Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
It’s been a long time since I last saw Debbie Harry on stage. Eighteen years in fact. That was at the Royal Court 27/11/1993. The crowd were a little nervous that night as the Debravation Tour had run into trouble at St Helier. Though billed as ‘The Best Of Blondie And Deborah Harry’ Debbie had performed just two of Blondie’s hits and the crowd reportedly had turned on her, some of them asking for refunds on their tickets. When she got to Liverpool and played her set all had gone very well. Not quite as well as it had 25/5/1990 where a rapturous crowd had lapped down every second. Towels covered in Debbie’s sweat thrown into the crowd provoked a frenzy as fans tried to acquire them from those who’d been lucky enough to grab one. I had to fight with two lads myself. I’d grabbed the side of a towel but two boys were trying to tear it in half and make me let go so they could share it. I didn’t though, I hung on tighter than a vice but only managed to walk away with a scrap of that towel. The gig itself was amazing. Everyone was bouncing around with reckless abandon, dripping sweat, and loving it all. A year later I went up to Aberdeen to see her at the Music Hall for the 16/7/1991 gig. The place was rammed. The atmosphere was terrific. During the closing numbers Debbie came right to the edge of the stage. Many tried to touch up her legs, but I was thinking about how I’d lost that towel. This was likely to be the only opportunity I’d get to take a souvenir from the girl herself. What could I reach ? There was no point in trying to make a grab at her knickers. One or two too high kicks had revealed she wasn’t wearing any, but I could reach her shoes. So quite simply while she continued singing I whipped the right shoe, a heeled and worn black satin Willy Van Rooy, off her foot and immediately had to fight three lads to keep hold of it before I could secure it in the inside pocket of my leather. While I had her attention I shouted up for her to play ‘One Way Or Another’. A song or two later Debbie, somewhat pissed off she wasn’t going to get her shoe back, took off the left one, and hurled it towards the back of the crowd eyeing me darkly. The band finished the set and left the stage. They returned for the encore a couple of minutes later, Debbie still barefoot. She stood hands on hips right in front of me staring daggers at me. Then she leaned forwards a little pointing right at me. She gave the band a nod and, still pointing at me, began ‘One Way Or Another’. It’s a special moment I’ll long remember. I still have the shoe. It sits pride of place on top of my sideboard in the dining room. I’ve re-told the story of how I got it many times. A number of girls have tried it on and marvelled over it. The only souvenir I brought home to rival it among the litter of set lists and other bits and pieces I’ve picked up over the years is Lux Interiors microphone stand. A piece of which hangs on a chain around my neck. That however, is another story. The gig at the Royal Court in 1993 left me feeling a little flat. I was full of cold at the time which didn’t help, but the crowd were not as excited or as enthusiastic as they had been at the last two shows I’d seen. The set list was also a little tamer concentrating more on Debbie’s solo output rather than Blondie’s. Though Debbie and Blondie have played Liverpool a few times since I either was too sick to go, or didn’t like the venues that they had chosen to play at. I’ve never been to the Echo Arena yet and the reports I’ve had from folken who have been there don’t enthuse me to go any time soon. I was therefore extremely happy to find out that Blondie were performing at my favourite venue of recent years, the O2 Academy. I was expecting quite an interesting crowd tonight as I’d spoken to a number of folken who were planning to go. Big Danny was bringing his Ma. Mark from the local pub was going. A number of old Eric’s and Planet-X regulars were going, and so was former Eric’s door maiden and owner of Planet-X, Doreen Allen. I’d planned on meeting Mark, Big Danny and his Ma in The Crown on the other side of Lime Street Station to the venue at 6:30pm. I got stuck in the tunnel due to a broken down bus but still managed to get to the Crown for 6:27pm. There was no sign of Mark. I waited until 7:00pm and began making some calls. Mark had a bit of a crisis to deal with and probably wasn’t going to make it. Big Danny and his Ma were stuck in the tunnel on a bus because the one that was broke down hadn’t been shifted out the way yet. They were on their way though. I hung around the Crown waiting and got talking to a couple of lads finishing off an afternoons drinking. While I was talking to them two lads a little older than me walked in. One of them took one look at me and headed straight over, “Hiya mate. You don’t remember me do you ?” Oh shit ! What had I done now ? “We met you at the Zodiac Mindwarp gig. I was the one that took the photo of you with the band behind you.” “Oh wow ! How you doing ? You going tonight ?” “Fucking right we are.” We chatted on swapping news and gig info until I glanced at my watch. It was 7:50pm. I wanted to be in the venue and picking my spot down front within fifteen minutes. I made my farewells and rang Big Danny again. He was still stuck in the tunnel. I dropped into Ma Eggerton’s for a swift one and to see who might be about. I found Doreen Allen and Mark Jones surrounded by Planet-X’ers. Together we all entered the venue. Inside the heat and humidity was stifling. The downpours of rain outside had done little to cool things down. The place was already rammed so I wasted no time even looking at the bar and headed straight down towards the front with Doreen, Mark, and the rest following in the wake of my trail blaze. I was all the way over to the left of the stage as I faced it. I’d got to three rows from the front. It wasn’t a bad position, but it was a long way from prime. Anticipation ran through the crowd. Apparently there was no support band tonight. I spotted a microphone placed low to the stage in the middle pointing towards the crowd. I guessed that the show was being recorded but would it be for one of the local/national radio stations or were they recording a live album ?
