Late Blondie Drummer Clem Burke Remembered in NYC Photo Exhibition

This is nice: Chris Stein is paying tribute to his fallen bandmate with a photo exhibit downtown: 

The Roxy Hotel is honored to present "Clem Burke Photographed by Chris Stein," a special pop-up exhibition celebrating Blondie’s legendary drummer. 

On view now through January 6, 2026, the portraits offer an intimate glimpse of the little drummer boy from Bayonne through the lens of longtime friend, bandmate and Blondie co-founder Chris Stein.

More information HERE.

Wicked Good

 

Chris Stein writes: Just found this. Andy and Margaret Hamilton w Debbie portraits.

View the contact sheet HERE.

 From Warhol's "Witch in Myths" series (1981)

As seen in “Margaret Hamilton From Cleveland, Ohio to the Land of Oz,” the first-ever book dedicated to the late actress.

(Photo by Victor Bockris)

In his Aug. 12, 1980, diary entry, Andy recalled:

At 12:00 I had an appointment to meet Debbie Harry at the office (cab $4). I was early and Debbie and Chris were on time. We worked all afternoon. Debbie was sweet, every picture came out perfect. Vincent was taping her for the Andy Warhol's TV show and he had Lisa Robinson there interviewing her and Chris. I sat in on it so that I'd have a higher profile on the tape for the show. Lisa is a good interviewer. They were there till 4:00.

And I've decided that I'm not going to call girls anymore and invite them places because they're too difficult. I called Sean Young, the really pretty actress who I met with Linda Stein, because I thought that Richard Weisman would like her. But she wouldn't give me her number so I could call her back and it's too hard. I asked her if she wanted to go to a baseball game and she said she'd been to one already. She's in some James Ivory movie that's about to come out.

I had to leave early because I invited Bianca to the Peking Opera, she said yes, and I invited John Samuels, too. We ran into the Met Opera House and just missed the curtain so we had to wait with Chinese people screaming why couldn't they go in. ... 

Then after ten minutes we could go in. Fran Lebowitz was there with Jed. The opera was boring. Good costumes, lots of tumbling. Drag queens.

I saw Margaret Hamilton, the witch in "The Wizard of Oz," and got so excited and went over to her and told her how wonderful she was. She does the Maxwell House commercials now. She's really small.

Impulse Purchase

 

Love it -- but where's Dagwood? Prints available HERE.

P.S. I'm really starting to look forward to Chris Stein's coming memoir, "Under a Rock," which promises to far more detailed than what Debbie Harry's editor was able to drag out of her!

"The recording took six weeks. The final session found everyone half asleep on the Record Plant floor at 6 a.m."

"It was a great apartment… I’d shipped a Teac four-track back from Tokyo, the first one I owned, and I set up in the living room using a kitchen appliance rack for gear." 

Still 'Koo Koo' for Debbie Harry

Chris Stein reports on Twitter that he just signed off on his U.S. book deal for his memoir -- this is going to be good! -- that the new Blondie album is terrific ("if I do say so myself) and the Debbie/Giger book with all the intel on their collaboration with him is out in April 

I joked to my friend that this was the book "dozens have been clamoring for" as I reached for my book about the film "Union City"(!). 

Exciting times to be a Blondie fan! Pre-order HERE.

When Debbie Harry Tried to Remake Jean-Luc Godard's 'Alphaville'

I remember reading in the 1982 Blondie book "Making Tracks" that Debbie Harry and Chris Stein had sought to do a remake of Jean-Luc Godard's "Alphaville" (1965), about a dystopian future ruled by a giant computer. Robert Fripp was to play Lemmy Caution and Debbie Harry would be Natacha von Braun, roles originated by Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina. Amos Poe, the "Blank Generation" filmmaker who had directed the Blondie singer in underground flicks "Unmade Beds" (1976) and "The Foreigner" (1978), was to be at the helm. The project was already in the rearview mirror by the time I learned about it, but the photos in the book had me dying over what could have been. 

 

Forty years later and of course this tweet from Stein on the death of the legendary French New Wave director had me rolling!

