Culture | Music Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon has said he is “beyond thrilled and surprised” to be made an MBE . The British singer, 65, has become a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours list for services to music and charity. He told the PA news agency: “What an incredible, and totally unexpected honour! “I am truly beyond thrilled and surprised.
“These last few years have been some of the most important in Duran Duran’s career, and this is a bright but humbling highlight as our journey continues. “It is fitting that the honour has been awarded not just for my role in music, but also for the work I’ve been fortunate to be involved with outside the band for some of the causes I believe in. “To name but two of them, I hope this moment helps to raise awareness for the Blue Marine Foundation and the importance of their conservation work, and for Centrepoint.
“Their mission for over 50 years to put an end to homelessness in the UK is vital.” Born in Hertfordshire in 1958, Le Bon grew up in the town of Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow and went on to study drama in Birmingham. In the 1980s he auditioned to be apart of Duran Duran , which Nick Rhodes and John Taylor had formed in the late 1970s, showing up to the venue in pink leopard print trousers.
He won them over with his showmanship and book of lyrics which contained some of the words to a song that would eventually become The Chauffeur. In 1980 the band, in.