A real milestone in the history of the Rum Runner was when a newly-formed group of musicians called Duran Duran walked in one day with a tape. There was an instant mutual appeal between the Berrows and the band, and the Berrows offered Duran Duran a place to rehearse and play gigs. The band found themselves becoming heavily involved with the running of the club with John Taylor working the door, Nick Rhodes deejaying for £10 a night, Roger Taylor working as a glass collector and Andy Taylor polishing mirrors, painting and cooking burgers for cash. Duran Duran quickly became the resident band at the venue.
After many months, Michael and Paul Berrow signed as Duran Duran's managers. The Berrows and the band then formed the Tritec Music company (named after the triangular-themed bar inside the club). The label used the Rum Runner office upstairs from the club as its official address.
In developing the club's musical identity they also gave free rehearsal space to bands like Dexy's Midnight Runners and UB40 with The Beat filming a video for their song 'Mirror In The Bathroom' taking full advantage of the many mirrors that walled the club.
As time went by they opened more and more different evenings and one of the residents became DJ Dick who later went on to form Rockers Hi-Fi and who now hosts the city's main FunkAcid Jazz night called Leftfoot, situated at the The Medicine Bar.
In the days of rum running, it was common for captains to add water to the bottles to stretch their profits, or to re-label it as better goods.
Rum Row was completely lawless, and many crews armed themselves not against government ships but against the other rum-runners, who would sometimes sink a ship and hijack its cargo rather than make the run to Canada or the Caribbean for fresh supplies.
Most of the rum ships were sold or scrapped, and their crews either went into the merchant marine or the U.S. Navy, which was gearing up for World War II.
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