Spiral Scratch

February 1990 – No. 13

Pages 1 & 3

BLONDIE
Complete history and worldwide discography of over 500 releases.

Pages 6 & 7

SHORT RUN
RECENTLY RELEASED LIMITED EDITIONS

Each month many records come in several special formats – poster sleeves, gatefold sleeves, picture discs, shaped discs, box sets and all sorts of custom packaging – only available from chart return shops. Short Run lists all the details you need. All items limited edition UK issues – not imports.

DEBORAH HARRY, Brite Side – Chrysalis CHSMC 3452
Cassingle in picture box

DEBORAH HARRY, Brite Side – Chrysalis CHSP 3452
12″ Picture disc in clear PVC sleeve

Pages 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Blondie

“I’ll never forget seeing Janis Joplin… she grabbed a bottle of Southern Comfort off the top of the upright piano, took a belt, and went straight into Ball And Chain begging ‘take my heart’.”

For any healthy young male, the sight of an attractive young female with blonde hair is going to stir some emotions. The mid-to-late 80’s have given us some wondeful example such as Madonna, Kim Wilde and Wendy James. But without doubt the most respected blonde of the last 10 years has got to be Deborah Harry.
When it was announced recently that she was to play a string of live dates at London’s Borderline club – for me it was a nine year dream finally coming true.
With her (then) band, collectively known as Blondie, Debbie last toured the UK in 1980. Although no official announcement has ever been made, it became obvious after a while that the band had quietly split.
The string of hit singles they produced have, without exception, stood the test of time very well. Playing a Blondie record at any disco is guaranteed to fill the dance floor.
In all, they scored fourteen top 40 hits in the UK. Ten of those were top 10, including five number 1’s.
Obviously, as the main feature of this months magazine, we will be taking a close look at their career. I can’t think of a better place to start than at the beginning.
Deborah Ann (Harry), born in Miami, Florida, to parents unknown, became the adopted daughter of Catherine and Richard Harry at the age of just three months.
She was transferred via the adoption agency to New Jersey, a state just south of the city of New York, the family home being located in Hawthorne.
Years passed happily, singing along to the radio, being a member of the church choir (age eight) was a good start in life. School days were pretty regular. Art was her favourite subject. In senior school she was voted the prettiest girl in her class, this was 1963. Nothing’s changed!
After high school graduation came two years at centenary college in Hackettstown, down state from her home.
After this Debbie made the move into New York City. Her first job was shop assistant in a Gift Mart store. This was quickly followed by a move to the BBC’s New York office to fill the post of secretary. This was around 1965. Over the next four years life would constantly place her in the right place at the right time. “I saw and heard a lot of music that left indelible impressions on me, like The Doors when they stood on a birthday cake-like riser at the Fillmore and played every song perfectly while the audience watched spellbound; Lou Reed at the Electric Circus when he played for hours with the original Velvet Underground and Nico, backed by Andy Warhol’s lightshow.”
“I’ll never forget seeing Janis Joplin with Big Brother And The Holding Company at the Anderson Theater in 1967, when she grabbed a bottle of Southern Comfort off the top of the upright piano, took a belt, and went straight into Ball And Chain begging ‘take my heart’.”
Debbie, and Chris too, although they had yet to meet had both seen acts like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and many others that must have stayed in their subconscious.
In ’66, after spending less of her spare time painting and more in clubs, she had joined a band called the Tri-Angels.
The following year, at the height of Flower Power, Scott McKenzie’s invitation “Let’s Go To San Francisco” was declined by Debbie who instead joined a new band The Wind In The Willows. Chris Stein however did take up the offer. In doing so, leaving his band The Morticians. They later had a change of name to The Left Bank and had a hit record with Don’t Walk Away, Renee. Also covered by The Four Tops.
Debbie’s new band, signed to Capitol records, recorded an album on which she contributes backing vocals and finger cymbals. The band had a manager, Peter Leeds.
They undertook a national tour. Of it’s eight members, two were drummers. One was Debbie’s boyfriend. The band lasted about eight months.
Debbie moved into an East Village apartment with her drummer and took up a new career, waitress at Max’s Kansas City, a renowned New York club where live bands played on a regular basis.
The Andy Warhol crowd were regular customers, many of them very demanding and making her life quite miserable. Some tried to help: Eric Emerson and Emile de Antonio in particular.
