Eight-X (34)

Hello, Eight-X time again and today we have 3 solo artists (in name). First off a lady that was noted by me because of her John Cougar cover , i need a lover and years later Love is a Battlefield before researching i had no idea she had been so successful in the States, which makes me an European as she hasn't been such an item over here. I bought the album recently as now and then i scour for eighties vinyl again these days ( how come i wonder). In The Heat Of The Night is a pretty potent rock album of its time...Captain Sensible Lifestyles brings back the fun and satire to the everincreasing weightyness of the surviving first generation punk/wave bands , his own The Damned being one of them. Serious but light hearted, btw in 2006 he's formed The Blah ! Party, aiming to "give all politicians a kick up the jacksie"... .. finally Billy Idol with a string of eighties hits, after his first band, Generation X, collapsed, he did very well until his relationship with Perry Lister ended shortly after the birth of their son....The eighties were over and when he released Cyberpunk, inspired by computers / networks when revalidating from a motorbicycle crash , he was dropped from the MTV rostrum that had championed him for a decade..a close call with death after an OD in 94 and Billy disappeared from the limelight In 2001 a greatest hits album was released that unexpectedly sold very well , it led to Idol's first new album in nearly twelve years, Devil's Playground.

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Pat Benatar - In The Heat Of The Night ( 79 ^ 249mb)

Born Patricia Andrzejewski on January 10, 1953, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the singer was raised in the nearby town of Lindenhurst on Long Island, NY. After graduating in 1971 Pat Andrzejewski married her high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar that same year and took his name. Benatar began singing regularly in the New York City area by the '70s, where she was signed by Chrysalis Records. Backed by a stellar band led by guitarist Neil Geraldo that provided the perfect accompaniment that was able to effortlessly alternate between rockers and ballads. Benatar divorced in 1979 and married band leader/lead guitarist Neil Giraldo February 20, 1982.

Her single "Heartbreaker" was released in late 1979 and was an immediate hit, climbing to #23 in the U.S. Her debut LP, In the Heat of the Night, was even more successful, reaching #12 and establishing Benatar as a new force in rock. It solidified her place in a class of women who were taking the rock world by storm in the late '70s. In the Heat of the Night was an album that obviously had its share of filler, but the one-two punch of "Heartbreaker" and the John Cougar Mellencamp classic "I Need a Lover" leading off the album made enough of a statement to put her on the pop charts. The remainder of the album packs enough grit and solid songwriting (especially the Blondie-esque "So Sincere") that it remains an impressive debut and foreshadows a glimpse of great things to come.

1980's Crimes of Passion, more than delivered on the debut's promise and it's often considered to be the finest recording of her career. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was her first single to break the U.S. Top 10 and eventually sold more than four million copies in the United States . The album reached U.S. #2 in January 1981 and a month later, Benatar won her first Grammy Award for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1980. Benatar's first (and as yet only) U.S. chart-topper was the LP Precious Time, released in August 1981. It was also her first to chart in the UK. The album's lead single, "Fire and Ice", was another big hit and would win Benatar her second Grammy Award, this time for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1981.Get Nervous was released in late 1982. The album was another smash, reaching US #4, and the single, Shadows of the Night, would garner Benatar yet another Grammy, again for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1982. By 1983, Benatar had established a reputation for singing about "tough" subject matters, best exemplified by one of the biggest hits of her career, "Love Is a Battlefield" , released in December 1983. By then her sound had mellowed from hard rock to more atmospheric pop, obviously she picked up her fourth consecutive Grammy for it.

After all that exposure 1984's Tropico didnt reach platinum and neither did, 1985's Seven the Hard Way, and 1988's Wide Awake in Dreamland. By the end of the decade, it appeared as though Benatar had fallen of the face of the Earth as the hits seemed to dry up. During the 1990s Pat Benatar released 3 original albums. "True Love" was a jump blues record, released in 1991 and featured the blues band Roomful of Blues, backing up Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher. The album reached gold status without any radio airplay . "Gravity's Rainbow" was released in 1993 and was a return to the AOR genre. "Everybody Lay Down" was released as a single to rock radio and went all the way to #3. Chrysalis was sold to EMI records and Pat Benatar had become pregnant , it was the last album recorded for Chrysalis records.

