UNCUT

February 2023

Page 31

Half-page ad

DOG DAY AFTERNOON
WITH IGGY POP
BLONDIE
GENERATION SEX

SATURDAY 1SY JULY 2023
CRYSTAL PALACE PARK – LONDON

Page 60

2023 ALBUMS PREVIEW

BLONDIE

TITLE: Unconfirmed
LABEL: Unconfirmed
RELEASE DATE: 2023

Their 12th: an in-house affair, with one exception

IT’S been a busy year for Blondie. Aside from curating and releasing the Grammy-nominated boxset Against The Odds 1974-1982, they undertook an extensive tour across the UK and America. They’ve also been back in the studio, preparing a successor to 2017’s Pollinator. The news was broken in February, when Chris Stein announced that “we’ve started working up new material over the last few days.”

Drummer Clem Burke tells Uncut: “We are making a record now, so we are all together in New York. It’s the same story as ever. We have a great selection of songs and demos, and then everybody contributes their style as we look at how to interpret the song. Pollinator was done with us all together in the studio, and we’re looking to do the same again as we really like the results. We want to be in the studio putting those basic tracks together, because there is a natural chemistry between us and it’s a shame when that gets diluted by different recording processes. I hope we have it out in spring.”

In September, the band revealed that Glen Matlock is to appear on the album. The ex-Pistol had filled in for bassist Leigh Foxx on the Against The Odds tour, after Foxx had suffered a back injury. “Glen has been great,” Stein explained to Classic Pop. “Unlike Pollinator, we’re mostly keeping this album in-house. It’s just the band and Glen playing on it, he fitted right in.”

While the rest of the details are still a little sketchy, Debbie Harry did suggest (as far back as 2021) that the producer of Blondie’s album would once again be John Congleton, who oversaw Pollinator. “We have lot more songs from within the band than Pollinator,” says Burke. “We have great melodies, and we have some strange cover songs, including one by a very underground New York band from the 1960s. We might do another song by Johnny Marr. He gave us one for the last album and we had a greta time trying with Johnny.