Blondie to Receive NME's Godlike Genius Award

The BBC has reported: US band Blondie are to collect an award for their life's work at the NME Awards in London later this month.

The veteran group, who are celebrating their 40th year together, will receive the magazine's 'Godlike Genius' award at a ceremony on 26 February.

"It's out of proportion, but it's nice to be recognised," said lead singer Debbie Harry.

"I find it particularly interesting that there aren't many Americans who've been given this award before, so that's flattering," added Harry.

Blondie last charted a number one hit in 1999 with their single, "Maria" from the No Exit album. "Maria" failed to be a hit in the USA, unfortunately, peaking at # 82 on Billboard's Hot 100. The song has a devoted cult following, however, judging by audience requests shouted to the band at Blondie's 2013 Roseland concert.

New Musical Express ("NME") is a British  pop/rock magazine published since 1952. It turns 62 in March.

Blondie, the NYC-based musical group, is best known for their songs, "Heart of Glass," "Call Me," "Hanging on the Telephone," "Rapture," "Atomic," "The Tide Is High" among many others.

Mike Williams, editor at NME, stated that the band was chosen in their 40th anniversary year and stated, "They rewrote the rule book in the late '70s by dragging punk rock to the top of the charts."
Williams added that Harry, 68, is "the most iconic front-woman rock 'n' roll has ever produced."

In 2006, Blondie was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and inducted into the Rock Walk of Fame on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood as well.

According to Wikipedia regarding Blondie's latest double-album: "Ghosts of Download" will be released in a 2-disc package entitled "Blondie 4(0) Ever" which will celebrate the band's fortieth anniversary with the new album and a collection of Blondie's hit singles re-recorded and remixed in 2013. The band's official worldwide 40th anniversary tour will begin in February 2014 and span many countries, shows and continents.

Accepting NME's Godlike Genius Award, Blondie will also perform at the ceremony February 26th at O2 Academy in Brixton, south London.

Call Me: 34th Anniversary

Giorgio Moroder informs us that today (February 1st) is the 34th Anniversary of the song "Call Me" by Blondie. Moroder produced the single that came off the soundtrack for the film American Gigolo.

"Call Me" was #1 for six weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, was that chart's #1 hit of 1980, and also went #1 in the UK and Canada, becoming an international sensation. It was Blondie's second #1 single and the band's biggest hit.

Moroder originally asked Stevie Nicks to write and sing a theme song for the movie he was scoring but she declined. The producer then turned to Blondie and the rest is, as they say, disco history.

In 1988, Ben Liebrand remixed "Call Me" for the Once More Into the Bleach Blondie remix album. A single version of that mix was released and the song received a new wave of popularity at the clubs.

Justice Sotomayor Drops the Ball

It was announced today that one of the Supremes will officially drop the ball in Times Square on New Year's Rockin' Eve!

Appointed to the Court in 2009 by President Obama, Justice Sonia Sotomayor from the Bronx will officially ring in 2014 in New York City.

Huffington Post tells us: "The giant New Year's Eve ball is covered in more than 2,600 crystal triangles and lit from within by more than 32,000 lights." And Sonia Sotomayor's going to push the button.

From The Official Site of Times Square: "For 109 years, Times Square has been the center of worldwide attention on New Year's Eve, ever since the owners of One Times Square began in 1904 to conduct rooftop celebrations to greet the New Year. The first Ball Lowering celebration occurred in 1907, and this tradition is now a universal symbol of welcoming the New Year.

"The official event lineup features live performances by Miley Cyrus, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Blondie, Icona Pop, Jencarlos Canela, El Dasa and Rodney Atkins. Melissa Etheridge will perform her new song, Uprising of Love, and a rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine during the 2014 Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration. A spectacular Chinese cultural performance featuring Kung Fu and a colorful fan dance will kick off the festivities at 6 p.m. EST."

Sounds like a great way, New York, to ring in 2014. We're psyched!

Beaverhausen's NYC News: The End of Roseland and a Village People Cowboy

Roseland 1961

Recently, I saw Blondie perform at Roseland. http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2013/10/debbie-harry-and-blondie-rule-roseland.html The 1919 roller rink turned ballroom (in the 1920s) turned concert hall (since the 1990s) just announced it will close its doors in April. Another legendary venue gone from the NYC landscape.

Madonna has played there, The Rolling Stones have played Roseland, The Black Party has been thrown there. But soon it will be gone. 

Roseland has for years been a favored New York [place] for a wide range of bands from the early days of rock, through disco, grunge, modern rock, jam, pop, urban and EDM. The venue found a new gear with a $1 million production/rigging renovation in the early ‘90s, funded by [developer Larry] Ginsberg, which led to more high profile bookings of multiple dates on bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, and other hot acts when competition in that cap range was not as fierce, reported Billboard. 

News that seems to have escaped the mainstream media about the death of Village People's latest cowboy, AJ Perelli, but Sobel Nation and Our City Radio reported on the incident. http://queens.ourcityradio.com/stations/dance-news/queens-city-radio-sends-condolences-family-friends-village-peoples-aj-perelli 

"May AJ RIP and sing to the Angels," wrote Our City's Program Manager, Barbara Sobel. 

