Roberta Bayley - Blondie: Unseen 1976-1980

In April of 1974, I arrived in New York, not knowing a single soul. I had a list of friends of friends upon whom to call, and that was it. I called a woman on my list named Judy Markham, and she invited me to stay at her loft on Warren Street. The next day, I located an old friend named John Newman from San Francisco, who was living in Brooklyn and had a spare room. I was temporarily set up. Another person on my list was David Nofsinger. He showed me around the city a little, and asked me what I wanted to do in New York. I told him I wanted to see the New York Dolls, who were currently playing shows in the city. Id missed them when they played in London and San Francisco, and they were the only band I was curious about. It turned out that Nofsinger had been the Dolls soundman on their European tour, and they were playing at a club downstairs from his loft on East 4th Street, called the Club 82. He arranged to have a party at his loft after the show.

The Club 82, at 82 East 4th Street, was originally owned by one of Lucky Lucianos early cohorts, Vito Genovese. Though heroin was at the centre of the Genovese empire, Vito also owned several nightclubs, usually purchased in other peoples names. The 82 Club (as it was then called) featured drag queens, which was considered risqu at the time. At its height, the 82 drew celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. By the seventies it was a discotheque, and was put on the map when David Bowie visited one night. The doorperson was a butch lesbian named Tommy, who let people she liked in for free.

The New York Dolls had released their second album and were doing a series of shows in different New York clubs, their Easter Tour. The mere existence of the Dolls, even though some thought they were past their peak, was so much more glamorous to me than anything Id experienced in London. They carried an excitement around them that was like a floating party.

A band called the Miamis opened for the Dolls at the 82. They wore suits and bright red lipstick. Their music was catchy and energetic, but I was a little confused by their image. When the Dolls made their entrance, I was somewhat taken aback. David Johansen wore a strapless sheath dress, a bouffant wig and high heel pumps, with a leather motorcycle jacket thrown over his shoulders. The other Dolls also wore various forms of female clothing. Never having seen the band before, I wasnt in on the joke, and thought this was their normal look. In fact, as an homage to the history of the 82 Club, they had decided (all but Jerry Nolan, who wasnt having any of it) to appear in actual drag!

After the show, everyone from the Miamis and the Dolls (except Johnny Thunders) and their friends came to the party. It was quite a scene, lots of crazy-looking people in makeup and wild clothing, not like anything Id experienced in London. The Dolls had changed out of their drag attire I remember David Johansen was wearing a cut-off sweatshirt!

Everyone was friendly and ready to give me an introduction to the city. I went to a party at the Miamis apartment, and, later, Jimmy Miami took me to see the Dolls who were opening for Suzi Quatro at the Bottom Line and also Patti Smith and Television at Maxs Kansas City. That was something different. While Patti had been playing around New York for awhile, I had not heard anything about her. I liked Television a lot, they were both electrifying and funny, but Patti was a complete revelation to me. I had never seen a performer like her, so very mesmerising and hypnotic.

The as yet unnamed punk scene was just beginning to coalesce. In Making Tracks: The Rise of Blondie, Debbie Harry called 1974 the non-period of punk, but for me, who had been living in London for two years and had experienced a real non-period, it was an exciting time. The New York bands were beginning to form, influenced by the Dolls energetic stage show and local popularity, some by art and poetry, the Warhol aesthetic, or by New York City itself. Even though there was supposedly nothing happening, with the city bankrupt and on the skids, there was still a palpable feeling in the air that spring and summer of possibility.

One day that summer, I was walking with Dale Powers of the Miamis on East 10th Street, and ran into Richard Hell. I had read Patti Smiths article in Hit Parader about Television, and I was intrigued by Richard, who had an unusual appearance mixed with Southern charm. Later, I went to a party at Terry Orks loft and Richard was there, but back then (as now) I wasnt too fond of parties, so I bid him adieu, quoting a line from his song, Fuck Rock N Roll, saying Id rather read a book. Later that summer, I ran into Richard at Club 82. Nofsinger was out of town, and I was staying at his loft upstairs. Richard and I hooked up that night, but I was leaving for California two days later. I managed to find him at his managers loft and say goodbye over the phone, but that was that. Or so I thought.

Richard and I started a correspondence, and later he asked me to come back to New York and move in with him. I arrived just after Christmas. Television were playing Sunday nights at CBGBs, and their manager, Terry Ork, asked if I would take the admission money at the door. This turned out to be a pleasant job, because, instead of just hanging around waiting for the band to play, I had something to do. I met everybody who came to check Television out, and, at that time, they were the band everyone wanted to see. Most of the audience was made up of musicians from other bands, and they all got in for free. Television were interesting, with unusual, original material, and Richard was pretty animated onstage jumping around, much to Tom Verlaines disapproval.

I met Deborah Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie at CBGBs. Blondie were actually the first band after Television to play there, but that was a little before my time. Debbie always had a great look. In fact, it seemed to me she never repeated an outfit. She didnt just show up anywhere in jeans and a T-shirt unless they were pink jeans, a cool T-shirt and a pink beret. Part of the fun of going out was to create a look. Even with little or no money this could be easily achieved, combining thrift shop chic with the bargains on 14th Street, and a little street scavenging for good measure. Debbie had been part of the glitter scene, which relied on vintage discoveries for its glamour. As glitter faded, so did satin and lace. Something new had to take its place, and Richard Hell was undoubtedly one of the masters of this new style. He turned the necessity of holding his clothes together with safety pins and staples into a look. No one could afford logo T-shirts of their band why not just write your slogan on with a magic marker?

Debbie had had a band called the Stillettoes, who played at the Boburn Tavern on 28th Street. Chris saw Debbie at the Boburn and soon left his band, the Magic Tramps, to join the Stillettoes. There were three girl singers, Debbie, Elda Gentile and Rosie Ross; Fred Smith was on bass, and Billy OConnor played drums. Tommy Ramone invited the band to rehearse at Performance Studios on 23rd Street, where the Ramones rehearsed. Elda was dating Richard Hell, who invited the band to play at CBGBs. It was a pretty small scene.

This was the period when what would become Blondie was in a constant state of transition. The Stilettoes broke up, then Debbie and Chriss band became Angel and the Snake for two shows, played a few gigs with no name, and then morphed into Blondie (because they briefly had two blonde back-up singers). Later, they played uptown at a club called Brandys, with Tish and Snooky Bellomo (who would later have a boutique called Manic Panic on St Marks Place, and start a revolution in hair colour with their product line). This version of the group was called Blondie and the Banzai Babies, and played together for over a year. Around this time, Billy OConnor left to pursue a non-musical career. The band auditioned dozens of drummers, the last of whom was Clem Burke who was not only an excellent drummer, with great musical taste and a cool fashion sense, but also had the youthful enthusiasm the band desperately needed.