Category: BILLY IDOL

BILLY IDOL

BILLY IDOL – The Cage EP (2022)

Eighties icon BILLY IDOL is back with new 2022 material in the form of ”The Cage EP’‘ which is set for release on September 23 via Dark Horse Records. The new music follows the release of Idol’s 2021 ‘The Roadside EP’, which included the Top 15 hit ‘Bitter Taste’ and received praise from fans and critics alike.
As usual, Idol is joined on the new project by his longtime collaborator, co-writer and guitarist Steve Stevens, one of the greatest hard rock axeman of his generation.
Idol rocks like hell here. Just listen to the title track where he is “screaming in isolation”, ready to break out after “living on the edge” and “fighting with my demons”, while Stevens and the other players steer the song from its tense verses into an explosive bridge and chorus. You could drop this on any of Idol’s multiplatinum efforts of the ’80s, or even on a Rick Springfield album and it would sound as valid then as it does now…

BILLY IDOL

BILLY IDOL – Happy Holidays [Remixed & Remastered] (2021)

Today BILLY IDOL is releasing a remixed and remastered version of his Christmas album, ”Happy Holidays”, for the first time on vinyl as well. Originally appeared in 2006, the album features Idol performing a wide variety of Christmas classics as well as the new original bonus track, “On Christmas Day,” which features the great Steve Stevens on guitar.
Produced by Idol and Brian Tichy, the new release of ”Happy Holidays” has been remixed and remastered by Paul Hicks, known for his work remixing classic records from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones. The album has also been packaged with new artwork…

BILLY IDOL

BILLY IDOL – The Roadside (2021)

Eighties icon BILLY IDOL is set to release ”The Roadside” — his first new release in nearly seven years — on September 17 via Dark Horse Records. Produced by Butch Walker and featuring Idol’s longtime lead guitarist and co-writer Steve Stevens, ”The Roadside” was conceived, recorded, and mixed almost entirely under the shadow of the pandemic.
The new studio material is much closer to Idol’s classic ’80s works than the material of his last album (2014), an orientation we like a lot. The lead single “Bitter Taste” features some of Idol’s most introspective and confessional lyrics ever, as he confronts death, rebirth, and his personal growth in the thirty-one years since his near-fatal 1990 motorcycle accident.
When Stevens intertwines the acoustic guitar with the electric, it’s money. Shading the light with the dark, it’s the perfect balance. Stevens is one of those guitar greats who never gets the credit he deserves. He and Idol are a fabulous combination…

BILLY IDOL / REMASTER

So80s presents BILLY IDOL – Curated by Blank & Jones [remasters] + New 2021 single

BILLY IDOL ’80s albums are a truly representation of that decade sounds, combining synthesized and sequenced rhythms with flashy guitar work into a rock&pop song-package. Although a bit cheesy at times, you can’t deny the catchiness of Billy’s stuff and the quality in Steve Steven’s six-string playing, one of my favorite rock guitarist ever.
Extended and alternate mixes were popular during the Eigthies, and Billy’s songs were one of most the prolific artists in that matter. The good thing about these versions is that they weren’t always designed as dancefloor alternates, most of these really rock.
Producer Keith Forsey and the other knob experts involved recorded and remixed these multi-track tapes with as much force as possible, and Stevens’s robot noises pierce the metronomic pulse.
The Blank & Jones is a team specialized in ’80s music, and together with Idol’s original label are publishing in Germany a CD series called “So80s presents“.