Nick Rhodes was born Nicholas James Bates on June 6, 1962 in his grandmother's home in Mosley, England to Sylvia (n�e Willis), a homemaker (and later a shopkeeper), and Roger, an engineer. The "very good and very quiet" baby weighed 7 1/2 lbs. and was raised in the city of Hollywood, England (a suburb of Birmingham) "just down the road" from a certain Nigel Taylor.

"Nick was a lovable little child. When he was good, he was very good, but when he was bad he was awful, " remembered his mother. She also said, "As a young boy, he was very much a chatterbox, very lively and extremely inquisitive. He always wanted to know what was going on around him. He asked questions constantly and wanted to know absolutely everything."

As a child, Nick enjoyed watching "The Thunderbirds" and his "first love" was Marina from the show, a puppet fashioned after the movie vixen Bridget Bardot. His favorite childhood Christmas gifts were a Thunderbirds plastic moulding kit and Captain Scarlet hat with working visor.

He had shown an interest to join the Boy Scouts as soon as he was old enough, but when a representive showed up at the Bates residence to sign Nick up, he immediately changed his mind "and that was that," Sylvia said.

To earn extra pocket money, Nick would wash his parents' car and mow the lawn. He'd get 10 pence each time.

When asked what his earliest memory is, he says it's very difficult to remember anything before he attended school. He does recall mixing stones into his mother's potatoes to find out what her reaction would be like.

A ten-year-old Nick Bates purchased David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and "that is when my life began to be engulfed by music," Nick said. His parents indulged this newfound interest by buying him every music paper, magazine, and book available. "Slowly it [pop music] got to be more and more of an important thing for me, it became almost an obsession. I wanted to do some of it myself within it," Nick recalled.

The family television set was bringing images of the colourful Gary Glitter into the Bates home when Nick "calmly announced" his ambition of being a pop star.

A late-night popstar picture swap meet is where Nick first met Nigel Taylor. They became fast friends because of their common interest in pop music. They attended concerts together at the local club Barbarellas and once waited outside a hotel to get autographs from Roxy Music.

Nick went to Silverstream Junior and Woodrush High School. He was disinterested in the school experience as a whole, except for Art (he called his artistic approach "a little different") and the chance to study and observe people. The latter he appreciated over everything he learned there. His keen observation skills are evident in his memories of the current mood of that time:

"I was in junior school in Hollywood, Birmingham and all the groovy kids were into Bowie, Roxy, and T-Rex. There were loads of horrible kids who wore parkas and listened to noisy prog rock and heavy metal. Slade were ok. They came from Birmingham, bless 'em, so I can't be nasty about them. Roxy were great. They just looked so different on television. I loved Phil Manzarera's sunglasses - straight out of a bug horror movie."

After a school day was over he'd go home to record interesting happenings in his journal with a mixture of fiction to spice things up. Writing stories and ideas for film scripts would become a lifetime hobby of his. To this day, one of his future ambitions is to write and direct a film. Film is something he is very passionate about and he has a massive video and DVD collection. Nick indulges in watching films whenever possible. His favorite film is La Dolce Vita directed by one of his favorites, Fedrico Fellini.

Nick did regret not paying more attention to foreign language when he was in school, noting how much world travel Duran has been involved with. French is something he's always determined to pick up on whenever he's in France. He has a home there near Saint Tropez; as well as the home in London. In 1986 while recording So Red The Rose with Arcadia, he lived in Paris, a city he loves for its culture and atmosphere.

At the age of sixteen he was very eager to jumpstart his musical career and he decided to leave school, not seeing any reason to stay: "I swore when I left school that I was never going to use any of my O-Levels or anything, ever. I knew they were completely useless to me."

His father remembers: "After school one day he told us he wasn't going back after his O-Levels. We decided to give him two years - until he was eighteen - to see if he could make it. We said we would help him financially."

Nick was immediately on the dole after leaving school. He was offered many jobs, including petrol pump attendant (he said he was allergic to the fumes), but he refused all offers because he was determined to make a career out of music.

With friend Nigel Taylor (who now went by John, his middle name), a fresh graduate of art college, they formed the band RAF later known as Duran Duran (John having been inspired by the character Durand Durand from the sci-fi film Barbarella). Nick has often stated it was because of punk music that they thought they could make it doing music, as bands like the Sex Pistols showed them, they didn't have to be music virtuosos to make good music.

