BLONDIE

1977 Australian Tour
State Theatre
Sydney, NSW
Australia
11th December 1977

From Waz From Oz’s Uncirculated Master


X Offender (Not Taped)

1. Detroit 442
2. Shark In Jets Clothing
3. In The Sun
4. Little Girl Lies
5. Denis Denis
6. “I’m Always Touched By Your Presence) Dear”
7. Fan Mail
8. Look Good In Blue
9. Man Overboard
10. Rifle Range
11. In The Flesh
12. Cautious Lip
13. I’m On E
14. Contact In Red Square (Fades In)
15. Love At The Pier
16. I Didn’t Have The Nerve To Say No > Start Of Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight45)

Lost on 2nd Cassette-
Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight45)
Kidnapper
Rip Her To Threads
Youth Nabbed As Sniper
I Love Playing With Fire
Ku Fung Girls

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Taped By Waz And Ruby
2020 transfer by audiowhore from the master cassette.

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The Band-
Debbie Harry – Vocals & Sexual Allure
Chris Stein – Guitar & B/Vocals
Clem Burke – Drums
Jimmy Destri – Keyboards & B/Vocals
Frank Infante – Guitar & B/Vocals
Nigel Harrison – Bass Guitar & B/Vocals

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Blondie 1977 Australian Tour dates

26th November Perth, WA - Concert Hall
29th November Adelaide, SA - Apollo Stadium
1st December Melbourne, VIC - Palais Theatre
2nd December Albury, NSW - Regent Theatre
3rd December Wagga, NSW - Hoyts Theatre
5th December Newcastle, NSW - Civic Theatre
6th December Lismore, NSW Town Hall
8th December Brisbane, QLD - Her Majesty's Theatre (This is apparently the only Blondie show ever cancelled. Apparently, Debbie had food poisoning from eating cherries. Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge, say no more.)
10th December Wollongong, NSW - Town Hall
11th December Sydney, NSW - State Theatre
12th December Canberra, ACT - Canberra Theatre
15th December Morwell, Vic - Morwell Technical College *
17th December Geelong, Vic - Plaza Theatre
18th December Brisbane, QLD - Her Majesty's Theatre (Rescheduled from 8th December due to Ms Harry’s illness)
19th December Berridale, TAS – Granada Tavern *
21st-27th December Great Keppel Island, QLD – 3 gigs played.

* The Morwell & Berridale dates are not 100% confirmed.

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By November 1977 Blondie with 'In The Flesh' had either a No. 1 or No. 2 hit in Australia, depends on which Top 40 Chart one reads.
Add to that the A-Side was actually 'X Offender' but apparently Australia’s Music Guru (to some) Molly Meldrum, thought the A - Side was 'In The Flesh' so that was the song he pushed heavily to radio stations & it took off.
Molly said it was an accident but both Debbie & Chris have laughingly suggested it was on purpose because he preferred that song.

It was Blondie's First Top 40 hit anywhere in the world. The song appealed to me & because of it I brought the first Blondie LP.
I loved the album especially 'In The Sun' & 'Rip Her To Threads'.
Some of music press / mainstream media grouped Blondie as being part of the punk movement, but having been exposed to The UK Punk Music the year before I saw them more as pop or power pop

The tour was promoted as “The First New Wave Tour” to hit Australia.

It took in most state capitals plus some country towns. It was considered a bit of a flop as very few venues if any sold out, they basically toured on the strength of one hit single.
Debbie Harry had also done a quick promotional junket to Australia just before the tour.
The two gigs I caught Sydney & Canberra were far from sell outs.

I was surprised that they played The State Theatre instead of the Enmore Theatre which would have suited the band far more than the upmarket State Theatre which was the biggest venue they played on the tour.
That day as I left work to go home to change to come back into the city for pre-Christmas drinks, I passed Clem Bourke in the city. More of him later.
Even though I have a pretty good memory, it’s a bit rusty regarding this gig mainly because by the time I met up with Ruby outside the State Theatre I was a bit pissed.

I remember Debbie had a costume change at one point in the show where she wore a, well a raincoat over her off the shoulder black mini dress.
Because of the media writing about the punk scene in the UK where audience members (& sometimes band members) would Australian - Golly / UK - Gob - Gobbing or for more polite readers spat on or at each other.
This inspired some bright sparks at the very front of the stage who thought it would be a punk thing to spit, so they started spitting at Debbie.
I recall at some stage her asking them to please stop spitting. Can’t remember if this was pre-raincoat or she put it to protect her from the gobbing.

