Debbie Harry Bitchy and Redhead as Blondie Inducted

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Fox media critic Roger Friedman reports that,

The annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dinner would have been a severe dud had not Debbie Harry showed her dark side. Seems that the now-redheaded Harry told the Hall of Fame producers she didn’t want former band mates Nigel Harrison, Gary Valentine and Frank Infante on stage or anywhere near her, Chris Stein, Clem Burke and Jimmy Destry — the four remaining original players.

The bad blood among all involved quickly became publicly apparent last night. That’s because once Harry, Stein and Destry made their remarks and accepted their awards, the ditched trio was not satisfied with remaining mum about their snub. First Valentine, who wrote the band’s original hits, “X Offender” and “I’m Always Touched By Your Presence Dear,” referred to being cut out of the band’s live performance, which was being readied to the side, noisily, while the cast-off members got to make their remarks. Looking irked, Infante — who bears a resemblance to Lou Reed — baited Harry from the podium. “We’d really like to play with you, would that be alright?”

Harry, who’d been off to the side with the others, walked up the mike and said, straight at Infante, “Can’t you see my band is playing?” Infante didn’t miss a beat. “We thought we were the band,” he said, overlapping Harry as she then rattled off the names of three people no one had ever heard of who obviously have replaced Infante and Harrison. (Valentine was only on the first Blondie album.)

There was audible hissing at Harry, who didn’t come off very well in the moment. Harrison tried to make the best of it, but his remarks — which echoed Infante’s — were basically swallowed by the silence.

Despite the fact that Harry’s hair in a bottle was the group’s namesake, Blondie was a band, not a solo act. Frankly, I don’t think they deserved induction into the Hall of Fame. But since they were voted in, it is obviously the original members who should be honored, not some schmoes who joined them long after they became a nostalgia act.

And Harry is no longer attractive enough to be such a bitch. Not by a long shot.

Debbie Harry Bitchy and Redhead as Blondie Inducted

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