Simon Le Bon has a mischievous twinkle in his eye. We’re in the penthouse suite at The London West Hollywood, with the Sunset Strip laid out below us like a roadmap of debauchery. Just a few doors down is The Roxy, where Duran Duran made their Los Angeles debut in 1981. Our bird’s-eye view takes the dandyish 67-year-old frontman back to that tour, and the first time the new wave pioneers found themselves on a hotel rooftop in this city. “We got kicked out of the Riot House,” he smirks. “Have you heard that story?”

As Le Bon tells it, he was innocently taking a swim on the roof of the infamous rock star haunt when the band’s then-guitarist, Andy Taylor, decided for a jape to fill a cleaner’s bucket with pool water and tip it over the edge towards unsuspecting diners many floors below. 

The band’s keyboard wizard Nick Rhodes, 64, picks up the tale. “We got unceremoniously removed from the hotel by seven armed police officers,” he says, raising his eyebrows beneath his shock of platinum blond hair. Le Bon makes it clear the incident didn’t cramp their style. “We moved to this little place which looked like a spaceship from The Jetsons,” recalls the singer. “And it was so much fun it was ridiculous.” 

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