It was late in 1979 when Omega Productions recorded Blondie live in concert following the release of their iconic album, “Parallel Lines.” The project was recorded at the Palladium Club in north Dallas.
The partnership between Blondie and producer Mike Chapman had just created a perfect pop record – and catapulted the group from the underground to mainstream chart success.
“If Blondie’s Parallel Lines album was the New York erstwhile-punk band’s finest hour (all 38 minutes of it) and a perfect encapsulation of top-drawer, high-tech 1978 pop-rock, then it also marked the career apex of its producer, Mike Chapman, a man who had already established himself with a form of music that has come to define its era.”
…Richard Buskin, Sound on Sound Magazine
These pictures are from the Sound on Sound Magazine article on recording of the album.
Paul Christensen had been recording live concerts since the founding of the company in 1973 at venues like the Palladium, Faces, Fannie Ann’s, Whiskey River, the Cotton Bowl, the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel and KERA Television. Utilizing the company’s first remote recording truck, Omega had been doing projects for record labels, radio stations, churches and a number of local civic music groups. Concert projects had featured prominent acts like Guy Clark, Boston, Heart, Al Kooper, Tom Waits, Steve Goodman, Michael Franks, Ann Murray, Al Jarreau, Ray Charles, Ry Cooter, Hall & Oates, among others.
These projects were part of the early wide-open days of rock and role and the growth of the music industry. Those early days of live recording spearheaded the company into the next 4 decades and a 50 year career involving Live and Studio Music Recording as well as Live Concert Television Production.
Here’s the the story behind the record, Parallel Lines, from Sound on Sound Magazine, June 2008.
