Gary Lachman
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Musical career
Gary Valentine was one of the founding members of Blondie, having joined the band in 1975, and wrote the music and lyrics to the band's first single, X-Offender, but was replaced in 1977 by Nigel Harrison, just as the band were starting to gain recognition. After Blondie, Gary moved to L.A. and formed The Know with a few members of The Mumps. He claims that The Know were the first band to play the infamous Madame Wong's Chinese restaurant-turned-punk venue. Shortly after that he played guitar with Iggy Pop. Much later, Gary formed Fire Escape with his current girlfriend and performed songs he had written for the Blondie reunion album (they had not been used due to the band ultimately excluding him from the recording process and the reunion tour). They released an EP to little fanfare and went on a permanent hiatus after two years. A compilation of Gary's work in music entitled Tomorrow Belongs to You, was released in 2003 on the UK label Overground Records.
In 2006 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, because of his time with Blondie, although ex-members weren't allowed to perform with the current line-up at the ceremony.
