The Steins Due to Get Together at SXSW to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Blondie

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Seymour Stein will be in the audience and Chris Stein will be on the stage at  South by Southwest festival  (SXSW) in Austin, Texas in March.

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 Blondie  2012

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There are bound to be a few moments of sentiment in this year’s SXSW film and music festival  in Austin, Texas, United States as Blondie, the legendary new wave band of the Seventies takes the stage to mark the fortieth anniversary of their formation.

Co-founder Chris Stein will be pounding out on the guitar as well as taking backing vocals to Debbie Harry while Seymour Stein, the pop music entrepreneur who discovered them and signed them to his Sire Records label will take pride of place in the audience.

During the  40 years that since they got together during the halcyon days of the New Wave era Blondie have sold more than 40 million records, despite breaking up in 1982 after partner Chris Stein was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin, from which he eventually  recovered. During their hiatus, Debbie Harry pursued a solo career, without enjoying particular success, while Chris spent some time as a record producer as well as being head of the Animal Records label for a spell during the early eighties.

With Chris Stein having recovered from his ailment, Blondie  got back together  in 1997, enjoying considerable success,  even  nothing up a number one single in the United Kingdom with “Maria” in 1999, in the process celebrating a  20 years annivarsary of their first  chart topping hit in the United Kingdom.

Since they reformed Blondie have continue to  perform in front of live audiences throughout the world during the following years, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

Blondie still appear in the recording studios, producing only albums these days, with their eleventh due out in the spring to coincide with their 40^th anniversary celebrations.

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All Members:  Debbie Harry,  Chris Stein,  Clem Burke,  Tommy Kessler, Leigh Foxx,  Matt Katz-Bohen,  Jimmy Destri,  Gary Valentine LachmanNigel, Harrison,  Frank Infante,  Paul Carbonara,  Fred Smith,  Tish Bellomo  / Tour Band 2008

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Christopher “Chris” Stein co-founded Blondie with their enigmatic lead singer Debbie Harry a former Playboy Bunny in 1974, although the band went through several names and changes in personnel  before arriving at the name of  Blondie in late 1975, reacting to comments usually  made by either truck drivers  or workers on building sites who used to call out to Debbie  “Hey, Blondie” because of he spectacular blonde curls.

Chris and Debbie  formed a considerable writing team, co-penning most of  Blondie’s hits  including “Dreaming”,  “Heart of Glass”, “Picture This”, “Rapture”, and “Rip Her to Shreds”. Stein was sole writer of another major Blondie hit “Sunday Girl”

Seymour Stein  is an entrepreneur in the music industry whose career goes back more than fifty years, best known as the  co-founder & chairman of Sire, the record label that is generally regarded as  putting “New Wave” music  on the map

Sire Records, who were 1966 by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, got their first   major  break in 1975, when Stein,  sensing the growing  emergence  of the New York downtown  live music scene,  succeeded in  signing the Ramones, one of the most influential New York New Wave bands,  following  by another pioneer of the trend,  David Byrne’s Talking Heads a few months later.

From 1976 onwards Stein’s artists represent a dazzling spread of music, featuring both gold, platinum, and multi-platinum acts as well as more subtly influential bands. Apart from Blondie, Sire Records  signed such important stars as the Pretenders, Depeche Mode, the Cure and  Lou Reed among a multitude of others.

In 1977 Sire Records concluded a distribution deal at Warner Brothers, which held firm for 18 years, bringing tremendous success for the label. The distribution deal with Warner Brothers was renewed in 2003  and remains active till this day,

Stein remains the President of Sire Record,  as well as being Vice President of Warner Bros. Records with which he has had a marketing and distribution deal from 1976 to 1994

Seymour Stein  was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, under the lifetime-achievement category as well as being a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the  International Dance Music Award Society which he received in 2010.

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