6. BlondieParallel Lines

When I was growing up, Debbie Harry was absolutely the goddess of the world. She was so cool! Her style! Her voice! That band! And what an album this was – almost every song on it was a hit. I just loved this album when I was growing up – absolutely everything about it.

That’s when I got into styling and her character. And eventually, Clem Burke, Blondie’s drummer, came to play in The Adult Net with me. Craig Leon, who’d produced some Blondie stuff, also produced The Adult Net and some Fall. I knew I’d make a connection eventually and I still keep in touch with Clem. When I was told by the producer that he’d got Clem Burke for my record I was like, ‘oh my God! This is going to be amazing!’ So when he said ‘yes’ then I had time to digest it and it become normal.

Playing with him was really interesting because obviously I’d played with Karl Burns, Paul Hanley and Simon Wolstencroft and all those Fall drummers – and Mike Joyce as well – but it’s always interesting playing with different drummers because even if they’re playing the same song, each one has a different touch. And the thing with Clem was that I’d been listening to his stuff for so long it felt like I knew him already. It’s like when you see famous people on the street and you feel that you could have a conversation with them because you’ve seen them on TV and it was bit like that because I’d lived with his music for so long. So that was fine.