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Photographer Martyn Goddard has recalled the moment that Blondie star Debbie Harry encountered Alice Cooper’s pet snake, Julius Squeezer.
At the time, he was accompanying the band on their return to New York in 1978, widely regarded as their breakthrough year as they released their third studio album, Parallel Lines.
During the trip, Blondie were invited to open for Cooper in Philadelphia. “So we all got on this tour bus and went down there and had really quite a fun day,” Goddard told The Independent.
Once the band were in the green room, Cooper’s snake minder came in with his pet boa constrictor, who was often seen draped around the rocker’s neck during gigs.
“It’s not often you find a snake in the green room before you go onstage,” Goddard said. “It didn’t seem to phase Debbie, though. She really quite enjoyed being wrapped up by the snake.”
He managed to capture the moment as one of a number of candid shots that showed the band relaxing outside the studio or backstage.
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Blondie backstage at the Spectrum Stadium in Philadelphia, where they were booked as the support act for Alice Cooper, 2 July 1978 (Courtesy of Martyn Goddard)
The image is included in a new exhibition, Blondie in Camera 1978, which opens at the Barbican Music Library in London from 14 August until 5 January 2026.
Goddard, known for capturing some of the biggest names on the New Wave scene of the Seventies and Eighties – from The Jam to Blondie and The Cure – selected 50 prints shot during four major assignments in New York of the band in concert, backstage, in the studio and during photo sessions.
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Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Nigel Harrison walking around New York, 1978 (Courtesy of Martyn Goddard)
A number of the images have also been published in a new book, Blondie in Camera 1978, which features contributions from Harry and the band’s longtime publicist, Alan Edwards.
“That was the year that Blondie basically transformed from New York punk to stadium rockers,” Goddard said. “I just happened to be there, and during lockdown I realised I had all [these pictures] that people wouldn’t necessarily have seen.”
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Members of Blondie relaxing at the Gramercy Park Hotel, New York, 1979 (Courtesy of Martyn Goddard)
His first assignment involving the band was for The Telegraph’s Sunday magazine. Goddard, then 27, had to pay his own airfare but ended up staying in the same hotel as Harry and her bandmate Chris Stein, with whom she was in a relationship at the time.
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Debbie Harry of Blondie on a tour bus travelling from New York to Philadelphia, where the band were booked to support Alice Cooper (Courtesy of Martyn Goddard)
“It was the famous Gramercy Park Hotel, which was an amazing, charming place, sort of art deco, and it was one of the reasons that the shoot with Debbie went so well, because it was slightly shabby but it had these wonderful places like the old cocktail bar, the roof terrace… a lot of character,” he remembered.
“I went there and basically joined Blondie for a week. And when I’d done all these formal pictures, I just hung around and took [the more candid shots] at the Palladium and at all these parties.” He recalled one where they ended up hanging out with Andy Warhol at Studio 54: “It was a fantastic experience.”
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Blondie performing at New York’s Palladium Theatre, 1978 (Courtesy of Martyn Goddard)
He suggested the band had maintained their hold on pop culture all these years in part thanks to Harry’s commitment: “She’s tangled herself so brilliantly over that entire time, and has been totally committed to her singing and the band.”
Goddard also praised her for being a natural in front of the lens: “You pressed the button and she just transformed into a model, you didn’t really need to direct her,” he said. “She came up with the most wonderful poses.”
The Blondie in Camera 1978 exhibition is open at the Barbican Music Library now. Martyn Goddard’s book, Blondie in Camera 1978 is out now from ACC Art Books.