Blondie guitarist Chris Stein talks about the Countdown mix-up that started it all

THEY'RE the first non-Australians to headline Homebake, but perhaps it’s appropriate - their first commercial success was in the Land Down Under.

Blondie

Blondie guitarist Chris Stein talks about the Countdown mix-up that started it all.

In 1977, New-Wave rockers Blondie were still regarded as an underground act.

Fronted by blonde bombshell Deborah Harry, they were regulars at the famous New York clubs CBGB and Max’s Kansas City – but it wasn’t until an accident on Aussie TV show Countdown that they really took off.

The video for their song, X-Offender, about a prostitute who falls in love with the police officer that had arrested her, was scheduled to play. But a mix-up caused the song’s B-side to play instead – a  pop ballad called In The Flesh.

It was well received by the viewing audience and their debut album, Blondie, went to number 14 in the Australian charts. But Blondie guitarist Chris Stein doesn’t think it was an accident at all.

“It’s a good story that it was a mistake, but I’m still sceptical. I asked Molly about it but he stuck by the fact it was a mistake. I don’t know for sure”, said Mr Stein in an interview with news.com.au.

“In retrospect, I always think that Molly Meldrum just had a better idea of what the market would bare here, and he played the B-side. I don’t think the A-side of that song would have been successful.

It was a long time ago, that kind of aggressive sound wasn’t in the area yet, whereas the B-side was a prettier ballad type thing.”

Blondie

The song itself is a little closer to the type of music the band was rebelling against at the time – Mr Stein says that the airwaves were dominated by boring, bland pop.

“Everything was so middle of the road. It was a little bland, that stuff. Everything was dominated by Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles.

“All the aggressiveness of the punk and new wave scene was kind of a backlash against what was going on.

“There was some good stuff going on in the seventies, of course, but the stuff at the top was bad.”

He says the centre of that backlash was New York city – and it wasn’t just because of clubs like CBGB’s.

“It was economics too. It was very inexpensive to live there, it was this big urban environment. A melting pot. There were a lot of different musical influences all over the place. We were surrounded by layers of music all the time.

“It was really easy for young people to live there, you didn’t have to have a job, you could work on what your art was.

“In most of the big western cities now it must be really difficult to do that.”

So how has the world changed since the rise of Blondie? Mr Stein says that, although the technology has made it easier, there’s still as much as good as there is bad.

I’m a big fan of modern pop music. There’s a lot of great stuff, there’s a lot of junk but it was always like that. Back in the sixties it was 50 percent crap. It’s always maintained that ratio.

“People get down on modern pop music, but there’s so much great stuff around now too. The music scene in general, when we were starting out, the world of touring was still very primitive.

It’s just faster and better, and I can do these much more full blown arrangements of things.

“I like the digital world also, I enjoy working with computers, it’s very fast and intuitive.

“It’s just faster and better, and I can do these much more full blown arrangements of things.”

“I never “write”, I just play parts and seeing how they sound. Back in the day I’d put down a rhythm machine and a couple of guitars, now I can do a whole thing that sounds like a finished song.”

And he says that these days, the band is strictly professional –the days of rambunctious rock and rollers are over.

“We try to be more professional. That goes hand in hand with the way the music industry is. The days of wrecking hotel rooms, we didn’t do it that much, but that kind of unprofessional behaviour is behind us.”

Blondie are performing in Australia on the following dates:

10th December - Townsville Entertainment Centre, Townsville

13th December - Brisbane River Stage, Brisbane