"Innamorata" was released in 1997 on the CMC International record label. A single video was produced for "Strawberry Wine(Life is Sweet)". In August 2003, Benatar returned to recording with Go (Vanguard), it revisited the arena rock/MOR sound that had defined Benatar's career, and was accompanied by an extensive tour. Although billed as a solo artist, Benatar recorded and toured with a consistent set of band members over most of her career, who contributed greatly to the writing and producing of songs



01 - Heartbreaker (3:24)
02 - I Need A Lover (3:25)
03 - If You Think You Know How To Love Me (4:16)
04 - In The Heat Of The Night (5:15)
05 - My Clone Sleeps Alone (3:22)

06 - We Live For Love (3:52)
07 - Rated X (3:13)
08 - Don't Let It Show (3:57
09 - No You Don't (3:15)
10 - So Sincere (3:23)
--Xs
11 - Love is a Battlefield (5:23) ( ' 83)

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Captain Sensible - Sensible Lifestyles ( flac 432mb)

Captain Sensible (born Raymond Burns, 24 April 1954) grew up in Croydon, England, his signature headwear is a red beret. Originally a member of the Johnny Moped band, Sensible joined The Damned in 1976 on the suggestion of his work colleague Rat Scabies, the band's drummer, filling a number of positions during his tenure (including bassist, lead guitarist and keyboardist), and eventually becoming the band's main songwriter following the departure of Brian James. He left in the 1980s to concentrate on solo projects, but rejoined in 1996 after Scabies left, and co-wrote Grave Disorder, the band's first new studio album for 12 years, in 2001. He continues to tour with the band today.

In the early 1980s, Captain Sensible was signed to A&M as a solo artist, and he had a number one British hit with the old musical number "Happy Talk." He followed it up with an original, "Glad It's All Over," an anti-war song about the Falklands; for a time, he was also hooked up with Robyn Hitchcock. By this time, his status as a member of the Damned made him a regular topic of coverage in the British music press, and he became well-known for various beliefs, including devoted vegetarianism and an opposition to war, which he presented in bitingly satirical fashion. Captain Sensible proved more charming than any other veteran of the punk scene. His vegetarian-oriented single "Wot" was a success, and over the next few years, he recorded a series of albums, Power of Love, Revolution Now, and The Universe of Geoffrey Brown, that were good sellers and critical favorites, though only in England . He and his band -- Paul Gray on bass, Malcolm Dixon on organ and synthesizer, and Garrie Dreadful on drums -- became famous for their live shows, which were spiced by the Captain's savage wit. In 1994, he released Live at the Milky Way, the best album of his solo career and one of the finest live albums of the era. .

Previously a member of the Green Party, in 2006 Sensible formed the Blah! Party, for which he continues to serve as leader. An avowed "protest party" aiming to "give all politicians a kick up the jacksie", it entered into a sponsorship deal with Seabrook Crisps in September 2006.



01 - Rough Justice (5:29)
02 - Revolution Now (4:21)
03 - Jet Boy Jet Girl (3:24)
04 - A Riot on Eastbourne River (4:51)
05 - The Kamikaze Millionaire (5:27)
06 - Smash It Up (3:01)
07 - Happy Talk (3:27)
08 - Can You Hear Me (4:03)
09 - A Sporting Life (3:29)
10 - Wot (5:49)
11 - Smash It Up Pt. 4 (3:04)
12 - I Get So Excited (3:54)
13 - Street of Shame (3:58)
14 - So Far Out (6:28)
15 - Glad It's All Over (3:37)

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Billy Idol - Greatest Hits ( flac 488mb)

