The infamous Blondie concert: history, facts, memories

blondie will forever remain one of the most important groups for both new wave and punk rockand for the 20th century as a whole. This band recorded a number of topical hits to this day, had a tremendous impact on the music industry and its followers, gave a ticket to Olympus to many performers, and forever imprinted itself in the history of popular culture. The band, and in particular its lead singer Debbie HarryAlthough, of course, Blondie also had its haters, making it one of the most unusual bands in history.

Alas, not everyone liked it. new wave and punk. And many of the band's fans refused to be so after the band turned its attention toward disco (as an example, the song «Call Me»which simultaneously brought Blondie massive success and a host of detractors who began to call the project "pops for radio.").

One way or another, Blondie managed to keep their name and popularity. And not surprisingly, the guys often performed at warm-ups from cooler stars. So, in 1979, "Blondie" was cast in a supporting role for a show of prog heroes Rush! But the evening didn't go according to plan, and the drummer Clem Burke I had to use my plates as shields to protect myself and the group from the pile of bottles flying at them...

The events of the sad show

That was one show from the tour Hemispheres (in support of the album of the same name), and Rush We needed musicians who could warm up the audience. It just so happened that blondie happened to be around and were free. It was a sold-out concert in front of 18,000 fans at Philadelphia's Spectrum! Blondie had a huge responsibility, and it's hard to imagine how excited the members were to take the stage. However, they didn't get any support from the audience that day. What's more: to say that Rush fans not welcome them would be an understatement. From the moment they took the stage, the Blondies found themselves in a hostile environment. A chorus of cheers swept through the auditorium. A disgruntled "oooh...".

It wasn't the first time Blondie had performed in this venue. Ironically, last summer they opened the concert of the shock-rocker Alice Cooper. As is well documented, they were also not well received at the beginning of this performance: one Cooper fan reportedly shouted: "Get Blondie off the stage...they're punks!". By the end of the show, however, the frontwoman Debbie Harry conquered most people...

But the Rush concert was completely different from that experience. After the initial cheer, by the second song, beer bottles were pouring into Blondie. And as the band played their hit "One Way or Another," Debbie leaned into the crowd and miraculously dodged a cigarette butt flying right at her...

Blondie's set list went on, and with it public hostility was growing. Somewhere around the fourth song, Debbie narrowly escaped being hit in the head with a glass bottle. It was over the top. The singer got angry and decided to return the favor to the Rush fans by picking up the bottle and throwing it back into the crowd. By some miracle, the band stayed on stage Just over 40 minutesbefore the drummer Clem Burke declared the concert over by overturning his rig to protest the angry crowd. In the most striking scene of the evening, he used his cymbals as shields to protect the band from the many objects flying at them. The final word, however, went to the enraged Debbie Harry. She shouted: "Fuck you, Spectrum!" - and walked off the stage.

Interestingly, a local resident who attended the show wrote a scathing report about what happened in the newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. Specifically, she stated:

"I recently made the mistake of attending a Spectrum concert. From the first act of the evening poster I was shocked! Blondie was addressed in a way I had never seen before. A hostile audience threw garbage at the band. These shows seem to be nothing more than a mass lookout for a group of bored teenagers and high school students who think the main purpose of their attendance is to get drunk and then smash a bottle over someone's head!"

Not the only embarrassment in Blondie's career

However, blondie have long been used to the chaos of the music industry. They were repeatedly trashed and chased off the stage, but there were other quirks associated with their concerts. In the latter half of the '70s, the band had to visit Brisbane, one of the most beautiful cities in Australia! More than a thousand people bought tickets and gathered in Her Majesty's Theatreto enjoy the show... But that didn't happen.

Debbie is serious. unwelland the decision was made to cancel the event. By the way: it was the first time in Blondie's career when the band cancelled their concert. Of course, the members understood that the audience would be outraged. But they obviously had no idea how far this indignation would go...

Clem Burke personally went up on stage to apologize on behalf of the band. Probably the only thing that saved him was the fact that the concert manager had hedged his bets beforehand. called the police. When Burke announced that there would be no concert, people literally went crazy. One second bottles were flying at him (and full of them), and the next, the angry audience went into a fistfight. The auditorium was vandalized, and the band's amps, into which the fans had thrown a lot of smoking cigarette butts, nearly started a fire in the theater!

Conclusion

Yes, sometimes the public is is extremely cruelforgetting that artists are people too, with their own feelings, experiences, emotions... As for the above-mentioned stories, they also prove how courageous and resilient the beauty has always been Debbie HarryAnd how insidious the music business is after all. Fame always has two sides, and when you go on stage, you always have to be alert and ready to dodge a couple of beers flying straight at your head...