sexy 80s frontwomen

last night i had the great privilege of seeing the pretenders and blondie play a double-header in beautiful martinborough, new zealand. if you'd asked teenage ren how she felt about seeing either chrissie hynde or debbie harry in the flesh, i'm convinced teenage ren's reaction would have been some kind of unspeakable glee. these ladies epitomise rock n fricken roll, and i grew up loving them.

seeing these two female icons sharing the same stage within hours of each other was some kind of 80s pop dream come true. chrissie hynde is 59 years old and is still a raging hot babe, complete with rockin white electric guitar, and boots that were made for walkin'. personally i was surprised to find that my top moment was a pretenders moment (if we're honest it was blondie who was my main drawcard) - "hymn to her" was a moment of pure loveliness. check out chrissie's amazing, rich voice:

debbie harry is the rock icon to end all icons. i still can't quite believe that i saw her in the flesh. at 65, she owned the stage and gave us all the attitude we'd expect from blondie. i came with one great hope: the blondie would play 'heart of glass'. they didn't disappoint.

just look at her dominating that short little skirt. more importantly, how has her voice not deteriorated with age?! she is sounding simply amazing.

each set was a nicely measured balance of hits and classics mixed in with some less-known stuff. (to quote chrissie hynde: "for those of you who bought our last album... ah wait, i know none of you did.")

i'll never win any award for my terrible video skills, but these little clips were all i could take to illustrate the amazingness of the experience.

ren: in blondie bliss

all power to these iconic, sexy women. their bands may have enjoyed their prime in the 80s, but they are still rockin - and still sound great - into their sixties. that's definitely something to aspire to.