GuilFest 2005. The Guildford Music Festival on 15th, 16th and 17th July 2005

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Artist: Blondie
Genre: Take your pick...
Performing: 16th July 2004 / Stage 1
Website Address: http://www.blondie.net/
Author: James Hirst

Blondie
From New Wave Punk to Reggae influenced pop, Blondie can only be decribed as iconic, to add a musical category would be a disservice to the genre defying policy of playing whatever they feel like and to hell with expectations.

With hit after hit on both sides of the Atlantic no party is complete without at least one Blondie track but the Guilfest party goers wouldn't be happy with just one tune. So in 2004 Debbie Harry and the band round off their UK tour as the headline act on the main stage.

The biggest ever Guilfest crowd were clearly up for it as Blondie opened their set with a surging "Atomic".

"Stage Presence" is a well worn phrase, but Deborah is the standard setter, every eye in the crowd was trained on her as she made the stage her own. The new album "The Curse of Blondie" is filled with cheeky allusions to horror movies and the occult, but there was nothing tongue in cheek about the performance at Guilfest. No overblown Rock histrionics or clichéd stage sets were on show. Many Blondie contemporaries have descended into pastiche or caricature of the original performance but with tunes as seminal as the Blondie back catalogue, there is no room for Disney special effects or "crazy" fancy dress and Debbie and the boys let the music take centre stage.

The band were clearly enjoying themselves, almost as much as the audience. Following a major UK tour, Guilfest was the last date on the Blondie calendar and an opportunity to play a crowd pleasing set from the superlative back catalogue.

Tide is high, Union city blues, Heart of glass and Rapture had the crowd enthralled. As Debbie Whirled about the stage the streaming cuffs of her outfit whipped the Guilfest faithful into dance, song and the loudest encore a Friday night has seen in Guildford.

Atomic.