Blondie, which came to light in
1975, and broke up in 1982, following the diagnosis of a rare disease
by founding member Chris Stein's in 1982; then reunited several times
after that, was possibly the most commercially successful band of the
punk/new wave scene in the mid-to-late nineteen seventies.
They sold over 50 millions records
world wide and produced a slew of number one singles.
In 2006 they were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During their lulls, lead singer Deborah
Harry launched her solo singing career and a successful foray into
acting.
Who better than Roberta Bayley to
create such a likely tribute to the band and cap off the nostalgia for
the classic punk/new wave New York scene of the late seventies? As
one of the chief photographers for
New York-based
Punk
Magazine--she got a job there
after engaging in some funny repartee with co-founder Legs McNeil
while manning the door at CBGBs--Bayles was well situated to meet and
photography many of the key performers and bands of that important
period and place. But the main feature
are the 235 raw and candid photographs of the band, occasionally with
other punk legends like Joey, David Johansen, Billy Idol and Joan
Jett.
Bayley is widely represented as a photographer in many books on punk
culture, and is the author of
The Blank Generation Revisited: The Early Days of Punk Rock
(1997). and Punk
(1978, 2002) , with Dike Blair and Isabelle Anscombe. Like any
qreat action photographer, she is able to capture the band in action
situations without much posing. This book, however, is not a deep
biography of the band, a la Making
Tracks: The Rise Of Blondie, the book by Victor Bokris, Debbie
Harry and Chris Stein that came out in 1982.
Highly recommended--check
out
http://www.robertabayley.com/
Source:
http://www.popmatters.com/music/features/000830-bayley.html
