Frank Infante

Frank Infante born November 15 1951 is an American guitarist and bassist best known as a former member of the new wave band Blondie Infante began his music career playing guitar in hard rock and electric blues groups such as The Elegant End and World War III He joined Sniper in 1975 and then Blondie in 1977 as a session player replacing bassist Gary Valentine Blondie released their second album Plastic Letters in 1978 Infante played bass and guitar on the album but was not pictured on its cover Later in 1978 Blondie recruited bassist Nigel Harrison which allowed Infante to switch to guitar fulltime Record producer Mike Chapman has said that he considered Infante to be an amazing guitarist and the most technically proficient member of Blondie when he began producing Parallel Lines in 1978 Though the group was already a commercial force in the UK and Australia Parallel Lines and its followup Eat To The Beat 1979 proved to be Blondies commercial breakthroughs in the US After sessions for the bands 1980 album Autoamerican Infante sued the group for his alleged minimal involvement in the recording which would affect his royalties but the matter was settled out of court Infante stayed on as an official member of Blondie for the 1982 album The Hunter but Deborah Harry has claimed in interviews that despite receiving credit Infantes participation in the sessions was essentially nonexistent Infante was no longer a member of the group during their tour in July and August 1982 and Blondie officially broke up by the end of the year Throughout his time with Blondie Infante contributed to writing a handful of their songs including Victor and I Know But I Dont Know plus a demo from the Parallel Lines sessions titled Underground Girl Neither Infante nor Harrison were asked to rejoin when Blondie reformed in the late 1990s Infante and Harrison sued the other members of the band for reforming without them4 but the lawsuits were unsuccessful During Blondies hiatus in 1981 Infante went on to work on Joan Jetts album Bad Reputation He also worked on albums by Stiv Bators and Sylvain Sylvain Shortly afterwards he toured and recorded with acts including Iggy Pop and Divinyls Iggy Pops German compilation Nuggets in 1999 and UK box set Where The Faces Shine in 2009 both feature live tracks with Infante on guitar Blondie were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2006 Seven members were invited to the ceremony which resulted in an onstage spat between the extant group and Infante who asked during the live broadcast of the ceremony that he and Nigel Harrison be allowed to perform with the group Their request was refused by Deborah Harry who stated that the bands current lineup were already prepared for the performance In 2010 Infante toured and performed with The New York Dolls in shows at The Cluny Newcastle upon Tyne England He also played guitar on their album Dancing Backward in High Heels released in March 2011 Infante currently lives in Los Angeles He continues to record and perform with Infantes Inferno with Infante on guitar Clem Burke drums and Steve Fishman bass The trio performed at the Rhino Records Pop Up Store in Los Angeles in 2011 Source Article Frank Infante from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30