After joining the que outside The Old FireStation in Bournemouth, we along with the other fan community members were issued with blue wristbands, to give us early entry into the venue, whilst the general public fans had to que on the other side of the door. We then waited for a further hour until the doors were open at about 7.15pm. It was well worth the wait.    We headed inside the venue, which is normally used for student Union events, it really wasnt a very big place at all, and apparently holds up to 450 people max. Most of the people that went in before us had gone straiight down to the front, we went over to the side and was lucky enough to get a very good position up on where Duran Durans technical guy was with all his equipment, so we were level with the stage, and had a very good view of the drums and keyboards.

Whilst waiting for the band to come on the technical guy came out with the set list, and we were able to read it and get some idea of what songs to expect before the band even came on stage. The venue slowly filled up, but i would say there wasnt many more than 300 people there, the majority being fan community members.

At about 9.15pm Duran Duran entered the dimly lit room and took to the stage, to the sound of clapping and  screaming women.  The first song they played was the brilliant "Man Who Stole a Leopard", there was no back drop behind them and no fancy lighting, just a few coloured lights would hightlight them every now and again, making it very hard to get really decent photo's, but the atmosphere was totally electric.

The only way i can describe it, would be to say, that it is how i imagine the Rum Runner to have been in the 80s, it had that feel.

The next song they played was "All You Need Is Now", the title track of their newest album. Simon Le Bons voice was back on form, after the terrrible bout of Laryngitis, which had caused the band to postpone and reschedule the whole of their UK tour. Then came "Blame the Machines", "Networker Nation", "Too Bad" and "A View To A Kill". The crowd sang along with all the songs, and altho it was a rehearsal, there didnt seem to be that many mistakes made or hitches with the equipment. Simon forget a couple of lines during one of the songs, but the crowd helped out.  "Safe", was absolutely brilliant with Anna Ross singing the parts that Ana Matronic does on the album, then came the hauntingly beautiful "Before The Rain", which sends chills down your spine, that was followed by "Tiger Tiger", with Simon Willescroft on a very small Saxaphone, SLB had a bit of a breather here, and stood well back. Then came "Secret Oktober" followed by "Shadows on Your Side" which had never been played live before. The view we had was amazing, even tho the lighting was very dim. Simon also thanked the rest of the band for being patient with him whilst he was recovering from throat problems. They then played "Mediterranea" and "Other Peoples Lives" the crowd were really enjoying this special gig.

Then came two of my favourites "Notorious" and the very brilliant "Hold Back the Rain", simon danced around the stage, thorougly enjoying himself, whilst John playing bass, stood on our side right oppostite us, Nick was more central and you could see he was very happy to be doing what he loves, whilst Rogers drumming was fantatstic as usual. Dom Brown was on Simons left.

They then left the stage, but soon come back on for an encore, as Simon said, anything goes at a rehearsal, and they played "Girl Panic" followed by "Sunrise", a total of 17 songs.

I've been to a fair few Duran Duran Concerts, and this was definately a one off special gig, especiially being in such a small venue, it gave it a much more intimate feel.

This Rehearsal gig was well worth every penny that we paid £25.00 for fan community members and "28.00 for the general public.

They are also doing the same in Cambridge, Bristol and Oxford, on 8th/9th/10th September, berfore starting their tour of North America.