The Hypnotic Curse Of Blondie

Jonathan Browning foregoes the best tennis match in history for the coolest pearl anniversary party in town

Carling Academy, Bristol. July 6, 2008

As Roger Federer won the tiebreak to take his Wimbledon final against Rafael Nadal into a decisive fifth set, it was time to abandon the pub and head across to the Carling Academy, Bristol. The hypnotic curse of Blondie had lured me away. This was their second of only two British shows on their current tour celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of their most commercially successful album, Parallel Lines.

The capacity 1,400 crowd warmly greeted the rest of the band whilst awaiting the true icon that is Debbie Harry to arrive on stage. I had discovered moments earlier that the tennis had reached 5-5 in the final set, but it didn’t seem to matter anymore. Harry emerged wearing large black shades and a striped black and white dress – in keeping with the Parallel Lines theme – cradling a teddy bear bedecked in a similar outfit. The band launched into ‘Hanging on the Telephone’ and proceeded to play the whole of the Parallel Lines album, including the hits ‘One Way or Another’, ‘Sunday Girl’ and ‘Heart of Glass’.

Much of the audience didn’t seem to notice or perhaps didn’t care about a rough start with the band taking time to get comfortable, plus there were some technical glitches where the speakers lost power for a second or two. There was little in the way of interaction between songs, just bursts of one sing-along hit after another. Once the shades were removed, Harry did request that no more photographs be taken. Inevitably some dude stood directly in front of her about three rows from the front grabbed one last sneaky pic, prompting Harry to pout, “Did you get it?” It was difficult to discern whether she was having the time of her life or not. There was certainly a cooler-than-thou rock star presence about her that wasn’t so evident when I’d previously seen Blondie perform three years ago. She was happy to prowl from one side of the stage to the other deliberately dishevelling her hair at times to fit with the more hard-hitting songs. And she was actually blonde this time!

The encore consisted of ‘Atomic’ and ‘The Tide is High’ with an audacious cover of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ sandwiched in between. Yes, that cheesy, soppy, maudlin Titanic number all rocked up to the max as Harry dispensed with some roses thrown into the crowd with as little authority as you would expect from a 63-year-old woman. I would have happily had an eye taken out for the chance to catch one of Clem Burke’s drumsticks, but he didn’t even toss them.

As it turned out Rafael Nadal won the tennis. An absolute thriller by all accounts. Yet there was no competition of where the place to be was that night in Bristol. Debbie Harry was never the world’s greatest singer or dancer, but the catchy beats and Chris Stein’s fearlessness of crossing boundaries is what gives the band such a diverse array of fans today. Not to mention Debbie Harry’s pin-up good looks that are so well maintained to this day. I mean hot! An evening with Blondie certainly remains a stimulating experience with some new takes on cherished old songs.

© 2008 Jonathan Browning

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