Bio Full Biography »

British guitarist Andy Taylor rose to staggering heights of fame with Duran Duran in the mid-'80s. The son of a small-village fisherman, Taylor taught himself guitar, bass, and drums and began playing professionally at age 13. He'd already gigged with several bands (even releasing an A&M single, "Teenage Girls," with the group Motorway) when he answered a Melody Maker ad for a "live-wire guitarist" and hopped a train to Birmingham to audition for Duran Duran (Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, and ultimately Simon LeBon). The band's phenomenal video-fueled success shot Taylor and the other members into the teen heartthrob stratosphere. Taylor married Tracey Wilson, a hair stylist who had worked with the fashionable fivesome, and opened a wine bar in Whitely Bay named Rio. Andy and John Taylor (no relation) enlisted Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson in the successful but short-term side project the Power Station. Taylor then left Duran Duran in 1985 amongst acrimonious words. With mo...