We’ve seen some things in our time, but the sight of Exeter’s Powderham Castle being transformed into a dreamscape of sound and light by a group of Eighties pop icons more commonly known as Duran Duran might just have topped ‘em all.
The band arrived with all the cool, calculated glamour that’s defined them for decades, but what unfolded was more than nostalgia – it was a full-bodied, future-facing spectacle. Simon Le Bon prowled the stage with theatrical command, his voice flickering with grit but holding fast through every high. Nick Rhodes’s synths shimmered with precision, while John Taylor’s basslines cut confidently through the open air.
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The band’s grip on the crowd tightened with every track.
Hungry Like The Wolf, still feral and seductive after all these years, set the fields of Powderham alight with movement, while Rio, delivered with bright, crashing joy, felt like a sunburst against the fading light of this cool July evening. Girls On Film was all strut and swagger, a generation-spanning omni-anthem that twisted the castle grounds into a makeshift dance floor. Notorious, tight and razor-sharp, stood tall in the set – a reminder of how seamlessly the band has blended funk and flair into their pop machinery.
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And visually, the show was as meticulous as the music.
Towering LED screens and the kind of lighting set-up that even Lady Gaga would occasionally deem ‘a bit maximalist’ bathed the fields of the castle grounds in shifting patterns and surreal colours, turning the performance into something that occasionally felt more like a curated art piece than a stadium-sized pop/rock show. And yet, amid the spectacle, intimacy flickered. During more than one of the night’s softer moments, the audience lit the darkness with phones held high, casting a soft glow that wrapped the band in a kind of quiet reverence. It didn’t break the spell – it deepened it.
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Speaking of spells – if anyone’s got a wizard-like grip on the title of ‘Greatest Songwriter Of All Time’, it’s fair to say that it might be Nile Rodgers.
Earlier in the evening, Nile and Chic delivered a set that felt less like a warm-up and more like a masterclass. From the first notes, they had the crowd locked into a groove, easing effortlessly through a catalogue of disco and funk that left no one standing still. Each track landed with the weight of a classic, but none felt dated; Rodgers’s guitar work was clean and celebratory, the vocals soulful and locked in. By the time Good Times rolled in to close the set, Powderham’s fields were already moving as one.
For a band that’s always thrived on aesthetic, atmosphere, and good ol’ fashioned pop bombast, Duran Duran found in Powderham Castle the perfect co-star – grand, glamorous, and just surreal enough to feel like a dream.
