Duran Duran - John Taylor Revisits Childhood School

Duran Duran bassist JOHN TAYLOR struck a chord with pupils at his childhood school when he returned to open a new $323,000 (£200,000) music suite.

The Rio hitmaker visited Trinity High School in his hometown of Redditch, England this week (beg17Sep12) to launch a new music centre at the facility, which features a state-of-the-art recording studio.

Taylor was a pupil at The Abbey High School, on the same site, which closed in 2001 and during the visit, he revealed the death of his father prompted him to reconnect with his past and write new autobiography, In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death, and Duran Duran.

He tells British newspaper the Birmingham Post, "Coming back to Redditch and my old school bought back some very fond memories for me. It feels like only yesterday that I was here as a child and teenager.

"After the death of my father I realised I had lost my connection to Redditch and the city of Birmingham (in England) and that was the inspiration for writing my book."

After touring the new campus, the musician praised the school in a series of messages on his Twitter.com page, writing, "Interesting to visit the old school... Not so different as I expected... Except this time I didn't get caned (punished)... And seriously... Everyone was so nice."