 80s by Duran Duran, Ultravox, Culture Club, The Stranglers and more. The shows were originally recorded by the BBC for their "In Concert" series and will be available for download only in December 2009.

From EMI:

We are starting monthly 'download only' BBC releases, one month sessions, one month In Concerts. In December, there is an intention to do 10 "In Concerts," of which Duran Duran's 4/11/82 Hammersmith concert will be included.

Other BBC sessions and In Concerts will be used in the forthcoming reissues in either physical or digital format.

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UPDATE: 28 SEPTEMBER

Catch our own John Taylor as part of a panel at UCLA's celebration of the 40th Year of the Internet. The symposium will take place on October 29th at UCLA Engineering with John as a featured speaker along with Shiva Shivakumar, Thomas Gewecke, Mark Bregman, John Perry Barlow, Frank Pearce, Michael Morhaime and Arianna Huffington.

More information can be found here: 40 Years of the Internet