Musical Musings | Blondie ready to rock it at festival

By Joe Matera

Mar 12, 2024

Still going strong: Blondie will be performing in Australia next month. Drummer Clem Burke is pictured second from right. Photo by Contributed

Pop-rockers Blondie, fronted by Debbie Harry, came out of the nascent punk rock scene of New York City during the mid-1970s and, by the end of the decade, had become one of the biggest bands on the planet before their implosion in 1982.

The group reunited in 1997 and have since continued to tour and release new material, connecting with a new generation of music fans. Blondie, who are touring Australia next month as part of the Pandemonium Rocks festival, have been a frequent visitor to our shows. In fact, Shepparton has a connection with Blondie that goes way back to their first-ever Australian tour in late 1977, where they performed at Shepparton’s GV Hotel.

“We did quite a lot of gigs on that first tour,” recalled Blondie drummer Clem Burke to this column last week.

“Though I do remember playing Shepparton, I don’t remember anything else other than The Ferrets, who were our opening act.

“We travelled around Australia in a school bus, both groups together.”

Though the group can now travel in luxury, Burke has never taken anything for granted, particularly in this post-pandemic world.

“The period of time in between the lockdown and going back on tour was an interesting time as far as reflecting upon things,” he said.

“I’m grateful to be able to do what I love and tour the world.”

While Burke keeps to a busy touring schedule, the past few years have also seen him put pen to paper on a memoir. Having given it the working title of The Other Side of the Dream (My life in and out of Blondie), Burke says he hopes to have it out by year’s end.

“I began that during lockdown to have something to do,” he said

“It’s become almost a cliche for everyone to have a book, a memoir, but I am reflecting a lot upon the past.

“And going through the archives is almost like self-therapy as I look back on everything that’s gone on, both positive stuff and some crazy stuff, too.

“Luckily, I’ve avoided a lot of the pitfalls along the way of the rock and roll lifestyle, I suppose, as I’m still here.”

For a number of years now, Burke has also been part of a study analysing the physical and psychological effects of drumming. One of the most surprising results from the study showed that drummers can reach the same physical exertion as that of professional athletes.

“Mental health is very important to me, and of course, it’s come to the forefront a lot more nowadays as far as people’s wellbeing in the entertainment business,” he said.

“So, Professor Marcus Smith from the University of Chichester in the UK, who was also a Blondie fan, initially wrote me a letter quite some time ago, and because I am into fitness, wanted to discuss the physicality of playing the drums.

“As I grow older, there’s a certain level of fitness needed.

“So, I was in tune with what he had to say about making this analogy between sport and drumming.

“It was supposed to be a one-off thing study, but he was able to kind of carry on with the study over a number of years, and he came up with a thesis, which resulted in me getting a couple of honorary doctorates from a couple of universities in the UK.”

For tickets and further info, go to: https://www.pandemonium.rocks/

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According to music database Discogs, The Beatles are the most collected musical act in the world, while Taylor Swift is the most popular artist of the 2020s.

The view from here

In 2002, the late Beatles producer Sir George Martin told me he believed the music industry was “heading towards perdition”. He uncannily also observed, “The audience has changed, and everything is visual with people now listening with their eyes and not with their ears anymore.”

And 20 years later, those words ring ever more true as the music industry continues to fragment, to the point it’s hardly recognisable from two decades ago. The recent action by Universal Music to remove its music catalogue from video-sharing platform TikTok, due to both parties failing to reach an agreement on several issues, including compensation for artists and songwriters, continues the ever-growing divide afflicting the music industry.

In recent times, TikTok has become a powerful vehicle for artists and music, bringing an upsurge in popularity and sales to artists and their music. Who remembers the short 2020 skateboarding video featuring Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams that went viral and breathed new life into a decades-old song that led to the song’s return to the charts, as well as becoming one of the year’s most streamed songs?

While TikTok has become influential in discovering artists as well as resurrecting careers and creating viral hits, the power struggle between record labels and the platform has reached a crisis point. This whole scenario is somewhat reminiscent of the Napster file-sharing drama that arose at the turn of the 21st century, which led to the era of music streaming and downloading. And here we are again, more than 20 years later, at another pivotal point in the music industry. It will be interesting to see where this will lead and what the fallout will be. Only time will tell.