A documentary about New York band Blondie, from their early beginnings in Bowery clubs like CBGBs alongside other up and coming bands like The Ramones, Patti Smith & Talking Heads. The documentary tracks their years of international success, through their internal problems and decline and then to their recovery and re-establishment leading to their being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 - an event that wasn't without its problems. Lots of interviews with band members, past and present, and their friends and contemporaries. Lots of clips of them performing through the years.
01-07-2006
1h 12m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Matt O'Casey
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Debbie Harry
An American singer, songwriter, and actress, known as the lead singer of the new wave band Blondie.
Nigel Harrison (born 24 April 1951) is an English musician. Harrison spent several years as the bassist of the American rock band Blondie during the 1970s and 1980s.
Harrison grew up in Princes Risborough, a small town in the Chiltern Hills. He was the bassist for the local band Farm, and later recorded and toured with Silverhead (fronted by Michael Des Barres) from 1972 to 1974.
On August 11, 1974 he played bass for "Murder of a Virgin", Iggy Pop's first solo performance. He was also an uncredited session bassist for The Runaways debut album when producer and manager Kim Fowley refused to have Runaways bassist Jackie Fox perform on the record. He was recruited to Blondie from Nite City (former The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek's short-lived band) in 1977, after the band recorded their second album Plastic Letters without a regular bass player, and stayed until the band split after Tracks Across America Tour '82.
During his time with Blondie, Nigel Harrison contributed as a songwriter to every album he played on and also co-wrote several hit singles with Debbie Harry, such as "One Way or Another", "Union City Blue" and the band's last single with their most successful line-up, "War Child", released in 1982.
From 1982 to 1984 he was a member of the band Chequered Past, which also included two of his former bandmates: Des Barres, from Silverhead, Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols and Clem Burke, from Blondie. They released an eponymous album in 1984. Harrison was also music supervisor/producer for the soundtrack to the 1988 comedy Tapeheads.
In 1991, he had a small part in a British film Young Soul Rebels as 'Cid Man'.
When Blondie started to talk about re-forming in 1997, Harrison was initially asked to rejoin the group. He recorded demo tracks with the band for the album No Exit (1999), but was dropped from the band before the record was finished. He and another excluded former member, Frank Infante, brought a lawsuit over the dispute, but were unsuccessful.
Harrison was an A&R Executive at Interscope Records and also did A&R work for Capitol Records.
Harrison later became the bass player for The Grabs, whose album Sex, Fashion And Money was released in November 2005.
In March 2006, Blondie, following an introductory speech by Shirley Manson of Garbage, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Seven members were invited to the ceremony, which led to an on-stage spat between the extant group and Infante, who asked during the live broadcast of the ceremony that he and Harrison be allowed to perform with the group, a request refused by Debbie Harry, who stated that the band's current line-up had already prepared and rehearsed for the performance.
Harrison continues playing with various acts, including The Rua on the 2015 album The Essence.
Source: Article "Nigel Harrison" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Frank Infante (born November 15, 1951) is an American guitarist and bassist best known as a former member of the new wave band Blondie.
Infante began his music career playing guitar in hard rock and electric blues groups such as The Elegant End and World War III. He joined Sniper in 1975 and then Blondie in 1977 as a session player, replacing bassist Gary Valentine. Blondie released their second album Plastic Letters in 1978. Infante played bass and guitar on the album but was not pictured on its cover. Later in 1978, Blondie recruited bassist Nigel Harrison, which allowed Infante to switch to guitar full-time. Record producer Mike Chapman has said that he considered Infante to be an "amazing guitarist" and the most technically proficient member of Blondie when he began producing Parallel Lines in 1978. Though the group was already a commercial force in the UK and Australia, Parallel Lines and its follow-up Eat To The Beat (1979) proved to be Blondie's commercial breakthroughs in the US.
After sessions for the band's 1980 album Autoamerican, Infante sued the group for his alleged minimal involvement in the recording (which would affect his royalties), but the matter was settled out of court. Infante stayed on as an official member of Blondie for the 1982 album The Hunter, but Deborah Harry has claimed in interviews that despite receiving credit, Infante's participation in the sessions was essentially non-existent. Infante was no longer a member of the group during their tour in July and August 1982, and Blondie officially broke up by the end of the year.
Throughout his time with Blondie, Infante contributed to writing a handful of their songs, including "Victor" and "I Know But I Don't Know", plus a demo from the Parallel Lines sessions titled "Underground Girl". Neither Infante nor Harrison were asked to rejoin when Blondie reformed in the late 1990s. Infante and Harrison sued the other members of the band for reforming without them,[4] but the lawsuits were unsuccessful.
