Billy Idol - The Hedonist Punk

Billy Idol, fine artist or likeable charlatan? A true sex symbol, but also a former addict, dangerously fond of women, motorbikes and speed… No one else, for much of the Eighties, managed to embody that figure - now extinct on today's music scene - of the rocker idol, reckless and self-destructive, yet capable at the same time of winning over a broad and varied audience, backed by an unmistakable knack for killer melodies and a voice and interpretive skill far removed from the rough edges of punk, the genre in which his career was nonetheless baptized.

The Rise (from punk beginnings to solo debut)

Born in Stanmore, a suburb of London, in 1955 as William Michael Albert Broad, he spent a happy childhood in a close-knit family, yet showed early signs of a disruptive, rebellious character: he was expelled from the scouts for canoodling with a girl his age, and already during his school years decided what his future stage name would be: Billy Idol. When a teacher once wrote in the margin of one of his assignments "Billy is idle", he vowed to turn that into "idol" instead, and from then on started having people call him that. Gifted with a sharp intelligence, he even tried his hand at university, only to drop out due to the constant distractions of a London that was on the verge of total transformation. It was now the dawn of 1975.

It was during this period that he began to fall for the nascent punk scene, frequenting London's underground circuit, dressing at Malcolm McLaren's sex shop and faithfully following the Sex Pistols through their earliest gigs. He soon realized, though, that he wanted to be an active part of the "revolution" unfolding around him: together with his friend Steve Upstone he formed the Rockettes, a band that mostly played covers of other acts. Once that largely tongue-in-cheek experience came to an end, Billy got serious, teaming up with bassist Tony James (formerly of London SS alongside Terry Chimes and Mick Jones, future members of the Clash), drummer Mark Laff and guitarist Bob Andrews to form his new band, Generation X. With this line-up (which became definitive after several line-up changes) the group landed its first record deal with Chrysalis Records, which allowed them to release three albums.

If the first record, Generation X from 1978, can be regarded as a solid slice of conventional punk - albeit slightly more polished than their "cousins" the Sex Pistols, never shying away, for all its grit, from a certain underlying catchiness (as shown by the hit single "Ready Steady Go" and the hefty ballad "Kiss Me Deadly") - by the time of the follow-up, Valley Of Dolls, released the following year, the sound had already been refined further. Brought in to produce the album was a musician far removed from the punk scene, a "dinosaur" like Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, who introduced rockabilly and even folk elements into their music ("The Prime Of Kenny Silvers") but above all a healthy dose of glam rock, as heard on tracks like "Gimme Some Truth" and "King Rocker", almost an illegitimate offspring of Bowie's "Suffragette City" (whose "Andy Warhol" they would often play live). "King Rocker" climbed into the UK top 20 and landed the band a slot on Top Of The Pops, sparking outrage among punk purists over such a blatantly commercial move (even though the album itself would only receive a lukewarm reception).

It's with this record that the foundations of Idol's future solo career start to come into view, along with the blond frontman's growing urge to stand out from the rest of the band. Friction within the group was therefore just around the corner, and during the recording of the third album, Sweet Revenge, Mark Laff and Bob Andrews, unhappy with the musical direction the band was about to take, suddenly quit.

Replacing them with ex-Clash man Terry Chimes and a string of different guitarists, including the Pistols' Steve Jones, Idol and James decided to start over from scratch, shortening the band's name to Gen X and bringing in producer Keith Forsey, a collaborator of Giorgio Moroder who had already worked with Donna Summer, and who within a few years would taste Oscar-winning success with the soundtrack to "Flashdance".

Titled after one of their earliest songs (though it's not actually on the tracklist), Kiss Me Deadly, their final album from 1981, is a record that by now marries hard-rock riffs to a thoroughly danceable beat and a thoroughly stripped-down sound, with James's bass taking centre stage; a blend of two genres that Blondie, across the Atlantic, were already pulling off successfully and to critical acclaim.

