Daily Mail – 23rd June 2008
Page 13
[Picture captions from left to right: 1979 – Bombshell: The Seventies icon. 2007 – Vintage: In concert last year. Born again: Emerging phoenix-like from the flames, she appears unchanged in 30 years.]Once more unto the bleach with Debbie Harry, 62
By Liz Smith
WHATEVER Debbie Harry’s secret is, a lot of women must be wishing she would sell it in a bottle.
Three decades since Blondie were topping the charts, the pop icon somehow appears not a day older.
Miss Harry, who is 63 next month, is seen in a jewelled corset rising phoenix-like from a bed of flames.
The face is free of wrinkles and the figure is as unfeasibly svelte as even in a photoshoot to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of Parallel Lines, the album which included hits such as Heart of Glass, One Way Or Another, Picture This, and Hanging on the Telephone.
While in the past Miss Harry has shown the inevitable sign of ageing, it seems she must have been reinvigorated by the prospect of a new world tour with the band, visiting the UK next month. Blondie were formed in 1975 with Miss Harry, a former Playboy Bunny and waitress, as their focal point.
They were initially a New Wave band before joining the pop mainstream with Parallel Lines, their third album.
They disbanded in 1982 after guitarist Chris Stein, Miss Harry’s songwriting partner, was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness from which he recovered.
Miss Harry found some success in a solo career and as an actress but Blondie reformed in 1996 after finding that their songs were popular with a new generation. This year Heart of Glass re-entered the Top 40 when it was used in a perfume commercial.