On the eve of their performance at the famous Woodstock festival, Debbie served Jefferson Airplane their dinner at Max’s. The next day she headed for the Festival, purely as a spectator.
On this very same day, Chris Stein was attending a medical examination for the US Army draft board. The months beforehand had been a trying time for him. His father had died about five years before when he was fifteen. Chris was the victim of delayed shock. He’d been taking Acid and flipping out. The past few months had seen him on the inside of an asylum for the insane.
Under the circumstances it was no surprise that he failed the medical. He too would now head for the Woodstock festival.
Times were not happy ones for Debbie, in the sense of a mixed up period, relying on hard drugs almost to the point where they take over. You obviously have no idea what she was going through, I pray you never will!
After quitting the waitress job, according to one source, she ran off to California with a multi-millionaire. That lasted a month.
Her next employer was the famous Playboy Club where she became a Playboy Bunny. This lasted about nine months.
The drugs problem lasted longer. Debbie attributes not going over the edge to yoga and an instinctive desire that better times could be ahead. After a short period living in a $75 a month studio apartment, she packed what little possessions she had, and moved up-state to Woodstock in Phoenicia to move in with an old girlfriend (who was pregnant at the time).
Debbie makes little comment on this period of her life, except to say that she put on a lot of weight. It seems to have been a reasonably happy time and probably helped to sort out both her mind and her drug problems.
In 1970, she moved back home to her parents. They both held down day jobs, so she kept house. Debbie admits to being twenty five at this time.
The following year, her parents moved to Cooperstown, New York. Debbie, after helping them move decided it was time to move on and rented a room underneath the George Washington bridge, on the Jersey side. She met a car salesman, who helped her move to a small apartment and she started going out with him. The job she’d taken and the boyfriend didn’t work out.
Her next move was to Cosmetician school and soon after she started work in a friend’s beauty salon in New Jersey.
Her ex-boyfriend had a new sideline – making a bloody nuisance of himself, phoning her in the middle of the night. His possessive nature had been the cause of their bust-up.
1972 saw Debbie venturing back into New York to visit friends. It didn’t take long before she was back on the music scene. She soon discovered the New York Dolls at the Mercer Arts Centre. Paul Nelson, who helped the Dolls get two albums released, remembers Debbie from these times, re-calling: “When she made an entrance, every eye in the place would be on her.”
Chris Stein meanwhile, was studying Photography at the School Of Visual Arts. One day he noticed a poster for a New York Dolls show at the Mercer. He decided to check them out. The support act of Eric Emerson and the Magic Tramps caught Chris’s eye and he got them a gig at the Visual Arts Centre Christmas Party. He also became the band’s roadie.
Debbie met up with an old friend, who told her of an all-female band called Pure Garbage, comprising Elda Gentile, Holly Woodlawn and Diane, whos boyfriend was David Johansen, singer with the New York Dolls. Debbie bumped into Elda at Max’s, asked if she could come and see their next performance. They exchanged phone numbers.
After ‘hanging on the telephone’, waiting for a call from Elda which never came, Debbie phoned Elda to discover the band had split. She asked “Why don’t you come over and we’ll get together with this other girl I know, Roseanne, and try to do something.”
The result was The Stillettoes, named by Elda. They found a back-up band in the form of Tommy and Jimmy, later in The Miami’s, Tim Jackson and Youngblood. Tony Ingrassia was the trio’s director. He worked on songs, projecting a mood and teaching them how to move on stage.
Others re-call Debbie from this time: “Coming in from New Jersey in her little blue car. She came in to Max’s looking very extreme, wearing a brassiere and a half-slip to dance around in and wearing garish make-up. She was really ahead of her time.”
According to Chris and Debbie, there first meeting was in October 1973 at a seedy bar on 24th street called the Boburn Tavern. The occasion was the first or second public performance of The Stillettoes. Elda had invited him.
Debbie says of their meeting: “I couldn’t see his face, only the outline of his head, but I could feel him looking at me and I was very nervous, so I delivered a lot of songs to him. We had a psychic connection right away.”
By this time the backing band had changed to Jimmy and Tommy, Billy O’Connor and Fred (Sonic) Smith (later in Television, The Richard Lloyd Band and The Sonics Rendevous Band).
