Irish Newspaper (unknown)
29th May 1990
Blonde date…
(Irish newspaper review of Deborah Harry’s 28th May 1990 Dublin Stadium Concert)
Punk nostalgia from gritty Debbie
Written by Tony O’Brien
IT could have been ’77 and the red-hot explosion of punk all over again. The National Stadium hadn’t seen anything like it for years.
But then Debbie (or Deborah as she prefers now) Harry only comes round this way about every 10 years and last night she brought out the strangest of audiences and the grittiest of rock to the cosy old stadium.
There were mature men who looked like they had strayed from a Christy Moore concert; couples who obviously met and married during the punk years to the strains of Blondie hits, and younger fans who know Debbie as a rock icon.
The music was fraught with the jagged thrash which hallmarked punk and, though driven by a frightening beat, slid into the self-indulgent and downright messy on a few occasions before a solid rescue towards the end.
Debbie, of course, is the main attraction. Impeccably well-preserved at 44, with her classic face and blonde tresses, she is the model upon which the likes of Madonna and Wendy James of Transvision Vamp built their images.
Some males may have been disappointed that the Harry body was covered in a less-than-revealing red-fringed trouser outfit, but her gyrations and cavorting about the stage did the trick.
“I was told to wear red in Ireland and shake my ass”, she explained.
Blondie material came surprisingly early with ‘Dreaming’, ‘The Tide is High’ and ‘Heart of Glass’, interspersed with tracks from last year’s ‘Def Dumb and Blonde’ album like the grinding ‘Kiss It Better’.
But it was the encores which made the night. As Debbie’s former lover but now only workmate Chris Stein set of manic guitar lines, we were into blistering versions of ‘Hanging on the Telephone’, ‘Call Me’, the more recent ‘French Kissing in the USA’ and Lou Reed’s ‘Workin’ for the Man’, and the whole stadium was on its feet – punks again for a night.
