The disastrous 1982 tour that broke up Blondie: “We never should have gone”
Spending hundreds of days on tour every year in confined spaces with the same small set of people will inevitably lead to disastrous consequences.
It’s only natural that arguments will flare up, which can develop into bitterness or hatred. Then, as we are talking about the rock ‘n’ roll business, add drugs and alcohol into the mix, and eventually, things are going to go wrong one day.
While some bands live to learn alongside the nagging feeling of discontent, it eventually comes to a head one day for most others. It could take a year, or even a decade, but something has to give eventually.
In the case of Blondie, they gave off an indestructible exterior. Within the space of a few short years, they had gone from playing sweaty nightclubs to sports stadiums and achieved success way beyond what they dreamed up in CBGBs.
It wasn’t an argument that caused them to part ways, nor was it completely down to dwindling record sales either. Instead, a number of problems reared their ugly head at the same time while they were on the road, leaving the group with no choice but to part ways.
Blondie were still flying relatively high from a commercial standpoint, even though there wasn’t a hit single on their final album, The Hunter. While the LP didn’t meet their previous standards, it still sold somewhat strongly worldwide. However, there were signs that perhaps they should have taken a break rather than making the record in the first place.
Prior to the recording of the album, they parted ways with bassist Frank Infante. Understandably, Infante was angered by his dismissal and began legal proceedings against his employers, who were forced to reinstate him to his position. Although he contributed to the album, Blondie replaced him with session musician Eddie Martinez for the subsequent tour.
At the time, Chris Stein had also become seriously ill, but he had yet to discover that he was suffering from pemphigus, and the tour only further deteriorated his health. Stein was in no fit place to tour, which would have been more than a good enough reason for Blondie to pull all of the shows.
Yet, they ploughed on, but knew the end of the tour was also going to be it for the band. For Harry, it was a relief, telling Virgin Radio in 2019, “It just seemed to fall apart in so many ways, several things happened simultaneously, so it seemed like the obvious (decision).”
In her memoir Face It, Harry expanded upon their disastrous tour, which saw Duran Duran open up for them, recalling, “That f***ing tour. We never should have gone. Chris was sick. Very sick. I have pictures of him where he was emaciated and weighed 110 pounds. That tour nearly killed Chris. I can’t say exactly when the problem started, and I think that Chris has succeeded in putting it out of his mind, but he was unable to eat”.
As much as it’s easy to say with hindsight that Blondie shouldn’t have toured when Stein was so ill, they were now playing stadiums. Not only was this supposed to be the top of the mountain they’d spent years chasing, but serious money was also involved, and the financial consequences would have been huge.
In the passage of the book, Harry also confessed to taking “smack” during the run of dates and explained how drugs “was the only way we could handle the stress”.
Unsurprisingly, it only proved to be a short-term fix and only put off the inevitable end.
“And Chris kept getting sicker and sicker,” Harry continued. “We were in the US touring with Duran Duran in stadiums at the time, with a UK and Europe tour to follow. Chris was wasting away. More than once, he collapsed. We managed to get through the last night of the Duran Duran tour in August 1982. There was no way we could go to Europe”.
Once the US dates were wrapped up, Blondie took the financial hit by cancelling their European and UK shows, which would have been impossible for them to complete. Harry conceded, “And that was it. It was over. Not just the tour but Blondie. The band officially broke up a few months later.”
If Stein didn’t fall ill, perhaps the band might have found a way to continue, but that alone wasn’t the sole cause of their end; they had imploded. However, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The lukewarm reaction to The Hunter also suggested that perhaps Blondie’s day had been and gone.
Eventually, Blondie made their return in 1997, but since then have existed in the legacy act category rather than at the forefront of relevancy despite their powerful impact on music.
