Billy Returns to Nottingham …..

Before the show started tonight we were lucky enough to meet Billy’s manager and were able to give him a copy of the review we did for the Manchester show a few days earlier. As he started to read it he said that he remembered this review as someone had sent him the link. He said that it was a very good in depth review and he liked it very much and also that he would pass it on to ‘William’ personally so he could read it. Cheekily we asked if there was any chance of a photo pass for tonight’s show and he said sure then got one of his team to get one for us. We thanked him then made our way back up from the office and took our place at the front of the stage.

This venue is one of the best in the country due to it’s intimate feel, and the hall quickly filled to capacity, with over 1000 people all eager to see their hero. We met up with our friend Chris from the band ‘Three Quarters’ who is a huge Billy fan, and his manager Andy. Matt, Chris and Andy took their positions in the hall ready for the show to start and Kate went into the ‘pit’ ready to take the photo’s.

The lights faded to black and then all that could be heard was Billy’s voice saying “Can you hear that ? Can you hear that Nottingham ? Bily Idol’s coming” and with that he was stood on the stage and the room went absolutely wild.

The first track tonight was the lively ‘Super Overdrive’ from his latest album ‘Devils Playground’. As he sang the fans were still screaming and you could hear voices saying, ‘God is he really 50 in a few weeks ? he looks so sexy’ and yes we have to agree, he certainly is.

As he prepared to start singing he took off his jacket to reveal another one underneath that had the words ‘Missed Me ?‘ printed on it, and yes the UK fans certainly have missed Billy and it is so good to see him back where he belongs. It was time for a classic ‘Billy’ track ‘Dancin ’With Myself’, which everyone was singing along to as they watched Billy dancing around the stage and girating sexily against the drum kit. As he finished singing he said “ Tonight we are gonna play a mix of stuff, some new songs, some old songs, some borrowed songs and some blues songs and some that you will know from the very first chord” with this Steve Stevens started to play and we were treated to the very erotic Flesh For Fantasy’. Billy delivered this so well, standing at the front of the stage and punching his fist into the air as he chanted ‘Flesh, Flesh’ and lifting his top to show his body.

When he had finished his final chant, and as all the photographers left the pit, he said “ We have got a new album out called ‘Devils Playground ‘ I hope you have listened to it, if not you could always just steal it off the internet”. Then he went straight into ‘ Body snatcher’ which was enthusiastically received by the crowd. Billy decided that the crowd needed to be introduced to the band and preceeded to go from member to member and introduced, Stephen McGrath on Bass, Steve Stevens on Guitar ,Brian Tichy on Drums and finally Derek Sherinian on Keyboard.

Billy then said “ I love Nottingham, years ago I used to play at the Boat House, when I was in a stone age rock ‘n’ roll band “ he then handed out some drumsticks to the crowd as steve played a killer riff with his guitar behind his head. Suddenly the intro to ‘White Wedding’ kicked in and the crowd went crazy.

Billy shouted “Do you want to scream ? everybody, do you want to scream?” and the crowd screamed very loudly. Billy peeled off his top, and started to sing ‘Scream’. The fans were loving it, especially when he jumped from the stage to the barrier and hugged some of them.

At this point Kate led Chris (Three Quarters) down to the front of the hall for a better look and asked the security people if she could take him into the ‘pit’ for a few minutes, the look on his face was wonderful as he sat on the barrier , bearly 5 foot away from Billy. His mouth was just hanging open as he watched him sing the classic ‘Eyes without a face’ .

When the song had finished Billy went into the introduction for his next track by saying “ this song has a special meaning, it’s about a guy called ‘Ed’ who came over from eastern Europe, after he was jilted at the alter he came to the states and built this huge castle. It was mad, it had a huge moon for a rocking chair and a big slab for a door, you pressed a button and it opened to let you in. It was huge and Ed was supposed to have built it all with his own two hands, which I find hard to believe. He used to take groups of people around it on tours for 25 cents each and there was always some guy like me there who would ask him ' Ed why the fuck did you build this place?' and he would reply – For my Sweet 16” with this the crowd went absolutely wild as he began to sing this great track.

He introduced the next track by saying “Ok, lets do some Rockabilly idol tonight, lets do ‘To be a lover’ “ and continued to sing this up-beat track. Billy said Right, now I am going to do a song for the ladies in the house, it’s a song off Devils Playground” and it’s called ‘Cherie’.” This is a great track, very romantic and sultry, it was during this track that Kate thought she had better get Chris out of the pit as he was starting to look a bit scared as a group of rather large men had come into the pit and he was looking a bit swamped.

As we moved away from the stage Billy announced that he was going to perform his next song as a tribute to all the hurricane Katrina and Rita’s victims and the song was originally written in 1927 by Randy Newman and that he had changed the words slightly to fit in, he then sang ‘Louisiana’

Billy left the stage as Steve Stevens came to the front and played a beautiful ‘Spanish guitar’ piece that the audience were totally blown away by, the sounds floated around the hall as the spotlight was on him and as he finished the crowd clapped and cheered and showed their appreciation for this master of guitar players.

Billy took to the stage and he sang ‘ Rat Race’ and once again Billy stood on the barrier singing to the crowd. He then re-took his position on stage and sang ‘ L.A Woman’ which again the crowd loved

The fans were then treated to another track from Devils Playground, ‘World Coming Down’ many of the people in the room obviously had this album as they were singing along at the top of their voices .

