Celebrating the 40th anniversary of his wildly successful album Rebel Yell, Billy Idol brought his Rebel Yell 2024 Canadian tour to the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday night, and he even brought Canada’s own 80s icons Platinum Blonde along for the ride.
I grew up in the 80s, so memories of Billy Idol and Platinum Blonde on the airwaves and on every music channel made an indelible imprint on me, so I was really looking forward to this show. In fact, I remember the days of calling into the local radio station and requesting songs by both bands, hoping to hear my name and requested song played back on the radio, so I could tape it. Music videos were king, and Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) and Sergio Galli (Platinum Blonde) both inspired me to pick up the guitar at 12 years old — a passion I still have to this day.
Seeing Platinum Blonde live has somehow eluded me my entire life, so I was excited for their opening set, and it did not disappoint. Vocalist/bassist Mark Holmes, guitarist Sergio Galli and drummer Justin Kadis sounded great as they worked through a set of all the songs a Platinum Blonde fan would want to hear. The CTC was already packed and ready to party as they danced along to “Standing in the Dark,” and other iconic hits like, “Crying Over You,” and “Doesn’t Really Matter.”
The first time I saw Billy Idol was on the exact same date, 16 years ago, opening for Def Leppard at the same venue. On Saturday night, there was a sizeable crowd at the CTC, with fans both older and younger than myself, ready for a rock show — and a rock show they got!
The arena went dark, and the stage lit up as Billy Idol’s band made their way to the stage, joined shortly after by Billy’s partner in crime, legendary guitarist Steve Stevens and then the man himself, Billy Idol, to loud applause from the crowd. They started things off with “(Do Not) Stand in the Shadows” and “Cradle of Love.” Idol’s set leaned heavily on material from the Rebel Yell album, which was recently re-released in a deluxe format, with previously unreleased songs.
Billy Idol’s set was everything you’d expect an arena rock show to be — massive sound, anthemic singalong hits and eye-catching stage and lighting design, as the band played a against a video screen backdrop, which changed throughout the night to feature a cityscape, TV screens playing back his 80s music video clips of his iconic snarl and spiked hair.
As a guitar player, one of the highlights was watching Steve Stevens do his thing, and do it incredibly well. Midway through the set, Stevens took to the stage, standing sparsely lit in a flowing river of stage fog, and ripped an extended solo on acoustic guitar. The solo featured amazing flamenco style playing, as well as a tip of the hat to his influences as he added in pieces of Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away,” and Van Halen’s “Eruption.”
The rest of the set continued to wow the crowd, including the fan-favourite “Mony Mony” complete with the crowd chanting along the infamous and misunderstood off-script expletive filled additional lyrics. Another epic moment was the combo of “Blue Highway”/”Top Gun Anthem,” the latter for which Stevens received a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1986.
One of the bonus tracks on the Rebel Yell deluxe edition, is a cover of soul/RnB group Rose Royce’s song “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore,” which Idol said they originally recorded in the 80s but didn’t finish, because Madonna was releasing her own cover of it at the time. So it was shelved until Idol decided to brush the dust off, getting Stevens to add some additional guitar to finish it up for the deluxe release. Idol introduced the song as a duet, and it featured an astronomical vocal performance by backing vocalist Kitten Kuroi.
As one would expect, the set ended with a raucous rendition of “Rebel Yell,” with Idol starting off by explaining the importance of the song.
“I was at a party with The Rolling Stones, and I came home and wrote that song. Two simple words,” noting how it changed the course of his entire career.
At 68, Billy Idol is still going strong and shows no signs of slowing down, riding high on a catalog of hits that give him a deep bench of songs to pull from, and fans that have stuck along for the ride, bringing their own kids into the fold as new fans.
Not ready to go home, the crowd demanded more and Idol returned to the stage in a Sens jersey* and delivered a three-song encore, of “Dancing With Myself,” “Hot In The City”, and “White Wedding.”
*The Sens jersey was peeled off after the first song and tossed to an eager fan in the crowd.
The Rebel Yell Canadian Tour continues across eastern Canada, and the Rebel Yell Deluxe Edition is available wherever you buy/stream music.