It was Elda’s idea to ask Chris to join The Stillettoes. A good move for Debbie, perhaps not such a good one for Elda, as she was soon to find the band she had put together leaving her to follow Chris and Debbie to a new one called Angel and the Snakes. The split centered around the desire to be purely a musical act, whereas Elda wanted the band to move in a theatrical direction. This was mid ’74.
But the name was short lived, lasting for less than a handful of live dates. After that they merely played without a name. The new band spent around a year, improving all the time. Then two blonde girls joined as backing vocalists, Julie and Jackie. On occasions, when Debbie walked down the street, lorry drivers and construction site workers had called out “Hiya Blondie.” With three fair haired females around, calling the band Blondie seemed like a good idea, and of course it was easy to remember!
It’s worth pausing here, to reflect on how the music scene on the outside of this little New York cocoon was looking; In the UK, the charts were filled with the likes of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, plus The Bay City Rollers, Queen, Sparks, and of course David Bowie. McCartney was still on the run with Wings. The Sex Pistols, though not yet named as such or touched by the presence of Johnny Rotten, were in rehearsals. Indeed, one of their main influences had been the New York Dolls, whom they had seen on BBC TV’s Old Grey Whistle Test and the supporting Rod Stewart and The Faces at Wembley, a year or so before. Incredible as it may sound, back in the USA, Malcolm McLaren was at this very time, manager of The Dolls!
CBGB’s club brought in a new policy, allowing local unknown bands to play on specific nights of the week. Television were the first to play there under this new policy.
Bass player Richard Hell (see Spiral Scratch issue nine) told Debbie and Chris about this new ruling. They in turn told Tommy Erdelyi, a friend from the Mercer Arts Centre days, (which had recently literally collapsed, people just managed to escape before the roof fell in). He in turn told them of a band he had sound-engineered for on their firsy ever live gig at the performance studio on March 30th ’74. That band was The Ramones, and they were looking for somewhere new to play. Debs and Chris invited The Ramones to open for them at CBGB’s.
By the time of the gig, August 16th, Tommy was The Ramones drummer, a switch of manager. This is probably the first time the band performed under the name ‘Blondie’. Billy O’Connor quit to become a doctor. The band put an ad in ‘The Voice’ (Freak Energy Rock Drummer Wanted). 40 applicants were auditioned.
The 40th was Clem Burke. He was eighteen and became the new drummer. His first live performance appears to have been the August 11th at CBGB’s. It was also the last for bass player Fred Smith, who between the bands first and second sets, told Chris he was leaving to replace R. Hell in Television, who himself was leaving. Clem knew Gary Valentine, almost immediately, Gary replaced Fred. A few months later the band decided to expand the sound of the band with a piano. What they got was Jimmy Destri. Debs had found a job, working as a barmaid, at a place called White’s pub on Wall Street. All the time love blossomed between Debs and Chris.
Debbie’s job enabled the band to play at White’s pub in the afternoons to a few drunken men, possibly drowning their Stock Exchange losses.
At the end of ’74, The Miami’s held a party and invited everyone involved in the local scene. Over one hundred people including members of the New York Dolls, The Ramones, Television, Eric Emerson, Blondie and Patti Smith. It was probably the end of an era. Though they didn’t know it, bigger things awaited many of the party-goers.
Looking back, 1975 was an important year, though I doubt anyone involved at the time would have agreed.
Again a pause to take a look at the years events will help to put things in perspective. Malcolm McLaren was managing the New York Dolls, though this was soon to end. He had them all decked out in red leather and using the russian flag as a stage backdrop. Upon his return to London around Easter, he turned his attentions to a group of lads who frequented his shop on the Kings Road. Later in the year, August 23rd to be precise, the final link would fall into place when John Lyddon (Rotten) would enter Malcolm’s shop and audition in front of a jukebox. The Sex Pistols were born. Television had recorded for Terry Ork’s ‘ORK’ label and this gave birth to a classic single Little Johnny Jewel pts 1/2. The Bay City Rollers, waved bye bye to their baby, Rod Stewart was out sailing, 10CC – still couldn’t find love, Telly (Kojak) Savalas talked his way to the top of the charts, Sweet were on the run, Dr Feelgood injected us with Down by the Jetty, and Malpractice. Northern Soul, which up until ’74 had been almost underground, suddenly became ‘commercial’ with chart hits by Wayne Gibson, Gary Lewis and The Playboys and Wigan’s Ovation. Albums included:
Physical Graffiti – Led Zeppelin, Blood On The Tracks – Bob Dylan, Venus and Mars – Wings, disco music had also grown in popularity.