It's on this last record that we find the seed of Billy Idol's future solo success, both in its overall sound and in a track like "Dancing With Myself", a driving, reckless little pop-rock song that encapsulates the whole stylistic shift described above, and which would soon become one of his first solo signature tunes. The album, however, failed to win over the public or crack the British charts, and so James and Idol decided to call it a day with Generation X and move on to new projects: Sigue Sigue Sputnik for James, and a dazzling solo career (albeit one marked by a very steep arc) for Idol.

With the punk era now truly over, new musical tastes were already rising from its ashes, and a deep stylistic renewal was sweeping through both the States and England itself. It was at this point that Idol began a long relationship with actress and singer Perri Lister (famous for her appearance a few years later in Duran Duran's "The Chauffeur" video), and together they decided to move to New York to give his career a new direction. Once he landed in the US, he teamed up with manager Bill Aucoin, a genuine talent scout who could boast having launched Kiss, and under his guidance Idol quickly and shrewdly understood that he needed to partly reinvent himself musically, without however disowning his past, but rather skilfully grafting new stylistic elements onto well-established foundations.

Having renewed his collaboration with Forsey, he released, again in 1981 and again on Chrysalis, his first solo "effort": a four-track EP titled Don't Stop, containing three tracks dating back to the final Generation X sessions, remixed or re-recorded, plus a spot-on cover of Tommy James & The Shondells' 1960 hit "Mony Mony", a fun, irresistible piece of rockabilly that Idol and Forsey dressed up in synths and gospel flourishes, effectively turning it into a track that only retains rock in attitude, certainly not in instrumentation. Though slight and indeed lacking in new material, the record drew attention above all for its reworked "Dancing With Myself", made even more irresistible for the occasion.

The two standout tracks piqued the curiosity of American audiences and the EP made its way onto the charts, albeit in the lower reaches, still placing Billy Idol's name among those worth keeping an eye on. Around the same time, Idol made another encounter that would prove decisive for his career: Steve Stevens, a flamboyant rock guitarist who would help him shape his very own sound and his imminent rise to stardom.

Released just before the summer of 1982, his first LP, Billy Idol, predictably moved him definitively away from punk's rawness and established him as a leading figure of a lightweight, radio-friendly rock'n'roll often laced with electronic touches. "Come On, Come On" and "Dead On Arrival" come across as an almost meaner-edged take on Billy Joel's "House Of Glass", while "Nobody's Business" flaunts the kind of towering synths that the prevailing new wave demanded. "Love Calling" even goes as far as folding in tribal percussion, and it's a relaxed, almost Caribbean atmosphere that pervades the two more subdued moments closing the album, "Shooting Star" and especially "It's So Cruel", a breezy ballad that Carly Simon wouldn't have turned her nose up at.

The album's standout track, "Hot In The City", picks up exactly where "Mony Mony" left off, amplifying its honky-tonk flavour and weaving in the electronic touches with greater skill, with female backing vocals kept firmly in the spotlight; its infectious chorus earned it solid radio airplay and a decent run on the American charts, effectively making Idol one of the few English artists more appreciated in the United States than in the UK.

The same fate awaited the second single, "White Wedding", with its dark yet insinuating rhythm section, Idol's caressing vocal curling into the chorus, and some excellent guitar work from Stevens. It would become one of his most famous songs, and its delirious, gothic video - in which Idol stitched together that "rebel angel" image that would lodge itself in the collective imagination - made him one of the first artists to grasp the potential of the format, just as MTV was being born, as a way of reaching new generations. His bleached hair, provocative clothing, cocky attitude, clenched fist and trademark sneer all became his signature traits, helping turn him into a true icon for young audiences. Success kept growing month after month, and the album was reissued with the addition of the previously released "Dancing With Myself", which found new life thanks to a video packed with special effects and zombies, practically anticipating Michael Jackson's "Thriller" by almost two years.

Stardom (the triumphs of the Eighties)

The conditions for turning Idol into one of the brightest superstars of the decade were by now firmly in place, and the blond rocker certainly wasn't about to let the chance slip by, delivering an album perfectly built for that very purpose. Released at the end of '83, Rebel Yell turned out to be a collection of tracks meticulously chiselled (by him and Stevens) with the clear intent of storming the charts, giving in, to some extent, to pop's charms, but without completely betraying the rock backbone of his music, so as not to send longtime fans fleeing in outrage. It would also prove a far more varied album than his debut, one that, in trying not to disappoint anyone, steered clear of any single clear-cut direction; even so, the quality of the arrangements (in which the electronic element is pushed further to the fore than before) and his memorable melodies more than make up for its somewhat scattershot nature.

