Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

Blondie
Panic of Girls
or

Freebies, sweeteners, promos, special editions, limited editions, gimmicks, fads, hype, social media and the marketer's manipulation of us great unwashed; part I.

I like "something for nothing" and I also like a bit of cream on the top of my usual feast. I'm not alone surely. I'm also partial to something extra - second helpings - and offer me a bit of coloured vinyl or a free poster or badge or just a bit of tat and I'm the sort of sucker who'll lap it up. Because let's face it without freebies, sweeteners, promos, special editions, limited editions and gimmicks, the world would be a duller & greyer place.

Back in the day of course something extra invariably meant something FREE; especially when it came to singles, 45's and 7 inchers. In the late seventies early eighties the single charts were KING (the be all and end all). Record companies needed to get their PRODUCT into the charts and their BAND onto Top of the Pops in the first week of release. Remember if you weren't in the charts, or moving up the charts you couldn't be on TOTPS. No TV meant no KA$H for the fat cats at EMI.

So to prime the pump from the word go a certain amount of HYPE needed to be employed. Record Companies had two main tactics. Firstly they wouldn't allow singles to appear on albums. Prime exponents in this art of manipulation were Stiff Records with Ian Dury & the Blockheads and Polydor Records with The Jam. It worked up to a point. But it could also seriously damage albums
sales.

Tactic no. 2 was the sweetener. For the first week of sales they would release limited edition items. These would come in various guises. Singles in coloured vinyl (Identity in Pink X-ray Spex), free stickers (Know Your Rights The Clash), free poster packs (Through Being Cool DEVO), free singles - "the double pack" (Going Underground The Jam) etc.

Yes it was hype - but it worked and no one got mugged or killed. Today the word "Hype" has a dirtier feel but back then HYPE was a two way street. If you stumped up early to buy something you got something extra free gratis. Today similar tactics are used to push plastic, mainly albums, there's the special edition CD, with extra tracks, live CD's, DVD's, box sets, deluxe editions and the such like. Some PRODUCTS are well thought out beautifully designed items that add something to the music; others are simply pieces of crapola. But as with everything nowadays however varied the sweeteners, extras, special editions, limited editions, deluxe editions and gimmicks are, there's only very rarely something for nothing. The day of the FREEBIE is dead. Today it's the music that is given away FREE, by way of the deadhead digital download. This is like an artist cutting up one of his paintings and giving bits of it away for nowt on the off chance that someone might buy a whole one off him later. It's bizarre and sad in equal measure.

Nowadays as far as limited editions go, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The fan has to decide if they want something more because they are going to have to pay for something more. Special editions with EXTRA CONTENT come in many guises, some contain little gems others contain sweepings that would have been better left on the floor. Invariably products with EXTRA CONTENT can be categorised thus: The Bad, The Beautiful & The Unnecessary.

"Panic of Girls" The Collectors Pack £14.99, falls fairly and squarely in the camp of The Beautiful. The 132 page Magazine (which I've happily read from cover to cover - almost) is GLAM, solid and massively time stealing (in a good way). The reviews and interviews are quite obviously partial; but don't ever descend into being overtly reverential or sycophantic. Each member of the band is interviewed and Blondie's entire back catalogue is re-visited. Even someone as old as God's dog like me got to learn a few new things. And there's a load of FASHION in there too. Now personally I'm not into FAHSION (I can't even spell it), but Blondie, fashion and the photograph are synonymous, the pack blends the holy trinity of music, fashion and the photographic image together - perfectly.

The Postcards & Poster & Badges in the pack are quite simply FUN! Remember "FUN"? OK, so as far as I'm concerned the badges aren't like to ever come out of the cellophane and are never likely to impale anything. And the poster however splendid, isn't going to be blue tacked to my bedroom wall any time soon. Because in truth at the maximum security OAP's sheltered accommodation installation where I live they don't allow posters on the walls or badges to be worn, not in the day room anyway.

[PS if you want BADGES go to Mr T's Record Shop in Kidderminster - they've got more badges than the whole of MYSPACE! NB Remember Mexican bandits don't need badges).

The LP, of whichever variety you choose, comes framed inside the artwork of Chris Berens - the cover is a morphing, warping, transmuted H. Bosch-esque diffracted world containing Blondie, lamb's heads and beluga whales. I've no idea what it all means but it should top the field for Album artwork in 2011 - mind you Damien Hurst is doing the Chilli Peppers Cover so beware.

Wonderful packaging aside then - WHAT ABOUT THE MUSIC!

Well the music is a tad trickier to pin down. Coming after such a lay off LP wise; it's been 8 years since "The Curse of Blondie". And coming after such a long gestation period, and after a certain amount of drip feeding; the LIVE shows last year in JUNE '10 that featured several tracks from the LP and the FREEBIE in the Mail on Sunday that featured (along with "Parallel Lines") "What I Heard", "Girlie Girlie" & "Mother". Now the new album feels less like a NEW Blondie LP and more like a NEW & familiar LP. A brand new secondhand as Peter tosh would say. Bringing "Panic" to the People doesn't seem to have been easy for Blondie.

That said though, the collective nature and the collective noun that is "POG" is undoubtedly the best of Blondie since their reformation in 1999. The album flits and fidgets around in much the same way as all Blondie albums have done. Like a hyperactive itinerant child Blondie never rest on one subject for more than a second. They reel from the ROCK of "What I heard" to the REGGAE of "Girlie Girlie" to the FRENCH CHANTEUSE of "Le Bleu" to the SALSA of "Wipe the Sweat". This makes the album disjointed at times, but also means the dust never gets to settle - the album is compartmentalised but the structure is strong. The main moments for me, apart from the immediate three that were given away free last year, are "The End The End" and "China Shoes". All is reflective, nostalgic and contemplative, but delivered in the hard dispassionate Debbie Harry drawl its less like MY WAY and more like OUR FREAKIN WAY!

In interview Chris Stein seems to already be looking to the next Blondie LP. Debbie Harry doesn't want things to get too RETRO. And Clem Burke wants Blondie to do a covers LP. There's nothing like a bit of unanimity, and that's nothing like it. Personally I think the smart move would be for Stein & Harry to get some songs together and then go and sit in a darkened room with Rick Rubin for a long time. But what do I know? With "Panic of Girls" Blondie are back and in a strong place again. Whichever way they go let's hope the wait isn't so long next time round.