12th January 1980
BLONDIE VIDEO
Written by Daniela Soave
1980 – AGE of the silicon chip, the push-button era, the instant thrill; it’s here at last, although you’d have to be earning a pretty penny to enjoy it from the start. We might not have reached the stage where we can buy the sophisticated machine which picks up and transmits impulses from LP onto screen, but last week saw a showing of the first album video cassette – namely Blondie’s ‘Eat To The Beat’ retailing at a cool £29.99. See what I mean? It would have been interesting to see what a male would have made of this effort. Like or hate Debbie, their opinions would be accepted if not shared but mine – if you disagree with them – well, it’s because I’m jealous I don’t look like old Debs, isn’t it? Wrong. Enough of this blurb and onto the facts, the idea of sound and vision is a fine one, greatly enhancing a good LP and being the icing on top of the cake of a superlative one. ‘Eat To The Beat’ falls into the first category and the accompanying video literally gave it a third dimension. Where your mind would wander if you were listening to the conventional album, it was now trapped by the delectable Ms Harry wandering across the screen. But somehow it wasn’t enough for me. With a video anything is possible, yet this one was surprisingly tame. You’ve already seen two slices from it on previous editions of TOTP’s and the rest isn’t much different, save for one song where Debbie is disguised in black wig, sunspecs and stockings. What about BLONDIE IS A GROUP campaign of old? You hardly caught a glimpse of the five other members, which might be fine for all you hot blooded young males but not for us ladies. Admittedly Debbie is the selling point of the group, but then if this was the line they wanted to take, why not spice up the backdrop instead of most of it being shot in a studio? I’d like to have seen more location shots of Manhattan, which although might have cost considerably more in time, money and effort would have been far more visually stimulating. Still, I did enjoy it and it is a step in the right direction. It must be said it’s a reasonable attempt but not worth nearly 30 quid. I hope future efforts by other groups prove to be more imaginative – at such a price they deserve to be. But if you’ve got that sort of money to burn get ready for March when it should be on sale.
