One of the most exciting things that ever happened to me as a child was going to see Blondie in 1979 when I was eleven. I had got a copy of ‘Denis’ and ‘Heart of Glass’ in my singles collection and on the day I took the 11+ exam for Loughborough Grammar School my parents bought me ‘Parallel Lines’ as a present for being so brave in taking the exam as I was already a big fan having bought ‘Denis’ and ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ as singles previously.
Naturally when I discovered they were going to play the ‘De Monfort Hall’ in Leicester I desperately wanted to go but the concert was sold out almost instantly and so I resigned myself to never seeing them, however what I didn’t know was that my mother had managed to get me a ticket for which she had paid a staggering £10.00, having made an impassioned plea for one via an ad in the ‘Leicester Mercury’ and as a Christmas present I had a ticket and got to go to the concert.
The very idea of letting an eleven year old go alone to a rock concert is something that would be considered shocking these days, but my parents dropped me off outside and I took my seat (I was upstairs on the right hand side balcony) which had a magnificent view and watched and listened to a truly great concert! Their latest album was ‘Eat to the Beat’ which I had also just gotten for Christmas and I remember that ‘Union City Blue’ was one of the songs they did.
Debbie Harry (who had had a brief flirtation with acting in the days when there was virtually no cross over from music to acting unlike now where it seems virtually mandatory) was due to appear in a film called ‘Union City’ and I can always remember that the record company were at pains to make sure that we all knew that ‘Union City Blue’ was not connected to the film in any way – which always seemed odd even to this day. I love Blondie, I love this song and the video (shot in the docks in New York) and still love it as much now as I did 30 odd years ago.
Now listen to the song….
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