"One of his biggest achievements to date came several months ago when he landed the gig in the role of the Cowboy (originally played by Jeff Olson) in the group,Village People," said Ms Sobel's article in Our City Radio online, written before the tragedy.

The group Village People currently are coming up the dance charts, internationally, with their new single, "Let's Get Back to the Dancefloor," and appeared on this season's premiere episode of Arsenio.  Other members have expressed their grief, fond memories and condolences.

Perelli suffered serious brain damage from a fall or from an attack. As of now, details are unclear. He was 24 years of age.

Debbie Harry and Blondie Rule Roseland

Blondie brought their international "No Principals" tour to Roseland last night in Manhattan with X, the '70s punk rock band (with Exene Cervenka) as their opening act.

Their set first brought the spectacle of Brooklyn-based multi-horn brass band, One Cheer, filling the stage physically and aurally before the pop-punk band entered as the brass faded and filed off.

Debbie Harry pranced onstage like the enduring diva she is, in a chic, black graduation gown-styled frock and dunce cap (No Principals), opening with the classic "One Way or Another" from Blondie's breakthrough album, Parallel Lines. Ms Harry's hair was a retro 'do of long blonde tresses. And our girl really knows how to use her head when it comes to working a mini fall! Behind the band was a plethora of non-stop video images as Ms Harry stepped lithely and lively, swirling across the stage. This is a vast improvement, performance-wise, from her heyday (when she was often, perhaps, a bit too stoned to grace us by breaking a move and was physically stiff, though who wasn't at the time).

What followed was a clever and canny set of hits and newer tunes. "Hangin' on the Telephone," "Union City Blues," "Atomic" and "Heart of Glass" were stirred in with the recent single, "A Rose Is Still a Rose" and catchy, energetic current numbers like "Take Me in the Night." (Ripe for remixes!)



Blondie returned for a five-song encore, going back to their first album, Blondie, and the second, Plastic Letters with songs like "X Offender." LGBT fans will qvell learning Miss H even brought legendary drag diva Miss Guy, onstage for a duet before wrapping up with "Call Me," "Dreaming" (a favorite of mine, from the Eat to the Beat album) and bringing the horns back for a "Tide Is High" blow-out. Viva Blondie!



Chris Stein and the band (enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) displayed an outstanding mastery, showing vast controlled and expert musicianship since Blondie's garage band days.  Some things get better with age and Blondie is one of them.

Roseland's sound system led my friends, people around us and I to believe the sound check may not have been sufficient pre-concert as it took a few songs into the set for proper adjustments to the mix to occur.

We hoped the group would perform their hit (outside the US, though it charted on club charts here), "Maria." I was also hoping for "Pretty Baby," "Sunday Girl," "Touched by Your Presence Dear" and so on and so forth but, honestly, how much of their vast catalog can they do in a single concert!

The night's set started off powerfully with no patter from the diva until after her third number when she doffed her gown (the cap was removed after song numero uno), revealing a fit figure in a low-cut little black dress. Very binky! 

The New Wave idol's voice is a treasure. Like, say, Cher or Ronnie Spector, Debbie is a shining example of the burnishing individualism of pop female voices from earlier eras before a bland conformity and autotuning (not to mention twirking) were deemed necessary to manufacture a hit.

It was a trans-generational audience with a fair share of aging CBGB/ The Mudd Club people. Nobody seemed disappointed.

Grooviest moment you may ask? Definitely "Rapture" followed by a ebullient cover of Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." That rap classic might be my mantra these days.

New Blondie Single!

The new Blondie gender-bending single, "A Rose by Any Name," is out, featuring Beth Ditto of Gossip. Very electro-pop and very cool. Plus, so LGBT Pride appropriate! Can dance remixes be on the way?

"Heart of Glass," Blondie Live on The Midnight Special

1979: Like it or lick it! [Debbie Harry]

1979, and Blondie goes disco with "Heart of Glass" from their Parallel Lines album.  Some felt the band had sold out; some felt they broke new ground, a punk/disco fusion. Nonetheless, the song went to #1 on the Top 100, while peaking at #7 on the Dance Chart, perhaps because it wasn't discofied enough!

1979. Blondie. So young, so beautiful. Look at Debbie Harry and how lovely she is. And how stoned she looks! Oh my God, and those clothes! Did she borrow them from Agnetha, of ABBA; the shoes, perhaps, from Daisy Duck? One piece, low-cut kulats with matching headband. Not to mention klutziest dance moves ever! You can't be straight (in the non-sexual sense of the word) and pull this together!

Hey, it was 1979!  Still, I luv huh (Debbie); love them (the band), and the song is part of both rock -- and dance music -- history.

I give you "Heart of Glass" as performed on tv's old Midnight Special, the poor man's (and stoner's -- not that I should know!) Bandstand.

Hey, I told you it was 1979!