Duran Duran are set to play a special benefit concert next month in honour of guitarist Andy Taylor, with proceeds going to a cancer charity.
Set to take place at the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park, California, the one-off show will be held on August 19 and held in honour of Taylor, who left the band in 2006 and revealed his own diagnosis of prostate cancer last year.
Proceeds raised by the show will go to benefit the UK charity Cancer Awareness Trust, which raises money to fight against cancer and helps develop special treatments that allow patients like Taylor to extend their lives.
“We are heading to Northern California to play many of the songs that we wrote together with our dear friend, Andy Taylor, to help him and others in their fight against prostate cancer,” frontman Simon Le Bon said in a statement. “It is the right thing to do.”
Drummer Roger Taylor also spoke about the motivation behind the benefit show, and thanked those who have helped make the idea into a reality. “We would like to thank our fans and the organisers of this benefit who have given us the chance to help our longtime friend and colleague Andy Taylor,” he said. “We have always described ourselves as a ‘band of brothers,’ and that has never been more true than in this very moment.”
Tickets for the upcoming gig are available now, with proceeds being donated to the UK-based charity. Find remaining tickets here.
Sir Chris Evans – the founder of Cancer Awareness Trust – also spoke about the collaboration to organise the upcoming gig and provided an update on the treatment they look to offer those diagnosed with cancer.
“Andy will receive the latest precision medical treatment, emanating from some recently successful clinical trials, along with the ongoing support that the Cancer Awareness Trust is providing,” he said (via Rolling Stone). “The incredible support of Duran Duran will mean many more people will benefit just like Andy has.”
Following the announcement of next month’s benefit concert, Taylor has since revealed that he is now hoping to undergo ‘nuclear therapy’ – a newer type of treatment that has only recently arrived in the UK.
The 62-year-old shared the update during an interview with the Rockonteurs podcast, explaining how, after being diagnosed with incurable stage four metastatic prostate cancer, he has gone from not expecting to have long to live to now expecting to get back to full fitness.
“I’m starting my nuclear therapy. I’ve been having tests and scans and all kinds of far-out science stuff… so the stage I’m at – which was stage four – like shit, basically, this therapy came into the UK only recently. It’s very, very new,” he said (via Daily Mail).
“Essentially it’s a nuclear medicine. It’s put into your body and it detects the cancer on the outside of the cells and it only hits cancer cells in your bones, which is mainly where it is with me, and zaps them. But if there’s a healthy cell next to it, it doesn’t touch it,” he continued. “So it’s not curative, but it can knock out and then it’s got to start again and from what was kind of – I’ll not even say the term they used to have on the thing – but I can get back [to] full fitness. I’ll be fine for five years.”
In other Duran Duran news, earlier this year the band spoke with NME about their upcoming projects, and announced their hopes to play at Glastonbury in the coming years.
The four-piece have never performed at the iconic Worthy Farm site, however as Le Bon explained, they are hoping to change this soon. “I’d love to [do it] – we just need to get the right slot, that’s all,” he said. “We have had the chance to do it before, but it wasn’t playing the main stage and I think we’d like to be doing that for sure,” Le Bon adds. “I’m sure we’re in negotiations [with Glastonbury], and if not, we will be.”