Early History
Bates was the only child of well-off parents, the owners of a Birmingham toyshop. In 1978, Bates left school at the age of sixteen, and founded Duran Duran with his art school friends Stephen Duffy and John Taylor. At about the same time as the name Duran Duran was chosen for the band, he decided to change his name, which was given to him by John Taylor before the first interview they had together for their band.
While in Woodrush, he and John Taylor formed a band called 'RAF' with other classmates.
As the band coalesced into its final lineup in 1979-80, Duran Duran started playing at a local Birmingham club called "The Rum Runner". The club owners became the band's managers, and Rhodes began working at the club as a disc jockey.
Read more about this topic: Nick Rhodes
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or history:
“In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)