REVOLUTION, AMERICAN STYLE: BILLY IDOL BATTLES THE BLAND

REVOLUTION, AMERICAN STYLE: BILLY IDOL BATTLES THE BLAND

Toby Goldstein

by

Never mind the decline and fall of the Roman Empire...Billy Idol is about to introduce fear and trembling into one of the Bronx’s few remaining tranquil enclaves— Fordham University. While the neighborhood surrounding it gradually turned into an armed camp of Darwinian underdogs, the college’s gothic spires and acres of greenery remained unmarred by gang wars or spray paint, And the fresh-faced students are only just now superimposing the occasional “new wave” accessory over years of penny loafers. Staring hard at the largely unchanged physical and human landscape, I find it hard to believe that almost 18 years have passed since I last saw a concert in Fordham’s cavernous gym (almost alone of New York City schools, this place takes competitive jocking seriously). It seems fitting that that show had featured the Animals, who, like Billy Idol, were powerful and compelling performers. In 1966, people stared at and were bothered by them, too.

There is a crazy patchwork of cultures cross-secting in the backstage area, which has been improvised out of a lounge in the student center. As a group of concert helpers watch agape, Briton Billy Idol, who relocated to New York several years ago, is being interviewed by a crew from Australian television. Almost immediately, the interviewer dives into a rehash of Idol’s punk origins as one of the “Bromley contingent,” then asks, somewhat uncomprehendingly, why Idol moved to America, His thought centers on the apparent contradiction of an anti-society figure like Billy immersing himself into the heart of the ultimate Babylon. Idol’s response is quick. Claiming that, “My roots are wherever I go,” he is living in America “because I’m sick of people walking around hating each other.” Sic transit the U.K. When we settle down in the dressing room, it soon turns out that Idol’s life in these United States is ground-

ed in a positive feeling for this country’s potential, more than the earlier negative feedback which pushed him out of Britain.

When he first moved to New York, following the release of the final Generation X album, Idol made a habit out of being seen in many places, with even more faces. Rumors frequently flew as to his real or imagined vices and the amount of them he was consuming. These days, although Idol is as

"I’m sick of people walking around hating each other/9

defiantly spiky-haired, leather-bound and pale-skinned as ever, his tastes in backstage fare run to chocolate milk, fruit, vegetables and cheese. Idol, now a vegetarian, saves his ranting for the stage. Quickly ferocious at these people who assume that, because of his appearance, he’s “some sort of idiot,” Idol speaks wordijy, and fast. So fast sometimes, that he rarely makes a point without elaborating on it, complete with

names, dates and anecdotes. Having been on the receiving end of a massive negative British press campaign at the time of his move Stateside, Idol has obviously learned to intake the disapproval of outsiders, then carry on with his music, in the way he sees fit.

“Generation X had ceased to exist long before half the people in the world think it broke up. Bob Andrews, Mark Laff, me and Tony James—that was the original Generation X, and the ones after that...Quite honestly, if you want to talk about solo career, you’re looking it right in the face. I always made records with whoever I wanted to do it with at the time.

“We released our album in the late autumn, and around that time, there’s always a bit of a slowdown in the music industry. There were a lot of new, young writers (in the British press) and they were really fair to us and did a great job. But of course, you can’t prevent groups from breaking up, and that’s what happened. And it upset a lot of people,” Idol makes this point several times, “because they had put their reputations on thq line—not that the group had broken up. Because the group didn’t break up,” Billy says intently, “the group’s sitting here. I am the only person out of Generation X writing and making his own music. That ain’t a big deal or nothing, but it’s the truth.

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"Rock `n' roll music has always been about decadence and revoltingness and horrible things that society propels on everybody."