During Blondie's hiatus in 1981, Infante went on to work on Joan Jett's album Bad Reputation. He also worked on albums by Stiv Bators and Sylvain Sylvain. Shortly afterwards, he toured and recorded with acts including Iggy Pop and Divinyls. Iggy Pop's German compilation Nuggets in 1999 and UK box set Where The Faces Shine in 2009 both feature live tracks with Infante on guitar.
Blondie were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2006. Seven members were invited to the ceremony, which resulted in an on-stage spat between the extant group and Infante, who asked during the live broadcast of the ceremony that he and Nigel Harrison be allowed to perform with the group. Their request was refused by Deborah Harry, who stated that the band's current line-up were already prepared for the performance.
In 2010, Infante toured and performed with The New York Dolls in shows at The Cluny, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He also played guitar on their album Dancing Backward in High Heels, released in March 2011.
Infante currently lives in Los Angeles. He continues to record and perform with Infante's Inferno with Infante on guitar, Clem Burke (drums) and Steve Fishman (bass). The trio performed at the Rhino Records Pop Up Store in Los Angeles in 2011. ...
Source: Article "Frank Infante" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Jimmy Destri (born James Mollica, April 13, 1954, Brooklyn, New York City, United States) is an American musician.
Destri is of Italian descent. His father was a novelist who also wrote screenplays and eventually advertising copy to support his family while his mother was a housewife. He has a sister, Donna Destri, who is also a singer and did backing vocals for Blondie and Jimmy's own solo record. Destri grew up in Boro Park and was raised in his grandmother's house. His uncle played drums for Joey Dee and the Starlighters. He attended Catholic schools and went to Bishop Ford High School. Destri dropped out of high school in order to form his first band. He played keyboards in the rock band Blondie, and was one of the principal songwriters for the band along with Chris Stein and Deborah Harry. He rejoined Blondie in 1997. Destri ceased touring with the band in 2004, but remained an official member for several more years. After he stopped playing Blondie he worked full time as a drug counselor/therapist at the outpatient recovery center Carnegie Hill Institute in New York City. In April 2020, he went back to practice as a drug counselor/therapist at Seabrook in New Jersey.
Destri became interested in music in the late 1950s and early 1960s due to his uncle's being a drummer with Joey Dee and the Starlighters. He formed his first band, the 86 Proof, in high school and they performed in local schools. He played in a group named Milk and Cookies in the early 1970s, but was dismissed from the band just before they relocated to the UK. He joined Blondie in 1975, using the Farfisa organ as his main instrument.
As Blondie's career progressed, Destri became increasingly interested in synthesizers, and added them with his Farfisa to the overall band's sound. His sister, Donna Destri, sang backing vocals on the 1979 Blondie song "Living in the Real World" and on the album No Exit.
Destri produced Going Up by Joey Wilson for Modern Records, released in October 1980.
As Blondie members took a break from both recording and touring as a group, Destri released the solo album Heart on a Wall in 1981. Heart on a Wall was produced by Michael Kamen, then regarded mainly as a film composer/arranger; Kamen also played keyboards and sang backup vocals. The album also featured numerous renowned musicians, including guitarists Carlos Alomar (David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop), Tommy Morrongiello (Bob Dylan, Blue Öyster Cult) and Earl Slick (Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono), along with bassist John Siegler (Todd Rundgren's Utopia). In addition, Blondie's Clem Burke appeared on drums, with guest appearances by fellow Blondie members Chris Stein and Debbie Harry.
Heart on a Wall was released in the US, the UK and France (Chrysalis CHR-1368) as well as Australia and New Zealand (L-37774), West Germany (204 425–320) and the Netherlands (204 425). "Living In Your Heart" backed with "Don't Look Around" was also released as a 7" single in France (PB-8865).
Any digital release of the album remains highly unlikely, as the original master tapes have been lost. ...
Source: Article "Jimmy Destri" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Iggy Pop (born James Newell "Jim" Osterberg, Jr.; April 21, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and occasional actor. He is considered an influential innovator of punk rock, hard rock, and other styles of rock music. Pop began calling himself "Iggy" after his first band in high school (for which he was drummer), The Iguanas. He was lead singer/songwriter of influential protopunk band The Stooges and became known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics.
Pop's popularity has ebbed and flowed throughout the course of his subsequent solo career. His best-known songs include "Lust for Life" which was featured on the soundtrack of the film Trainspotting, "Search and Destroy", "I Wanna Be Your Dog", "Down on the Street", Kick It (a duet with Peaches) , the Top 40 hits "Real Wild Child" and "Candy" (with vocalist Kate Pierson of The B-52's), "China Girl" (co-written with and famously covered by David Bowie), and "The Passenger".
Description above from the Wikipedia article Iggy Pop, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
