John Taylor is a talkative 47-year-old slightly rock star for whom time may be ticking. And you get the feeling he knows it. If that sounds tough it isn’t meant to be. Duran Duran, the band he founded and in which he’s spent 26 of the last 30 years, are genuine survivors and still know how to be put on a show and cut it live. Its latest album, Red CarpetMassacre, isn’t as bad as its been made out to be by some critics; there are moments of real grandeur and working class grunt and some of the melodies match the band’s best. The problem is that uber producer Timbaland and his protégé Nate “Danja” Hills have cut the band out of the album. Yes, SImon Le Bon is on every track, and Nick Rhodes gets to whirl his keyboards on and off but the band’s strength - its rhythm section of bassist Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor, are pretty much eliminated from the mix by Timbaland’s taste for electronic beats. You’d think Taylor would be pissed about that: Instead he says the chance to spend five days with Timbaland and get three songs out of him plus the presence of Justin Timberlake on two songs has extended the band’s credibility and give it a real boost.

Still there has to be a point where the line in the sand shifts too far; where a band needs to say ‘Sorry, we’re the band. We have to be on the record.’ That aside, 30 years on Duran Duran remains the epitome of New Romantic cool; a cultural icon that briefly changed fashion, pop culture and all that hangs off it.

“Thirty years ain’t what it used to be,” Taylor says. “With the technology we have today bands can get a lot further a lot faster. It’s hard to take all the changes on board but it doesn’t really change who I am. I’ve still got a little of the infantile in me. I’m not sure whether I’m trying to be a child or resisting becoming an adult.

“It has been a trip. Who would have known we would have got the cards we did. We’ve got to take it as it comes now. I feel we’re on borrowed time. Every day working together, doing gigs, making records, is a bonus. Who knows it could go on forever.”

And in that single paragraph lies all the dichotomies of being a rock star. The hopes and fears and possible realities all run into a few words that take half a lifetime to reach and just a few seconds to say.

In 1997, a failed marriage, personal problems and increasing dissension within the band drove Taylor to leave after 19 years. And sometimes that’s a good thing. The picture can become awfully blurred after two decades.

“Yes, it can,” Taylor says. “And I did need that break. I needed it to feel what it was like not to be in the group for a while. I needed to find out what I could do by myself, to have the freedom to work with somebody else. After doing the maths I came to the conclusion that whatever I was doing I might as well be doing it with Simon and Nick.

“I also really wanted to work with the original line-up again. That was the last idea I had before I left the band. I was sitting with Simon and Nick and they said ‘no’, it would be moving backwards. By 2001, they had changed their minds. It’s that balance between being in the present, considering the future and understanding where you come from.

“Trying to stay hip, to be honest, is really exhausting.”

The dilemmas are inevitable. You don’t want to sell out but in the 21st century every artist needs a hook, a way to sell themselves to an audience that is overwhelmed by choice. Taylor agrees that trying to keep an interest interested and the band content is a difficult balance. He enjoys being in the studio but “it’s bloody hard work”. By contrast, gigs provide instant gratification: “There’s nothing like walking out on stage. For 90 minutes the bullshit stops and there’s nothing like the interaction between the band’s members and between band and audience.

“But even that’s changed. The festival circuit is has become a major part of the business and it’s something that’s new for us. We are still learning about it.

“You get a different kind of feedback from the audience. It’s not your audience. They have come to see a show and you are one part of that show, as opposed to to when you do your own tour and it’s our house and the audience has come to see us. You have people buzzing around buying hot dogs and drinks and merchandise and moving from stage to stage. And they are thinking, ‘Let’s see 20 minutes of Duran Duran and then move over and see 15 minutes of Basement Jaxx’s dance set.
“What is great is being around all other artists.

“And you never know exactly what you are going to get from the audience compared with when you go on stage and do your own shows. You know what the audience wants and you know the kind of reaction and reception you are going to get. So we’re still learning. You really don’t stop doing so in this business.”

Duran Duran, the band of pop princes, has beaten the odds, outlasted fashion and fad and found a genuine fame.