Blondie The Greek Theatre Los Angeles 15th August 1979

It's the Summer of '79 and the world is in the hand's of Blondie. This was around the time when I started to take note of music for myself. What I mean is that it was in 1979 that I really became aware of music that didn't belong to my parents or Terry Wogan (who at the time hosted the Breakfast Show on Radio 2 - and always in the background when getting ready for school). Also, being an only child, there was no older sibling with a more contemporary record collection to overhear. Some additional musical education came my way from my best mate's Dad. Paul lived next door and his Dad was the local DJ, who had a bit of a name in our part of Sussex. If we were careful, we were allowed to play the hits of the moment and I remember a lot of Blondie and a fair bit of Squeeze lying around. Into the early months of 1980 and Paul and I were getting into the 14 to 18 disco's in town (only because his Dad was playing the records mind!) and it seemed that Blondie was played twice as much as any other band. I guess this was just because throughout '78, '79 and '80 Blondie were a hit making machine.

It's easy to see how the formula worked for the band. They has a receptive audience across musical genres. Part punk, part New Wave, with disco sensibilities and the aforementioned knack of releasing singles that guaranteed heavy rotation on every radio station in the land. Oh and there was the singer too!

This is a recording from The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. This was recorded a month or so before the release of the band's fourth studio album 'Eat To The Beat', and two tracks appear in the set from the album, 'Dreaming' (to be the next single and yet another hit in the UK - peaking at Number 2) and 'Slow Motion'. The rest of the set is very strong in my opinion, but then I love early Blondie albums!

Thanks to Mark for the share of this one!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-OK7WJQhrd6J7DwWL

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-DRTb5uWRfz8m0yGA

This album was reviewed in the pages of the 15th September 1979 issue of Sounds - it usually took several weeks for overseas gig reviews to make it into print.

Sounds (15th September 1979)

The writer clearly has time for the band, wants to like the gig but is struggling with the fact that post the mega global success of 'Parallel Lines', the band were in transition, leaving the clubs behind them and catering for an altogether different audience.

Still I would have given my right arm to see Blondie in 1979!