It's pretty much all been said already about Blondie: a band seems to arrive out of nowhere, fully-formed with astonishing pop singles and a staggeringly beautiful lead singer with a great voice and a huge amount of talent. Blondie looked the part as well, dressing up in an early to mid-sixties style, and with a new wave sensibility that most Americans just never seemed to get. (My favourite rubbish 'punk' is Tony Coca-Cola from Abel Ferrara's equally rubbish video nasty Driller Killer.)

Picture This is just wonderful:
Picture this - a day in December
Picture this - freezing cold weather
You got clouds on your lids and you'd be on the skids
If it weren't for your job at the garage
If you could only oh-oh
Picture this - a sky full of thunder
Picture this - my telephone number
One and one is what I'm telling you, oh yeah

The song is made even more remarkable by the fact that it was produced by Mike Chapman, the man partially responsible for some of the most hideous dumbass proletarian sing-along hits of the mid 70s. Punk and New Wave seemed to unleash an eruption of female rock and pop talent (it was always there with soul and disco) and the appearance of Debbie Harry made this young pop customer wonder why he/we had suffered the likes of Tina Charles, Sylvia and Suzi Quatro (another Chapman artist) for so long. 1978 was a brilliant pop year made even better by the true flowering of the New Wave and Bob Latchford's 30 goals for The Toffees. (And that's the last football reference. Well, for a while, anyway.) In '78 Blondie had hits with Denis, Hanging on the Telephone, I'm Always Touched By Your (Presence, Dear) and Picture This. That's four singles better than most groups achieve in their lifetimes. They'd be just as good in 1979.

A fabulous pop record.Blondie Picture This

(SV 7.5.16)