cast of Clem Burke (drums), Nigel Harrison (bass), Jimmy Destri (keyboards) and Frank Infante (guitar). More pop-oriented than their contemporaries and influenced by 1960s girl groups like The Shangri-Las, Blondie had a British No. 2 hit with ‘Denis’ from their second album Plastic Letters (1978). The follow-up, Parallel Lines (1978), was a chart topper on both sides of the ...
Across the centuries and around the globe, many different forms of music have enjoyed mass appeal for a limited period of time. None, however, have been able to match the widespread influence of the popular music that erupted in America during the mid-1950s and, by the second half of the decade, was exerting its grip over ...
albums, featuring doom-laden lyrics set to downtuned guitar. Osbourne was fired in 1979, finally rejoining his colleagues in 1997. Styles & Forms | Seventies | Rock Personalities | Blondie | Seventies | Rock ...
(Dance/vocal group, 1999–present) Like Blondie before them, Goldfrapp are often mistaken for a mere solo artist. They are in fact a duo – captivating vocalist Alison Goldfrapp certainly steals the limelight, while Will Gregory dwells in the shadows on stage. Something of a mix between electro, burlesque, the surreal and good old-fashioned pop, their sound ...
(DJ/turntablist, b. 1958) Born Joseph Saddler in Barbados, Flash was the inventor of turntablism – the use of a DJ’s equipment as a musical instrument. He started out in the Bronx in the early 1970s becoming the first DJ to manipulate records by hand, cutting and mixing songs into each other. Blondie’s ‘Rapture’ opines ‘Flash is fast, ...
and hits including ‘Cherry Bomb’, ‘Hollywood’ and ‘Queens Of Noise’, the band’s factions split on musical direction, with Jett preferring the path of punk rockers like The Ramones and Blondie, while Ford and West wanted to continue with their hard rock/metal approach. The Runaways finally disbanded in 1979. After the breakup, Ford’s solo debut, Out For Blood ...
Voidoids, along with guitarists Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, and Billy Ficca (drums). Hell soon left due to friction with Verlaine. Fred Smith, briefly a member of Blondie, took over on bass. Television became part of the nascent punk scene in New York, which centred on the legendary venues Max’s Kansas City and CBGB’s. The interlocking ...
like Max’s Kansas City and the Country, Bluegrass & Blues Club (CBGB’s for short). The sounds of these bands, and others like The Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie, were radically different, yet united by an exciting undercurrent of subterfuge. In the words of Smith, ‘I was wondering what I could do as a writer or ...
The Afro wig. The mirror ball. Platform heels. A pair of lurid flares. The enduring iconography of the mass-market disco era might seem laughable now, but to reduce such a revolutionary social force, and creative musical explosion to a few items of fashion tat would be very short-sighted indeed. As has happened with many other musical forms, the ...
all possessed of a camp sexual immediacy that somehow sounded entirely unique, entirely European. While Moroder was to enjoy even greater success as a soundtrack producer/composer (American Gigolo with Blondie, Flashdance, Top Gun), Summer headed towards a more overtly American kind of dance-pop, and then gospel as a born-again Christian. Her star waned when she made insensitive ...
punk rock were the young, emerging acts who didn’t quite fit the bill; and the biggest beneficiaries were slightly older acts – shrewd operators such as The Stranglers, Blondie and The Police – who were close enough to pass themselves off as punk, but also had the talent to touch on the mainstream. In fact, once punk ...
that became a gig venue on New York’s Lower East Side. While Richard Hell, Television, The Ramones and Patti Smith were forging punk’s template, fellow CBGB’s regulars Blondie and Talking Heads were creating a punk-related, pop-styled sound that would conquer the world. Former Andy Warhol acolyte Debbie Harry (Blondie’s vocalist) became one of late-1970s/early 1980s pop’s most ...
‘The Tra La La Song’, became a football terrace chant before The Dickies took it into the UK Top 10 in April 1979. Social comment was not on the agenda. Blondie And The New Wave Bombshells Although sometimes used as a polite synonym for punk, new wave is usually applied to bands with greater crossover appeal who came to prominence ...
singer wore a Nazi uniform. Punk fans in Munich hung out at clubs like Schwabinger Brau and the Downtown Club and got to see The Clash, The Ramones and Blondie during 1977. In Switzerland, The Nasal Boys set the pace, supporting The Clash at their Zurich gig in 1977 and releasing the speedy ‘Hot Love’. Behind them were ...
scene was starting to bubble. Acts like Patti Smith, Television and Talking Heads were emerging from the city’s bohemian underground, alongside newly formed bands like The Ramones, Blondie, Wayne County, Johnny Thunders and Tuff Darts. The scene was centred around two clubs. Max’s Kansas City, which had been one of The Velvet Underground’s haunts, ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.