Gary Barlow had put together a collection of the UK's lamest acts throughout history, yet neither Duran was included.
"No one can tell me we're not lame enough to share a stage with JLS," Le Bon raged. "We invented lame! We’ve been lame since the 80s, so there."
It's hard to argue with that. While America gave us the Blues and the Blues in turn begat Rock & Roll, Britain's gift to the world was cheesy synthpop played by boys in make-up. We begat Scissor Sisters, but does anyone thank us?
Dido even mentioned Duran Duran as an influence, which is surely recommendation enough.
Conspiracy theorists have suggested a murkier reason behind the snub, murkier even than a royal anti-New Romantic sentiment.
Could the Duran's hit single Rio have sealed their fate? Would thousands of fans singing the name of the defender controversially left out of the England squad have embarrassed the FA and Roy Hodgson? Was Rio really left out for "footballing reasons", as claimed? Or "New Romantic reasons?" We should be told.
Duran Duran were one of the first band's to exploit the dawn of MTV and fork out for proper expensive music videos with girls and smoke machines and everything. It made stars of the Birmingham boys as they created an unforgettable visual style. An unfortunate side effect was that no one forgot them, which perhaps lead to them being excluded from the Buck House bash.
Copyright : Comedy Central UK