The title track, released as the first single two months after the album's official release, repeats the formula of "White Wedding" but enriches it with chasing keyboard lines and a gritty, stadium-sized refrain. It won't set the charts on fire, but it will help the album maintain solid sales, which will nonetheless see a sharp increase with the release of the second single, "Eyes Without A Face", an enchanting ballad, placid in its first part, complete with ethereal French-language backing vocals sung by Perri Lister as a kind of echo, which is then roughed up in the finale by an unexpected rocking break featuring a memorable Stevens solo. A single certainly less explosive than its predecessors, but one that will allow Idol to reach the American singles top ten for the first time, and that will become the defining song of his career. The subsequent singles will also prove highly successful: the feline pulse of "Flesh For Fantasy", which, amid elegant arpeggios, funky little guitar licks and synth reverb, opens up into a liberating chorus and will land Idol in every nightclub, rivaling the singles of Tina Turner, who had just returned to the spotlight thanks to similar sounds, and the more melodic "Catch My Fall", in which a typical 80s sax instead shares the spotlight with the tamed rocker.

The wilder side of Idol will resurface in tracks like "Crank Call" and "Daytime Drama" (which nonetheless doesn't shy away from an eccentric keyboard flourish), while "Blue Highway" evokes the freedom and wide-open spaces typical of more melodic American FM rock. The track "(Do Not) Stand In The Shadow", with its youthful, carefree swagger, is instead the worthy successor to "Dancing With Myself", which, inexplicably, will not be released as a single, while the album will be sealed by a rarefied, suspended ballad, "The Dead Next Door", essentially Billy Idol's take on dream-pop.

Once again, both critical and commercial success (complete with a Grammy Awards nomination) will be far more pronounced in the United States than in his home country, where even "Eyes Without A Face" will receive a far from stellar response. But this unusual situation would soon change, in mid-1985, with the release for the European market of a remix collection titled Vital Idol, and a double single featuring both "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding": both will reach the British top ten, sparking renewed interest in the album and definitively catapulting Idol into the pantheon of pop stars, guaranteeing him fame and wealth but also exposing him to too many temptations to overindulge in drugs and alcohol, excesses he won't be able to keep in check and which will slow down work on the follow-up album.

And so anticipation for a new record will build to a feverish pitch: the public is itching to hear new songs, and the impression is that whatever Idol manages to pull out of his hat will be a guaranteed success regardless. And that's exactly how it will go: the single chosen for his comeback, while catchy, will be about as far removed as possible from the singles pulled from his previous album: a torrid, sweaty atmosphere, a futuristic western setting with saloon piano, seasoned-star crooning, and a counterpoint of female gospel vocals. "To Be A Lover", a radically reworked cover of a 60s William Bell Stax track, will conquer the top ten, especially in America, and will serve as an excellent springboard for what will prove to be his most ambitious album, Whiplash Smile.

Less varied and more compact than Rebel Yell, but above all less eager to please, Whiplash Smile is an album that constantly conveys a sense of grandeur, a continuous insistence that the man singing is the last true rockstar, in the most glamorous sense of the term, and not merely one of the last pop-chart darlings. The sound accordingly becomes decidedly more aggressive and monolithic: "Worlds Forgotten Boy" and, above all, "Soul Standing By" are two propulsive techno-pop rides torn open by Stevens's roaring guitar work, and the more classically-styled "Man For All Seasons" is certainly no less powerful.

