I asked Simon LB to send me a few words for the website and he came back with this great story from when we were both a bit younger:
A few years back in our not so distant past, myself and the venerable Duran Duran keyboardsman - Mr Nick Rhodes happened to find ourselves in the lascivious megalopolis that centres itself on Los Angeles, Southern California. It could possibly have been in one or other of Hollywood's sultry fleshpots that we ran into my very good friend from London; he who goeth by the name Justin Bell. After a somewhat boisterous night out we arranged to meet the following day, to go to a party up in the Hollywood hills.He picked us up at the Chateau Marmont that evening, driving a pretty ordinary rental car; a white Chrysler, or a Buick or something. I suppose Justin must have wanted to to impress upon both Nick and myself that he was in fact a bona-fide racing driver, because for the next twenty five minutes, we could have been on the track or in a sports car rally. Justin had the wheels spinning when the lights went green; the engine screaming at top revs most of the time; tyres were squealing round the corners, which we seemed to be making on two wheels instead of four. I lost count of the amount of times the car bottomed out on the dips, bumps and holes of the California roads; sometimes leaving a trial of sparks and most of the muffler can it seemed behind us on tarmac and shiny concrete. And all the time Justin airily declaring that it was only a rental car, and that's just about what they're good for! His finest moment came when at a four-way stop he had another car jumping like a kangaroo, as the other driver hit first the accelerator then the brake and so on; in total confusion as to who it was that was going to go, regardless of who had the right of way.
Oh how we laughed as we set off not one, but a whole street full of car alarms - what a cacophony it was indeed.And when you think about it, they're a pretty noisy family generally; what with the sound Derek makes when he's howling round the track at Le Mans. And it makes me wonder, it really does, if therein lies the true origin of the oft quoted, but possibly mis-attributed line: "the Bells, they made me deaf".
Simon Le Bon London 2010
