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Elly Roberts reviews
EMI
- Released: June 2008
- Format: CD and Deluxe CD & DVD
- Rating: 6/10
- Vote and comment on this album:
Peroxide rockers career spanning best-of.. with two new songs.
William Michael Albert Broad wasnt exactly rocknroll. So, Billy Idol wascreated.
American born Broad moved to Surrey aged four, settling eventually in GoringSussex. Later in life he attended Sussex University to study English andPhilosophy in 1975.
Punk erupted in the mid 70s, with Broad becoming a huge fan of the Sex Pistols.During 1975 he formed his first band The Rockettes, then came punksters GenerationX who had a string of mid table successes with songs like Your Generation,Ready Steady Go and their biggest hit King Rocker peaking at 11 in January1979.
When the band broke up he headed to New York where he met guitarist Steve Stevenswith whom he had a run of singles, in an attempt to make punk sexier, which heachieved with modest success, becoming one of the first stars of early MTV.
Its a G-X song, their last, thats used as the starting point here Dancing With Myselffrom 1980.
This beat heavy, and much popier sound, failed to give them a good send-off,peaking at 62 in the UK charts.
Two years later, 1982, his solo career began with a classic Hot In The City.Gone was the penchant snarl, adopting a crooners style, though his rasp doesresurface as he yells “New York”. Despite its lowly charting at 58, itremained a firm favourite at clubs and parties. It took a further two yearsfor Rebel Yell to emerge. This was return to his punkier roots with acommercial edge, and again was a huge club record, but surprisingly fairedless well at 62.
Brilliant synth ballad Eyes Without A Face made it to the top 20, thoughits follow up Flesh For Fantasy, sounding much like Simple Minds, was abackward step at 54. The came his purple patch. A pulsating White Wedding,popular at, er, weddings, shot to 6 in 1985, with Rebel Yell re-issued hot on itsheels, matching White Weddings position.
Three singles over the next two years the dire To Be A Lover, club-orientatedDont Need A Gun and mellow Sweet Sixteen brought little success.A cover of Tommy James and The Shondells 1968 smash hit Mony, Mony inOctober 1987 zoomed into the top 10.
The exhilarating party format remained thesame, though brilliantly brought up to date. Capitalising on its success, aremix of Hot In The City in January 1988 made it to 13, thereafter hispopularity waned with his last single, Speed, trickling in at 47. Ofthe news songs, Future Weapon is marginally the better, but unlikely tochart.
With up and coming gigs in North America and Europe, from June to September2008, this nothing more than a pre-tour promotion album.
File under: Good collection. Not essential.
Weblink:billyidol.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Dancing With Myself
2. Hot In The City
3. Whiter Wedding (Part 1)
4. Rebel Yell
5. Eyes Without A Face
6. Flesh Or Fantasy
7. Catch My Fall
8. To Be A Lover
9. Dont Need A Gun
10. Sweet Sixteen
11. Mony, Mony (Live)
12. Cradle Of Love
13. L.A.Woman
14. Shock To The System
15. Speed
16. World Coming Down
17. John Wayne (New track)
18. Future Weapon (New track)
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.