Both picked up guitars for their chosen instruments. Nick soon dropped that idea and choose to go with the synthesizer, "quite certain it was the future of rock n' roll" and because he "understood the premise of keyboards so much better." The WASP synth which was given to him by his parents for Christmas, was very basic and they also had the Kay Rhythm Unit (foxtrot, waltz, and mambo beats) which was their drummer for the moment being. John also quit the lead guitar and picked up a bass, inspired by disco sensation Chic.

Along with leaving school, the pop ambition, various wild hair colours, flamboyant fashions, the makeup, loud rehearsals at their store, Bates' Toy Corner, Sylvia and Roger would have to deal with Nick deciding that their only child wanted to go by the name Rhodes "for aesthetic reasons." Out of respect for his family, Nick is still legally a Bates.

The group went through several band members before settling into the band that became famous in the 1980s, including local Brummie and friend Stephen Duffy, their first vocalist, who had left to pursue new territory with the band Lilac Time. One year, six months, a few small gigs, three singers, and a guitarist later, Duran Duran was complete (in order of joining): Roger Taylor (drums), formely of the band Crucified Toad from Birmingham, Andy Taylor (guitarist), an experienced musician from Newcastle (he had answered their ad in Melody Maker for a "live wire guitarist"), and Simon Le Bon (lead vocals) a drama student from London, who had heard the band needed a vocalist from an ex-girlfriend who worked as a barmaid at the Rum Runner. Rum Runner, which was designed to look like the famous NYC club Studio 54, would be the main hangout of the band, "the center of their universe."

These are Nick's thoughts about meeting the last piece of the Duran puzzle, Simon Le Bon: "When we first met Simon he was a drama queen...I couldn't believe it. He was like a camp actor.... He did look a bit strange. He had this bleached orangy kind of hair and these black shades on, tight trousers, a leather jacket and black shiny boots. I thought this has got to be our kind of guy." Bringing along a diary full of potential song lyrics didn't hurt either. "Sound Of Thunder" would be one of the first creations taken out of that book.

Michael and Paul Berrow, the owners of Rum Runner, saw something special about the group and decided to manage them, as well as make them the house band. Their late-night gigs soon attracted the attention of record company scouts, as well a growing fanbase. Nick described their music as "somewhere between the Monkees and Kraftwerk."

The band resisted the temptation of releasing any material at the time. Nick explained: "We've always put an awful lot of thought into Duran Duran, to try to prepare the group properly. Like, we could have made an independent single early on - which would probably have done our credibility with the rock press a lot of good - but we always knew the sound we wanted required a big studio and a good producer, so rather than go off at half-cock we decided to wait until the time was right." Early on, Nick showed his logical nature as well as PR savy.

While playing, writing, and rehearsing at the club, the band were useful by doing odd jobs. While the others did mundane things like clean, cook, glue mirror tiles on the wall, and bus tables, Nick got the most glamourous job of all, as DJ. He enjoyed spinning records and finding out what filled the dance floor. Nick had fond memories of that time: "I used to be quite good at mixing. I always remember that 'John I'm Only Dancing' frizzled out very well into a mix of 'Both Ends Burning.' What I used to like doing was filling the dance floor with three popular songs, and then putting something else on that none of them knew, and it was so packed they couldn't move so they had to dance to it. And that's the way of breaking music in clubs."

Their first big gig came in the winter of 1980 supporting Hazel O'Connor on tour in England, which Nick remembered as a very good learning experience of tour life. They also had the privledge of opening for Blondie, as well (a band Nick's "always had a soft spot for.").

That December, they were signed to EMI. The single "Planet Earth" from their debut self-titled album had some success in the UK, but was No. 1 in Australia, Sweden, and Portugal, and was in the pop charts of every other European country. Other successful singles included "Careless Memories" and "Girls on Film."

Videos were made for all three singles, but none more notorious than "Girls On Film." It's playful adult theme angried up the blood of many people and Nick's mother would get calls from strangers complaining about "what your son has done." For the rest of Duran Duran's history, video would be an important promotional tool that both enhanced and damaged their public image; the band would view it as a seperate art form, but would always insist that the music was the most crucial art to them.

