Blondie and Clem Burke remembered by devoted pal Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s

Blondie and Clem Burke remembered by devoted pal Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold May 27, 2026 Duration: 34:27

Clem Burke joined Blondie in 1975. He started writing his memoir 20 years ago and just managed to finish it before he died in 2025, encouraged and assisted by his old friend Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s, “a chance to reflect on all he’d achieved”. We’re thrilled she’s joined us here to talk about his dramatic life and ‘The Other Side of the Dream’, a conversation stopping off at …

 

… falling for her “teenage crush” when she saw Blondie on TV, the man who wore red shoes at his audition

 

… Clem Burke, eternal fan who idolised the Beatles, Bowie and the Stooges, and the brief moment he became Elvis Ramone

 

... do bands talk to each other?


… Blondie was not a democracy … “in fact bands are an example of how democracy doesn’t work”

 

… Clem’s powerhouse drumming and showmanship: “you couldn’t take your eyes off him”

 

… “the night we met we each had a limo and he introduced me to Andy Warhol”

 

… how it felt to hear Blondie record one of her songs

 

… how their lives connected: “we both achieved a dream and had it taken away from us”

 

… why drummers tend to see groups differently

 

… and life in the Go-Go’s - “married to four girls!”

 

Order copies of Clem Burke’s ‘The Other Side of the Dream: My Life in And Out of Blondie’ here: https://lnk.to/theothersideofthedream


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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