Nick Rhodes was born in Mosley, a suburb of Birmingham, England, son of Sylvia and Roger Bates. Rhodes began playing guitar while still in school, sharing the aspiration of becoming a lead guitarist with neighbourhood friend, John Taylor. Soon after, Rhodes also began teaching himself to play keyboards on a WASP synthesiser. Rhodes left school at sixteen, his first and only occupation outside of a band being as the disc jockey for the Rum Runner dance club in Birmingham, where he and Taylor established the core that would evolve into Duran Duran. Aside of replacing occasional band members and early changes to the band's name, Duran Duran is the only group Rhodes had been a part of until 1985, when he and bandmates Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor took a sabbatical from Duran Duran to record an album as Arcadia. Rhodes, Le Bon, John Taylor, and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo returned to Duran Duran in 1986, recording seven more studio albums through 2000. The band still endures today, with the 2000 album Pop Trash, and work on a new album underway in 2001. Rhodes' long-time interest in film and music production has led to the start of his own UK-based production company, TV Mania, with Cuccurullo. Rhodes also possesses a love of and talent for photography. A collection of his abstract works, Interference, was published in 1984. Rhodes is a devout fan of art and animation, a personal friend to both South Park co-creator Trey Parker and the late Andy Warhol. Rhodes has participated in several charity events in his career, including the 1985 Live Aid concert, Sir Bob Geldof's BandAid project, and the Secret Policeman's Ball, a series of performances in the UK which benefit Amnesty International.