With a cheeky look on his face Billy announced “ We are gonna do a Generation X song from the stone age now” and the fans were more than happy to hear one of the best known Generation X songs, ‘Ready, Steady, Go ‘ The whole room was dancing, punching their fists into the air and joining in with the great atmosphere in the hall. When the track had ended Billy said “ I hope you are enjoying the tour as we haven’t been on the road for a few years, hey Nottingham lets have Rebel Yell” ‘. As the song came to it’s conclusion the band all took centre stage and waved then left, the stage was blackened and all you could hear were chants of “Billy, Billy” and a few minutes later they were back on stage, much to the obvious delight of every person in the room. Loud cheering broke out once more and the music started again

They played ‘Hot In The City’ and changed the lyrics to ‘ Hot in Nottingham tonight’ which the crowd loved. All the way through the track he was leaning forward and touching fans as well as handing out drumsticks that he had used when playing the drums himself, as well as a couple that he had signed. He also passed his play list to a fan and signed it before hand , this was quickly ripped into three pieces as she passed two of them to her friends. Billy was on great form tonight and every track sounded fantastic. The atmosphere was so highly charged as most of the people here had never seen Billy perform before and had been fans for many years, you really could feel the love tonight.

Once they had finished the newly named ‘Hot in Nottingham’ Billy said “ You liked that one then?” and the crowd screamed back “Yes” so Billy replied “ You all loved Generation X so this time lets go one better and do ‘Kiss Me deadly’” this song was so good, Billy’s voice hasn’t changed at all over the years and if anything he looks and sounds even better than he did 25 years ago.

At the end of the track the stage went black again and the band left the stage. Most of the people in the room thought that the show was over and they were turning to their friends and saying how great it had been. Chants of “Billy, Billy” started again but this time with feet stamping on the ground and loud rhythmic clapping and, much to the surprise of the fans, Billy and his band came back for a third time.

Billy shouted “Do you want another one ? I said, do you want another one ?” everyone screamed back “Yes” and Billy said “ Well bring it on!” The guitars started to play the intro to ‘Mony, Mony’ and kept messing around so Billy couldn’t actually start singing, he was laughing his head off , as were most of the band. And eventually they let him start singing. Part way through the track Brian Tichy left his drums and another person started playing them instead, he picked up a guitar and stood near Steve Stevens at the front of the stage and they played some great riffs together, at one point they were even playing each others guitars. Near the end of the track Derek Sherinian and Billy both picked up guitars and joined the others at the front of the stage, they stood in a line with Billy, Brian and Stephen stood on the speakers in front of the stage. What a sight this was as they rhythmically waved their guitars in the air and played together absolutely note perfect.

This sadly really was the last song of the night but after well over two hours of great singing and music nobody was really complaining. Billy introduced his band one last time and when he said “and I am Billy ‘Fuckin’ Idol” the roof almost came down with the cheering and applause. The band left the stage and Billy stood in the middle, gave a huge smile to the crowd, and bowed down before leaving for the final time.

This was an awesome show in an awesome venue. Everyone whether they were the fans, the venue staff or Billy and the other band members, seemed to have a wonderful time and were sorry to see the evening end. It’s great to have Billy back where he belongs, here in the UK, and hopefully it won’t be another 12 years before he plays here again. The man is a legend and we have no doubt about the fact that he could go on filling venues for many, many years to come. He obviously loves his job and his fans and they absolutely adore him.Rock ‘n’ Roll is here to stay and so is the legend that is ‘Billy ‘Fuckin’ Idol’

NOTE.... From Kate James

Here is a little ‘personal ‘ bit that I feel I have to include in this review.

I went back and sat in the pit alone while Billy was playing ‘L.A Woman’ and stayed firmly in place for the whole show. At several points he was throwing out drumsticks to the fans and one bounced back and landed in the pit, I was very tempted to keep it for myself but as I am either (A) stupid, or (B) a nice person, I picked it up and threw it back into the crowd. The smile on the girls face when she caught it made me feel like I was obviously a (B)!

I loved the show and Billy was jumping onto the barrier next to me to get to the crowd, he was 6 inches away from me and I almost had to sit on my hands to resist the temptation to reach out and touch him, as this isn’t a very ‘professional’ thing to do ! however he kept smiling at me from the stage and giggling and even leant forward and grabbed my hand, at this point I was more than happy with my lot. Little did I know what was to happen a few songs later………

While they were playing ‘Mony. Mony’ and Steve and Brian were playing each others guitars, Billy signed another 2 drumsticks and threw them into the crowd from the stage, once again one of them bounced back and landed in the pit, under a speaker , I leant down to pick it up ready to throw it back to the crowd but when I turned round I found myself face to face with Billy, who had the biggest, cheekiest grin on his face.

He was stood on the pit floor with no top on, sweat dripping from his body and was literally 2 inches from my face ! I calmly handed him the drumstick back as I thought he had come down to get it to throw back to the crowd, but it was soon evident that I was wrong. He pushed his body against me and started dancing, now what would any ‘professional’ female journalist do in this situation ? ummmm let me think….. I started dancing with him of course ! and it was a great moment to say the least.

After we had finished our little dance together he looked me straight in the eye and smiled then he proceeded to ‘feed’ the drumstick down my top. I took this to mean that it was for me to keep now and was happy to respect his wishes.

I am, and have been for many many years, a huge Billy fan and these few moments really made my night and I promise I will look after the drumstick !