Am interested in knowing how Blondie got in the Stones... I remember one time just noticing him with backup singers. I like his solo stuff and a bit of history. But don't quite know the Stones recruiting info on Blondie.

[www.blondiechaplin.com]

Click on "Background" for a short biography.

Blondie started working with Keith on the Wingless Angels project around mid 90's. Then he came into the Stones with the Bridges To Babylon sessions. His first tour with the Stones was "Babylon" starting officially in Chicago in Sept 23, 1997 and he has been with the band ever after.

Bjornulf

I met Blondie in 2005 at the bar of Fourseasons in Washington DC.Very nice guy. He is very low key. He has quite an impressive resume having played with lot of great musicians.He doesn't seem to be a flashy player. He has a distinctive voice a little bit similar to Aaron Neville's.But why is he so appreciated by other musicans?
Rock and Roll,
Mops

Mops, that is because he can play anything and he is a damn good muso.
It is as if you never hear him, but he is a wonderful addition to the Stones.

This month he is coming back to Amsterdam, I can't wait!

[www.paulinestroosnijder.com]

Correct answer, juf

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Keep On Rolling

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buffalo7478
Why the Stones feel they need an extra guitar player also does not make sense to me.

take him out of the equation for an entire show/tour and i think it would make alot of sense to you...

If you don't like a performing artist then I don't understand why you waste your own as well as our time telling us about it. There are thousands of performing artists and it is natural that taste is different so everybody can't like everyone. I don't like country Britney Spears that much but I don't waste time saying so on internet.

Secondly, the people who the Stones have brought on stage are genuine and the best in the business. If Keith and/or Mick want someone on stage then it is because they are adding something to the band. They will not listen to a guy in the street who think differently. They will not bring back Bill or Mick Taylor. They do know what they want and they are good at it.

Bjornulf

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buffalo7478
I'm one of the Blonde haters.

Sail on Sailor? Bad song, bad band at the time. LOads of people with better resumes.

Why the Stones feel they need an extra guitar player also does not make sense to me. In big booming arenas and indoor stadiums, they sound their best during the show when they are on the second stage, with fewer players and leaner sound (based on shows I have seen in Toronto an Syracuse).

I am sure he is a nice guy. I guess I believe that if the Stones feel they need more sound on stage, more fill...they need to look back at their own playing. Keith and Ronnie should be providing that.

I would imagine they're more aware of what they need and why than any of us.

By the past, Keith needed 1 guitar 3 fingers and one @#$%& but now he needs one more.

I usually agree with you Gazza on a wide range of postings. Not this one. If they were more aware over the years Allen Klein would not have been their manager, Dirty Work might have stayed in the can longer until it was a better record (ok, that might be the start of another thread), they might have dealt with Ronnie's drinking in 1981 when it first seemed to surface as a huge problem for the band, they would have made better venue/price/market choices on the last tour to avoid the embarrassing sections of empty or tarped seats, they would have avoided the Vegas schtick and just stayed a rock-n-roll band, etc...(see AC/DC).

They have not always made good decisions...none of us do. The Stones being in full public view, get to have their decisions good and bad, seen and heard by all. Not very enviable....but it makes for good discussion. : )

Great thing about this forum is the diversity of opinion.

PS: When they last played Buffalo in the late 90s and the stadium was nearly half empty, people we aghast....how could the Stones NOT fill a stadium? It's now commonplace in the US (and even Toronto). Might a better choice be more reasonable ticket prices, avoiding outdoor gigs in the northern half of the US and in Canada in Autumn? OK...I will stop.

Promoting a show and filling stadiums is Cohl's job - not the Stones. They more or less play stadiums because their guarantees are so high that its hard for any promoter to make much money on an arena show. If theyre having trouble filling certain venues its due to a combination of overexposure and their promoters judging the market badly

The Stones have played over 2,000 shows in their career. They've played more large scale shows than probably any band in history. So, they're well experienced at putting a show together and hiring musicians and crew.

They're capable of indivudual errors of judgement like anyone else, but I would say that theyre in a better position to know their musical and physical limitations in 2009 than the rest of us. I cant believe anyone who has listened to Keith in the last few years would be oblivious to his decline as a guitarist and the need - which he no doubt recognises himself - for some extra 'help'. He's an experienced professional musician and performer, so I'd imagine he's the best judge of what he needs.

Klein is a different thing entirely, They were young and naive, plus theyre musicians not businessmen. When I said that they know what they need, I meant musically.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-01-03 04:17 by Gazza.

Keith has certainly declined. And for at least the first leg of the last tour, Ronnie may have been playing better than ever.

If they need extra musicians to make up for Keith's fading play (which I also think they do) it's kinda sad.

I saw a program on The Who today on the channel Palladia (formerly MHD...it has become a favorite channel of mine). In an interview with Townsend, he tells the story of only agreeing to the 1989 Tour if they added more musicians to the band. He could not deal with the volume of sound the 4 (5 if you include Rabbit) would have to produce. They added horns, another keyboard player, a second guitarist, 3 back ups singers and Pete moved to acoustic for much of the show. He felt it was the only way they could pull off a big tour, doing lots of large venues/stadiums.

