A blog about a rock band as a fantasy? Well, not really but, yes, somewhat at least. I am sure I was not the only guy in his 20s in the late 1970s who fantasised about having a relationship with the magnetically attractive lead vocalist of Blondie. Debbie Harry was, of course, Blondie personified. The group’s debut album passed most people by but their second, in 1977, was a genuine attention-grabber. The first single off Plastic Letters was Denis, the second – (I’m always touched by your) Presence, Dear – featured Harry, then 32 (she turned 80 in July!) at her most compelling and seductive.

In the United States, Blondie were generally considered to be an underground band at this point. Their third album changed all that. The release of Parallel Lines in 1978 propelled them into the big-time. And it was this time that is depicted in an exhibition at the Barbican Music Library. Blondie in Camera 1978 displays the work of Martyn Goddard, who was invited out to New York in May 1978 to shoot photos of Blondie. Mostly of Harry.

Goddard was commissioned to fly to America to shoot what transpired to be four major assignments between spring and autumn 1978, producing a body of work that went on to become album covers, magazine stories, posters, tour programmes – you name it, his photos did a lot of heavy lifting for Blondie. Fifty of his photos are on display at the Barbican, all helping to chart the period when the band were about to thrill music fans around the world with a new record full of marvellous rock-pop songs.

What a terrific album Parallel Lines is. The first two singles lifted from it were Picture This and Hanging On The Telephone. In due course, these were followed by three more hits: Heart Of Glass, One Way Or Another and Sunday Girl. It was kind of downhill for the band from there, with a few more intermittent hits (such as Atomic) and, for various reasons, very intermittent output. There have only been eight subsequent studio albums, although one could make a strong case for the most recent of them – Pollinator, as long ago as 2017 – being the best of that bunch. But they haven’t given up. A new album, Blue Neon, is scheduled for release later this year. It’s surely way too much of a reach to expect anything resembling the glory day to be produced in 2025 but, hey, we will always have 1978.

Blondie in Camera 1978 runs at the Barbican until January 5.