“Sometimes,” he hurtles on, “it’s good to let people think they’ve got you in a hole, right? A bit like the Sex Pistols signing to A&M, and the next day they were given 75,000 to get off. Well,I’ve been paid a lot of money since I left England. I’ve got a lot of respect in England, and a lot of love, but I get that here, too.” Idol’s new loyalties are bolstered by the fact that he has had two massive dance hits, “White Wedding” and “Dancing With Myself,” the latter complete with an accompanying controversial video made by renowned horror film director Tobe Hooper. His career is being looked after by Bill Aucoin, who guided Kiss through their years of notoriety. Although Fordham is classified as a warmup date for the 1984 tour supporting Idol’s Rebel Yell album, Aucoin is present at the show, exhibiting the kind of managerial enthusiasm I remember him showing during the most successful Kiss years. I’m here at the start of another great explosion, Aucoin states, implying that Idol is firmly on the road to equivalent accolades.

The former manager of a huge metal extravaganza like Kiss does seem a slightly peculiar choice for a punk like Billy. Doesn’t Aucoin represent the kind of calculated setup you’d want to avoid? I ask Idol, who replies immediately, and heatedly. “For some reason, because of Bill and the way I look, people imagine us concocting this act. But if we were, by now you’d have had four album covers without spiky hair, not a hint of leather, no big red-black-and-white graphics—because the life would have been kicked out of it. For me, what’s important is the music; it’s what I base the rest of me on. So if anything is concocted, it’s the music, because I write it.

“That’s really the answer; it’s just a shame that people can be so shortsighted to think that Bill Aucoin could only be a business brain, when Kiss were obviously a very showy, well thought out, put together thing. But to be honest, I’m quite certain that was to do with the members of the group. They were extremely into image, and as a manager, his job is to foster that. Christ! People will try anything to start out, and you have to. You can’t be frightened of what people are gonna say later. The very point to me is that Bill Aucoin has helped to make Rebel Yell. He also helped to make ‘Dancing With Myself.’ He helped to keep Generation X alive and in contact with Chrysalis at a time when it looked like we weren’t gonna have a group left, let alone a third album. I’ve heard those Cleveland (Records)-type managers talking about their artist—who’s sitting next to them—like they’re spaghetti. Bill never talked about me to anyone like that and I think that shows integrity.”

Of particular importance to Billy, considering his unchained past, is the freedom he has won to act as he chooses. Especially because he perceived America as being more open to different tastes than England when he relocated, Idol adamantly guards his career options against anyone who might want to water down something which they find uncomfortable.

“Everybody who’s like me faces some sort of people trying to censor what’s going on. The attempts are pretty half-hearted; if you know me, it’s gonna be. I’m the worst person to tell something I don’t like to. It’s just the way my face goes—it’s so hideous! It looks like I’m destroyed, but at the same time I’m up in anger and about to go mad! They haven’t tried anything wildly heavy. Otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here like this, so we won. But we won through the music. Before this album, there’s been those moments when, like any sort of business person, they want to own what they’re selling. Unfortunately, you can’t own a thing which only exists in the air and on plastic and might walk down the street. But you can’t keep it contained in a little cage in the Chrysalis office. It doesn’t work.

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“You have to stick to what you believe in, even though it might be totally wrong. Like, it’d be very easy for me to have come to the States and not have spiky hair. I could go on the subway and it’d be a hell of a lot easier—no one would recognize me. But that’s not what the album’s about—things being easy. Certainly, that’s not what my songs have been about for a number of years,” he says firmly, returning to his central concern—the ability to perform without restraints.

One undeniable reason Idol left England in 1979 was the creeping introduction of the new romantic movement onto the charts, a move that left little room for rock ’n’ roll and heavy guitars, rather than poppish melodies and synthesizers. Referring to the British charts of the day as “a confectioner’s shop,” Idol darkly hints, “There’s a lot of kids there who ain’t gonna sit about singing about karma chameleons for much longer.” Sour grapes? Possibly. But it could also be due to Idol’s personal tastes running more toward Iggy Pop and Gene Vincent than Boy George or Simon Le Bon.

Asked about his decision to move here, Idol stares straight ahead, raises his voice ever so slightly, and asks rhetorically, “So what was I gonna do? I was gonna wind up my life drinking in some dumb bar somewhere, being photographed by the Daily Mail because I once had a hit record in 1979? Oh hell, I don’t want that. It’s good to be anonymous, especially after those few years and all the trash that went down. It’s great to be here again, where I think it’s absolutely brilliant to have people playing with you, let alone play in front of 3,000 people. It may not seem like much to some people, but I tell you, it’s a hell of a lot if you’re standing there and get the reaction. When you feel that, I think it’s worth every moment of coming here. This is the sort of excitement I believe in.”

