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Deborah Harry plays last gig at CBGB
10/15/2006 3:54 AM, Reuters
Christine Kearney
In a vibrant farewell to the legendary
punk-rock venue CBGB, Blondie singer Deborah Harry played a
final show on Saturday in a tribute to the club that was a
launching pad for her career, but is due to close at the end of
the month.
Taking the tiny stage at the dank, crumbling club wearing
red gloves and swaying her now strawberry blond hair, Harry
sang many of the hits that made Blondie a wildly successful
band in the 1970s an 80s.
She kicked off with "Hanging on the Telephone" and the 1980
hit "Call Me.
"This is a little weird, you know, but anything for old
CB's," she told the capacity crowd that included young
musicians, Blondie groupies and aging rock fans.
"What are we going to do now? Where are we going to go?"
she asked before launching into "Tide Is High."
Harry, 61, played the acoustic set with Blondie guitarist
Chris Stein that included "One Way or Another" and a cover of
the Ramones song "I want to be your Boyfriend."
Rock poet Patti Smith -- another regular at the club after
it first opened in 1973 -- will give the last show on Sunday.
The club in Manhattan's East Village -- its full name is
CBGB & OMFUG, or Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music For
Uplifting Gormandizers -- became the epicenter of the punk-rock
scene launching bands like the Ramones and Talking Heads.
It is closing after a rent dispute with its landlord.
With lead pipes and chords dangling from the peeling
ceiling, Harry gazed at the walls filled with posters and
graffiti scribbled over three decades.
"CBGB's, oh my God what are we going to do? This is
terrible. I think they should make wallpaper like this right?"
she told the crowd after it urged an encore performance of
"Heart of Glass."
After the gig, the crowed spilled onto the sidewalk taking
photos of the facade bearing the club's name.
"Deborah Harry is like the queen, she is awesome," said
Greg Adsluf, 44. "To see her play at CBGB's is like watching
her in her backyard, this is her home."
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