Red woman
O
n a cold, sunny morning in
Chelsea, New York, Debbie Harry
is remembering one of her favourite
Christmases. It was 40 years ago in
a damp, wintry Britain, and her
band, Blondie, had recently become
regulars at the top of the charts. Their fans were filling her
heart with the spirit of the season. ‘They were so creative,
inventive, energetic,’ she gushes. ‘I loved them!’
A staggering 3,000 of them stopped the traffic when
Blondie did a record shop autograph-signing session at
the start of the month. On Christmas Day, they performed
one of their biggest singles, Dreaming, on Top Of The
Pops. On Boxing Day, they started a UK tour. ‘Quite
a way to celebrate,’ Harry beams. ‘It was wonderful.’
Harry is now, unbelievably, 74, but as whip-smart and
gorgeous as ever. On the phone, she’s warm and direct;
you can imagine a night out with her would be waspish
and fun. We’re speaking on the occasion of her memoirs
finally being published: their brilliantly direct title is
Face It. She’s doggedly resisted doing so until now. ‘I’m
not a person who sort of lives in the past,’ she explains.
‘I don’t know if anyone does! I really love looking
forward. That’s absolutely where life is for me.’ But she
was encouraged to do the book by old boyfriend and
Blondie bandmate Chris Stein. Harry wrote the book in
collaboration with acclaimed journalist Sylvie Simmons,
and it piles through old stories, photographs and fan art
that she’s collected over the years, to fascinating effect.
Her desire to include fan art in the mix casts an
adorable light on Harry, someone better known for her
no-nonsense image, lyrics and attitude. Some of the
paintings are cutely naïve, others full of talent; Harry
loves them all. ‘I mean, I wasn’t ever a huge fan of one
person like that – but I may have had a crush on Ringo
Starr at one point,’ she laughs. ‘His face! So adorable! But
the great care and detail and observation that went into
putting [the pictures] together...’ She exhales. ‘When
I look at them, I’m thinking, “Wow, it’s so personal that
somebody would do that for me, and then give it to me.”
I’m so enchanted and a bit awed by it.’
Face It is a full-pelt, rollercoaster read. It pulls
absolutely no punches – the grimy days of 1970s
New York are detailed fully, as are many unpleasant
experiences with men – but it’s also defiant, dynamic
and, ultimately, uplifting. It shows us
how Harry’s been a creative soul
since childhood, despite a tough start.
Born Angela Trimble in July 1945,
to childhood sweethearts who had
reunited after her birth father was
already married, she was adopted
as a baby into the Harry family. Onrainy days, she’d love opening a wooden trunk of her
mother’s, full of clothes, and playing dress-up. ‘That
memory’s very sweet and very visceral,’ she recalls. ‘I can
really remember being down in the basement, prancing
around in hats and shoes, having so much fun, like a girlie
girl. But the funny part is I wasn’t really a girlie girl at all.
I was always a bit of a tomboy, playing outside, digging
holes, poking anthills, getting muddy. So many of my
friends have always said I’m a drag queen. So maybe that
makes me a drag queen! I don’t know!’
In the book, Harry also talks about her time discovering
sex as a teenager, with refreshing frankness. ‘I might have
been oversexed,’ she writes, ‘but I didn’t have a problem
with that.’ She also mentions enjoying sex toys, and
talking to a friend in the late 1990s – Penn Jillette, aka
one half of magician duo Penn & Teller – about how
great it would be if a Jacuzzi’s water jets could be moved
to help women masturbate in the bath. He then invented
a tub that did just that. ‘It’s called the Jill-Jet. I know:
so funny, right? I mean, it was just a casual mention,
and then all of a sudden, he’s building it. I was like,
“Oh, f***. But how great!”’
Harry’s pre-fame years are also full of fascinating
details. She worked as a secretary for the BBC in New
York in her early 20s, witnessing transatlantic broadcasts
and interviews by great journalists: a valuable experience
given she became famous herself. Her first band was
a punky female three-piece, The Stilettos, innovators
at a time when the music scene was dominated by men.
‘There really weren’t very many of us,’ she confirms.
‘Even on the road, we rarely crossed each other’s paths.’
She was 31 when Blondie released their first album. In
the band, she was someone who appealed to both sexes
equally, for her beauty and the toughness and coolness
she naturally exuded. ‘It was some kind of survival thing,’
she reflects, ‘but it was genuine. I guess I was different [as
a woman] because I was never really interested in being
cared for. Lots of women are brought up with the idea
that they have to be the one holding together a marriage
or relationship... I never really felt comfortable with that.’
She’s absolutely capable of love, though, she says, citing
her relationship with Stein; they
were together for 15 years, until
they broke up in 1987 (on the day
that Andy Warhol died), and they
remain close friends. We don’t
discuss her love life today, but she
is thought to be single. ‘It has to
be a very special man who isn’t
threatened by the fact that I’m a full
person,’ she says. Harry’s still able to
go out and not get noticed, having‘THE MOST
IMPORTANT
THING IS BEING
CREATIVE AND
WA N T I N G TO
CARRY ON’