Arena (Duran Duran album)
| Arena | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Live album by Duran Duran | ||||
| Released | 12 November 1984 | |||
| Recorded | 'around the world 1984' | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 47:54 | |||
| Label |
Parlophone (UK) - DD 2 Capitol (U.S.)- V 12374 |
|||
| Producer |
|
|||
| Duran Duran chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Arena | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | |
Arena is a live album by the English new wave/synthpop band Duran Duran, originally released worldwide in 1984 on LP record and compact cassette. It was reissued on compact disc in remastered form with two bonus tracks in 2004.
To cap off the band's highly successful 1983/1984 "Sing Blue Silver" World Tour, EMI released a live album, which according to the sleeve was "Recorded Around The World 1984".
The album featured most of the band's big hits in a live environment, as well as some album tracks from Rio (1982) and Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983), and a new studio track "The Wild Boys", which was produced by Nile Rodgers, who had previously remixed the single "The Reflex", and had been a member of the disco/funk group Chic.
"The Wild Boys" single was issued with six separate covers - one featuring each individual band member and one of the band collectively.
At the time of release, critics were suspicious that the mix was too polished for a live album, as most of the audience was muted. Other criticism arose from the omission of some of the band's biggest songs like "The Reflex", "Girls on Film" and "Rio". However, Arena still managed to peak at No. 6 in the UK (24 November) and No. 4 in the US (1 December).
The album was eventually re-issued 1 June 2004 and included two bonus tracks "Girls on Film" and "Rio". It had also been reissued in 1999 in the EU as a budget release by Dutch EMI affiliate Disky.
Arena would be the only full-length live Duran Duran release until the 2003 Encore Series of official bootleg recordings from shows in Japan and the West Coast of the USA.
Capitalising on the band's success, EMI turned the album's release into a multimedia event. The concert film Arena (An Absurd Notion), released on long form videotape and broadcast on MTV, was quickly followed by The Making of Arena. These videos featured Duran Duran performing live in Oakland, California between 12–15 April 1984. Milo O'Shea reprised his role as the evil Dr. Durand Durand from the movie Barbarella (1968).
...
Wikipedia