Even when Idol tries to recapture the more lighthearted melodic spirit of his earliest singles and the dance-floor temptations of the previous album, on the second and less successful single "Don't Need A Gun", he can't help coloring it with urban tension and seasoning it with a vague underlying desperation. What comes through in the grooves of an album that, even in its more reflective moments, shuns radio-friendly immediacy, is therefore a more mature and, in a sense, austere Idol, as evidenced by the dark, tormented closer "One Night, One Chance" or the pulsating "Beyond Belief", carried along by a majestic piano progression. Still, he won't entirely give up flashes of brightness, as heard in the summery melancholy of "All Summer Single", propped up by slide guitar, and in the shimmering "Sweet Sixteen", a country-flavored ballad recounting the romantic exploits of sculptor Edward Leedskalnin, who built the eccentric Coral Castle in Florida to win back his beloved, who left him the day before their wedding at just sixteen years old.

It is this last single that, despite only reaching the lower end of the top twenty, will over time become the true classic drawn from Whiplash Smile — an album that, despite high chart placements, million-selling numbers (for the first time evenly split right from the start on both sides of the Atlantic), a Grammy Awards nomination and solid critical reception, will ultimately leave fans with a bit of a bitter taste for failing to replicate, especially in terms of media impact, the era of Rebel Yell. In truth, the only real downside of the new record will be the friction that arises in the studio between Idol and Stevens, which will be resolved with the latter's departure at the end of the tour, as he decides to pursue a solo career (he will contribute to the "Top Gun" soundtrack, play on Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana", and form the band Atomic Playboys); a departure that will have significant repercussions on Idol's future musical output, much of which will lose the characteristic energy his audience had come to expect.

Nevertheless, Billy Idol's golden period is still far from over, and to further capitalize on his success, the remix collection Vital Idol will be reissued, this time in the United States as well, enriched with a new version of "To Be A Lover" and accompanied by the single release of an amphetamine-fueled live version of "Mony Mony": unexpectedly, it will become his most successful 45, the track will fly to number one on the American chart and into the British top twenty, and its video (also live) will be one of the most-played on Mtv throughout 1987.

The following year will see the release of another retrospective for the European market only, Idol Songs: 11 Of The Best, which will contain all eleven singles released up to that point; to promote it, the single "Hot In The City" will be reissued, for which Idol will shoot a brand-new video. Dancers in fetish gear and sadomasochistic poses, voyeurism, a Confederate flag prominently on display, and his longtime partner Perri Lister hoisted onto a cross by a bodybuilder: the clip will cause an uproar, amid accusations of racism, blasphemy and overly explicit sexual content, and Mtv will refuse to air it. No great loss: all the controversy will push a six-year-old song back onto the charts, and the collection will prove to be a success, even reaching number two on the British chart.

By now increasingly dazed by success and excess, in 1989 Idol will leave Perri Lister, despite the birth of their son just a few months earlier, and move to Thailand for a short period, where he will have relationships with countless women and sink even further into drugs, even managing to get himself kicked out by the Bangkok authorities for the damage caused in numerous hotels and for his terribly disorderly conduct. Worse will come in 1990, just months before the release of his new album, when he will be the victim of a terrifying motorcycle accident, in which he will even risk losing a leg, leaving fans around the world in a state of anxious suspense. Because of the accident, several work opportunities will go up in smoke, especially in film, including a major role in Oliver Stone's "The Doors" (in which he will still make a brief appearance) and the part of the T-1000 cyborg in James Cameron's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day".

Despite this, the new album, titled Charmed Life, will be released without further delay that same year, preceded by the hugely successful irresistible single "Cradle Of Love" (number two on the US singles chart), in which Idol recaptures the carefree rockabilly verve of his early days, stripping it of any electronic temptation. It will be David Fincher, at the time the most in-demand and expensive video director, who shoots the memorable, award-laden video, in which Idol is filmed only from the waist up, as he is still unable to stand. Unfortunately, though, this will be, along with the shimmering "Love Unchained" (almost a new "Blue Highway"), the only moment on the album that retains the genuine spirit that had until then been one of the main ingredients of his music. Elsewhere, in fact, Idol will do everything possible to show that he has become a more mature, classically-minded rocker, and that he has set aside certain high-charting electro-pop solutions. And so rock tracks like the solemn intro of "The Loveless", "Pumping On Steel", or the closing pair "The Right Way" and "License To Thrill" go by sober and conventional but also rather unremarkable and somewhat anonymous, and what stands out most is the absence of Stevens's guitar flair and the energy he was able to inject into Idol's songs. A certain compositional fatigue on the artist's part is also noticeable: "Prodigal Blues" is in fact a rather dull, bloated ballad that never quite opens up (and will be released, to general indifference, as the third and final single), while "Mark Of Cain" and "Trouble With The Sweet Stuff" (pleasant but perhaps stretched a bit too long) play the card of a slowed-down, sexy blues, tinged with funk to mask the melodic shortcomings, while on "Endless Sleep" Idol hams it up on an old-style track doing his best Elvis impression. With material like this, it's understandably an effective, muscular cover of the Doors's "L.A. Woman" that stands out, which is indeed chosen as the second single and for which Fincher will craft a scorching video.

