Everyone has their reasons to go to the Arizona State Fair. Some go for the food. Others go for the rides. Some think it’s worth spending $20 in quarters to win a stuffed bear. One staple that has survived year after year is the free concert that comes with admission to the fair. This year, the rock and roll schedule of the Arizona State Fair concerts kicks off with 1980’s legend, Billy Idol, Sunday October 16, 2011 at 7:00 p.m..
Although an MTV video mainstay during the 1980’s as a solo artist, Idol’s successful beginnings began with the punk band Generation X in the late 1970’s. After five years with Generation X, Idol took his punk rock persona and made it more accessible to the mainstream with his version of Tommy James and the Shondell’s hit “Mony, Mony,” and a Generation X song, “Dancing With Myself.” For the remainder of the Ronald Reagan years, Idol never looked back, having such hits as “Eyes Without a Face,” “Flesh For Fantasy,” “Rebel Yell,” “Hot in the City,” “To Be a Lover,” and “White Wedding.”
Like most artists of the 1980’s, the music world of the 1990’s was not kind to Idol, with his only full studio release that decade being 1993’s Cyberpunk. But fortunately, what are now considered classic rock artists, have made a comeback in the last few years and the music that was standard radio fare twenty five years ago is now being discovered by a new generation and rediscovered by an older one.
For this current tour, Idol has enlisted long-time collaborator, virtuoso guitarist Steve Stevens, to join him, along with guitarist, Billy Morrison, keyboard player Derek Sherinian, drummer, Jeremy Colson and bass guitarist Stephen McGrath. The Phoenix stop is the fourth on a very short California/Arizona tour Idol has scheduled for October, 2011.
If the positive reviews of Idol’s last tour in 2010 are any indication, this coming Sunday night, the Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum should be rocking. Although attendance is free with admission to the fair, reserved seats can be purchased at ticketmaster.com for $18.75, fees included. No doubt once seeing Idol on stage you’ll scream with a rebel yell, "more, more, more."
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