In June ’75 at the expense of local writer/Rock’n’Roll fanatic Alan Betrock, the band recorded some demos; Thin Line/Puerto Rico/Platinum Blonde/Out In The Streets (these later appeared in a bootleg E.P.) The Disco Song (later became Heart of Glass).
In Late Nov/early Dec, Clem Burke flew to England to visit his girlfriend who was at Oxford. His return in early ’76 bought a copy of Dr.Feelgood’s first album New York Scene. A party was thrown to welcome Clem home. Amongst those who attended was one Nancy Spungeon.
Betrock later started the excellent New York Rock magazine and offered the band much welcome coverage.
Thru ’75 into ’76 the band continued rehearsing, playing and improving.
Enter Richard Gottehrer. A record producer with an interesting background, he had written and produced the 60’s classic My Boyfriends Back for The Crystals, discovered The McCoys and produced Hang On Sloopy and started Bell Records (later called SIRB) with Seymour Stein (no relation to Chris).
Initially two songs, were recorded X-Offender and In The Sun which were issued as a single on Private Stock. Gottehrer convinced the label to put up the money for the recording of the album. Frankie Valli, 60’s vocalist with The Four Seasons owned a chunk of the company. The OK was given after he had seen the band at CBGB’s. With a record out, the band’s fee went from $60 to $100-$200.
The album was recorded between August-September of ’76 at the Plaza Sound Studio. The band working from noon until around one or maybe two the following morning, six days a week.
Just after the final recording session, the band did a show at Max’s. The audience reaction was way above anything they had ever received before. Debbie wore a zebra print dress. When photographer Bob Gruen captured her on film, little did she realize several million people would come to see it. On New Years Eve, the band played outdoors in Central Park for the New York City Department Of Parks. The band received the massive fee of $1500.
Their debut album was released in the USA in January 1977. Copies immediately imported into the UK (as the single had been) until the album was issued here in April ’77.
In February, the band found a manager in the shape of Peter Leeds, who had been Debbie’s manager when she was in Wind In The Willows. The band put their signatures to a 12 page, five year contact with Leeds in room 326 of th Sunset Marquis Hotel in Los Angeles on February 9 1977. Cutting through the legal jargon, the main part of the contract stated that Leeds received 20%. The band, in an effort to establish themselves in Los Angeles, undertook a week’s residency at the Whiskey, to great acclaim, thanks in no small way to the legendary Rodney Bingenheimer, an L.A. disc jockey with a lot of good taste.
That night the band opened at Whiskey, with Tom Petty as support act. Debbie walked onto the stage wearing sunglasses, a beret and a black raincoat. Under the coat she had hidden a copy of the Daily News newspaper with the headline New York 9 Degrees – Freezing! The temperature in L.A. was 70 degrees!
Iggy Pop heard the album and loved it. He invited the band to support him on his US tour. The tour opened on March 13 in Montreal and lasted until the end of April.
A lot of things were happening, some good, some not: they were filmed for a proposed movie while playing in L.A., Nigel Harrison was added as the sixth band member, Chris and Debbie’s New York flat burned down while they were in L.A. and the band prepared for a world tour. While Debbie went off to Australia to promote In The Flesh, their first ever hit single, the band rehearsed for the forthcoming UK gigs, starting in November.
Tuesday May 17 1977 was the day Blondie landed on British soil.
After a couple of days of interviews the band played their very first British performance in Bournemouth at the Village Bowl on May 20 with Squeeze as the support act. The gig was a warm up for their tour with New York band Television.
Headline act Television didn’t go out of their way to help, offering the band the minimum in the way of amenities. It didn’t help either that Gary Valentine was proving difficult to work with.
From a poor start the tour was to eventually end in triumph for the band. A love affair was developing between the band and British fans.
The highlight of the tour was, undoubtedly, the two nights at Hammersmith Odeon. Picture this, Debbie in her black mini-skirt, black tights, ankle boots and… oh, you get the idea. I certainly did, thanks to the 2nd row ticket in my possession.
Debbie said of English audiences “I was beginning to find English kids somewhat more literate and sophisticated than Americans. They clock everything and were catching all the nuances in the phrasing of the music and words I was singing. They appreciated our act right away, making Britain Blondie’s second home”.
