Arcadia “The Promise” 1986. Today is Simon LeBon’s birthday (b. 1958)! “The Promise” was the third single from the Duran side project Arcadia’s 1985 album So Red the Rose. It went to #37 in the UK – I don’t think it charted in the US (though I loved it, and the entire record which I bought pretty much on its release date, November 18th 1985). “The Promise” features guitar work from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and uncredited, but obvious, backing vocals by Sting. From wiki: “Sometime during the band’s stay in Paris to record So Red the Rose, they went to see a Sting concert there, and decided it would be interesting to have him come over and sing on the album, mainly because they liked the combination of Sting’s and lead singer Simon Le Bon’s voices on the “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” single by Band Aid, and wanted to see what would result from putting them together again. Sting was very amicable about the whole idea, and it turned out to be one of the band’s favourite moments on the record.” The b-side to the single is the gothic instrumental “Rose Arcana.”