Roger Taylor said in March 2006, "The record will be in some ways a homage to our roots as a band, more direct and a return to our dance and 'new wave' origins", adding that they had brought 15 tracks to near completion.

[3] The record was provisionally titled Reportage and expected to be released in late May 2006 with a summer tour to follow, but as reported by Billboard, the album was delayed as guitarist Andy Taylor had a falling-out with the rest of the band for unknown reasons, and the material was eventually shelved altogether in favour of recording Red Carpet Massacre.

[4] In early October 2006, vocalist Simon Le Bon announced that the band had recorded three songs with Timbaland, his protégé Nate 'Danja' Hills and engineer Jimmy Douglass at Manhattan Center Studios during September.

Taylor told Rolling Stone magazine that he was in favour of a more electric sound, whereas Le Bon wanted to go in a different direction involving people such as Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.

[7] According to Taylor's autobiography, the final straw came when he discovered that the band's management had not been able to secure a working visa for him to record in the United States.

The other band members maintained that they fully expected him to show up for the recording session with Timbaland, but that he became incommunicado and was unreachable by phone or email, leaving them no choice but to continue on without him.

14 songs had been completed for Reportage, but according to Le Bon: "When we sat down and listened to what we had done on our own, we didn't feel we had a lead track, so we got in touch with Timbaland, who was the only producer out there that we knew we all liked.

[10] Several other album tracks ("The Valley", "Red Carpet Massacre", "Skin Divers" and "Box Full O' Honey") were played over the sound system at the concert, but were not performed live.