I believe that's called "petit larceny"!

Read more about the film that never was HERE.

Melody Maker (Dec. 23, 1978)

Debbie's No Wave moment ...

UPDATE: Chris Stein just added footage of the "screen test" that was filmed!

Watch HERE.

Sexy Septuagenarian Alert!

 

Love these photos by Chris Stein, above, and Miss Guy, affectionately paired together as:

 Debbie Harry in the '70s ...

and

Debbie Harry in her 70s! 

My longtime friend Scooter LaForge writes:

Collaboration is key! Photo by @missguynyc distressing by #debbieharry @blondieofficial and painting and silkscreen by yours truly. This vulture T-shirt is it re-creation of the legendary garment @christein gave to Debbie back in the day. Debbie asked me to re-create this T-shirt a few years back for Blondie’s No Principals tour. And yes, this picture is very current and no filters, Debbie looks like that in real life. #icon #queenofpunk

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein on '20/20'

Fascinating watching this clip of Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein on "20/20" shortly after the release of "Eat to the Beat," some 40 years ago. (Ouch!) At times Deb's one-word answers had me squirming in my seat, not unlike her recent book tour appearance. (You'd have thought Pierre Salinger's creepy Playmate "aspirations" question would be the one to throw her off back in 1980.) But then she'd turn around and be warm, funny and engaging a second later, reminding us what a unique person she is. Kind of sad to think just two years later the band -- and the couple's lives -- would be in tatters, when most Americans had just fallen in love. 

What Is Nostalgia?

It you'd told junior-high me I'd be seeing this on "Jeopardy" more than 40 years after the release of "Parallel Lines," I'd have been about as happy as I am now!

They didn't fcking know 🤣 pic.twitter.com/9psLHEAKN0

— Chris Stein (@chrissteinplays) January 9, 2020

Song of the Day: 'Dreaming' by Blondie

Chris Stein thinks "Dreaming" is “pretty much a copy of ABBA's ‘Dancing Queen’” -- ?! -- and other things you never knew about Blondie's best single HERE.

I’m Always Touched by Her Presence, Dear

Enjoyed spending a couple hours with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein on Monday night at Town Hall, celebrating the release of her “Face It” memoir. After a massive introduction by Penny Arcade, moderator and Blondie collaborator Rob Roth came out with the duo and announced that he envisioned the evening being like "one of the conversations we have on the tour bus" -- and it was, assuming conversations on the tour bus tend to involve a fruitless game of 20 questions. Don't get me wrong -- it was that kind of game where it gets to be so frustrating it's comical! But let's just say any qualms I may have had about giving Debbie's autobiography a lukewarm review were erased when she reminded me -- in the flesh -- that she really has minimal knowledge about her own life.

Roth -- who also designed the book -- did everything but hand Debbie pithy anecdotes on scraps of paper, but still couldn't get a straight answer out of her on just about anything. (With just about anyone else it would have been frustrating. But Deb's so adorable -- looking incredibly pretty in pink -- that it just added to her immeasurable charms.) The closest he came was when he fed her a line about the baby shower she'd thrown for Grace Jones at Studio 54 back in the day. (This is gonna be good!) But the bottle blonde still drew a complete blank, even after stunning the audience by recalling details about a birthday party she'd thrown at Studio 54 for Grace when the Jamaican legend was "extremely pregnant." (Gee, I wonder if they were one and the same?)

Things got measurably better when Fab Five Freddy joined the party -- it seemed to loosen Debbie up, who until this point was letting Chris do the heavy lifting -- reminiscing about taking Debbie and Chris to see up and coming rappers back in the day ("in places where white people just didn't to"). And later he lavished the duo with heartfelt praise for the support they've always shown fellow New York City artists, even when they were on top of the world. One of his best moments was when he told the story of hearing "Rapture" on the radio for the first time. He had first heard it when Chris played it for him in the studio. Freddy was flattered by the name check and recalled thinking Deb's rapping was pretty fly, which drew a shy look from her. But then he said he later heard it on the radio in a cab with Chris and Tina of the Tom Tom Club while in Paris. He thought Blondie had only recorded the song as a "goof" so was stunned when it came on, wondering how the deejay had gotten his hands on it. (The Talking Heads rhythm section had to explain to him that it was actually Blondie's new single!)



