Flash is fast, Flash is cool*

There is a footballer in the English premier league who as a youngster was a quite brilliant player but whose career has been plagued by injury since. First name Harry, apparently he has now been nicknamed by fans as Debbie, because he used to be really fit but we're all now too young to remember when he was truly great. But this cheap jibe is merely an introduction to the brilliance of Debbie Harry and Blondie, the band led by a brilliant icon who managed to marry a punk attitude and credibility to create pop perfection. Sure, the Harry hip-hop that put the rap into "Rapture" may sound a little dated now, but it is still a classic tune and there is no doubting their cultural and musical significance as a pioneering mainstream outfit with impeccable underground credentials.

Indeed "Rapture" was the first US number one which featured rap vocals and the importance of the tune in hip-hop history and the music's own journey to the mainstream is a small yet important one. That Debbie Harry was such a stunningly beautiful and seductively cool front-woman and era-defining pin-up is undoubtedly another element worthy of note. But it is their musical output which really is why their renown is deserved. Their canon features numerous classic tunes, combining elements of punk rock, reggae, disco, new wave and electronica to produce slices of sheer aural pleasure. Whether they ever produced a truly classic album is questionable, despite the huge success for instance of iconic and very good third album Parallel Lines or their excellent self-titled debut.

It is a matter of opinion anyway. That they dished up some classic singles along the way, however, is undoubted. My own favourite is a toss-up between the paranoid nuclear funk of Atomic, the relentless energy of "Call Me", and possibly the bubblegum charm and explosive joy of Denis. But it is difficult to choose because their formula for success proved remarkably flexible and long-lasting. That Blondie deserve their fame and position as a key band of the late 1970s and early 80s is clear, but as with any well-known group it is surprisingly easy to forget why that came about in the first place, with familiarity breeding not contempt but more a fondly embedded general awareness of them that all too rarely prompts a revisit.

But revisiting Blondie is a rewarding thing to do any day of the week. The music is good enough reason, but for me i'll take any opportunity just to have a look at classic era Debbie Harry pictures. Just don't let anyone catch you in front of the mirror singing along to the Harry rap. I know you know at least some of it.