He may seem retrogressive at times, and not above pulling a fit of temper when the microphone temporarily breaks down, but Billy Idol does give his collegiate audience their money’s worth. On the second day out, the Rebel Yell tour could do with a bit of tightening up, only where the sequence of songs—not the band—is concerned. Backed by the album lineup of lead guitarist Steve Stevens, keyboardist Judi Dozier, bassist Steve Webster and drummer Thommy Price, Idol’s performance favorably compares to his show at the Ritz last year, which had interspersed minutes of intense excitement with more minutes of boredom. Deftly, Idol updates old Generation X hits such

as “Ready Steady Go” and “Kiss Me Deadly,” with newer, thought-provoking songs like “Blue Highway” and the unexpectedly moving ballad, “Daytime Drama.” Of course, the biggest screams from the audience—most of whom stand on their folding chairs throughout the 90-minute set—are for “Dancing With Myself,” “White Wedding” and the encore of that slice of Americana, “Mony Mony.”

Standing at almost touching distance from the hundreds of post-adolescent girls in attendance is another Billy Idol fan and his small entourage—Matt Dillon. Admittedly, when the word gets out of Dillon’s presence—he and some friends drove in from New Jersey—the security guards have their hands full quelling a love riot. But, whatever he may project onscreen, Dillon’s reedy figure, engulfed by a navy overcoat, does not radiate the in-person magnetism of Idol’s modified swagger.

Undoubtedly, Idol has come a long way since he moved to America with a pack of gossip-mongers at his heels. Thinking back, he says, “New York is very like London, very sophisticated and very gutter as well. Once you’ve handled a big place like that, it’s just minute differences. So I was a lot more worried about whether I was gonna be able to write songs with other people—if I was ever going to be able to write a song again. Just like when we started Generation X, there was no money involved, no career, no Billy Idol, lead singer. It was Billy Idol, just being himself, hanging out, starting to move and figure out where he wanted to go.”

Even as he begins to fit into the musical mainstream of his adopted country, Idol carries with him the feistiness that led him to survive several lean years before “Dancing With Myself” became a national club and chart hit. His delight at American youth exercising their option to choose their own music is unconcealed. Sure, the U.S. may be sordid, capitalistic, decadent and the rest, but all that trash walks hand in hand with freedom.

“Rock ’n’ roll music has always been about decadence and revoltingness and horrible things that society propels on everybody. But at the same time, that’s what our world is about. More people in the world spend a hell of a lot more time just looking around for something to eat, than sitting around talking about whether we’re decadent or not! Sure, we live in a pretty weird society, but I’m a very decadent part of that society, and I’m not gonna walk out now. I made myself part of that society, writing music and doing it publicly. I’ve gotta be part of this schlock, but I think the schlock’s really exciting,” he offers unapologetically. “I buy a lot of records and they make me very happy.

“There’s just a lot of jealousy in England, not necessarily about what I’m doing. Just that kind of ‘Holiday In The Sun’ aspect of being a well known performer. I say, ‘Rebel Yell,’ I’m not gonna stop. I don’t care about their rules. That was what punk was about, living your own rules. If some of those people got into Rebel Yell they’d soon have to change their minds, because I think it says as much about England as it does here.”

It’s that contrariness which has led Idol to play with imagery, turning a white wedding into a sinister horrorshow, and now, mak-

ing the rebel yell, a Confederate hallmark, into his own cry of liberation. “Just like taking ‘White Wedding’ and mutilating it, with ‘Rebel Yell’ it’s the other way around. It’s the absolute positive of a situation which could be completely fucked up. The rebel cry, I see it as the last gasp of an idea. But so many last gasps end up as a baby’s first gasp,” Billy Idol says, elated to be mirroring something so grand as the cycle of life with something so fleeting and transcendent as rock ’n’ roll.