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011 Around ten to nine Blondie took the stage to a crowd I hadn’t seen so enthusiastic since the 1990 audience. They wasted no time and launched the set with ‘Union City Blue’, following without a pause into ‘Dreaming’ and ‘Atomic’. The crowd went nuts.
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011 The full Set List was, Union City Blue Please Please Me
Collected YouTube Footage Of The Gig
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011 Clem Burke’s drumming was superb. He is without doubt one of the best sticks men I’ve seen and heard play. Every beat of the skin counted and he set a fast pace, speeding up considerably at the end of several songs provoking spontaneous outbreaks of pogoing. Lee Fox held everything down with a solid and rhythmic bass lines that somehow had a fluidity. Matt Katz-Bohen took care of the keyboards and treated us to some close up roving keyboard like a guitar posturing. The problem was I had real difficulty distinguishing whatever licks Chris stein was playing from the excellent lead guitar played by Tommy Kessler. I know it was in there and quite integrally so, but Kesslers playing was so good it dominated and distinguished each song individually.
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011 Much has been made of Debbie Harry’s age. At sixty six many people seem amazed she’s still doing it. Why shouldn’t she ? Life has been somewhat unkind to Miss Harry over the years. Chris Stein too, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that for fifteen years Debbie nursed Chris through an illness that was expected to be terminal. For any artist to disappear from the lights for over a decade usually means certain career death. True there are some great come back stories, but surely few can be compared to Debbie Harry and Blondie. After thirty seven years Debbie Harry and Blondie are as popular as they ever were. Though Debbie now favours wearing wigs on stage, and has gained a few pounds around the middle, it has done little to diminish her glamorous allure. She is still very much an iconic figure and a full time living legend. On stage she looked fabulous and bounced around the stage in an energetic manner many sixty six years olds can only envy. Her voice sounds as good as it ever did. There was no straining, no trying hard to reach the notes, no miss timings, but I did catch a couple of moments where she appeared to be trying to remember the next line of the song. So far as I could tell she didn’t lose a word.
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011 ‘Hanging on The Telephone’ was blistering. New tracks ‘D-Day’, ‘Love Doesn’t Frighten Me’, ‘What I Heard’, ‘China Shoes’, ‘Wipe Off My Sweat’, ‘Horozontal Twist’, and ‘Mother’ from the new album ‘Panic Of Girls’ were all well received along side classics like ‘Sunday Girl’ and ‘One Way Or Another’ and the new material sounded like Blondie’s strongest output since ‘Eat To The Beat’. ‘No Exit’ may have marked Blondie’s return with the wonderful single ‘Maria’, but the albums overall effect can best be described as so-so. Apart from a cover of the Shangri-La’s ‘Out On The Streets’ other tracks on the album leave little imprint or impression which is probably why apart from ‘Maria’ other songs from that album and indeed its follow up were noticeable by their absence. ‘Girlie Girlie’ a cover of Sophia George’s classic went down extremely well with the crowd causing many a hip to swing. Other high points were a cover of the Beastie Boys ‘Fight For Your Right To Party’. In retrospect a rather risky move to pull in Liverpool as the Beastie Boys provoked a full scale riot when they first played at the Royal Court. The Beastie bad Boys got their arse kicked that night as the audience decided to show the band who the real bad boys in town were. On this occasion, sliced onto the end of ‘Rapture’, the audience chose to embrace the sentiments of the tune and pogo instead.