The video for "Careless Memories" (featuring a rarely seen brunette Rhodes) did not do much for Nick: "I believe that is the worst video we've ever made. It did nothing for the song. It was done in a very Habitat manner. I'll never forget that painting on the wall - it was the most hideous-looking thing I've ever seen." When they released their first video collection years later, they would edit the video and remove "some of Simon's more ham acting."

Rio was the band's second release. It produced the top singles "Hungry Like The Wolf", "Save A Prayer", and "Rio" (the band's love song to America). The coverart showcased the talent of artist Patrick Nagel, whose prints had decorated the walls of the Rum Runner.

Nick and the band had many funny, unique experiences filming the videos overseas in Sri Lanka. Nick remembers one of them, "I was sitting down in a restaurant when we were filming the final scene for 'Hungry Like The Wolf' and there's this snakecharmer sitting down with a little pipe, turban on, basket in front of him...So I went up to him and said, 'Whatcha got in there, eh?' He taps the basket and these two cobras coming wriggling out."

In 1983, Nick tried his hand at producing the band Kajagoogoo. Nick had met Limahl, the lead singer, at The Embassy Club, and after speaking with him for a while, decided to help the band that reminded him of how Duran were when they were first starting out. The album, White Feathers, produced the number-one success that Nick produced, "Too Shy." He was proud of the success the band received, but was quick to remind the media that Duran Duran was still the primary project in his life. He also joked that he "must be mad" to help a band that was competion for his own band.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger was to be the band's third album and their biggest hit of the 1980s. Much of the writing and recording was done in Montserrat. While slaving over work and getting little rest, as is Nick's way when recording, he came over an illness, Paroxysmal Tachycardia ("The Fear Of Impending Doom"). He suddenly felt his heart beat three times as fast and couldn't get words out properly. Medical assistance was promptly telephoned for and Nick was relived to find out that, "It's very common, apparently, but it's really scary when it happens. I went to see a specialist and asked him if I was having a heart attack and he said, 'No, don't be daft!' He said I might never get it again in my life, or it might come back next week, but not to take notice of it 'cos it'll never do me any harm. It was just a little bit scary." Nick did not enjoy his stay in Montserrat because along with the unfortunate illness, he complained of the sun and that it "burned him like toast." Nick tries to say away from the sun, anyway (perhaps that's why his skin is in such lovely condition?-ed note).

While mixing songs off Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Nick attended a yacht party in Los Angeles, where he met his future wife, Julie Anne Friedman (she had crashed the party with some friends). He noticed her legs on a couch and "wanted to see what was attached to the other end." Julie Anne remembered Nick "awkwardly" introduced himself and that she wasn't sure what to think of a man who wore more makeup than she did. After some conversation, she was "head-over-heels in love" realizing what an intelligent, ambitious, artistic gentleman he was. That night they flew to Kansas City together on Duran Duran business and weren't apart much after that.

Julie Anne Friedman was born March 9, 1960 in Des Moines, Iowa. A model/actress, she was also an heiress to the Younkers department store fortune. When she informed her parents, Bill and Johnnie, that she planned on coming along with Nick on Duran Duran's 1984 tour (Duran's rule of "No girlfriends on tour" be damned!), they were not pleased. But they soon changed their minds about Nick after getting to know him better. Bill Friedman remembered, "We found him to be hardworking, goal directed, and talented. He is extremely nice to our daughter." And Nick's ability to hold his drink didn't hurt either, Bill had joked.

Nick's parents, despite the fact of liking Julie Anne, didn't think Nick was ready for marriage because he was still pretty young. But, as with many things in the Bates family, Nick went and did want he wanted anyway.