I saw them on that tour, and while it was entertaining (like all Stones and Who shows are) it did not feel like the Who. They were much better their next tour, when they went back to a leaner line-up for the Quadrophenia tour: with basically their standard one keyboard player, and Pete's brother Simon as a second guitarist. {Billy Idol and Gary Glitter...I wonder if that is what they call him in prison...or does he have another nickname?...don't count}

Keith and Blondie crossed paths many times before the 1990s, Blondie is a consummate musician in the truest sense, he's unimaginably close to Keith, he (Blondie), in my opinion, is a largely wasted talent when on stage with the stones.

OLDKR

Blondie will be back in Amsterdam next week to do a documentary on the Beach Boys Holland album and he is planning a tour in the spring,with his own band. he is also busy recording another album. I have heard the first four tracks and it sounds awesome!!!!!!

[www.paulinestroosnijder.com]

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the juf
Blondie will be back in Amsterdam next week to do a documentary on the Beach Boys Holland album and he is planning a tour in the spring,with his own band. he is also busy recording another album. I have heard the first four tracks and it sounds awesome!!!!!!

Good to hear, but why did he never release his Fragile Thread album? Its some of the most beautiful music by anyone on there. Even Keith on a couple of tracks. And as far as I know, its finished and releasable.

no, it is not as simple as that, Alimente. It is a great album indeed. It is finished, but not easy to release, what with so many musos on it..

[www.paulinestroosnijder.com]

you mean Blondie failed to clear the rights with the musos or at least some of them? so whatever company whos interested in putting it out has not to deal with Blondie alone, but a handful of musicians and their managements to collect all necessary rights?

Well, Im asking all this concerning Fragile Thread because its hard to believe that for someone from the inner Stones circle or at least for someone so incredibly close to Keith it is so hard to get an album out if he really wants to.

Concerning Fragile Thread, as good as it is, I guess we are not talking about a multi-million dollar project, a potential chartbreaker, we are talking about an album which probably wont sell in excess of 10.000 copies worldwide, if at all, and I am sure that anybody involved in this project is well aware of this, so financial demands are possibly not that high. Even if an involved musician objects the release at all, regardless of how much money he gets paid, theres always the possibility for Blondie to go back to the tapes, erase the particular instrumental contribution and re-record a certain instrument by himself. I mean, if theres a will to get it out, there must be a way.

Or has Blondie himself lost interest in the album?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-01-04 16:48 by alimente.

I think the smallest problem is to get an OK and thumbs up from Keith. He'd do anything for Blondie.
But he's had studio time paid for by the guy who released the "Between Us" album, and I guess he's the guy who owns the tapes...
While Blondie was in Norway, he was aproached by a record company (I'm not allowed to say which one) that wanted to discuss the possibility of releasing his "Keith'n'Ronnie"-album.
In the mean time, while we're waiting for something new from Blondie - and the Stones - here are some small clips from one of his most recent performances!
With Pieter Kentrop and the Blackbirds.
Enjoy

So there is still no chance to hear the "Fragile Thread" album? That's sad.
Blondie is a great songwriter. This album really deserves to be in stores.
Wasn't it supposed to be released on Atlantic Records before they folded?

Good news!
"Fragile Thread" will be released. Probably not until next year, but a major company is showing GREAT interrest after I played it to the boss. It's such a wonderful album, and he imediately wanted to know how he could get in touch with the "right people".
I know a lot of people here have been asking about this gem, and now you have somethuing good to look forward to.

It's a great album, definitely worthy of release.

Totally agree with you. And the art work for the album will be done by a fellow Stone.
Actually, perhaps we should have a special thread on this, since this is not about how he was recruited?

Blondie Chaplin once formed the band called Bamboo with Rei Ohara many years ago.




Rei was also a member of Ian Mclagan band.
I am guessing Blondie might be recruited by way of Ian McLagan's connection or referral.
You can find these three persons in many works such as Bonnie Raitt or Renée Geyer.

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billwebster
So there is still no chance to hear the "Fragile Thread" album? That's sad.
Blondie is a great songwriter. This album really deserves to be in stores.
Wasn't it supposed to be released on Atlantic Records before they folded?

Well, there is a chance. I got it on CD somewhere - it's circulating in very good quality

Hi Lorenz!
I know about the bootleg - but in this case - it's not even all the songs that will be included on the album. And buying it from bootleggers means you're ripping off Blondie. Just like they do on Pirate Bay.
I prefer to pay for my music, to keep the artists alive. If young musicians decide to quit, because it's impossible to live off being a musician, (due to downloading and bootlegging), we've all lost...
So, please wait for the album - and I promise - it'll be worth it!

It's great to hear that there is finally some kind of development going on again to make "Fragile Thread" available to the public, a/k/a guys like me who discovered Blondie in the 90s playing on other people's records.

And his new album is high on my wish list, too.
"Between Us" made quite an impression on me with its good sound quality, by the way. No loudness wars there. It sounds just wonderful.

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buffalo7478
Why the Stones feel they need an extra guitar player also does not make sense to me.
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I always wondered why THE guitar band in the world had only two guitars on stage. There is a minimum of three guitars on every Stones song (even from the beginning on) and sometimes probably up to half a dozen guitars or something like that (f.e. Beggars Banquet). Did Mick start to play gutar on stage because he wanted to steal Keith and Ronnie the show? Let somebody strum the chords so that Keith and Ronnie can start to weave again!

The Stones have made many mistakes over the years and he is just another topic to add to that list. Or...maybe he is the devil and is keeping an eye on the boys?