Buoyed by the attention lavished on "Cradle Of Love" and the indirect publicity generated by the serious accident a few months earlier, Charmed Life will nonetheless achieve solid success, coming close to matching the sales of Whiplash Smile, but its shorter stay on the charts and the failure of the subsequent singles already hinted that such results stemmed more from the lingering glow of past glory that still clung to Idol than from the intrinsic quality of the record.

The fall (from the grunge years to today)

With the arrival of the 90s, however, the break with the previous decade will be sharp: the grunge years, which will mark the end of the somewhat fleeting carefree spirit of the "go-getter" 80s, will suddenly age and make disappear much of the previous crop of stars and, above all, will transform the very concept of the flashy, transgressive rockstar that Billy Idol embodied to perfection. The changeover will be total, in short, and in this era of social, economic and political upheaval, music too will feel the effects, and so Billy Idol will once again find himself having to reinvent himself in order to stay on top. He will choose to start almost from scratch musically, distancing himself as far as possible from comparisons with the new heroes of alternative rock and taking on the unusual, and perhaps not entirely fitting, role of pioneer.

It's 1993 when word begins to spread that, on his latest effort due for imminent release, Billy Idol will renounce his rock roots to devote himself to electronic and dance music. Having developed a passion for computers during his years of rehabilitation, Idol decides to make a concept album, recorded partly on a Macintosh at his home, inspired by the science-fiction tales of cyberpunk writers like William Gibson, and by the emerging cyber-culture.

A couple of months before the album's official release, a reckless Idol starts circulating (only in the US media) a dance-flavored cover of Velvet Underground's "Heroin": the song is unrecognizable and, above all, so is he; fans cry betrayal and the music press cries sacrilege. When the first official single, the thunderous "Shock To The System", is released a month later (accompanied, among other things, by a futuristic and extremely violent video, inspired by the recent Los Angeles riots) the damage is already done, and despite being one of his best-conceived singles, more in line with his past work, with a highly effective, synthetically treated riff, the public will deny him the high chart placings he had grown used to with every comeback.

There's a sense of flop in the air, in short, but perhaps not even the fearless Idol was prepared for a failure of such proportions: when Cyberpunk is released that summer, sales will be so poor that the album disappears from the charts within a couple of weeks (and in his staunchly loyal US market it won't even crack the top 40). The music press, unanimously, will brand it one of the worst albums ever made (a reputation it still carries today, even though quite a few now consider it a sophisticated and, in its own way, experimental work), and even the cyber community to whom the album had been dedicated — heavily promoted on the then-nascent internet in a pioneering marketing move — will distance itself from the project, branding it a cynical attempt to commercialize cyber culture.

A defeat on every front, then, and Idol himself won't do much to change the situation, releasing as the second single a hypnotic, electro-soft ballad like "Adam In Chains", much closer to contemporary Duran Duran's "Come Undone" than to the ballads of his past (as are "Love Labours On" and "Shangrila", the latter even spiced up with Eastern flavors), and even changing his look for the new tour: sportswear and blond dreadlocks. In the eyes of the public, the old Billy Idol has practically ceased to exist, and this new incarnation of his is not liked at all.