Nick and Julie Anne wed on Saturday, August 12, 1984 at London Marylebone Registry Office and partied in true Art Deco fashion (a period both loved by the couple) at the Savoy Hotel with live pink flamingos. A large crowd of teary-eyed fans were stationed outside with signs such as, "We Still Love You Anyway Nick." Salmon and stuffed lamb were served at the party, as well as a three-tiered wedding cake. For the civil ceremony, Nick wore a simple dark grey suit (with pink carnation accent) and Julie Anne a 1940s-style white skirt suit with matching wide-rimmed hat. For the wedding party that evening, Nick went all out with a tails and top hat number in pink and white silk taffeta and Julie Anne in a long, snug-fitting lavendar and white lace dress designed by Anthony Price with a pink and white flowered headdress (on her wrist, a sapphire and diamond bracelet - Nick's wedding gift). The groom and bride wore matching pink lipstick, of course. Singer Elaine Griffins, a close friend of Nick's, was the "best man." In attendance to to the wedding were all the Duran members (with girlfriends/wives in tow), actress Linda Gray, actor Michael Brandon, and Paul and Linda McCartney's daughter, Heather. After opening wedding gifts with Julie's parents when the party ended in the wee hours, the newlyweds set sail on a private yacht to the Greek islands for their honeymoon. They visited Athens and the Acropolis, which Nick deemed, "A real bore - it looked like Birmingham Town Hall."

The couple had purchased a three-storey Victorian mansion together in South Kensington in London the year prior for half a million pounds. According to Julie Anne, London was a compromise since Nick wanted to reside in Paris and she in New York. The insides of their house were gutted out and completely renovated in the Art Deco style, furnished by Art Deco pieces collected on their travels. Nick actually persuaded retired architects that worked in the 20s and 30s to assist in the design of the house.

That year, Nick released his first and only photography book, Interference. The book contains Polaroids that were taken of television screens from Nick's many global jaunts. It is a long-conveted treasure for all Nick fans. And rightly so, because it is a rare look into Nick's creativity outside of music. His wife caused a bit of a scandal at the release party at London's Hamilton Gallery with her backless dress - which revealed a bit of, shall we say, back cleavage? It probably got more press than Nick's book did! Being ever the artiste, Nick said about the book, "It's not something I want to make money out of, it's something that's simply close to me and I just want to make available to people."

Much success, money, and adulation were at Duran Duran's door at this time, but cracks were appearing. A need for artistic breathing room sprouted two side projects, Arcadia and The Power Station.

While John and Andy were involved with Power Station, Nick got anxious of sitting around and phoned up Simon to proposition him about a side band of their own. Arcadia also included Roger as a official member, but he was not interested in promoting it (having gotten over the stress of celebrity) and participated with writing and recording exclusively.

Nick would later muse about the need for the side projects, "We could have put out another obvious hit and kept the whole thing ticking over, but it was obvious that something was missing. ...We needed surgery and the Power Station and Arcadia did that as well as focusing what we needed for when we reformed."

So Red the Rose, Arcadia's one and only album, which contains guest spots by Sting and Grace Jones among others, birthed the hit "Election Day." John made a cameo in the video for the Hitchcock-flavored "The Flame." For the video, Nick dyed his hair a platinum blonde colour - quite a change considering the jet black tresses he donned for the majority of the Arcadia project. He's yet to falter away from blonde to this day.

On December 30, 1985 it was publicly announced that Julie Anne was pregnant, and on August 23, 1986 Nick became a father when Tatjana Lee Orchid was born in Fulham, London. In interviews before her birth, Nick said he was very excited because he loved kids and didn't mind what sex the baby would turn out to be. Andy Warhol's (whom was rumored to be the godfather) diaries paint a different picture, saying that he thought Nick sounded disappointed the "piece of sculpture" was a girl when Nick telephoned him after the delivery. Tatjana was to be Nick's and Julie's only child, as they never planned on a large family anyway. Nick mentioned in an interview that Julie did not intend to go through the physical strain of another pregnancy, which he jokingly agreed to saying, "No, I wouldn't fancy being pregnant!" At five weeks old Tatjana broke a Guinness world record by being the youngest person ever to fly on the Concorde.

When both side projects were through, it was back to Duran camp. Only Nick, John, and Simon showed up though. Roger preferred to settle in with his family in the English countryside, while Andy desired to focus his engeries on his solo career. No matter, for Notorious was a success and so was the accompanying Strange Behaviour world tour.

The trio of Rhodes, Le Bon, and Taylor would make one more album, Big Thing, although not one of their commerically successful albums, is a underrated gem much-loved by many Duran fans. They would tour their experimental house sound in small clubs before the bigger venues this time around.

