Photos and a review of Billy Idol and Platinum Blonde in Ottawa

[Ross MacDonald was on the case again. The 80s live! – AC]

On Saturday the 10th of August Billy Idol brought his ‘Rebel Yell Canada 2024’ Tour to Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre. The dress of the day was black t-shirts(with varying band names, mostly Billy Idol), denim, and Docs. And the crowd was predominantly gen-X (fittingly) but some millennials did sneak in to hear what all the fuss was about.

Opening the night was Canadian rockers Platinum Blonde who had a string of hit singles through the 1980s. Three members, guitar and drums backing vocals.

Lead singer and bass player Mark Holmes, and guitarist Sergio Galli have been with the band since the early 80s and for all studio albums, so the band’s traditional sound is still present.

Platinum Blonde ripped through 11 in about 45 minutes; so there was no time for banter. However, the band did show their appreciation to the full house as Mark thanked the audience for the applause and cheers.

And the crowd had a chance to sing along to numerous hit songs including ‘Standing In The Dark’, ‘Not In Love’, and then closing out with their two biggest rock anthems ‘Crying Over You’ and ‘Doesn’t Really Matter’ with the signature drum fills.

Platinum Blonde performed exceptionally well, the three-piece outfit was tight and the vocals as strong as ever.

After a brief break to set up the stage, and give time for the patrons to refill their beers, it was time for the main act. As soon as the house lights went out, everyone leapt to their feet, and many cell phones turned their video cameras on. The red curtains at the back of the stage opened and revealed a screen with a huge lightning bolt with a crown on top. The band filed out, and when Billy Idol came out on stage all hell broke out.

The band opened with ‘(Do Not) Stand In The Shadows’, off of 1983’s album Rebel Yell. In fact, over the course of the evening Billy Idol performed six of the nine tracks from Rebel Yell, plus one song that was included on a special edition re-release of the album.

Billy Idol brought along a full band: Steve Stevens on lead guitar has been a longtime bandmate and collaborator (since 1981). Billy Morrison was also on guitars adding a great depth, Erik Eldenius and Stephen McGrath in the rhythm section on drums and bass, Paul Trudeau on keyboards, and a pair of backing vocalists Kitten Kuroi and Maiya Sykes that sang like angels. With all this firepower it was a memorable night of full sound, and light.

Billy started the night in a leather jacket trimmed with MacLeod tartan fabric and a plethora of safety pins; straight out of early 80s punk. But after performing a couple of songs he was starting to get a little hot, so he removed his shirt, but kept the leather jacket; Billy is still in fine physical form.

After the clothing change, the band then broke into another Rebel Yell single: ‘Flesh For Fantasy’. This was a great opportunity to highlight the prowess of Kitten and Maiya’s backing vocals.

A little later Steve Stevens opened ‘Eyes Without A Face’ with a solo performance on his acoustic guitar, then sat on a riser at the front as Billy sang. The ladies’ beautiful backing vocals were most prominent during this song. Halfway through, Steve swapped out his acoustic guitar for his electric giving a big oomph in the finish.

Billy made full use of the stage, singing to all of the appreciative audience. And the big video screen behind the band added to the experience. All evening the screen portrayed a dystopian cityscape or played video clips of older Billy Idol videos in television screens.

Once again Steve brought out his acoustic guitar for a solo performance. He was alone on stage in billowing smoke with four beams of white light shining down. Steve made full use of every one of his frets. He started with Led Zeppelin’s ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’, but it was absolutely incredible to hear ‘Eruption’ on an acoustic guitar.

Next up was the biggest audience participation opportunity: everyone in the audience took to singing along to ‘Mony Mony’, including adding the obligatory naughty supplementary vocal parts. Everyone had their fists raised in the air along with Billy Idol.

In introducing his next song, Billy said that his cover of Rose Royce’s ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’ has been included on the Rebel Yell extended album. The song was sung as a duet between Billy and Kitten. Outstanding chemistry (and yeah, she had a passionate voice that left everyone breathless). Kitten held her notes with incredible emotion drawing gasps and applause mid-song.

At the end of the song ‘Blue Highway’, Steve closed with the instrumental theme to Top Gun. Many would think this is a gratuitous cover; however, Steve performed the guitar work on the original recording, winning a Grammy Award. Into the guitar solo, Billy handed Steve a toy ray-gun that he held over the humbucker pickups, giving a psychedelic effect. Steve had a ray-gun avatar on his speaker cabinets on stage. Then Steve continued with his epic guitar solo that included playing his guitar behind his head.

Billy introduced the penultimate song ‘Rebel Yell’, saying that he came up with the name of the song and some of the lyrics while at an after-show party with the Rolling Stones.

Of course the band came back for an encore, there were several of Billy Idol’s biggest hits yet to perform. Billy came back on stage for the encore wearing an Ottawa Senators jersey much to the delight of the local crowd.

And then he broke into ‘Dancing With Myself’, certainly another crowd favourite with everyone singing, and dancing, along. And there would be no rest as Billy closed out the evening with ‘Hot In The City’ and of course ‘White Wedding’.

Overall it was an amazing performance filled with nostalgia, and an abundance of energy.

Billy Idol’s band:
Billy Idol – lead vocals
Steve Stevens – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Stephen McGrath – bass, backing vocals
Billy Morrison – guitar, backing vocals
Erik Eldenius – drums
Paul Trudeau – keyboards, backing vocals
Kitten Kuroi – vocals
Maiya Sykes – vocals

Platinum Blonde:
Mark Holmes – vocals, bass
Sergio Galli – guitar, backing vocals
Justin Kadis – drums, backing vocals