Atomic punk queen back in the flesh

With Cher shaking her tushie on Top Of The Pops and mama Madonna seducing all at the MTV Music Awards, it's hardly surprising that 53-year-old Debbie Harry is back in the saddle, reunited with her old band-mates in Blondie. When she sashayed onstage last night in her white pumps and WACs' uniform, Harry looked like one of the Andrews Sisters on a mission to entertain the troops, her blonde hair flying loose almost in defiance of age.

And did the crowd rip her to shreds? Not at all - they welcomed her back like a long-lost punk queen who has returned to reclaim her throne.

As she sang the opening verse of Dreaming, you could tell Harry was no debutante; her formerly svelte body is stockier and her movements are a little stiffer, but her sex appeal was still there in the feline smile and the purring vocals. The band, which included original members Chris Stein on guitar, Jimmy Destri on keyboards and Clem Burke on drums, were dressed in regulation black, and as they tore into Hanging On The Telephone you felt that the old boys had even more to prove than Ms Harry: she just had to keep 'em keen, but they had to keep it up, long and loud.

Blondie may be on a greatest hits tour, but they've also got a new album, No Exit, due for release next February, and they planted a couple of new songs among the explosive bubblegum pop of Atomic, Union City Blue and Sunday Girl; the Destri-penned Maria came close enough to the classic Blondie sound for comfort.

The hits, however, were hit-and-miss; Call Me chugged along nicely while One Way Or Another seemed to lose its resolve. A rather dull swingjazz interlude was balanced by a superb rendition of Rapture, while early punk tunes like X- Offender, In The Flesh and Rip Her To Shreds were rough 'n' ready enough to seem for real.

After a crowd-pleasing encore of The Tide Is High, Heart Of Glass and Denis, someone threw a rose on to the stage - Ms Harry promptly picked it up, bit off its head, and spat the petals back at her delighted audience. What a woman!