Upon their return to the US, plans were laid for the recording of the next album. Debbie introduced Denis during a rehearsal session. Gary Valentine didn’t like the song. Tensions were mounting. Peter Leeds stepped in and fired Gary on the spot. So although his highly under-rated song (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear was used on the album, he did not play on any tracks. In his place the band recruited Frank Infante, a friend of Clem’s. The album was recorded over a six week period, during which time the band’s contract was bought from Private Stock by Chrysalis Records. The price was $400,000, which was deducted from the band’s future royalties. Richard Gottehrer also received $100,000, making a total of, aw, you can count.
To many, Plastic Letters was a disappointment, not least to Chris Stein, but there was the small matter of a five-month world tour in hand. It began on 24 October 1977 in Melbourne – and with controversy. Harry ripped her dress off on stage during Rip Her To Shreds and the Australian press accused her of stripping and selling her sexuality to sell records: records certainly did sell, with In The Flesh reaching number one in Oz.
One journalist wrote:
“New York’s five-man and one-woman punk rock group Blondie hit Melbourne yesterday – and it took less than a minute for the swearing, belching and rude antagonism to begin”. Even the group’s promoters, Evans Gudinski & Associates, walked out of a press interview. Lead singer Deborah Harry said she wasn’t sure Australia was “ready for us yet”. Her use of four letter words belied her press release description which said she was ‘actress, personality, a human being with depth, sensitivity…’
Denis Denis was doing particularly well in Europe and climbed high in Britain.
England had taken to the band very early. Denis wasted no time in climbing the charts, reaching number 2 in February of 1978. 3 months later Presence Dear just touched the top 10. The second half of the year gave the band two more hits, with Picture This reaching number 12 and Hanging On The Telephone ringing up the number 5 position. Picture This was initially issued on yellow vinyl (7″ only) limited to 40,000; hence it is not that hard to find. Indeed, because of the band’s popularity in the UK, their normal releases do not attract very high prices, though current interest is on the increase, so prices look certain to rise. Few of their singles offer otherwise unavailable material. Presence Dear did however, in the guise of the B side track Poet’s Problem.
The tour visited Thailand, Japan and Europe and at the end of March 1978 they returned to New York, exhausted.
They had been promised a month off – then to start work on their third album. However, Debbie was forced to undertake a promotional tour of the US. Their record weren’t being played on the radio because everyone thought they were punks. Her job was to persuade them otherwise. Chris went with her. Upon returning to New York some three weeks later, they were presented with Peter Leeds latest masterplan: T-Shirts and badges that declared “Blondie Is A Group”.
The five month world tour had shattered the band physically. They hated Peter Leeds’ attitude and wanted to get rid of him and find a new manager. It’s a lot to worry over just as you are about to start recording.
However, they had a couple of things on their side for a change. The first was the outstanding talent of their new producer Mike Chapman. The second was that the material they were about to record had been part of the set they had been playing throughout the world tour.
To give you some idea, the sets they played had been something along these lines:
In The Sun / X Offender / *Hanging On The Telephone / Detroit 442 / Fan Mail / *Picture This / Presence Dear / *Sunday Girl / *I’m Gonna Love You Too / Denis / *Fade Away And Radiate / A Shark In Jets Clothing / *I Know But I Don’t Know / *One Way Or Another / Youth Nabbed As Sniper / Kung Fu Girls / Attack Of The Giant Ants / Get It On (T.Rex) / Rip Her To Shreds / Fun Time (Iggy & Bowie) / Jet Boy (New York Dolls)
So you can see from this (* indicates it appears on Parallel Lines) that only three songs not performed live appear on the album; Will Anything Happen, Just Go Away and Heart Of Glass; though the latter was an old song from 1975 originally called The Disco Song.
It was june 5 1978 when the band entered New York’s Power Station recording studio with Mike Chapman. By the 26th of that month the album was recorded and ready for mixing. It was given a worldwide release in September. Two singles from that appear on the album had already been released; Picture This and Hanging On The Telephone, reaching no’s 12 and 5 respectively. The third song taken from the album in the UK, Heart Of Glass, shot to number one. So far, the band’s home country had denied them a hit record. I’m Gonna Love You Too had been the first single issued from the album, followed by One Way Or Another, Picture This and Hanging On The Telephone. The fifth single, Heart Of Glass, struck gold for them. It took the number one position and from then on America too fell in love with Blondie.

