THE CULT
As the opening act on Billy Idol’s Whiplash Smile tour, fellow-Englanders the Cult have turned up the volume and are tearing up the arena-rock circuit. The old flower-power sound of The Cult’s early records has been sliced up and rearranged with a straight-ahead hard rock guitar, as featured on the band’s appropriately titled new Electric album.
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THE CULT
As the opening act on Billy Idol’s Whiplash Smile tour, fellow-Englanders the Cult have turned up the volume and are tearing up the arena-rock circuit. The old flower-power sound of The Cult’s early records has been sliced up and rearranged with a straight-ahead hard rock guitar, as featured on the band’s appropriately titled new Electric album.
Produced by Rick Rubin (whose studio skills helped propel Run-D.M.C and the Beastie Boys to top 10 success), the Cult’s new record is rock in the tradition of Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, but with a slick ’80s feel, the nationwide touring of the Cult-featuring vocalist Ian Astbury in his black shoulder-length hair, Billy Duffy slicing out chords on his Gretsch guitar, and backed by the rhythm section of drummer Les Warner and bassist Jamie Stewart—is apparently a success. Besides playing encores almost every night (which is somewhat unusual for an opening band), Billy Idol himself has been seen dancing to the music.
