1981: DEBBIE HARRY and H R GIGER Collaborate | Newsnight | Classic BBC Music | BBC Archive

Newsnight reporter Robin Denselow reports from Zurich on the unlikely collaboration between singer Debbie Harry and visual artist H R Giger.
Debbie Harry - best known as the frontwoman of New York punk band Blondie - is about to release her debut solo album KooKoo. The cover art for KooKoo has been designed by Giger - whose most famous work to date is his nightmarish visual design on the science fiction film Alien - and sees Brian Aris' black and white photograph of Harry reimagined to show her face being punctured by needles. The image has attracted much controversy, and has been banned from display in several public places, including the London Underground.
What drew these two seemingly disparate characters together for the project, and what does it mean for the future of Blondie?
Originally broadcast 31 July, 1981.
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[@Enkarashaddam]

Giger was beyond literally everybody of his time

[@lifeson90]

of any time

[@d-culture927]

I love the high drama of Giger sitting there dressed all in black at a table with a pitch-black candelabra and pentagram on it. Although many people found him frightening and very serious he definitely had a self-aware sense of humour about himself. He was probably one of the first Goths.

[@pressureworks]

The first Goths were from around 200 AD.

[@OlafProt]

Every one missed his humour. The museum in Gruyère is amazing.

[@sitluxetluxfuit4481]

Not a goth more like a Satanist

[@43bikeguy]

Debbie is both beautiful and possibly the coolest woman in music history

[@brando7266]

@harvard smith deangelo can u name some, I want to laugh ,who do u have taylor swift?

[@jimdeadlock]

@harvard smith deangelo I'm skeptical

[@tachikomakusanagi3744]

@harvard smith deangelo We're still waiting...

[@TheSic9]

The original Taylor Momsen

[@AquaticAbomination]

Harvard is an obvious troll lol. Elewhere in this same video was trying, in vain, to stir sht but failed...

[@davedogge2280]

The colonists on LV-426 in movie Aliens sent out a distress message stating 'Call Me' but the Corporation just kept them 'Hanging On The Telephone'. Hicks suggested they should take off and go 'Atomic' on the planet as it was the only way to make sure they eliminated the alien infestation

[@JarrodBaniqued]

It was such a 'Rapture' indeed, all the explosions turned the center of the colony into a 'Heart of Glass', but Ripley managed to escape to Earth with the 'War Child'.

[@davedogge2280]

@PeegShite McGee its so bad its good !

[@VisionElectricAus]

Gold

[@tsvmvr1]

@@JarrodBaniqued War Child is GREAT!!

[@davidstrevens9170]

These replies leave me dreaming of an Island of lost souls where the tide is high... (but I'm moving on).

[@DenkyManner]

I will go to my grave insisting that Peter MacNicol was doing a Giger impression in Ghostbusters 2

[@cannonball666]

What did Debbie, Chris, and Giger have in common? They were all heroin addicts. Debbie is definitely on the chit in this interview.

[@antidoteify]

totally her eyes.

[@mikedtw]

so what?

[@kiskaloo6843]

The cover to KooKoo was very similar to the cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 'Brain Salad Surgery also by HR Giger and equally as brilliant.

[@pulse4503]

also heartwork by carcass

[@jonesy2111]

I honestly don’t think it’s anywhere as good as the ELP cover which is brilliant and iconic

[@billriddle9215]

He let the Swiss heavy metal band "Celtic Frost"use one of his Satan paintings for an album cover...he sued Glenn Danzig for not getting permission to use his work on one of his Danzig records.

[@RarebitFiends]

Debbie Harry is one of the coolest people to have ever lived, the people she has collaborated with and in some cases found is just mind-blowing.

[@onlyme219]

I'm 56 and Debbie was the reason as a very young teen boy I knew I liked women that way (nothing wrong with the other way, it's all good). Thank you Debbie 😍❤

[@sirbarnabyst.johntoffingto9017]

Yes indeed!

[@tachikomakusanagi3744]

Whats the other way to like women?

[@DiamorphineDeath]

upside down dude; only into chicks doing hand stands at all times…it’s an understated fetish, very unappreciated but we exist

[@beflygelt]

@@tachikomakusanagi3744 I think he meant to specify it's cool to be gay too but debbie made his pp go boing

[@mickthetic]

I’m an artist and he is one of my biggest influences, so hearing him say he also listened to music while working is awesome lol. I remember my art teacher in high school saying “real artists” would never do that

[@RetoMaurer]

" It wounded be pleasant to have Giger's Nightmares".... I spit out my hot swiss chocolate milk😂🤣👍🏻

[@12gaugelive]

"To Mega Therion" from Celtic Frost featured a tremendously controversial and gorgeous design from HR Giger. Thom G Warrior became Giger's caretaker. What a terrifying and fantastic artist. That was also Celtic Frosts best album in my opinion.

[@heyreallygiger]

I watched this video in my black obsidian pupae sack

[@cannonball666]

H.R. Giger also did Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery album.

[@BravoManUK]

I love Blondie and Debbie Harry, she is such a cool lady. Lucky to still have all my Vinyl Blondie albums from back in the day.

[@AlexA-bn2wb]

The quality looks so good for an early 80s broadcast

[@alanbeaumont4848]

It wasn't the stone age.

[@Hysteria98]

It's the source material, it literally comes from the BBC archive, and I imagine to some degree upscaled or touched up to look clearer.