Debbie says of Heart Of Glass:
“When we did it, it wasn’t cool in our social set to play disco, but we did it because we wanted to be uncool. It was based around a Roland Rhythm Machine and the backing took over ten hours to get down. We spent three hours just getting the bass drum. It was the hardest song to do on the album and took us the longest in studio hours”.
Worth noting is that the 12″ issue contains an otherwise un-available extended mix, plus an instrumental version.
Whether Parallel Lines is the perfect Blondie album or Blondie is the perfet band for the album I leave to you. It’s just such a joyous album in every sense. Debbie’s vocals are so clear and invigorating, exploring every corner of the song, the playing is precise yet energetic and the overall production highlights all the sounds just as they should be. In the UK the album stayed in the charts for over 2 years. I could talk about the album track by track, even line by line, but that would not do it justice. The purchase of the album is essential, even (perhaps especially) in the 1990s.
The success they were now enjoying started to spread around the world. 1978 saw the band with hit records in every corner of the globe. But with the pleasure came pain. Peter Leeds had finally been told to ‘just go away’ – this he did but to get out of their management contract the cost was high; he continued to receive a large percentage of the bands royalties.
From October 29 to November 16, Blondie undertook a three week long US tour, racking in $2000 per show. As the focus of the band and with this high profile, Ms. Harry began receiving a few movie scripts and in February she appeared in Union City. Then it was time for yet more promotional touring with Debbie zipping around Europe quicker than Hitler did in the 40’s!
Before you could say ‘number one hit’, it was time for the band to start thinking about their fourth album, which was to be Eat To The Beat. From the fans point of view the album had been long awaited and so was eagerly received. It shot to number one. Dreaming preceded the album in September 1979 and reached number one in Britain. This was soon followed by the beautiful Union City Blues track which amazingly only reach no. 13 in the UK. Many people thought the next single would be Shayla, but the record company plumped for Atomic. A choice no one can fault as it took the number one position.
During November and December, the band rehearsed for their upcoming Christmas tour of England and Europe.
As Russian tanks rolled into Afghanistan, Blondie’s entourage invaded the UK and began one of their most memorable tours. Fans packed halls in Bournemouth, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and on New Years Eve, Glasgow. Blondie were MASSIVE in Britain: four number one hits in two years, sold out tours and endless magazine covers.
As the eighties dawned, Blondie Concorded back to the States and worked with Giorgio Moroder on the theme from the film American Gigolo. It turned out to be Call Me, a highly infectious chorus ensured heavy radio play and enough sales to give the band their second no. 1 in succession.
Debbie Harry spoke of her relief and joy at the freedom the band now had. With their new-found financial solvency, the band could choose their own album covers, experiment with sounds and go in various musical directions.
It was seven months before the next single The Tide Is High was released. Certainly a change in style but not a change in chart positions. They now had three chart toppers in a row.
New direction was the key phrase for Blondie’s new venture: the album that was to become Auto-American. All the band wanted to stray away from the conventional Blondie sound. Debbie even tried singing under the influence of helium but the rest of the band didn’t approve. Chapman was becoming more and more central to the band, evident on The Tide Is High and T-Birds. Blondie was expanding.
Rapture was a unique pop moment but only scraped into the British top 5.
But Debbie was getting restless. She was becoming increasingly interested in acting. Blondie beginning to naturally fade away and disintergrate. They should have called it a day before making a last ditch effort with The Hunter – a record that is best forgotten and which was released in 1982. Perhaps British kids were too busy with new stars like Madness, Adam Ant and Dexy’s Midnight Runners to bother about ‘old’ stars like Blondie.
The last two singles the band were to issue, Island Of Lost Souls and War Child failed to capture the interest of record buyers and reached 11 and 39 respectively.
Although no announcement has ever been made, it soon became clear to the fans who still cared, that Blondie was no more.
It was a sad and anticlimatic ending to a real success story.
Debbie Harry went on to act in great films like Hairspray and not-so-great films like Videodrome. The Eighties saw three experimental, yet untimately unsatisfying, solo albums from her in the form of Koo Koo (1981), Rockbird (1986) and Def Dumb And Blonde (1989) (partly produced by Mike Chapman).
1990 looks the most promising year of perhaps the last ten for Deborah Harry. After the sell out gigs at London’s Borderline club and the following mini-UK tour which saw hundreds of people turned away from the sold out venues.
We were promised that more live dates would take place during 1990 and we can only hope a new album will be forthcoming. At that time we will cover Ms Harry’s solo career in more detail.
I have to leave you now, the telephone is ringing, someone in a phone booth across the hall!

I would like to thank Graham Harwood of Cardiff and Tony of A&S Records Shoreham, for their help in supplying information for the Blondie worldwide discography.

Pages 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33

Blondie discography – Compiled by Lee Wood

All picture sleeves from the Spiral Scratch archives.
Use the tick box to tick off records as you add them to your collection. Remember to take this list with you when visiting fairs and record shops. All prices are for records in picture sleeves (where applicable). All records issued on the Chrysalis label unless stated.