Their 1990 album Liberty gained two more official members, Warren Cuccurullo (their session guitarist since 1986 and of Missing Persons and Frank Zappa fame) and Sterling Campbell, a drummer who had toured promoting the Big Thing album with them. Unfortunately, Liberty was not the success they hoped it would be. Nick believed it to be the wrong music for the wrong time, because grunge was the mainstream music much relished at that point. Liberty is a very up record that features songs about summer love, sex, and a bit of political commentary. "Serious" the second single off the record, remains a favorite amongst the hard-core fans, but strangely Nick thought it was a mistake to release it.

At the end of the same year, Nick was presented with an award at the Palais de Chaillot, in Paris as One Of The World's Ten Best Dressed. Nick recognized this as a pretegious award and was quite happy with it. He has always believed fashion to be a crucial art form and has admitted that in "some ways" his interests turn to fashion more so than music. Just a couple of years before that, he caused a minor scandal with the geniune priest outfit he purchased in Rome. He had visited St. Peter's wearing said outfit when many of the worshippers within became disturbed. Without a huff, Nick left as asked. He explained that he found them "very comfortable","sexy on my body", and he wasn't trying to make fun of anybody. A few years later he'd be interviewed by Interview magazine in which he modelled a geniune Cardinal outfit he also purchased in Rome.

Because Nick's erratic lifestyle became quite stressful, Nick and Julie eventually grew apart and their efforts to stay together for the sake of Tatjana failed, in July of 1992 they decided to divorce. Nick had described this time as "very traumatic", but the couple did their best to shield Tatjana from any emotional strain. Nick moved in the house next door to his ex-wife and daughter for a while so he could be near Tatjana.

He would find romance again with Madeleine Farley, an artist/writer whom he would eventually live with in another London residence.

Meanwhile, the next Duran album in 1993, saw yet another cast change. Discouraged by the lack of success of the Liberty album, Sterling Campbell went on to pursue different avenues of music (later becoming a member of the group Soul Asylum and then touring with David Bowie). Although at a certain disadvantage without a drummer, the group managed with session drummers and wrote the majority of the next album at Warren's living room studio, Privacy, in London.

Duran Duran (nicknamed The Wedding Album because of the wedding pictures of the bands' parents featured on the coverart - Nick's idea) was widely acclaimed as the group's comeback, as well as being the best-selling Duran Duran album to date. The hits "Ordinay World", "Come Undone", and "Too Much Information" helped to bring new, younger fans into the fold. This time around, the band were being praised for their songwriting, as opposed to their looks and jet-set image of yesteryears past.

On Tatjana's 9th birthday, the band were honored with a star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Their star is next to John Lennon's and is in front of the Capitol Records building.

Since the beginning of the group's birth, Nick and John had often discussed a covers album, being influenced by David Bowie's Pin-Ups. They finally fulfilled that desire in Thank You, the band's ninth studio album, in 1995. The album features a potpourri of covers from Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines" to Iggy Pop's "Success." Success, it was not, and got few positive reviews from the music media. It was certainly a gutsy move on Duran's part to cover such classics as "911 Is A Joke" and "Crystal Ship" but to the band's upmost satisfaction, it received cheers from many of the original artists - critics be damned! The band did not tour for this album but did do a few promotional appearances (sometimes joined by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel).

John Taylor, much to the band's disappointment, decided he wanted to focus on his solo material and left the band in 1997. Nick would write his feelings of the unfortunate departure of his "very dear friend" in the lyrics for "Buried In The Sand" off Duran Duran's 1997 album, Medazzaland. Nick Rhodes was now officially the only original band member left and he was proclaimed "the Flame Keeper" of the Duran Duran spirit.

Medazzaland contains Nick's only lead vocal performance to date. Inspired by Simon's anecdote about a dental appointment, Nick narrates a trip to a fantasy world as he is being operated on on the track "Medazzaland", which he also wrote the lyrics for, along with other songs on the album. Simon at this time had come over with a case of writer's block and was unable to come up with much material, leaving Nick to pick up pen and do a bit of creative writing himself. The first single was "Electric Barbarella" telling the quirky story of an electric love doll. The (meant-to-be) tongue-in-cheek video for the song gained negative attention from some feminist groups in Canada. Nick defended the video by saying that it was never meant to be taken seriously and further pointed out how "miserable and boring" the world would be if everything was politically correct. This wasn't anything new, for the coverart of the "Skin Trade" single for the Notorious album that was released in Canada featuring the bare buttocks of a female was quickly banned.

