Melody Maker

23rd December 1978

Front page article

Debbie & Fripp – a screen sensation
AFTER Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, prepare for rock’n’roll’s next silver-screen twosome: Debbie Harry and (gasp!) Robert Fripp.
The singer from Blondie and the former King Crimson guru will team up in a remake of Alphaville, the futuristic detective-story movie written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1966.
Chris Stein, Blondie’s guitarist (and Debbie Harry’s paramour), will collaborate on the direction of the new version with New York avant-garde film-maker Amos Poe – although they may also invite the participation of Nicholas Roeg, who directed Performance and The Man Who Fell To Earth, respectively vehicles for Mick Jagger and David Bowie.

continued on page 10.
Harry/Fripp

Fripp will play the detective, Lemmy Caution, and Harry will take the part of Natasha Von Braun, originally played by Anna Karina. Eddie Constantine, the American actor who played Caution in the Godard version, will re-appear as “an older detective,” while journalist Glenn O’Brien – a former editor of Andy Warhol’s magazine, InterView – will play Professor Von Braun.
Does Fripp feel that, by being chosen to play a battered detective, he is being typecast?
“Well, at what they were kind enough not to tell me was a screen-test, I was invited to look angry and irritable – and that’s something I find I can do with ease.”
And Debbie Harry?
“She was merely invited to look bland.”
Harry has already appeared in two films, The Foreigner and Empty Beds, both directed by Amos Poe – who is well-known in New York’s “underground” movie circles.
Fripp says that financing the movie appears to present few problems, and shooting may well begin in New York in the summer, lasting about five weeks.
“It’s contingent on three factors: the next Blondie album, and the tour to promote it; my solo album; and finding a producer.”
Fripp’s album, “Exposure,” will be released in late March on the Polydor label. Due out, last October, it has been delayed by contractual difficulties with the singers who appear on it.
Blondie, for instance, had promised to perform on one track, but their appearance was cancelled the day before the recording session when Chrysalis refused to permit Debbie Harry to contribute.
Fripp himself appeared on one track, “Fade Away And Radiate,” off Blondie’s last album, and has recently performed with them on stage in New York.

Page 2

Our Price Music store 1 page Ad which features a host of artists including Blondie’s album ‘Parallel Lines’ with £1 off.

Page 10

Just another sensitive pic…

A MAN’S best friend is a coke spoon…
MM reader Chris Stein (amateur photo-journalist and Blondieguitarist) has sent us this touching study of his pet pooch reacting with stoic implacability to the new of the recent Studio 54 bust.
Note the almost human qualities in the mutt’s mournful glance as he wonders where his next line will come from. Aaaah. – ALLAN JONES.