Standing for over 30 years Billy Idol and guitarist Steve Stevens for unbridled rock and roll. Hydrogen blonde, snotty and surrounded by scandal, that's how you have Billy Idol in memory. But years ago it was quiet about the rock rebel of the eighties. Now he's back with sex in his voice and a six-pack that is impressive. At his concert at the Z7 in Pratteln, Billy Idol not only got women into raptures, but also proved that rock is not a question of age. The legend Billy Idol actually lives mainly from his old hits, which he had at the zenith of his career. That is why the surprise was all the greater when this man took the stage on Thursday evening: you would have expected an aging, rocked-out singer who deserves his mercy with greatest hits concerts. But by no means. There was a man who at first glance would appear to be in his mid-30s!

Slim, fit, dressed all in black. It seems he now prefers consulting his fitness trainer to using drugs. In the 80s one of the heroes of my youth, with snotty performances and grandiose music in the baggage, after the flopped "Cyberpunk" album (1993) it had become quiet around the bleached bourgeois fright. The good man was only able to appear in the tabloids with drug excesses, which made his famous return in 2005 with the album "Devil's Playground", which was celebrated everywhere, all the more astonishing. Now he wants to publish his latest work "BFI" this year and is currently on the road live, proving that he is by no means old-fashioned, despite being 59 years old.

Billy Idol @ Z7 Pratteln - Rebel Yell - 12 June 2014

In fantastic weather, the open-air stage of the Z7 gave practically every one of the almost 2800 visitors an optimal view of what was happening and there were many people in the best, i.e. mostly middle-aged, who have certainly been loyal to good Billy for a long time, i.e. the show was sold out . There were hardly any "trendy" people on the premises, most of them were just people in "normal" clothes. In front of Billy Idol, the listeners got through first Glory Volt, a band from Winterthur, got us in the mood for the evening. A set of about 40 minutes was rocked with powerful sound. After a break for conversion, the time had come, Billy Idol entered the stage at the Z7. It was a bit strange: There is a man who is practically 60 years old standing on the stage and acting as if he were still the eternally youthful rebel. In leather gear, a peroxide blond messy head and with a thick defiant lip, he doesn't give a damn about the fact that he's now one of the elders in punk Disneyland. With the words "Can you hear me?" William Albert Michael Broad, as Billy Idol's real name is, entered the stage. «Once again I'm running, in times that are frightening, but I won't let that break me. I won't let that take me down again," he sings in the opener "Postcards Form The Past." After long, sprawling years with sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, he has found his place in pop history, promised to play all of his hits, really got the cheering fans excited and the atmosphere was immediately stormy.

The formation Billy Idol consists primarily of the symbiosis of the singer, who gives the name, and the guitarist Steve Stevens. The latter is considered one of the most accomplished rock guitarists ever. The artist from New York composed, in addition to the Billy Idol classics, the unmistakable guitar part for Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana" and the "Top Gun Anthem" (with Harold Faltermeyer), for which he received a "Grammy" in 1986. Also on board alongside Billy and Steve: drummer Erik Eldenius, bassist Stephen McGrath, guitarist Billy Morrison and Paul Trudeau on the keyboards - all top-class musicians who know their craft and harmonize perfectly with each other. Of course, Billy Idol was the absolutely celebrated star, who also lived up to his role and was completely convincing, both vocally and physically. Extremely fit, he kept showing off his body during the show. But he delivered much more than that. If you want to describe idol in one word, charisma is probably the most accurate. He jumped across the stage like a young dervish to the songs, which he performed with his unmistakable, deep voice.

Billy Idol @ Z7 Pratteln 12.06.2014/XNUMX/XNUMX - Steve Stevens Guitar

Steve (always with a fag in the corner of his mouth) stayed more in the background, but then he was at his best during his guitar solos. Does the man also spend his time doing anything other than playing the guitar? Over the head, with the tongue - the whole program! That's what the celebrating fans expected, and that's exactly what they got. There was a lot of pressure on the stage, the crowd was immediately under the spell of the music, under the spell of the good old 80s. It became abundantly clear that this isn't a nostalgia show like so many other "rediscovered" artists. The man still rocks and his support crew, led by Steve Stevens, follow suit. Unbelievable how the guitarist mastered his instrument, an extended solo with an acoustic guitar revealed his technical prowess while he entertained the fans with his Spanish tunes all by himself. A band performed here that just had fun on stage, which was also reflected in the audience. You could tell how they were reminiscing and most of them sang along with the hits. Every title was enthusiastically applauded – well, the «old» popular hits maybe a bit more! "Rebel Yell" ended the first part of the concert after 90 minutes.

Of course, that shouldn't have been it, with «White Wedding» they came back on stage and the crowning glory was the snotty «Mony Mony». The audience could hardly calm down. The energy that Idol radiated spread to everyone. On the one hand there were the crushing, brute moments in which Steve Stevens reached for the six strings of his instrument with all his might and made the Z7 forecourt tremble on Thursday evening and on the other hand the emotional interludes in which the guitar god melted everything. Again and again he switched back and forth between these extremes in his numerous solos embedded in the show, he lay on the floor while playing, played with the instrument behind his head, played with his mouth. It takes more than just a hardened body to compete alongside a Steve Stevens on stage. And Billy Idol mastered this task with flying colors and celebrated the audience in its purest form. And if all the dams had broken and if the audience hadn't raged like mad from the first bars, the man with the seven lives would have embedded his greatest trump card "Rebel Yell" earlier in the set list and not just before the encore intoned. Billy Idol had a lot of fun with the treasures from his personal pop museum, which admittedly didn't seem like a museum for a moment. At the end the cheering was so loud that you could hardly hear the man on the stage. After two hours the spectacle was over. His last words before leaving the stage were: "I'm Billy 'Fucking' Idol".

Billy Idol live in Switzerland 2014 - White Wedding

setlist:

1. Postcards from the past
2. Cradle of Love
3. Dancing with Myself (Generation X Song)
4. Flesh for Fantasy
5. love and glory
6. One Breath Away
7. Ready Steady Go (Generation X Song)
8. Sweet Sixteen
9. Whiskey and Pills
10. Eyes Without a Face
11. LA Woman (The Doors Cover)
12. Guitar solo
13. King Rocker (Generation X Song)
14. Love Like Fire (Generation X Song)
15. Blue Highway
16. Rebel yell

Encore:

17. White Wedding (Special Acoustic Version)
18. Mony Mony (Tommy James & the Shondells Cover)

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