Sometime in late 1999 or early 2000, Nick broke up with long-time live-in girlfriend Madeleine Farley. The reason for the break-up is uncertain as Nick has yet to publically speak of it, but there were rumors that it had something to do with Madeleine's unwillingness to marry. The rumor is a weak reason in the writer's opinion and obviously as with most relationships, there are many complex details beneath the surface.

Heartbroken, he turned to one of his close friends, Socalite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, who in turn, would seek Nick's guidance and support for her drug addiction recovery. The romance would not last a year, but they remain good friends to this day.

Nick would write more lyrics for the next album, Pop Trash, one of them being "Lady Xanax", which was written about Tara. The words paint a picture of a lonely, paranoid party girl and a sympathatic voice that comforts her and tells her not to be afraid. The album's single, "Someone Else Not Me" had a music video completely done in animation and is reminisant of the "Yellow Submarine" Beatles video.

Pop Trash also features a TV Mania (as in Nick and Warren)-penned song, "Pop Trash Movie" which was originally intended to be recorded by Blondie. Unfortunately, because of some bureaucratic problems with Blondie's record company, "Pop Trash Movie" along with "Studio 54" (another writtten by TV Mania) was never offically released. Nick and Warren didn't want to waste the perfectly good music and decided to include "Pop Trash Movie" on the Duran Duran album.

Nick met old friend and original Duran vocalist Stephen Duffy at a Vivienne Westwood fashion show by chance. They soon got into discussions about the Duran Duran album they always planned, but never got to do. The Devils were born. Dark Circles is a trip down memory lane and gives a good, lingering look into what might have been. Featuring some of Nick's best work, it is far from a disappointing trip. There are two videos that can be viewed at The Devils' official site for "Hawks Don't Share" and "Dark Circles." No word yet if there will be a second release from the devilish duo.

In 2001, Nick would meet his current girlfriend, Meredith Ostrom, an actress and sometimes model from New York City. In London one evening Nick and Meredith shared a taxi cab and discovered they were going to the same party for Mario Testino's "Alive" book at the Sanderson Hotel. Meredith confessed she had no idea who Nick was and thought he had a funny haircut, but looked "punky cool." They soon became a couple and have been attending many parties arm-in-arm ever since. "Oh, Nick's just so intelligent, I really respect him, " said Meredith. "I love the way his mind works. He invests carefully, he chooses the people he surrounds himself with. I feel lucky to know him because he gives such good advice." When not attending parties or trying to get acting jobs, the much-younger Meredith (more than a decade his junior) enjoys cooking Quorn sandwiches for Nick.

Nick put on his producer hat once again for band Dandy Warhols for their album, Welcome To The Monkey House. The band being Duran Duran fans, they were naturally thrilled to have Nick help them and have many times praised his talent. Nick can also be heard playing in the tracks, "Over It" and "The Last High."

The band of Rhodes, Le Bon, Taylor, Taylor, and Taylor are together yet again, much to the shock/excitement of their older fans. Long-time bandmate, Warren Cuccurullo, currently lives in Los Angeles and runs his own Italian restaurant and makes solo albums at his leisure. His official website has TV Mania music for download.

And on the side, Nick is also working with UK act Rivera F, as music produer. "International Lover" will be the first single, soon to be released.

The new Duran Duran album is due sometime in 2004. Meanwhile they have toured numerous countries to celebrate their 25th anniversary. They have also enjoyed some media respect for a change and have received two Lifetime Achievement Awards by the people at MTV and Q Magazine. Judging from the revived energy and new sounds, the new album will be something quite special.

Early in Duran Duran's history, Nick was quoted to say, "Our major aims have always been to be original - to have our own sound - and also to write songs that will be remembered in years ahead." It's obvious they have achieved that already, but it would be silly to say that is all; that they're (and Nick) is finished. It's a safe bet that we can be reassured of more good things to come.