And yet the content of Cyberpunk isn't all disposable, and overall it's a more interesting and melodically sharper record than Charmed Life; granted, the listen is weighed down and fragmented by the numerous spoken interludes explaining the album's concept, and when the tracks lean toward more dance-oriented sounds (already dated by the time of release, no less), as in "Concrete Kingdom" or the second-rate "Mother Down", the result borders on trash, even amateurish. What is interesting, though, is the use of sulfurous, dense electronic backing tracks, almost in Pet Shop Boys style, on tracks like "Wasteland", "Tomorrow People" and "Neuromancer", which update by a decade the rock-and-electronics fusion of some of his past singles, with the difference that this time the electric guitars support the beats rather than the other way around, even though tracks like "Power Junkie" and "Then The Night Comes" don't give up the abrasiveness that had become Idol's trademark.

This professional defeat, however, will take a heavy toll on the singer, who a few months later tries to salvage his commercial fortunes by contributing to the soundtrack of the film "Speed", with the title track, decidedly more classic in sound than the tracks on Cyberpunk, but which fares no better. He will then fall into a deep depression, leading him to take massive quantities of drugs and acid, even coming close to death in 1994 from a GHB overdose, a powerful synthetic drug.

Fortunately Idol will manage to leave the sad experience behind him, committing to getting clean and devoting himself entirely to his family. This temporary withdrawal from the scene will last until 1998, when he reappears, playing himself, in the comedy "The Wedding Singer" with Adam Sandler. That same year he will also allow a free download, on the mp3.com website, of a new track, "Find A Way", a gritty, acoustic-tinged ballad that will make headlines, however briefly, only for the distribution gimmick, and which won't manage to secure radio airplay.

Record stores and the general public, meanwhile, will have to wait until 2001, when the compilation Greatest Hits is released. Besides featuring all his classics, the tracklist will offer a cover of "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds: a less odd choice than it might seem at first, since the song was actually written by Keith Forsey specifically for Idol, who at the time refused to record it, leaving it to Jim Kerr's band, who turned it into their biggest hit in 1985. The compilation will do well commercially, and, also in 2001, Billy will return once more to the spotlight thanks to VH1's "Behind The Scene" documentary series, for which he will team up with a rejuvenated Steve Stevens for a mini tour in which his classics were reworked with new semi-acoustic arrangements. The whole thing will also be captured on a highly successful live album, VH1 Storytellers, which revives a handful of Generation X songs and features fine versions of "Rebel Yell" and "To Be A Lover".

Fans will have to wait until 2005, though, to finally hear a new album of original material, titled Devil's Playground, and the intent is clear from the very first notes: to bring back to life Billy Idol's more rock side, essentially wiping the slate clean of the Cyberpunk project (or rather, pretending those sounds had never been touched), while also distancing himself from the poppier openings of his biggest hits. In the US a sort of punk revival is underway, albeit a thoroughly watered-down one, more focused on image than substance, and Idol evidently wants to present himself as a survivor, a tough, genuine godfather figure for the new generation of punks, and the opening track, "Super Overdrive", leaves no room for doubt.

The overall quality of this new effort, however, will fall decidedly short of expectations, despite the much-hyped reunion with Stevens and Forsey; while the first single, "Scream" (with a powerful, cutting riff along the lines of "Shock To The System") and, partly, "Rat Race" and "Romeo's Waiting" work and bring back the Billy Idol everyone remembered, elsewhere it feels like listening to someone else's record. Not only because tracks like "Worlds Comin' Down" or the semi-Christmas rock'n'roll of "Yelling At The Christmas Tree" recall late-period Green Day, and "Evil Eye" recalls any generic American nu-metal band: his voice has changed too, and although its rasp remains intact, the sexy, dark depth with which he used to deliver his verses has nearly vanished, giving way to a thinner and, at times, tired delivery. Things improve somewhat when he retreats into more country-leaning territory, as on "Cherie" (tinged with sixties electricity), "Lady Do Or Die" or the cover of Ed Rush's "Plastic Jesus", but not when, again in a more subdued guise, he indulges in an overblown ballad like "Sherri", with the more folksy side of Bon Jovi clearly in mind.

Devil's Playground certainly won't manage to revive past glories, but it will achieve a decent, and ultimately unexpected, success that will allow him to embark on a new world tour.

