The 1980's was a great decade. I graduated high school. I graduated college. I lived in New York City. MTV landed with a splash. The music video sprung to life. And a young man with spiky blond hair who screamed as part of the song caught my full attention.
I found that lopsided sneer irresistable
From the first moments those memorable chords of White Wedding roared through the club my friends hung out at every weekend, Billy Idol had my full attention. Did I have other crushes in the 1980's? Hell, yes. I was a teenager and in my early twenties, it goes with the territory. But he's the one that stands out.
I was maybe very mildly obsessed. Is that an oxymoron? OK, yes. Obsessed is obsessed. I had read he hung out in the Village , so I dragged my friend Nikki out to the Village every weekend when I lived in New York. People would give me photos they got of him, but I never met him.
The photo is crooked because my scan skills are not so top-notch
I tried to see him in concert several times, but that never worked out either. He was booked to play at my alma mater's auditorium, but they decided he was too controversial and replaced him with Duran, Duran. Simon Le Bon was a decent replacement, and he still had blond spiky hair [my sister and I, it seems, had a real thing for musicians with blond spiky hair, yup, Sting included], but I was disappointed I couldn't scream at Billy Idol for hours on end.
Then when I lived in New York, I had tickets to see him at Madison Square Garden. Awesome! Until there was some major brew ha ha about asbestos or something and MSG was shut down for repair. Concert cancelled.
All these years, I kept my leather bracelet with studs as a momento of you, Billy Idol. Yup, I screamed after I typed that. Good times.
Yeah, another bad scan job. Me in the 1980's with my man, Gumby. Gumby was probably my best date in the 1980's, a leftover crush from the 1960's. Husband Unit is safe from that statement as we didn't meet until the 1990's.
