Having had the (somewhat dubious) pleasure of seeing Blondie at the Royal Albert Hall, I have to add it to my list of venues that shall not be visited again (currently topped by Wembley Arena).

The sound might have been great down on the floor in front of the stage, but it was awful up in the gods - no top end at all, leaving everything sounding like it was being played underwater. The drums sounded particularly bad.

Oh dear. It really isn’t a rock venue - too big, no atmosphere, and outrageously priced food and drink, even by london venue standards.

Blondie themselves were patchy - although the aforementioned sound problems made it hard to give a fair assessment. Debbie Harry still has a fantastic voice, but there was far too much nostalgia wafting around, and most of the crowd looked like this was the first gig they’d been to since about 1985!

Supporting Blondie was Hugh Cornwall, he of the Stranglers fame. Again, I still like his voice, but overall he sounded like a bad pub covers-band version of himself!