[@bbbb98765]

@@alanbeaumont4848 Stone axes , no. But broadcast TV was very low res compared to today's digital media

[@AlexA-bn2wb]

@@Hysteria98 I agree, and we're generally used to the old compressed vhs recordings of these broadcasts

[@northernsnow6982]

Good technicians make a world of difference. Old style film was able to pick up picture more clearly, without digital blocks. The picture was smooth, but only if you understood how to operate the equipment. Even black and white footage can be crystal clear, when taped by a good technician. Today with all the digital, doing the work for people, people still get horrible footage. It has nothing to do with year filmed, it has to do with the users ability.

[@pauls8456]

Yes Debra Harry was my pinup in the late 70s until one day I realised she was the same age as my mum……

[@malakiblunt]

🤣😂😬

[@pressureworks]

She looks so young and healthy here for a 36 year-old!!!

[@zaftra]

surprised you can see her under that vast amounts of make up.

[@hughjass8430]

Shouldn't a 36 year look young and healthy anyway?

[@kildogery]

Lol, where are you from, that 36 is considered old and decrepit?

[@AlisonBryen]

38 year old here...were not *that* old, thank you very much!

[@doriangray_1999]

Hi Works! You must live in *Luton* then, be 24 with 5 kids of all colours and smoke two packs a day and drink generic beer...?

[@krisscanlon4051]

Harry was really trying to stretch her image. ELP and Alien are quite a different step in another direction. Harry's music needed to catch up to the visuals...less pop and more rock...Videodrome was part of that change...

[@thinman8621]

Debbie Harry really was a New York punk. Love that girl.

[@AM-sw9di]

interviewer's of this time sucked, but this was interesting

[@thebat7048]

Deborah Harry 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

[@ickymouth]

8R Diger, noted, copy that

[@businesstechnoinstitute]

absolutely love this

[@skithness]

She’s a what?

[@kevindobson3701]

I'm obesssed with HR Higer and his collaboration with Debbie Harry

[@ryanfwood]

Hard to see through those bangs...

[@vincentgoupil180]

6:21 reminiscent of *Louise Nevelson* sculptor

[@malakiblunt]

"all artists borrow - great artists steal"

[@vincentgoupil180]

@@malakiblunt BS Picasso would have said :) Neither Nevelson or Giger, even Picasso, were great artists. Artist in the sense of being life affirming. H.R. Giger visited NYC in the 70s so probably he would have seen her work or Ad Reinhardt's black on black paintings. It's written the city's street grid influenced Giger's use of stenciling plus his limited palette of black & white with some blue.

[@jamescarpenter275]

Love that wig

[@jimdeadlock]

Looks like inspiration for the 5th Element doesn't it

[@vincentgoupil180]

​@@jimdeadlock Yea, Leeloo, Supreme Being

[@DaraM73]

It was all going so well until the open shirt and the pentagram.

[@davedogge2280]

He was a strange man but his bio-mech art work just meshed perfectly for the movies' set design.

[@northernsnow6982]

Awe muffin scared of a little symbol. The cross would give me more heebie geebies, than a pentagram. If I was afraid of a symbol that is. A large amount Christians put a pentagram ontop of their Christmas trees. They just don't realize it's the same symbol. Just another example of Christianity stealing pagan traditions, or symbols, to grow followers of the time.

[@DaraM73]

@@northernsnow6982 weird.

[@atomictraveller]

"what haven't you had any slimy mason friends before"

[@sarahlouise7163]

i love Debbie - and i love that presenter's very pleasant voice. so soothing, and the pronunciation is great, but not too posh.

[@TinLeadHammer]

"Black magic, black music and white singer" - this probably will not fly today.

[@BlondieAndBeyond]

Pioneers.

[@storytimewithunclekumaran5004]

2 giants come together for a nothing burger..

[@ВладимирКруглов-к9о]

Three, actually, with Chic doing the music. The outcome was most average, with the cover being the only highlight.

[@raggedbreath]

Hello Mr. Diger.

[@Lefiath]

Seriously, what the hell was with that... I'm surprised I've only found one comment mentioning this. Ah yes, the famous H.R.Dieger.

[@robertwhitford4723]

Who is this Twaa!

[@scaredyfish]

Oh my god, the sexism of introducing Deborah as a pinup!!! It’s good to know we’ve at least reached the point where that’s not acceptable.

[@GhastlyCretin]

Huh? She was literally a pin-up. Millions of teenagers had posters of her in their rooms.

[@scaredyfish]

​@@GhastlyCretin So her primary claim to fame was as a pretty thing to put on a wall? Pinup was the *first* thing the guy mentioned. There's nothing wrong with admiring a sexy picture of a woman, but the woman is not the picture.

[@GhastlyCretin]

​@@scaredyfish Well he said "the rock world's best known pin-up". I don't see any reason for outrage nor any reason to think it is "unacceptable". It was very accurate. Would it be offensive if someone referred to Brad Pitt as "Hollywood's best known pin-up"?

[@scaredyfish]

​@@GhastlyCretin It's the choice of emphasis, and the choice of words. She could be described as a singer, musician, and model, instead she simply inhabits the rock world as a pin-up. The person and the poster are one and the same. Today we would tend to avoid such language. I think that's progress. That's all I was saying. I don't know how to put it any more clearly.

[@GhastlyCretin]

@@scaredyfishIt's not that what you're saying isn't clear. I just don't see how it's "sexist" or "unacceptable".