Blondie: Liverpool O2 Academy 1/8/2011 The only low point was their cover of The Beatles ‘Please Please Me’ during which Debbie, who had clocked me pogoing and taking pictures throughout the set and had been giving me a few nods of appreciation and a couple of poses caught my full disapproval. If you pull up the footage on U-Tube you can see her do a little double take when she spots me just shaking my head. So O.K., Blondie like The Beatles, as strangers to the city they get a buzz out of seeing Beatles memorabilia everywhere just like other tourists. Fair enough, but, for those of us that live here we have to put up with that shit day in day out. If we walk through St John’s Precinct The Beatles are playing over the speaker system. If we walk in a pub The Beatles are playing on the juke box. Walk into a shop, Beatles on the overhead speakers. Walk through town, buskers, singing Beatles songs. Finally find a pub playing classics and contemporary tunes from the radio and someone comes in wearing a Beatles T-shirt, usually a tourist. Can you see where I’m going with this ? Blondie may have thought it was the thing to do, a dream of theirs perhaps, to actually play a Beatles song in Liverpool, but the last thing most of us want to hear is more fucking Beatles. Why on earth people think they are so great has continually evaded my comprehension throughout my life. At best they were second rate Chuck Berry impersonators. The Beatles have single handedly stultified the entire musical audioscape for decades. That which was called ‘punk’ was initially a reaction against that stultification. The music became interesting and exciting again. It was also very different in sound and direction. Blondie were a part of that initial band of merry audio buccaneers pioneering their way forwards and leaving behind debris which sparked whole new genres in their own right. Amongst many other achievements they were the first band, ever, to release a chart topping rap song. A move which opened the door that thousands have since passed through to take the music somewhere else that was new and different. That Blondie have been tamed into conforming to the canonized Beatles Industry simply sickens me. The Beatles are shit. Everyone goes on about their pioneering ‘Sergeant Pepper’ album and what wonderful original studio techniques were used, but they fail to mention they copied most of their studio ideas from what Jimi Hendrix had already achieved on ‘Electric Lady Land’. Love and peace ? Never trust a hippie ! The Beatles haven’t much love for the city that made them famous, the people of this city have little love for The Beatles. Recently a shrubbery statue of Ringo Star was beheaded after comments he made on television about not wanting to come back to Liverpool unless it was to earn money. Whilst I don’t condone acts of cold blooded murder I still can’t help thinking that Mark Chapman did the world a favour by making it impossible for The Beatles to ever reform. I did however quickly regain my appreciation of the band as they followed up with ‘Rip Her To Shreds’. Last track of the night ‘Heart Of Glass’ left the crowd screaming for more. All in all it was a great gig. Blondie were on top form and were clearly giving it their all. I hung around down at the front holding onto the railings as the crowd disbursed hoping to catch a set list whilst I caught my breath and sweat coursed down my body. I thought for a brief moment I might collapse. I’d kind of over done it. I’d paid scant regard to my physiotherapists and doctors advice and with total disregard for my own well being had hedonistically embraced tonight’s performance. I was shattered. Big Danny found me and took me over to meet his Ma. “I realise this probably isn’t the best first impression I could make, but it’s nice to meet you.” I said dripping sweat. My shirt wide open beneath my stud bristled leather exposing my Frankenstein undead operation scar, still struggling to regain my breath, and unsteady on my feet. The three of us made our way over to The Crown for a pint, narrowly missing a second one because of last orders. So we went over to O’Neil’s for a couple while I regained some composure, stopped sweating, and changed into a dry T-shirt. We had a good ole chat about the gig and went through the pictures on my camera before our taxi arrived. I might not have got another one of Debbie’s shoes tonight, but I sure had some good pictures. Viper 10/8/2011 The concert was recorded and an hour of the show was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 the following Thursday. The songs broadcast were; Union City Blue _______________________________________________ All images & text ©Viperslair.co.uk All rights reserved. Any un-authorized publication of texts, parts of texts, or images, will result in legal action. Publishing permission can be obtained from Viperslair.co.uk by written request only. First Published 12/8/2011 by Viperslair.co.uk Re-published with YouTube Footage 14/3/2012 Web Site Design by Psycho-Cat Graphics 2012 |
