See Duran Duran ace their live set at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in the UK

Duran Duran
(Image credit: Elsa/Getty Images)

Birmingham gave us Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, but it also gave us one of the biggest pop bands in history; and Duran Duran reminded the world of it at last night's opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games in the city.

They brought the hits, and a choir and orchestra. They played live, and they nailed it with a medley Save A Prayer, Planet Earth, Tonight United and Ordinary World.

Nick Rhodes on his synth riser, John Taylor and Roger Taylor funkin' and groovin' as one of pop's greatest rhythm sections and Simon LeBon on majestic form as a fireworks display rained down during Ordinary. 

Sabbath's Tony Iommi also performed at the ceremony but we're still waiting for footage of his performance to surface. 

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Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.