Amazing Billy Idol Fan Art Uncovered!

I love scouring through stacks of vinyl records from a collection about to be dispersed. This is not because I'm an absolute die-hard vinyl junkie, I just enjoy music-related surprises. So, yesterday morning when I volunteered to help do some what-chaff separation on a friend's vinyl collection, I had expectations of serendipity. The fact that much of the collection was bought from thrift shops in the 90's, the low-point of record collecting, only heightened my expectations. So, while rifling through the mish-mash of trash 'n treasure, I couldn't resist pulling out that old used bin stand-by, Rebel Yell by Billy Idol. Sure, I'm more of a fan of Idol's seventies punk band, Generation X but I do have a soft spot for this LP. Then, lo and behold, as I pulled out the vinyl, something extra slipped out.

Whoa! It was a finely-shaded pencil portrait of Mr. Idol signed by one Debra Posthumus back in 1987 [!] Sitting there, staring at this picture, which the owner of the collection had never seen, was like a little window on a time when music fandom could inspire such fastidious effort. So Debra, wherever you are, I salute your love and dedication to Mr. Idol and for leaving if for me to uncover twenty-six years later.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE US YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS ART IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!

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Billy Idol on Sports, Drugs and Rock n' Roll circa 1977

While Billy Idol may never have been punk's resident philosopher, it's still fascinating watching him struggling, at length, to articulate what punk meant to him in the midst of it all. There's some really funny moments and genuine in here and it's a reminder of just how music was about the only thing that mattered to young William Broad.

The Decline Part Two: Well It's Not Billy Idol's Fault

So after kvetching about MRML's first serious decline in visits (see HERE), I've been out digging up bones. Here are some random findings that I'm sifting through.

(Click to enlarge)

• Google Analytics claims that "Billy Idol Live at Poplar Creek"* (See HERE) is my most popular post by a staggering 8 to 1 ratio**. This left me wondering, is Google Analytics fucked or is the world?

• Further on the idea that G.A's the one all fucked-up, their July 2011 newsletter says, "Compared to a year ago, websites have seen reduced pages / visit, average time on site, as well as bounce rate ". No further explanation, just, "Everyone's numbers are down. The End."
  

• Strangely, G.A.'s hard to contextualize stats, as opposed to Site Meter's, show no decline in my numbers at all.

• G.A.'s bewildering numbers did confirm one suspicion, the precipitous decline in this blog's statistical fortunes are partly a result of the death of blog aggregator Totally Fuzzy, which was once my third largest source of referrals.

• I also learned from Brushback that music bloggers all over experienced a rapid decline starting in May, which others have blamed on the rise of social media, primarily Facebook and The Tweety. So that's (at least) two for G.A. being fucked and one for the world.

• One person mentioned that perhaps I've been a little too obsessive in my treatment of certain artists but that doesn't jive with how my two best months ever (March and April 2011) were almost exclusively dedicated to The Stranglers and The Rezillos respectively.

• Another worry that I got mixed messages was about page loading time. I heard all sorts of estimates from normal to slow to extremely sloooow. Since then, I did a few touch-up (lost a side-bar or two, lowered the number of posts per page) and tried to reduce the number of videos. Feedback on loading time is still welcome.
  

So yeah I check Site Meter over ten times a day, most days. I'm not terribly proud of this tic but I won't deny that seeing this blog's visitor numbers die so suddenly has hit me hard. Sure, it's just numbers and this blog isn't just about how many people come here but this sad, little site involves an incredible amount of work. So, during times when the comments grow few (and they still sometimes do), my nervous system needs some kinda neuro-chemical reward to keep this giant time-suck from collapsing in on itself. I love blogging but at the end of the day I still need some proof that I'm not just Dancing With Myself.

* This despite the fact that downloads never passed 200, the visits the day it was posted were normal and it amassed a pleasant-but-not-overwhelming 15 comments.

** I write about Bob Dylan obsessively, not just because Dylan posts do well but because I'm...well...obsessed. Now if I had to boost numbers with weekly Billy Idol posts, I would, despite being kinda proud of that one post, commit blogocide.

Billy Idol: Poplar Creek (1984)

Before I started this blog I made a list of all the possible material to include here. Nowhere on the list was a Billy Idol bootleg from the mid-eighties and if anyone had suggested a such I would have punched them in the mouth (well, knowing me I would've been resentfully miffed and held onto poisonous thoughts about the Idol-suggester for months). But now, lo and behold, three years in, I was inspired by the positive reaction not to just the Gen X material (see here) but to Mister William Broad himself, to post this FM Broadcast and mention once and for all that Idol's solo career contained some fine moments (and some wretched ones), including one of my favourite songs of his, "Do Not Stand in the Shadows".

(Note both the album version and the Poplar Creek one are better than the MTV one embedded above)

This set highlights Billy's more American Radio-friendly Elvis-meets-Jim-Morrison shtick but stripped of the disco-fairy-dust of producer Keith Forsey it hits a lot harder.

Live at Poplar Creek link is in the comments.

UPDATE 1) According to Blogger's stats this is the most popular post I've ever made (i.e. this week it's at 802 page views to 223 for the last Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan. This makes no sense to me, since it's a year old post that has never seemed to eleict that much of a reaction. Thoughts?

Update 2 ) Anon adds:

Billy Idol - Rock Am Ring 2005 (DVD)
Size: 873MB
Time: 01:01:22
Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9KW96C76


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