Blondie, from punk pin-up to pensioner

With her peroxide blonde hair, high cheekbones and pouting lips, Debbie Harry was as famous for her looks as for her music.

These days, however, things are rather different.

When the singer took to the stage of the Hammersmith Appollo this week, it was as a strutting 62-year-old.

Dressed in a cleavage-thrusting black dress, ripped khaki shirt, black socks and pumps, she gyrated with the energy of someone half her age.

Unfortunately, her efforts could not disguise the fact that she is nearer to 70 than to the seventies.

And despite performing several new tracks, it was the Blondie classics Hanging on the Telephone, Atomic and Call Me, which drew the biggest cheers from the crowd.

No surprise then, that a musical version of Desperately Seeking Susan, featuring Blondie songs, is expected to be a hit when it opens in the West End later this year.

Rock chick: Harry in 1978 (left) , The stride is high: Debbie struts her stuff

The Miami- born singer formed Blondie in the mid 1970s with her guitarist and then-boyfriend Chris Stein.

Her edgy style quickly gained a cult following and she was an international star by the time their third album, Parallel Lines, was released in 1978.

The band had 13 top 20 hits between 1978 and 1982 and sold 40 million albums worldwide.

They split in 1982 when Stein fell ill with a rare skin disease and while Miss Harry enjoyed a brief solo career, it took 15 years for Blondie to return to the recording studio.

The reformed band climbed to the top of the British charts again in 1999 with their single Maria, which also held the top slot in 13 other countries.