Right before the 2007 holiday season, Idol will also release a bewildering and bizarre collection of Christmas songs, titled Happy Holidays: the underlying idea isn't even bad, that is, applying a rockabilly attitude to typical Christmas songs, making them more playful and less saccharine, as Chuck Berry had also done in the past, and when the experiment works, as on "Jingle Bells Rock", "Run Rudolph Run" or "Frosty The Snowman", Idol even seems more at ease than he did with the hard rock of the album from two years earlier. But when he tackles super-classics like "Silent Night", "White Christmas" or "Auld Lang Syne", all that's left is a dutiful rendition and a fair amount of boredom.

More of a slightly pandering divertissement than a proper album, Happy Holidays takes little away from and adds very little to Idol's career, but it once again casts doubt on his inspiration and his ability to create something new that wouldn't look out of place alongside his 80s output.

Indeed, 2008 brought yet another pointless singles collection, The Very Best Of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself, which, under the pretext of including the two previously unreleased tracks "John Wayne" (a heavy, overblown rock ballad) and "New Future Weapon" (which almost miraculously manages to brush up against the energy of Whiplash Smile), sends Idol back out on tour around the world.

Over the past twenty years, Billy Idol has certainly failed to maintain the standards of quality the public had come to expect from him in the 80s, revealing a marked creative sterility and a tendency toward self-glorification through too many cash-grab compilations meant simply to keep him afloat. And yet, buoyed by a memorable back catalogue that still retains its radio appeal to this day, he has truly managed (curiously, and perhaps somewhat approximately, given who we're talking about) to carve out, among younger rock fans, the role of a respectable media figurehead for 80s rock'n'roll. A decade they often blindly consider too flimsy and plastic, in which the great rock stars of the 70s shamelessly tried to compete with dance-music stars on equal footing, and new rock bands lost themselves in trashy solutions and excessive hairspray. Darker and "meaner" than David Lee Roth but less flashy and glossy than Axl Rose (who would nonetheless steal from him the title of most beloved rocker toward the end of the decade), Billy Idol really was a great tightrope walker of pop, and had his reckless lifestyle not driven him to make such rash and poorly thought-out choices (and experiences), his career might perhaps have avoided such a sudden and dramatic fall.

October 2014, in particular, seemed to have finally written the epitaph on the grave of William Michael Albert Broad, better known as Billy Idol. Within the space of just a few days, in quick succession came first the controversial Kings And Queens Of The Underground, the product of an odd pairing with Trevor Horn, and then a bestselling autobiography with the telling title "Dancing With Myself", which in a way brought full circle that extraordinary cyberpunk dance that had been his artistic journey.

Seven years on, however, the platinum-selling rocker makes a surprise return with The Roadside Ep (2021), the Stanmore rebel's seventeenth release and only his second Ep ever, following that Don't Stop which in 1981 marked his explosive solo debut right after leaving Generation X.

Four tracks now as then make for a convincing, raw and primitive flashback: this time behind the desk, though, is Butch Walker, who's worked with Weezer and Green Day, while by Idol's side, needless to say, is his trusty sidekick Steve Stevens, comrade-in-arms through a thousand battles on and off stage. The lead single "Bitter Taste" was written by the two of them together with Tommy English and Joe Janiak, and recounts the motorcycle accident of February 6, 1990 that nearly cost him his leg. A moment that would mark him forever, which is why the lyrics are among the most reflective and mature in his catalogue. The verses and the opening of the bridge are dominated by a sensual, noir-tinged acoustic guitar strongly reminiscent of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game", but also of Johnny Cash and the most fatalistic Depeche Mode of "Broken", before giving way to a highly catchy refrain.

"The Roadside Ep" is released through Dark Horse Records, currently run by Dhani Harrison, son of former Beatle George, who founded the label in 1974. The opening track, meanwhile, pays special tribute to one of the most seductive beauties in film history: titled "Rita Hayworth", it's another rousing anthem with a stadium-sized chorus and the same unbridled, Iggy Pop-like stride as "U Don't Have To Kiss Me Like That", both enriched by electro-psychotic little keyboard lines à la "Real Wild Child". Finally, the sophisticated power-ballad "Baby Put Your Clothes Back On" puts the seal on a genuinely well-crafted comeback.

