Billy Idol

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higainer
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Billy Idol

Post by higainer »

Had to try & wrangle the night off work but glad I did.

Had absolutely no interest in seeing The Angels minus Doc Neeson.
Was never into Cheap Trick, no matter how many guitars Rick Nelson owns.
So I was quite happy to show up late & have a quiet drink till Idol came on.

I gotta say, Billy Idol is still holding up well for a 60 year old.
Looked like he was having a blast, working the crowd & getting into it with the band.
Still has the pipes too, unlike a lot of guys that were huge in the 80's & are now working the comeback/reformation circuit.

Steve Stevens, he's the fuckin man 8)
Had a huge sound, interspersed with flaminco playing.
Unashamedly still dressed like the rock star he is.

Gear.
Steve Stevens:
: His signature red Knaggs single cut seemed to be his #1, as it got the most use.
: Black Knaggs single cut.
: Black Godin for some flamingco stuff & Flesh for Fantasy cleans.
: Suhr Modern (Josie)
: Another black super strat (possibly Suhr) with blue LED fret markers.
: Silverburst Les Paul with silver flakes.
: Some kind of acoustic, Ovation perhaps.

Couldn't make out exactly the amp, as I was staring at the back of his rig but there were 4 heads in one road case, mostly likely his sig Friedman's.
The second road case looked to have his rack effects.
Two 4x12's facing backwards, so I'm guessing he was running a wet/dry set up.

Rhythm guitar player
Mostly Les Paul's
Couple of Gretcsh's
Some acoustic

Couldn't make out his rig, on the other side of the stage & too dark.
Looked like mostly rack gear, possibly Axe Fx.....dunno.

Lefty bass player seemed to have a natural finish Spector.

Keyboard player pulled guitar duty on a couple of songs with a LP thru an AC15 combo.

Billy Idol
Some accoustic for Sweet Sixteen
A Strat thru a Blackface combo with Idol spray painted across the grille cloth.

Steve Stevens had my attention probably 90% of the time as he was the main reason for going.

Great show with good vibes & energy.
Pleasingly no fuckwit factor to be had, just a high concentration of 40-50 year olds which probably explains it.
Might have been a different story in the 80's tho.
The poor house wife next to me might have had too many wines, as she fell asleep halfway thru.
When the show ended her friend asked "how'd you like it?" To which she replied "oh yeah, it was amazing" :lol: :lol: :lol:

I left wondering if Idol could keep touring like Springsteen or the Stones.
He certainly looked well enough in shape & still had the vocal range.

Bring on Kiss in Oct.

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Re: Billy Idol

Post by jimi »

Cool review, cheers for that!

I'd forgotten this was on, was kinda keen when it was announced. :oops:

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Re: Billy Idol

Post by matman »

jimi wrote:Cool review, cheers for that!

I'd forgotten this was on, was kinda keen when it was announced. :oops:
Glad it wasn't just me!
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away" - Tom Waits

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Re: Billy Idol

Post by Molly »

SS once did an album with Crue's Vince Neil. **** there's some good guitar playing on that.

Thanks for the review.

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Re: Billy Idol

Post by sty »

still tempted to go see this on Saturday, figure it would be a good show. Just not sure what the commitments are this weekend yet though

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Re: Billy Idol

Post by candiman »

Great review. Saw the show also and agree with everything you mentioned. I missed half of the Angels and Cheap Trick made me glad the '80s are a distant memory - although a real limiting factor for them was the shitty Vector sound. Billy and Steve S. were great. I had pretty low expectations thinking "burned out almost 60 year old". Not at all the case and will probably go again if they come back.

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Re: Billy Idol

Post by pungalane »

I'm seeing Idol in CHCH on Saturday can't wait.

Stevens is my favourite guitarist and I'm hopeful he'll do a solo slot of his flamenco stuff in there somewhere.

The last two albums - Kings & Queens... and Devils Playground have been brilliant and Steve Stevens is worth checking out with Bozzio and Levin on 2 Black Light Syndrome albums and his solo - Memory Crash and particularly his more electronic/flamenco album "Flamenco A -go-go".

Good to hear Idol and Stevens getting some respect. They are often written off as 80's cheese.

Oh and also... VH1 storytellers has some fantastic arrangements of the hits stripped back.

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Re: Billy Idol

Post by sirvill »

Just got back from teh Wellington show... actually awesome. He's still owning the stage at 59 years old, can still sing well, and the band is awesome. Had a really good time.


Steve Stevens is a very very good guitarist.

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Re: Billy Idol

Post by higainer »

sty wrote:still tempted to go see this on Saturday, figure it would be a good show. Just not sure what the commitments are this weekend yet though
Dooooeet, you won't be disappointed.

Auck: check.
Wel: check.
Need a report from the ChCh posse :wave:

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