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BOOTLEG BLONDIE

A Blondie tribute band
in New York !

In December we were asked if we would like to come over to New York to headline for the New York Punk and Underground Record Fair to be held on April 1st 2006, at the Holy Grail of Punk - CBGBs!!!!!!!! This was unbelievable!! We said yes and started saving!
Still shell-shocked we received a message from the Queen of New York herself - Debbie Harry - wishing us good luck with our show! She said 'I still play at CBGBs from time to time, it's a great venue'.
DJ Lisa from the Frantic Romantx sent word that she'd like us to play at Otto's Shrunken Head the night before the CBGBs gig. Then we had an email from Blondie's current keyboard player Kevin Patrick wishing us luck and told us that Otto's was a cool place, Lou Reed had played there! We could hardly wait.
On March 29th eight of us flew from London Heathrow to JFK. This was the first trip to the Big Apple for most of us. A white stretch limo met us at the airport complete with our chauffeur holding a Bootleg Blondie sign at the barrier! He drove us to The Allerton Hotel, Chelsea, while we took in the New York skyline on the way. We dropped our bags off and headed straight towards 315 The Bowery @ Bleecker - CBGBs. As we walked down Bleecker Street we could see the famous canopy coming into view. We were actually there at last. Some of our favourite bands had started in this one little club, The Ramones, Talking Heads and of course the reason why we were here...Blondie!
Cameras at the ready we went through the doorway into the dimly lit bar. All around, the walls and ceilings were covered in stickers and graffitti. There wasn't an inch of clear space anywhere! I immediately jumped onto the stage, grabbed a mike stand, my stilletto heel went through the floor and I got told to 'Get off the stage!!' We explained that we were playing that weekend and were forgiven and allowed to go through to the dressing rooms at the back and down into the basement. We spent a long time wandering around, reading the graffiti and taking in the atmosphere. It was a very eerie feeling, it kind of smelt and felt like we were back in the 70s.
There were some great photos of Deborah Harry in the gallery, she seemed to be following me around the place! We had some beers at the bar, more photos were taken, merchandise was bought including CBGBs plectrums, pants (not trousers!), t.shirts, stickers and even a CBGBs shower curtain!
Finally tearing ourselves away we headed back to the hotel. On the way we stopped at the Chelsea Hotel, of Sid and Nancy fame and the boys checked out the local guitar shops.
Dinner was at the Pita Hut, then later that night it was off to Death Disco at Delancey run by B.P.Fallon, Marc Bolan's and Led Zeppelin's publicist and friend. There were 5 bands on the bill including two British bands who were currently on tour.
Next day we took the subway to Queens to sample breakfast at the Dime Diner and then onto Broadway to check out Times Square and more guitar shops! We found the famous Manny's (music shop) and met his grandson! Signed Blondie photos adorned the walls alongside The Who, The Ramones and even Ella Fitzgerald! Sam Ash (music shop) was our next stop where we were to meet Lisa for lunch. She introduced us to her boss Bobby Colonna, who turned out to be an old school friend of Clem Burke and Frank Infante, from New Jersey. He told us stories about Clem's first band Sweet Willy and still remembers when Clem went for the Blondie audition. Lisa took us for lunch to her local Irish bar called The Blarney Stone which immediately rang a bell with us as the name of the bar in the Heart Of Glass video. Was it the same one?
The following day we took yellow cabs to Brooklyn to pick up some guitars and keyboards courtesy of Lisa and then off to Otto's which as Kevin Patrick had said was definately a cool place to play. In the audience was Bobby Colonna and one of the Lunachicks. She'd come down because she'd heard we were worth checking out! It was a good gig, even having to do a frantic costume change in the back yard was fun!
Saturday dawned and Andy went straight down to CBGB's for the record fair to meet the organisers, check out Blondie memorabilia, set up our merchandise stall and give out flyers for the gig, any excuse to be there!!!! The rest of us got to CBGB's for 6pm. Rumours were flying round that Deborah Harry was spotted on Tuesday night in a hoodie for the New York Dolls gig. The place was already filling up and there were bands and equipment everywhere. There was no time to be nervous now I just had to find somewhere to get ready. I found the stock room!! We soundchecked on 'Always Touched By Your Presence Dear' and 'Comic Books' and suddenly everyone started clapping, we were really touched!!!
I dashed round the back to change and the boys put their suits on. This was it!
The band started up on Sunday Girl and I came out to an almighty cheer and then it hit me. Here we were, an English band paying tribute to our favourite American band in
CBGBs in New York.........Wow!
Our set list was:
Sunday Girl
Hanging On The Telephone
One Way Or Another
Denis
Union City Blue
Comic Books
X Offender
Dreaming
Atomic
Maria
There was rapturous(!!) applause at the end and then it was over.
We can't believe that Bootleg Blondie played at CBGBs, it still hasn't really sunk in yet. We met so many nice people and tons of Blondie fans. We've also had so many emails since we got home and now have even more friends on myspace.com!
We had the show recorded on the night so watch out for the
'Bootleg Blondie Live At CBGB's' DVD!!
We've all agreed WE LUV NEW YORK !

CBGBs as it was......

CBGBs as it is...
Nov 2006