The audience was well-behaved -- we had to keep screaming out answers to basic Blondie trivia, as even Chris drew blanks on dates and places -- and managed to ask smart questions all night. (Parker Posey and Mary Louise Parker had sent in two in advance!) Highlight of the evening: Getting an update on those crazy kids Suzy and Jeffrey. Seems they came to say hi at a recent Blondie show and Debbie miraculously remembered who they were! Deb doesn't believe they're a couple anymore -- good thing they didn't bother with that blood test -- but what a hoot to be memorialized by the greatest band of the New Wave!

The book is out now. Read it and let me know what you think.

Clearly, this blonde has more fun.

Tweet Nothings

It's like when your boss sends out an email to everyone about not being late instead of just talking to Bob in graphics. #resist

Blondie Honored at ASCAP Music Awards

Three members of Blondie were among the songwriting luminaries honored at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards Thursday at the Beverly Hills Hotel, along with Louis Bell, Billie Eilish and Jeff Lynne of ELO.

Billboard reports:

Topping off the evening were the special presentations to music icons Blondie and Jeff Lynne. Given the Golden Note Award in recognition of their career achievements and influence on music, fashion and art, Blondie members Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Clem Burke were welcomed to the stage by a rousing standing ovation and a host of cell phone cameras. Noted Harry, “It’s great to be here tonight and to accept this … and carry on.” And Harry did just that as she and band members rocked the ballroom with a riveting performance of signature Blondie gems “Call Me” and “Heart of Glass” plus the 2017 hit “Long Time,” co-penned with Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes.

Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh and Clem Burke

Equally as mesmerizing was Jeff Lynne’s closing performance after receiving the Founders Award. Complemented by the keyboard wizardry of Benmont Tench, Lynne’s stripped-down acoustic set -- featuring “Telephone Line,” “Evil Woman” and “All Over the World” elicited singalongs, not to mention a roomful of bobbing bodies. 

 Debbie hits the right note off stage ...

And on ...

My favorite thing about this is that someone on the Debbie Harry/Blondie Facebook group asked if that was Frank Infante (second from left) with them in this photo -- to which I replied: I doubt he'll be receiving an award for "I Know but I Don't Know" anytime soon!

Well deserved, gang!

Racing Down the Bowery

I'd have never believed this would be happening 36 years ago when I was playing my Blondie records during a game of spin-the-bottle at my junior-high Halloween party. (I never got that damn bottle to land on Craig, btw!) Here are a couple of Barbara Sicuranza's photos from the unveiling of Shepard Fairey's new Blondie/Debbie Harry mural on Bleecker off the Bowery. 

Chris Stein says because the building is landmarked the art must be changed over every two years so the mural of Joey Ramone with the boxing gloves in now underneath this..

Shepard Fairey pretends not to be horrified by someone's tattoo of his work.

Joey put up a good fight, but Blondie wins in a technical knockout! 

Shooting the Women of the New Wave

An incredible collection of photos of Debbie Harry, Siouxsie Sioux, Joan Jett and more by photographers Brad Elterman, Chris Stein, Ray Stevenson and Jim Jocoy HERE.

'Koo Koo,' Too?

I don't know about you, but I'd love for Nile Rodgers to take another crack at "Koo Koo"!

Going Underground With Chris Stein, Sandra Bernhard and Debbie Harry

If this car could talk. Seen HERE.

Blondie Rocks the Debate

In a first for U.S. presidential debates, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie "joined" the candidates to transform their mortal arguments into heavenly duets.

Coca Crystal, Downtown Legend, Dies at 68

Fascinating obituary about the life and times of Coca Crystal, who had a wild life as a counterculture figure that extended beyond her cable-access show, “If I Can’t Dance, You Can Keep Your Revolution,” which I learned about via appearances by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Read HERE.