Livid

ON THE evidence of this seventeen-track live album recorded on the band's last tour featuring all the hits from Parallel Lines to No Exit, it's difficult to believe that these guys have been around for twenty-five years.

Veterans of the velvet void that was the '70s New York punk scene, Blondie consistently produced definitive pop singles and soon left their CBGB contemporaries behind in terms of commercial and critical acclaim, Talking Heads excepted.

Here the band undeniably kick ass. Clem Burke plays drums like he's got four arms, and Chris Stein's guitar frills, if occasionally irritating, prove that they really enjoy doing what they do.

Of course it's not flawless. 'The Tide Is High' is marred by the participation of a tone deaf audience, and the spoken verse in 'Rapture', always bad, has never sounded worse. It pains me to say that the lady's voice is not quite the instrument it was, but it's a minor quibble.

Blondie were always about more than the blonde, and this album proves it.