Congratulations! by Ian Birch

Corny enough for you? Well, it is a wedding after all. Roger Taylor's wedding actually. John Taylor got a bit choked and told us all about it. And Mike Owen took a few snaps for the family album.

"It wasn't one of those awful rock'n'roll weddings," snaps John Taylor. "There was no element of pretention. It was just a very beautiful, very classical wedding."

On Friday, July 27 Roger Taylor (24) married his longstanding girlfriend Giovanna Cantone (21) in the Capo Di Monti Cathedral in 'sun-kissed' Naples.

"It's one of the most beautiful cathedrals I've ever seen. To be honest we all thought the service would take about an hour and a half and we were ready to take our Walkmans with us! But it wasn't that bad."

"Giovanna's dress was magnificent. It was made by The Emmanuels--you know, who did Lady Di's wedding dress. Only much better, I think. They're obviously improving with age."

After the ceremony, all the guests were helicoptered onto The Marine Club, a rather well- upholstered private yacht moored in the bay of Naples.

"There were about 50 or 60 people on board. We set sail and stopped off at Sorrento and the Isle of Capri and somewhere else I'm not telling you because I'm going there for my holidays."

"Simon was the best man and made a brandy-instilled speech. He was serious. I stood on the sidelines and cracked all the jokes. You know me."

"The food? We had everything--from oysters to ravioli to beef and, of course, wedding cake. It was a little bit of that decadence that Duran Duran are supposed to indulge in all the time. You know, going around on yachts sipping champagne."

"Actually, Roger and Giovanna first met at The Rum Runner on my birthday five years ago. She worked in the cloakroom and had a shaved head then."

"The group's wedding present was to charter a plane to get everyone over there. It's not so bad for us but it's expensive for our roadies especially if they wanted to take their wives. So we took fifty of the lads over."

"After the boat trip we all got off at Naples again and headed straight for the hotel bar. Roger and Giovanna stayed on board and I'm not saying where they went."

"The honeymoon? Oh, they're going down the Nile. I'd have thought they'd seen enough of 'Nile' by now."

"I'm the only one left holding the fort. Simon's off on a five week cruise of the Greek islands. Nick's preparing for his wedding which is very soon. Andy's commuting between pregnancy in Shropshire and the studio in London. Don't worry about me--I'm just working the usual 23 hours a day."