It is probably the most distant of all our recordings, but it gets better as it goes along.
Our trusty tape recorder was dying at the Lou Reed 29th October 1977 Hordern gig & had gone to heaven by the time his of 2nd Sydney show at the State 10th November gig which is why we didn’t record that show.
I have no recollection of what we used to tape Blondie at the State. Ruby’s not here to ask so I must assume we borrowed, begged or stole a recording device to tape this show.

A good portion of the set were songs unknown to the audience as they were from the 2nd Blondie LP 'Plastic Letters' which wasn’t released until two months later in February 1978.
So, this gig was a review of sorts & liking what I had heard I brought it on its release & to this day it remains my favourite Blondie LP.

What struck me the most about this show was what an energetic powerhouse their drummer Clem Bourke is & he remains so every time I have seen Blondie since 1977.
IMHO he’s as under rated as John Bonham is overrated, sorry Led Zep fans but it was Bonham that turned me off Led Zeppelin with his tedious half a century long drum solo Moby Dick.
I was fed up of buying expensive Led Zep bootlegs only to find Moby Dick taking up a side & a half of LP’s at the expense of other songs.
I think I’d rather hear Side Two of John Lennon’s Live Peace In Toronto than to suffer having to listen to a live rendition of Moby Dick ever again!

And before slighted Zep fans flood my PM with hate mail including asking me did I ever see Bonham live, well yes I did, I saw Led Zeppelin live in Sydney 27th February 1972, sorry that I didn’t tape it, I didn’t start taping till 26th February 1973 when I taped the Stones.
Clem also seemed to appeal to Lindsay Scott who reviewed the Blondie show, but I would have replaced the word saliva with sweat as that’s what I saw pour off Clem.

As with most Australian shows there is always some wag that will yell out some remark, such as “Take Your Clothes Of” just before 'Denis Denis' & why would someone yell out “I Wanna Be Your Dog” a Stooges song which occurs before Fan Mail?
Surely one couldn’t mistake Debbie for Iggy.
Ms Harry was quoted later as saying the best thing about Australia 1977 was the Heroin.
And looking at her facial expression photo on the back cover artwork I’d say some might have come her way on the 11th December!
Sadly, this show is incomplete, apart from missing the first song we taped the rest of the show, but before we got around to dubbing a safety copy Ruby lost the 2nd cassette with the last 6 songs of the show on it.
Better the 2nd cassette than the 1st cassette as Side 1 of that cassette contains a 1977 recording of a well-known & much-admired Australian band which will be on DIME later this year.
Cassettes were expensive, so often we’d use the blank side of an already used cassette.

But don’t worry Blondie fans because we loved the Sydney show Ruby & me decided to leg it down to Canberra the next day to see that night's Blondie show .
Thanks to a friend we recorded the complete show which will be on DIME sometime soon.

Thanks to audiowhore & Roger D for the State Theatre photos.

Enjoy,
Waz

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Sydney Morning Herald
12th December 1977
New Wave – In The Flesh
By Lindsay Scott

I sensed by the end of Blondie’s State Theatre concert on Sunday when the drummer kicked his kit into disarray at the end of the encore.
It was a nice touch of punk rock defiance, and the crowd eager to see some punk rock defiance, loved it.
Until then the New York group whose tour had been publicised as “The First New Wave (sort of an alternate term for punk) tour” had looked the part in it’s black and leather gear, without really acting it.
Nobody had smashed his head into an amplifier or got into a fight with any member of the audience or town up on stage. That is, after all, what we’ve been led to believe punk rock is all about.
That kit-kicking drummer had shown a perchance for spraying the stage with his saliva, but it seemed a poor substitute for some real punk degradation.
Instead it was left to the music to create the atmosphere, and it largely worked.
A lot of the audience probably turned up on the strength of the number one record In The Flesh, an average pop ballad that really had little to do with the rest of the group’s music.
Mostly the music is a series of strident guitars chords that hit your ears, your stomach and then your feet, driven by energetic drumming. It is unadventurous, but disciplined and obviously well-rehearsed.
It also drowns out almost every lyric the lead singer Deborah Harry utters.
But she bobs around the stage in a black thigh high mini-skirt over black stockings looking like a cross between a schoolgirl and a seductress, quite an appealing image.

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