'We're very excited. We've never played Essex before, I'm almost ashamed to say'

DURAN DURAN BASSIST JOHN TAYLOR LOOKS FORWARD TO BAND'S MUCH-AWAITED SUMMER SHOW AT CHELMSFORD CITY RACECOURSE

- By ELLIS WHITEHOUSE

DURAN Duran's bassist John Taylor is feeling both excited and ashamed.

The excitement is building for the band's enormous headline show at Chelmsford City Racecourse this summer - but the shame comes from not playing a single Essex gig in their entire career that spans more than 40 years.

That will change on July 5 when the Birmingham-born band, who have sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, headline Chelmsford City Live, a brand new live music event which will also see Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs performing.

Formed in Birmingham in 1978, Duran Duran - singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor - continue to play to huge concert audiences around the world. They consistently fuse art, technology, fashion and a signature sense of style with their unique and infectious brand of music. The band has proven themselves time-less, always innovating and reinventing, to remain ahead of the curve.

Their biggest hits include Girls on Film, The Wild Boys, Ordinary World, The Reflex, Come Undone, (Reach Up For The) Sunrise and Rio. In support of the band will be iconic music pioneer Nile Rodgers who will bring the "ultimate party atmosphere" as he performs hit after hit with CHIC.

John Taylor said the gig will be "one huge, big party".

He said: "We're very excited, the more I think about it, the more I've thought that we've never played Essex before. I'm almost ashamed to say, and yet at the same time I'm thinking it's mega, it's massive. We've never played this venue before and we've got Nile on the show with us. It's gonna be a banger. It's gonna be a huge, big party.