It was 1983 and I bought my first Billy Idol vinyl album “Rebel Yell“. Fast forward 33 years, he was still rockin’ with his punk/new wave genre at The Observatory Santa Ana last Feb. 21st. It was the last leg of his US tour.
In the early ’80s, Idol was a member of the MTV generation and became one of the MTV stars with his staple songs, “Rebel Yell“, “Dancing with Myself“, “White Wedding“, and “Eyes Without a Face” to name a few. In the ’90s, he made a famous cameo on the 1998 hit flick “The Wedding Singer” starring Adam Sandler .
Growing in the ’80s, I did not have a chance to see any of his concerts. I was barely a teen and could not afford to go to concerts. The only thing I can afford was an album.
Let’s go back to his concert last week. Can I say it was rebel rockin’ amazing? He still has his mojo after 3 decades. First song he sang was “Postcards from the Past” followed by “Cradle of Love“. Idol still managed to dance his signature move, still has his spiky blonde do, and cool wardrobe – topless with black leather pants. He sang all his hits and gave away a lot of freebies – plates, drumsticks, etc and even did autograph signing during his performance. There were crowd surfing and all the ingredients that make a rock concert a hit. But the highlight of ’em all was his voice was still “solid”. It was like just listening to my old vinyl album.
I was jealous of my friend Dina Kourda who came in early and was on the very front of the barricade. She took a lot of cool photos of Idol and even had a photo op with him after the concert. Dina, an ’80s kid like me and an Idol fan said, “The Billy Idol concert at the Observatory last Sunday night was everything I expected, and more. Billy still has an amazing voice and all the sex-appeal I remembered from my junior high school days in the ’80s. I have never seen an artist connect so much with individuals in the crowd. He really loves his fans and that is demonstrated by him signing, personalizing, and distributing set lists, drum sticks, paper plates with stickers, and even a Tshirt that he wore (and that touched his skin!) for an entire song.”
At the end of the concert, Idol yelled to the crowd, “Thank you. Thank you for making my life (Bleep) fantastic!” And we thank you Billy for making us dance with ourselves all these years.
Special thanks to Dina Kourda for the photos
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