Tag: Cradle of Love

Billy Idol – ‘California FM 1990’ – Bootleg (The Billy Idol Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic8 Comments

If you follow the site, you know I’m a huge Billy Idol fan and anytime I can find a rare piece that I don’t have in the collection, I jump on it. This time around, I found a bootleg. And I do love my bootlegs. This is my fourth Idol bootleg and this one is from way back in 1990. It was recorded at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California on October 27, 1990. That means this would’ve been in support of his latest album at the time, ‘Charmed Life’ and we get a few from that album in the set list. Be warned, this is not a full show. This is a best of that was broadcast on radio at the time. But still, 10 songs of Billy is better than nothing am I right? Yeah…I am.

The version I have is a European release and was released recently back in 2023. I found it down in Tamp Florida at a store called D&J Records. I like to hit up local record stores when I am on vacation so this one was found back in June earlier this year. And I was thrilled to grab hold. Sadly, you will notice in the band credits, that there is no Steve Stevens on guitar as he and Billy were still on the outs at this time and for many years still to come. Does it impact the show? We will find out shortly.

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Billy Idol – “Cradle of Love” – 7″ Single (The Billy Idol Series – Bonus Edition)

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If you remember a couple months back, I bought about 21 7″ Singles and in that were a couple of Billy Idol Singles. The first one is for the single, “Cradle of Love”, which was the first single off his 1990 album, ‘Charmed Life’. The single was released on April 17, 1990 and the album came out 2 weeks later on May 1, 1990. This was the first time Billy had released a song, or an album, without Steve Stevens on guitar (except for his debut E.P.). The song is the highest charting Billy Idol song going all the way to #2 in the U.S. and it went #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart which is the one and only time he has done that as well. What was the song that kept him from the #1 slot…well, it was Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love” which was her debut and we know what happened to her.

The A-Side, “Cradle of Love”, was for the Andrew Dice Clay movie, ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane’. The song is about a whole slew of cradle-robbing rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis.  It is a classic Billy Idol song and has everything you know and love about his sound. It showed he could do it without Steve Stevens. The song was written by Billy Idol and David Werner and the song on this single is actually the album version of the song and not a remix which is okay because the B-Side is the treasure here and we will get to that shortly.

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Billy Idol – ‘Charmed Life’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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Billy Idol’s world was different now after ‘Whiplash Smile’ and ‘Vital Idol’.  Steve Stevens was gone, his manager Bill Aucoin was gone and he needed a fresh start.  After reconciling with his girlfriend, Perri Lister, they moved from New York City to Los Angeles to give things a go.

Billy and Perri had a baby boy, Billy bought himself a motorcycle, Billy got the acting bug and Billy couldn’t stay faithful to Perri.  A lot was going on.  Oh yeah, and he continued to use drugs.  So, where to begin.  I will give a Cliff Notes version as it would be a rather long synopsis if I didn’t.

I guess we will go with the fact that he had a baby and was now a dad, but it didn’t seem to stop his infidelity. He continually cheated on Perri and even fell for a girl 13 years younger than him.  Well, he knocked her up and she gave Billy a beautiful baby girl.  This of course was the end of Billy & Perri when she found out.

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Billy also met a lot of people in the movie business and actually got a big role in the Oliver Stone movie ‘The Doors’ about Jim Morrison and the band.   But before he could do that role, Billy went and had himself a little motorcycle accident which nearly cost him one of his legs.  As a result, he couldn’t do the role and had to settle for a much lesser role in the movie.  In fact, it was so bad he wasn’t able to promote his new album he had been working on called ‘Charmed Life’.  He did appear in the video for the first single (more on that later), but not much else.

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