The wait is over, a shame only about the mini format: while we wait for a new full-length, though, let's enjoy this "Roadside Ep" and "Bitter Taste" for now. “Hello, goodbye/ There’s a million way to die/ should have left me way back on the roadside”: there are a million ways to die, and for now Billy Idol has chosen the only one that leads to rebirth, resurfacing twelve months later with another surprise Ep, The Cage. The shorter format now seems to suit him perfectly, both because it makes the new tracks easy to devour in just under a quarter of an hour, and because the not-fully-satisfied craving leaves you wanting more. There are plenty of differences from the Roadside Ep, but the result is practically identical: a foregone success. If "Bitter Taste" was the catharsis of a man looking back tenderly on the bravado of his past, "The Cage Ep" has a decidedly less bitter flavour, bringing back instead the lovably punchable face we'd grown used to.

The rocker was certainly not born to be caged, and the straitjacket he wears in the video for the title track "The Cage" barely contains his pent-up rage. Musically, the fuse is lit in radio-friendly pop verses before exploding into a hard-voltage, Top Ten-worthy chorus; it's hardly news that his innate cross-genre instincts take him from bare-bones punk lines to big-screen rock drama. The second single "Running From The Ghost", as the title easily suggests, promises to chase away the personal demons that hound him relentlessly: women, alcohol and addiction. "I'm trying to quit certain things," he admitted in an interview, "I'm not 100% clean, but I'm on the right path." Should we believe him? Maybe — in the meantime, let's enjoy another shot of adrenaline in power-rock flavour, with a piano intro, metal bagpipes and goth-ish temptations. "Rebel Like You" (with Harley revs in the background and Stones-y riffs à la "Start Me Up" or "Love Is Strong") courts a new slice of audience by playing up the ever-relevant rebel-with-a-raised-middle-finger image, part tough guy, part cartoon, while closing track "Miss Nobody" is an unusual nu-funk number with added female vocals and synthetic grooves. Overall less chic than the "Roadside Ep" but with a strong contemporary feel.

In 2025, finally, almost eleven years after his last full-length of new material, comes Dream Into It, which, despite its title, isn't the album of a dream but one of an awakening, in search of a lasting balance. The intro of the title track, which opens the first half of the tracklist (dubbed "Dying To Live"), samples the keyboard line from Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream", before dissolving into a pop-rock self-portrait of youthful wayward living and words of advice to pass down to future generations.

The narrative unfolds chronologically like a stream of consciousness, with lyrics that are mature and intense, and which are evidently meant to reach their peak in the three duets arranged with star guests: while "77" with Avril Lavigne leaves one a little puzzled, the warm, aching, country-tinged one with Kills frontwoman Alison Mosshart on "John Wayne" works beautifully. Also a success is the one with Joan Jett on the midtempo "Wildside", which on first listen disappoints the (admittedly sky-high) expectations just a touch, but repays them with interest on the second, thanks to a refrain that refuses to leave your head ("riding in the fast lane, baby, I'm not slowing down, down, down").

"Too Much Fun" is likewise scratched at just the right moments by the guitar work of the ever-present Steve Stevens, always on hand to patch things up with his riffs whenever there's a risk of slipping into the mundane. With "People I Love", which examines Idol's shortcomings as a husband and father, and with the fun "Gimme The Weight", the second half of the tracklist (dubbed "I'm Reborn" instead) then gathers momentum, a nod to a line from the excellent rock-blues track "I'm Your Hero", which stakes a claim as a memorable anthem.

The decent lead single "Still Dancing", which closes out the tracklist, is in the vein of beloved new-wave and clearly nods to his first hit "Dancing With Myself", though melodically it hews closer to "Rebel Yell". Perhaps he could have dared even more, but overall this new air of a storyteller who's survived to tell the tale only adds to his appeal, since it sounds damn natural and born of experience.

Contributions by Giuseppe D'Amato ("The Roadside Ep", "The Cage Ep" and "Dream Into It")

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