Blondie biography
In 1996, Stein and Harry began the process of reuniting Blondie and contacted original members Burke, Destri, and Valentine, who had by this time moved to London and become a full-time writer under his real name Gary Lachman; his New York Rocker: My Life in the Blank Generation (2002) is a memoir of his years with the band. Former members Harrison and Infante were not invited to participate in the reunion.
In 1997, the original five-piece band reformed, performing live three times without Harrison and Infante, who had unsuccessfully sued to prevent the reunion under the name Blondie. An international tour in late 1998 and early 1999 followed.
A new album, No Exit, was released in February 1999 and was described by Jimmy Destri as "15 songs about nothing". The band was now officially a four piece, consisting of Harry, Stein, Burke and Destri: Valentine did not play on the album, although he did co-write two tracks. Session musicians Leigh Foxx and Paul Carbonara would play bass and guitar on this and follow-up Blondie releases, and play at live gigs, though they were not official group members.
No Exit reached number three on the UK charts, and the first single, "Maria", which Destri had written thinking about his high school days, became Blondie's sixth UK number one single exactly twenty years after their first chart-topper "Heart of Glass", giving the band the distinction of being the only American act to reach number one in the UK singles charts in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
The reformed band released the follow-up album The Curse of Blondie in October 2003. Curse proved to be Blondie's lowest-charting album, although the single "Good Boys" managed to reach number 12 on the UK charts. In 2004 Jimmy Destri retired from touring, leaving only Harry, Stein and Burke from the original lineup appearing at live shows.
Legacy and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction (2006)
By 1982, the year the band broke up, Blondie had released six studio albums, each exhibiting a stylistic progression from the last. The band is known not only for the striking stage persona and vocal performances of Harry but also for incorporating elements in their work from numerous subgenres of popular music, reaching from their punk roots to embrace New Wave, disco, and hip hop.
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