A little over four months ago, Move Concerts Peru announced the arrival of Billy Idol in Lima for the first time on The Roadside Tour 2022. The reaction of all of us who came from the 1980’s was one of joy as the streets were filled with advertising announcing what would be a great show. Billy Idol’s music began to sound on all the radios in Peru in 1982, first with the song “Dancing with Myself”, and then with “White Wedding” and success in this land was instantaneous. At the time, this writer was a die-hard metalhead and listening to these songs was a guilty pleasure. In 1983 “Rebel Yell” would arrive and this guilty pleasure could no longer be hidden, especially since behind Billy’s sound was his partner in adventures, the great guitarist Steve Stevens.
The doors of the Arena Peru opened at 6:00pm and the attendees began to run to occupy the places closest to the stage. The production company announced a day before that the show was a magnificent sold-out and it was not for less, having Billy and Steve in Lima deserved a full house.
The band chosen to open the show was ZEN, a Peruvian band with two decades of experience. Their 2002 debut album was a hit inside and outside of Peru and they were nominated for best new band at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards Latin America. With six albums in their discography and several hit singles over the years, the guys from Zen went on stage at 7:45 pm and from the first song “Tan Cruel” to the hit “Desaparecer” made the audience go from receiving them coldly at the beginning to warming up the atmosphere after 45 minutes.
Band:
Jhovan Tomasevich – Vocals / Guitar
Alec Marambio – Guitar
Noel Marambio – Bass
Hanns Menacho – Drums
Setlist:
1) Tan Cruel
2) Aun Me Tienes
3) Sol
4) A Tu Lado
5) Mi Perdición
6) Comenzar de Nuevo
7) Confusión
8) Cristal
9) Fuego Eterno
10) Quédate
11) Desaparecer
At 9 o’clock, the musicians of the band led by Steve Stevens appeared on stage interpreting the first notes of “Dancing With Myself” before the shouts and applause of the public who reached ecstasy when, finally, the British-American singer Billy Idol appeared and began to sing “On the floors of Tokyo or down in London town to go, go!”. The thousands of people weren’t able to finish taking a breath when “Cradle Of Love” began to play, followed by “Flesh for Fantasy”, a song for which the great Billy changed his clothes on stage. Starting a concert with three of his best-known hits here in Peru was spectacular and when Billy greeted the people shouting “Lima, Peru” the emotion reached the limit.
The set list for the night combined classic songs with some more recent ones such as “Bitter Taste” from his EP The Roadside released last year, and “Cage”, the main theme from the next EP of the same name that will be released on September 23, 2022 and the video can already be seen on YouTube. He also performed another advance from the EP, a melancholy song called “Runnin’ From The Ghost” that was well received by the public. There was also a memory of his time in Generation X with “One Hundred Punks”.
“Eyes Without A Face” was another of the most anticipated songs of the night, which gave rise to a spectacular solo by Steve Stevens who once again demonstrated why he is one of the great guitarists in the world of rock. The public asked him for more and he continued smiling and showing his talent with the six strings. It is fair to mention that many of the attendees mainly went to see him. When “Rebel Yell” arrived, the crowd sang and jumped hugging each other while the band gave it their all on stage, again Steve’s solo was immense with a toy gun included that left everyone amazed by the spatial sounds that he took out on the guitar.
From the beginning of the show when he shouted “Lets fucking Dance” and between every song, Billy Idol interacted with the public with very emotional words like “Thank you for making my life wonderful.” Then before his last song, he told us “I can ‘t believe that after all these years I’m finally here”. He took time to mention the friendship he had with his partner in adventures for four decades: the great Steve Stevens and also made us the promise to return soon because despite his age he was not thinking of retiring from music yet.
After the theme of The Heartbreakers “Born To Lose”, that long-awaited introduction and riff of “White Wedding” would arrive in the middle of a total party of the almost 10 thousand concertgoers. A great theme to end the show and leave everybody both happy and tired. When Billy thanked the public for being there, they started singing “ole, ole, ole, oleeeeee….Billy, Biiiilllyyyyy” and while the Idol presented his musicians he caught the joy and continued singing with the public while leaving the stage. For 90 minutes, Billy Idol took us on a musical journey that has been going on for 40 years and made us forget all these years of waiting to see him in Peru.
Band:
Billy Idol – Vocals
Steve Stevens – Guitar
Billy Morrison – Guitar
Paul Trudeau – Keyboards, Guitar, backing vocals
Eric Eldenius – Drums
Stephen McGrath – Bass, Vocals
Setlist
1) Dancing With Myself
2) Cradle Of Love
3) Flesh For Fantasy
4) Cage
5) Speed
6) Bitter Taste
7) Eyes Without A Face
8) Steve Steven’s Guitar Solo
9) Mony Mony
10) Runnin’ From The Ghost
11) One Hundred Punks
12) Blue Highway
13) Rebel Yell
Encore
14) Born To Lose
15) White Wedding
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I’m a photographer with extensive experience working for national and international media. I’m also a passionate photography educator with extensive experience working with students of different ages. I love Heavy Metal music and I began shooting concerts in 1992. Concert Photography is my passion. I’m based in Perú but willing to travel anywhere.
