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.

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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Generation X: Live at Hatfield Polytechnic (1980) + Bonus!

We'll end our Generation X series with this final version of the band, usually referred to as Gen X, that includes Billy Idol and Tony James alongside James Stevenson from Chelsea and once-and-future Clashman Terry Chimes on drums. It's a dry-run for Billy's solo career, as the material is slower and slicker. It's clear Idol was trying to make from punk something stadium-friendly but as it turned out he would need flamboyant guitar hero Steve Stevens (and disco producer Keith Forsey) to find it ...but perhaps we'll discuss that on Sunday.

Live at Hatfield Polytechnic link is in the comments

And just for a bonus, here's
the band covering Black
Sabbath's "Paranoid" from a
sound check circa 1980.
(Thanks to our anonymous
commenter for this one.)

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Support the men:

After Generation X, Billy Idol went solo Tony James formed Sigue Sigue Sputnik (and much later Carbon/Silicon with the Clash's Mick Jones) and Mark Laff And Bob Andrews formed the secretly-influential Empire.

Generation X: Live at the Roundhouse (1977)

While this bootleg recording, from a show an April '77 show opening up for John Cale, is pretty rough it's quite listenable as Billy is keeping his singing in tune and Bob '"Derwood" Andrews guitar ferocity is damn loud in the mix (bassist Tony James and original drummer John Towe are near inaudible). Plus there are a couple of never-recorded songs here like, "Prove It" and "About Love". Do not miss this contemporaneous review of the show.

Track listing:
1. Listen
2. Kleenex
3. Trying For Kicks
4. This Heat
5. Prove It
6. Above Love
7. Ready Steady Go
8. No No No
9. New Order
10. Too Personal
11. Day By Day
12. Your Generation
13. Youth Youth Youth
14. Ready Steady Go
15. Day By Day

(Thanks to Nemsworld for the image and the specifics)

Live at the Roundhouse link is in the comments - re-upped track 3 link is now there as well.

Generation X albums are still cheap at Amazon!

Generation X: Live at the Paris Theatre '78 & '81

While this pair of live BBC broadcasts from 1978 and 1980 is out-of-print in this version, a re-edited, shorter version was made available by Strange Fruit Records before it went under and MAY become available at Amazon.UK (possibly...). Thankfully, all the Generation X albums you NEED to own are also readily available there.

What makes this a fascinating document is the ability to show just how drastically the band changed from the obstreperous "Your Generation" to the onanistic "Dancing With Myself".


Live at the Paris Theater link is in the comments

Generation X albums are still cheap at Amazon!

Generation X: Chiswick Demos

For insight into why Generation X (more here) were regarded by some of their punk peers as phonies, contrast this February 1977 demo for indie label Chiswick with their major label debut on Chrysalis from March of '78. On these earlier, rougher versions Billy Idol sings "Kleenex" as an attack on the National Front and Northern Ireland sectarianism and on "Ready, Steady, Go" he tells us that he's NOT in love with Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Stones and rock n' roll in general. By the time of their debut album Billy would be professing his love for all things rock n' roll (and those same sixties icons - even if in the past tense) and "Kleenex" wouldn't be about anything at all.

Track List
1. Kleenex
2. Listen
3. Your Generation
4. Ready, Steady, Go
5. Save My Life

(Thanks to nemsworld for the images)

Chiswick Demos link is in the comments.

Speaking of comments, let us know what you think of these early Gen X works.


Generation X albums are still cheap at Amazon!

Generation X: Radio 1 Sessions

At the height of Billy Idol Mania (circa 1984) you could get all the Generation X L.P.'s for cheap. They'd all been re-released to capitalize on the dizzying ascent of Idol's (the Class 0f '77's Most Likely To Suc(k)ceed). I never hated those Idol hits, then or now, but it was the then-seemingly perverse fact that Billy the Idol had once been in a punk band that made me lie down the $5.99 to buy the first Gen X album, a mere six years after it's debut. Despite it's lack of currency, I ended up converting much of my high school to that album (via cassette tape). I suppose some of us enjoyed listening to an unpopular album by a a popular artist but also the fact was that if you'd grown up on old Glam Rock (i.e. Bowie, T. Rex and especially The Sweet) that first album made perfect sense.

This out-of-print odds n' sods collection of work the band did for the BBC won't convert the skeptical but it's a fascinating document that traces phase one of Idol's transformation from punk singer to pop star.

Radio 1 Sessions link is in the Comments.

Speaking of comments, Give us you take on the the man known as Billy Idol.


Generation X albums are still cheap at Amazon!

This one is for the 'mazin' Marky Dread - go check out his King Rocker Rocks On for way more Idol-ness.