RUM RUNNER CLUB
They opened for more and more different evening and 'it came to pass" , says Paul, very much the public face of the Berrows brothers, "that one of these evenings was a modern Bowie/Ferry night. "
The Rum Runner was adopted by the posers. To date no serious contender for their affections has arrived on the Birmingham club scene, although the Holy city zoo, a live/disco club beneath the arches of the old Snow Hill railway station tries, and the Cedar Club holds a certain appeal as one of the other few gigs venues in the city.
So when Duran Duran brought in a demo tape to ask for a gig it took only four bars for Paul Berrows to know that he wanted to give much more : a label, a management deal and unstinting devotion to making this band a success. Unstinting indeed, Mike Berrows sold his house to finance last Novermber's tour supporting Hazel O'Connor.
The band, by this time, was changing quite radically too. Nick Rhodes explains : "When we started we had a really weird line up - clarinet, rhythm unit, two basses, taped synth. It was more sort of ambient drones than music. There were four of us then but we split when the other two wanted to progress more in a rocky direction and John and I wanted to go very disco. At that time we'd started to listen to a lot more funk things."
THE FACE - 1981
