Debbie & Dolly do Glastonbury; Grace & Sade from the archives ...

Among this year's acts wowing the Glastonbury Festival were those two 68 year old blondes - Debbie Harry with Blondie; and Dolly Parton who was a sensation here, ending up on all the front pages of even the quality papers, as her set - probably her usual act with all that patter in between numbers, got everybody going. Debbie on the other hand barely said a word to the crowd between numbers, but they were all there, even "Rapture" and "Atomic" - odd though knowing the videos for those numbers, and the now rather portly figure in the low-key black with that odd white harness .... 
I suppose once a punk ....

Dolly on the other hand radiated that old-fashioned country glamour and seemed slimmer than ever, and had some new songs too. Both gals are releasing new material this year.   
We are of course used to old rock stars still going (was anything more bizarre than Paul McCartney now in his Seventies and with that dyed hair still singing "I Saw Her Standing There" (about that girl of 17) at that recent Beatles in America tribute, or Jagger still trying to get some "Satisfaction" - at least the gals can give them a run for their money).
Top 5 Lists continued: The Top 5 Dolly songs as listed are: "Just Because I'm A Woman", "Down From Dover", "I Will Always Love You", "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" and "To Daddy".

Back to the archives: a new BBC series "Sounds of the Eighties" offers eight half hour specials of music clips from vintage '80s BBC shows.

It was bliss to see again that bizarre version of "Slave To The Rhythm" which Grace Jones did on the Terry Wogan show in 1985 - Grace is covered up for most of the number, I remember this from its first transmission, 
and we always like a Sade number - "Diamond Life" indeed ! 

Blues on Sunday ...

It looks like Cate Blanchett will be collecting her Best Actress Award tonight - middle of the night here in the UK, so I will know in the morning. It was obvious back in August when I saw BLUE JASMINE that she would be unstoppable, just like Dame Helen (Mirren) was that year it was her turn ... 

It seems though that the girl from that three hour French explicit lesbian romance BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR - Adele Exarchopoulos - should also be in competition, and may be the real best actress of the year, according to newspaper pundits covering the Oscar nominations. I have just pre-ordered the film, due on dvd in 2 weeks. Tomorrow I get the  GRAVITY Blu-ray, and Pharrell's eagerly awaited new cd G I R L ... will we be "Happy" ?

We also pre-ordered the Coens' INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, maybe the biggest movie not to have many nominations .... and also PHILOMENA, due out in a few weeks.  Maybe the cat (or cats, I understand there were 3 of them) should be up for Best Supporting Cat of the Year ? It seems the Coens best in some time, with a great subject, that folk singer who does not make it, as another steps up to the limelight ...

Nice music for a wet afternoon, watching BBC documentaries on the Chess label, that record company based in Chicago with all those great hits in the 50s and 60s - with great footage of those artists I love listening to: Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, and Bo Diddeley and Chuck Berry, and Etta James, Fontella Bass ("Rescue Me") and Sugar Pie DeSanto with her "Soulful Dress" ....  my best late pal, Stanley, loved that one. Watching Muddy and Howling and Etta at their peak is simply wonderful. I even dug that album Howling Wolf did with the likes of Clapton and Stevie Winwood in the 70s. Time to get out my Chess compilation albums.  Next music documentary coming up features the great Muscle Shoals recording studio in Alabama, where Aretha and the others did all those 60s Atlantio classics. Lovely. 

We also record VH1's Saturday night's weekly 3 hour "Saturday Night 80s Disco" and fly through it on Sunday, savouring some of the videos all over again, like Wham's "Young Guns" or Blondie's "Rapture" - bliss incarnate, along with soul clips like Chaka Khan and Shannon. How great Debbie and the guys are toplining Glastonbury this year, along with, er, Dolly. 

Blondie

Blondie's PARALLEL LINES (which has just been given away free here in an English newspaper) is a classic album featuring brilliant singles and it turned the group Blondie into massive international stars. It brings back a lot of memories of that late '70s early '80s time and its great hearing those songs like Heart of Glass, Picture This, Hanging on the Telephone, Fade Away and Radiate etc again. It has driven me back to their other material, classics like Rapture, The Tide Is High and Debbie Harry's I Want That Man.

This album shows the band at the peak of their powers. It reached Nr 1 in the UK charts in February 1979 and heralded a period when the New York group was one of the biggest in the world. I was just in my 30s then and it was all very relevant to me. They were 5 boys and one drop-dead gorgeous girl who burst on the music scene highlighting that New York vibe of the time. Female rock stars like Madonna and Lady Gaga owe many of their ideas to Debbie Harry.

PARALLEL LINES now looks like a vivid postcard from a cool, mixed up corner of late '70s New York, a time when disco, punk and art collided. The New York of those years was not the affluent city of today but was a lethal semi-derelict place where Blondie made their headquarters. Chris Stein the band's guitarist was Debbie's boyfriend and so-founder of the group. Their contemporaries were legends-in-waiting like Talking Heads but it was Blondie who bottled their sound and vision of the sound and attitude of New York and exported the city to the world's pop charts.

Their Call Me was also another giant hit, used over the opening credits of Paul Schrader's hymn to the era, AMERICAN GIGOLO. Their momentum stalled in 1982 when Stein developed a rare skin disease and Debbie Harry retired from the spotlight to nurse him back to health. They returned in the late '90s with more hits like Maria and a hit album, and there is a new album out in January - 3 of which tracks are on this free giveaway. It does whet one's appetite for more Blondie. Blondie are arguably the greatest band of New York City and those years and PARALLEL LINES captures every element of their brilliance. It was good too to see Debbie during her solo years and when she performed with the Jazz Passengers. Cool is the word.