Billy Idol

Billy Idol (William Michael Albert Broad) is a British musician and singer born in America in 1955.

Idol was at Sussex University when punk rock was emerging in Britain and he joined the Sex Pistols fan club. By 1976 he had formed his own band, Generation X, and had dropped out of University. As they gigged their profile rose and soon the record labels began to take note. The band signed to Chrysalis Records in 1977 and released Generation X later the same year. They followed this with Valley of the Dolls in 1979. The band was often considered to be the more 'commercial' of their peers, and this opinion was borne out when Generation X were the first punk band to play on BBC's "Top of the Pops".

Their third and final album, Kiss Me Deadly was released in 1981 under the abbreviated name Gen X. Although the band had spent some time recording a different album Sweet Revenge, acrimony among the band members meant that it was not actually released until much later (2003), after the band had split.

After the band split up Idol moved to New York but the punk bird had flown and Idol was no longer the 'current thing'. Consequently he was re-packaged as 'new wave' and released Billy Idol in 1982. The success of this album was partly due to the fact that the videos for the singles "White Wedding" and "Dancing With Myself" captured attention on MTV.

He followed his successful debut solo album with Rebel Yell in 1984. The album and its associated singles "Eyes Without a Face", "Flesh For Fantasy" and the title track, performed extremely well in the US and Europe. He capitalized on this success by releasing Whiplash Smile in 1986. Towards the end of the 80's Idol's life was complicated by crack addiction, relationship issues and 'rock star' room-trashing behaviour. A serious motorbike accident in 1990 meant that the title of his new album, Charmed Life was a tad ironic. Nonetheless he chose to tour with the album, albeit with a stick to help him walk.

By the release of Cyberpunk in 1993, the music world had changed again and the appetite for Idol's previous style was not as keen. In response to that he adopted a more modern and experimental sound. A subsequent release was delayed because of record company wrangles. Instead he contributed a song to the film Speed and started to act, appearing in the live version of Quadrophenia and in the movie, The Wedding Singer.

After a gap of almost 12 years, Idol released Devil's Playground in 2005, and in 2006 he released Happy Holidays, an album of Christmas songs.