Some of us grew up in families that encouraged them to listen to music and even display a reasonably obsessive mania for a few bands and singers. After all music is culture and obsessing about a band is part of the process of growing up.
Unfortunately, not all of us were so lucky: part of the global population was probably repressed by parents who urged them to engage their free time in more “serious” things than going to gigs and buying a record. Letizia Moratti, the obnoxious right wing mayor of Milan, falls into this category, though apparently she is definitely not alone, but in the excellent company of Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani and Tod’s CEO Diego Della Valle.
Growing up as musically repressed young people, this magic trio concocted a wonderful plan, a Duran Duran concert during Milan Fashion Week. The gig took place on Friday night at Milan’s Teatro Dal Verme.
The event – preceded by a private dinner – was actually an exclusive party for roughly 1,500 people (mainly VIPs – including annoying Anna Dello Russo in a House of Worth tutu that is also a total rip off of the jacket with zodiac symbols from Schiaparelli's "Cosmique" collection) and apparently 500 Duran Duran aficionados from the band’s fan clubs.
On the morning of Friday Duran Duran also received a useless parchment from the Milan City Council stating they are icons of style and innovators in the fields of music, fashion and style (and so, you could argue, are The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Madonna and hundreds of other famous bands and singers, so what makes Duran Duran more eligible?).
Despite it was good to see the magic trio didn’t splash money on more flamboyant characters à la Lady Gaga (they must have tried, but couldn’t probably afford her…), the event has been highly criticised by a few papers: apparently the City Council invested €18,000 to hire the theatre, plus paid for other assorted expenses for a total of €30-35,000, though some papers claimed the City Council invested something like €70,000 into the event.
Moratti was indeed flanked at the event by Luana Codignoni, a mysterious character working for Promos, an agency linked to the Chamber of Commerce led by Bruno Ermolli, a close friend of Silvio Berlusconi.
Shady Codignoni, a woman with no real qualifications when it comes to organising events, also collaborates as advisor for the Municipality of Milan. Promos works indeed with the City Council organising events on an international level (Codignoni is actually paid by Promos and not by the City Council), receiving every year roughly €100,000 from the Muncipality of Milan, which means that Duran Duran were slightly more expensive than just €30,000.
The Councillor for Fashion and Local Events Giovanni Terzi replied to those journalists and members of the opposition parties criticising the City Council stating we should stop being provincial and support such events that have an international resonance and reward the city of Milan with lots of publicity worldwide (wait until April 6th, dear Terzi, and Milan will get even more publicity on a global scale and this time it will be totally free and courtesy of Berlusconi’s trial…).
Yet isn’t that a bit silly to splash public money on an exclusive event open to just a few people? (I'm definitely not the only one who seems to be having serious doubts about this point...) What about investing into a proper fashion event and opening it to the public? After all it’s ordinary people who end up supporting fashion designers by choosing to buy their products.
Think, Letizia: fashion events organised in the mid-'80s like Trussardi’s show in Piazza del Duomo gathered thousands of ordinary people together. Friday’s event managed to get 1,500 more or less famous people in one place.
Now the damage is done, though, and Letizia, Franca and Diego have convinced themselves and the international press Milan is not a walking corpse with zero nightlife, but a glittering star, a beacon of fashion and style. Unfortunately, this event proves that Milan's star is burning bright in the night just for very few people.
In the meantime, Duran Duran fans can rejoice: the City Council is now working towards a larger event open to all the pariahs - pardon, citizens of Milan - so the band should be back in July with a gig during the Milano Jazzin’ Festival, while Simon Le Bon is hoping they will also be collaborating with the City Council for a new event during the Expo 2015.
And who can blame you, Simon? Guess if the Municipality of Milan is throwing money in your direction, you'd better just find a case large enough to contain it and run away with it once it's full.
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I love the music of Duran Duran. I haven't heard of them for quite some time now. Lucky for you that you were able to watch them perform again!
Posted by: Brad Fallon | February 28, 2011 at 04:17 AM