Kris Needs column: Dreamin' of Blondie at next Aylesbury Vinyl on Wednesdays evening

I say 'finally' as Blondie are quite possibly the act we've been most requested to cover. It can be said that, if Jude, Rick and I hadn't attended a Classic Album Sundays playback session in Hackney back in October 2018, we probably wouldn't have got the idea to start our own listening sessions in Aylesbury.

At that event, I'd been asked to come along and talk about Blondie's classic third album Parallel Lines before it was played in its entirety. At V.O.W., we'll be following our usual format of trying to span their whole career while I come up with some memories from the five years I spent close to the band.

After first meeting Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein in 1977, after they'd just made their London debut at Hammersmith Odeon, I was so impressed I put them in the first Zigzag magazine I presented as editor, sitting down with Debbie for the first of several interviews I would do over the years.

Believe it or not, we were one of the few publications then giving Blondie good reviews so our relationship grew from there. When they appeared at Friars in November '77, it was their first headlining show outside of London, and was also one of the best I saw them play (It sounds surreal now but Blondie actually popped around to the flat I was staying at in Bishops Walk in the afternoon!).

Another surreal memory is accompanying them on the UK tour that happened as Blondiemania broke out, shepherding Debbie from stage door to tour bus through hordes of screaming fans (who mobbed me too because they thought I was in the group!).

After that, I went with them to endless gallery openings, record shop signings, Top Of the Pops appearances, more gigs and often to their hotel in the afternoon (By 1979, their tour itineraries contained the activity "Hang out with Needs"). I introduced Debbie to Motorhead's Lemmy and she introduced me to Nile Rodgers from Chic. These were some of the best times in one of the best times of my life.

Apart from the memories (and I may be referring to the book I did on them in 2013 called Parallel Lives), I'll be playing as many Blondie-related records as I can squeeze in, probably 'Heart of Glass', 'Sunday Girl', 'Denis' and maybe lesser-known outings like Deb's Koo Koo solo LP.

See you there!