Picture This! Debbie Harry joined by Sting and Trudie Styler at exhibition to celebrate 40 years of Blondie
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By HANNA FLINT FOR MAILONLINE – 23rd September 2014
Pioneering punk rock band Blondie celebrated forty years on the music scene, Monday night, with an exhibition of photos taken of the band over the last four decades.
Guest of honour was of course lead singer Debbie Harry, and she was joined by the band’s co-founder Chris Stein who was the man behind the lens of many of the memorable images on display.
Debbie enjoyed the party, held at the Chelsea Hotel Storefront in Gallery in New York, with fellow rock legend Sting and his wife Trudi Styler.
Harry wore simply black to the exhibition with cool platform sandals on her feet, while actress-turned-producer Trudie opted for a simple wool jumper with black jeans and boots.
The two ladies looked like they were having a good time together as they laughed and drank while surrounded by mostly unpublished images of Debbie and her band during their heyday in the Seventies and Eighties.
Many of Stein’s photos have been curated into a new book called Chris Stein/Negative: Me, Blondie, And The Advent Of Punk.
‘I was just in the middle of this milieu and I took pictures,’ Stein told The New York Times Style Magazine.
While studying at the School of Visual Arts in New York during the late Seventies, Stein started up Blondie with then-girlfriend Harry, who was already a member of the band The Stilettos and had worked as Playboy bunny.
They became famous for their sets at CBGB, and Stein says he missed the sense of community at the infamous punk rock venue.
‘I do miss that communal feeling of CBGB,’ Stein says. ‘In the beginning, it was very familial, it was like people you went to school with, it was very workshoppy.
‘But as nostalgic as people get for that period, at the time I don’t know anyone who didn’t at some point say, “I gotta get out of here, it’s so dirty”.’
Stars such as David Bowie, the Ramones, Joan Jett, and Iggy Pop were part of Stein’s world, can also be expected to feature in Stein’s book.
