would be put out, I guess to whet everyone’s whistle and draw up buzz on the singer. As a teaser and build up to his career, it was decided an E.P. With Steve Stevens in tow along with Phil Feit on bass and Gregg Gerson on drums, the band set out to record Billy’s first solo album. There is no Billy Idol sound without Steve and his guitar playing is what makes Idol’s solo songs that much better. ![]() If you read his book, “Dancing With Myself“ you can find out all about it so I won’t spoil the details here.īilly was introduced to a guitarists at this time that would become just as big a part of Billy’s solo career as he was. When Billy got to New York, he met a lot of interesting people and really loved the club scene…and of course, the drug scene was something he enjoyed as well. When Billy signed on with Gen X as their manager, he quickly learned that the star of this band was not the band, but its lead singer, Billy Idol. This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 85, in October 2005.After the demise of Generation X and Gen X, Billy would follow Bill Aucoin, his manager and Kiss’ former manager, to New York City to start a solo career. It said: ‘A nice day for a white wedding’." He followed on with the international Top 10 album Whiplash Smile in 1986, and he unfailingly hit the Top 50 on both sides of the Atlantic with every album he released thereafter, up to and including 1993’s Cyberpunk.īut what of his sister Jane’s wedding, the event that triggered his classic song? “I didn’t go to the wedding,” Idol confesses. In the same year, Britain cottoned on to Rebel Yell, the single and the album, which reached No.6 and No.36 respectively. It wasn’t until the summer of 1985 – some three years after its original release – that a re-released White Wedding made its mark in the UK, rewarding Idol’s patience with a No.6 hit. White Wedding had been largely ignored, as was the Rebel Yell album. Musician magazine, assessing the album, stated: ‘Not only is his delivery smooth and resonant, but he manages some characterisations on White Wedding that would make Bowie envious.’ With a pair of Top 40 singles to his name, Idol’s popularity was on the rise, the venues he played became progressively larger, and the scene was set for Rebel Yell, which would go on to be the biggest-selling album of his career.īack in Britain it was a different story. ![]() With the fledgling MTV screening it regularly, White Wedding climbed the US chart to No.36 in October that year. The next single was White Wedding, and was released in a sleeve featuring an image of Idol.īut while this impeded its progress with the radio programmers, Billy had discovered another way to put himself and his music across: he had shot a low budget video for the single, allegedly spending a mere $65,000. The first single from it, Hot In The City, received a lot of airplay – primarily because Idol’s photograph was not on the sleeve – and peaked just outside the Top 20. Ignored in the UK, it charted at a healthy No.45 in the US. The album Billy Idol was released in the summer of 1982. I went straight back to the lads and I played them my demo, and we all went out and got drunk.” ![]() It was 20 minutes long, mind you.”Īnd he had an idea then that the song was a classic in the making: “It felt like it. I had all the pieces, and the ‘ Pick it up, take me back home’. The birth of White Wedding was relatively painless: “Keith stuck me in the studio with a drum machine and my guitar, and 15 minutes later I said: ‘I think I’ve done my homework’.
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