This part of the website contains some of the most-cited magazine and newspaper articles about Deborah and Blondie, as well as press releases and packages. The articles scanned and typed out here are for informational purposes. This site mainly focuses on interviews and literal quotes by Debbie herself.
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image (left) by Joe Gaffney
PRESS | Yorkshire Evening Post (June 10, 2010)
MUSIC INTERVIEW: DEBBIE HARRYAfter gaining legendary status 30 years ago, she’s still recording and performing as the unmistakable frontwoman of Blondie.
As they prepare to perform in Yorkshire, Rod McPhee was granted an audience with Ms Debbie Harry and discovered why Britain has been such an unlikely inspiration.
Heart racing, face flushed, a shaking hand clutching the receiver, I pick up the phone and do the one thing you only ever dream of doing – calling Debbie Harry.
There’s some protracted clicking and transferring of lines at the other end, then finally comes the unmistakable but muted tones which graced Call Me, Atomic, One Way or Another and every other seminal tune from the Blondie back catalogue.
It seems strange that her speaking voice is so familiar, then you remember that Harry was one of the first mainstream artists to use a rap in one of her records (Rapture in 1981). It was one of countless firsts for the band.
When the new wave pioneers first came into being 36 years ago, they were one of the first groups to develop such a commercially eclectic sound, the first male-dominated band to have a frontwoman enjoy such a meteoric rise to fame.
Hands still shaking, I tell her she was also the first images I can recall from my childhood: a blonde siren in lip gloss staring out of a suburban TV screen singing Heart of Glass.
“Oh” she responds, (understandably) not knowing quite what to say. “Well, you know, that is a funny sensation, truthfully. I think when it first started happening I thought the idea of being some kind of icon was really preposterous.
“After a while it came to me that it’s just a matter of passing time the way people think of things, and after a certain amount of time has passed people just start to think of you in a different way.
“But I guess retro is important, you know, everything moves so quickly these days. The whole icon thing was really scary for me, I just thought ‘God, I can’t live up to that!’ I was too busy being my usual moronic self.”
Dubbing herself moronic is an example of the conversational curveballs she continues to throw throughout our interview. They catch you off balance, though they’re a delight.
Just days away from turning 65, Harry now exists in a rare state. She’s a cherished vestige from another age of popular culture, but she’s still out there performing gigs and crafting albums.
Blondie’s latest, Panic of Girls, is due for imminent release and the band are carrying out a micro-tour of four dates around the UK, one of which brings them to the 02 Academy in Sheffield next week.
But does she actually recall visiting cities like Sheffield? Or are their memories eclipsed by the big international capitals amid a whirl of the countless venues she visits?“Oh absolutely, I remember them.” she insists. “I’ve been touring in the UK for a long time remember, so definitely. It’s funny, in the metropolitan areas, like London, audiences are less demonstrative.
“You know, we get a more ’sophisticated’ response and they’re less wild than they are in northern cities. And wild is fun – everybody’s having a good time. Plus, British audiences have always been famous for singing songs with the band – now that’s REALLY great fun.”
But this isn’t merely a greatest hits comeback. Panic of Girls is Blondie’s first album in six years and they’re going to take every opportunity to showcase the new material. Harry’s confident it will be liked by fans – old and new.
She said: “I don’t wanna sound like a know-it-all but after you’ve been performing for so long you can kinda gauge what your audiences will be into.
We have new material that will definitely be liked by a Blondie audience – after all we’re still the same people writing the same way.
“The album is a sort of classic Blondie mish-mash, you know, I suppose it’s kinda pop/rock with some reggae, rap, this and that. It’s what we’ve been doing all along, so I feel it is traditional.
“I’ve personally been listening a lot of different stuff, including a lot of Latin stuff, so we have a Spanish tribute song called Wipe Off My Sweat, which is in Spanish. Is it steamy? Well, if you don’t speak Spanish you’ll never know.
“The title, Panic of Girls, comes from a line in one of the songs, End of the World, and we just thought it sounded like a great line. You really need to ask Chris about that one.”
Chris Stein was one of the founding members of Blondie and back in the early 1970s he and Harry began a long relationship. This resulted in her taking several years out of her music to care for him when he was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune skin disease.
Following six albums and a string of hit singles, the band split in 1982 then, after Harry had a somewhat stunted solo career, they spectacularly reformed in 1997, coming back with a hit album and the 1999 number one single, Maria. To date they’ve sold over 40 million records worldwide.
But their success on this side of the Atlantic has always been greater than in Blondie’s homeland, a fact which owes much to the British willingness to embrace a greater fusion of sounds.
“Unlike in the UK, in the states we have so many different chartings,” she says. “We section everything off into specific styles of music so radio stations specialise and they just seem to do one thing.
“That’s something I really appreciate about the UK. But in the States it’s not quite as black and white as it used to be, people tend to hop from station to station a lot more these days.
“People in America are slowly starting to appreciate a greater variety of styles and some of my friends that are really successful DJs play a lot of styles from varying eras throughout an evening and I find that to be really interesting. There’s more cross-migration now, which is great.”
So Blondie should flourish in the current musical climate like never before, not least because there are obvious parallels to be drawn between their successful eclectic sound and that of other American imports like Scissor Sisters. And surely Harry can see hints of herself in modern day solo artists such as Gwen Stefani?
“Yeah in some ways,” she says. “It’s an evolutionary process and we all listen and watch one another so it’s whatever sinks in and whatever comes out. It’s very flattering.
“But I was just as influenced by people who went before me, the very early girls. Perhaps not in style but at least in their non-traditional position – Janis Joplin, some of the black R’n'B singers and some of the British girls too. like Dusty Springfield and…” (Just when you think she can’t throw any more curveballs) “…Lulu.”
Lulu?! Who knew?