Duran Duran brought out Måneskin‘s Victoria De Angelis for a rendition of ‘Psycho Killer’ at their Halloween show in Manchester – check out clips of the moment below.
Last night (October 31) marked the first time the ‘80s pop icons have held their annual Halloween show in the UK. The tradition began back in 2022 after the band played an exclusive one-off show at the Wynn Theatre in Las Vegas. Taking place on Halloween, the gig saw Simon Le Bon and co. break out huge hits and rarities with a darker theme than usual.
That gig would later become immortalised with the release of their 16th album ‘Danse Macabre’ – a record that pieced together new music, darkly reimagined versions of Duran Duran’s classic songs, and covers of Billie Eilish and Talking Heads.
Since then, the one-off Halloween shows have continued each year, with fans encouraged to come dressed in Halloween attire, as was the case at the Co-op Live venue in Manchester last night.
The gig saw them joined by bassist De Angelis, who dressed as an angel, for Talking Heads’ 1977 classic ‘Psycho Killer’, which follows her playing it on ‘Danse Macabre’ alongside former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor on guitar.
When they first teamed up for the cover, the band’s John Taylor said De Angelis was “probably the most important electric bassist out there right now”.
He continued: “I met a couple of the guys from Måneskin at a party and they said, ‘you’ve got to meet our bass player.’ She’s such a dynamo! I was like ‘what inspired you?’ and Vic said, ‘Tina Weymouth’. So when Psycho Killer made the cut for the album, I thought, ‘I’m gonna ask her if she’d like to have a bass-off!’”
De Angelis said being asked to feature on the album was “such a wild honour”, adding: “I met John at a party, and we immediately bonded talking about music and bass. I told him Tina Weymouth was my absolute pinnacle of cool, attitude and incredible musicianship all rolled into one, and he told me he also started playing bass inspired by her and she was one of his music idols.”
News of last night’s Halloween gig came shortly after Duran Duran had announced two huge shows in Ireland at the start of the year, which will be held in the next couple of weeks and see Nile Rodgers and Chic open. Afterwards, they will play two UK shows, one in Exeter and one in Chelmsford.
Around the time that the ‘Danse Macabre’ album was announced, the band spoke to NME about how they would love to play at Glastonbury – something they have surprisingly not yet done. “I’d love to [do it] – we just need to get the right slot, that’s all,” Le Bon 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. I’m sure we’re in negotiations [with Glastonbury], and if not, we will be.”
As for De Angelis, last year, she announced a new solo project that saw her trade in her signature rock sound for DJ decks and something much more dance club ready with the release of debut track ‘GET UP BITCH! (Shake Ya Ass)’ – a high-energy dance song that fuses bouncy techno with baile funk and features Anitta.
Speaking about the collaboration, De Angelis told NME that her love of “baile funk and Brazilian Latin club music” offered “the perfect combination of all the sounds I like combined with hard techno”.
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