EXCERPTS FROM SOME OF OUR CONTRIBUTORS STORIES

Terence answers the phone. “It’s Debbie!”  “Debbie who?” I answer. I am confused. “Debbie Harry!” I’ve never had a one-on-one conversation with Debbie in the two times we’ve briefly met. So, it’s a mystery why she would be calling me. “Are you free this evening?” She asks. I can hardly splutter out, “Yes!” Debbie doesn’t know I have been a huge Blondie fan since I was a teenager. “I will pick you up at 10pm; what’s the address?”

“Good day, Boris and Dieter. My name is John Hughes. I’m currently working on production for a film by Paramount Pictures called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, starring Matthew Broderick. I was writing to you to ask if we could use your song “Oh Yeah” for the film. If this is OK, please contact me at this number.” It was one of those tracks you do just because you need a filler on an album.

We discussed the idea of recording in New York City with Nile Rodgers producing a song with us. I was 23 years old, a little nervous but excited as well. Nile asked us guys to sing some backing vocals, which he said he liked, and asked if he could ask a pal of his to add to the backing vocals. We said, “yeah sure,” and none other than Darryl Hall walked through the door and sang on the song – I couldn’t believe it!

The Iroquois was the archetypal low-rent rock’n’roll hotel. It had a pleasingly dingy bar, which sometimes featured a greasy-looking old man in a well-worn tuxedo playing off-key standards on a cheesy organ. We started to nudge each other with our elbows, while making surreptitious sideways nods in the direction of, yes, Iggy Pop. ‘Hi guys, how’s it goin’?’ That unmistakable dark brown baritone. He introduced himself as ‘Jim’. We nodded, smiled nervously, and spat out our own names. Soon, we were sharing a beer with one of our biggest inspirations—and in New York Fucking City, at that!