William ( 11/30 55) was the first child born to Bill and Joan Broad, shortly after the family moved to Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York. The Broads returned to England after four years of living in the United States. He enrolled at Sussex University and took classes in English and Philosophy in September 1975. He soon immersed in the upcoming punkscene and became part of a Sex Pistols fan club called the Bromley Contingent. A year later and he quit school for a career in music. When thinking about a stage name he remembered a teachers sneer.."Billy is idle" into Billy Idol. In 1976, Idol and Tony James formed a band with John Towe and started playing shows. The band was named after the 1965 book Generation X. The band became a big deal throughout London and eventually record companies started showing up at shows. Generation X was an image-conscious band. They were more about the image than they were about the music. They signed to Chrysalis Records in 1977, even though Generation X took a lot of punk elements and added them into their sound and image, they were often seen as being too "commercial." Meanwhile they were the first punk band to appear on the BBC's "Top of the Pops" program. The band was on the rise, touring in countries like Japan.

By 1981, the band shortened their name to simply "Gen X" and released the single "Dancing With Myself" in the UK. It failed to become the big hit the band was waiting for. The new album was called Kiss Me Deadly. In 1980, the band embarked on a short but successful UK tour to promote the album. Generation X couldn't hold itself together and the members soon parted ways. Producer Keith Forsey and Bill Aucoin took hold of Billy Idol's career and quickly moved him to New York in hopes of capturing an American audience.The punk era had come and gone, and "New Wave" was taking over. Idol issued the 1981 EP Don't Stop (a cover of Tommy James' '60s hit "Mony Mony" and a pair of remixed Generation X tracks), which helped the singer score another record deal with his former band's label, Chrysalis. Idol was introduced to Steve Stevens by manager Bill Aucoin they hit it off, and Idol issued a self-titled debut in July of 1982. A pair of eye-catching videos for the tracks "White Wedding" and "Dancing With Myself" (the latter a remake of a Generation X composition) scored major air time on MTV.

In 1983, "Dancing With Myself" was released in the U.S. in an effort to introduce Idol to American audiences not yet as familiar with him. It was played in heavy rotation on MTV for six months. The "Dancing With Myself" video sparked a whole new era of feature film directors that would try their hand at directing music videos. Idol's second LP, Rebel Yell (1983) was a blockbuster success, and established his superstar status in the United States and in Canada with hits like "Eyes Without a Face", "Flesh For Fantasy", and the title cut; Idol also became very popular in Europe thanks to this album and its singles, particularly in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and later in his native UK.

But with massive success came its many distractions, which prevented Idol from issuing a new studio album until three years after Rebel Yell. 1987's Whiplash Smile was another sizeable hit on the strength of such hits as "To Be a Lover" and "Sweet Sixteen," but failed to live up to the lofty expectations set by his previous releases. Steve Stevens parted ways with Idol after Whiplash Smile. He claims that Idol's music was getting too synthesised and sequenced. Idol ran into trouble when he was busted by undercover police in New York City for carrying crack cocaine. Lister and Idol wanted to get "clean" ( heroin and cocaine), and start a new life, the two decided it would be best to move from New York to LA. When longtime girlfriend Perry Lister gave birth to their son, "Willem Wolfe Broad" Idol was still seeing other women ( the Hollywood nightlife), and even obtained a second house for his affairs. Lister eventually left Idol in favor of a normal life.

In 1989, following his breakup with Lister, Idol found his way to Thailand and let it all hang out...a quarter of a million dollars later he was thru dancing with himself again and went back to work on Charmed Life, a title undoubtely inspired by him surviving a serious motorcycle crash without lasting troubles. Against his doctors' orders, Idol decided to tour behind the Charmed Life album. Billy could be seen walking with a cane onstage. He got his personal jewellery maker, "Robin the Hammer" to customise a silver gauntlet for him. The gauntlet has "La Vie Enchantee" etched in the wrist. Robin also designed a large cross/knife necklace that can be seen in the "Cradle of Love" video.

In 1993, Idol released Cyberpunk, which fell on deaf ears. Music had changed in 1993, and a lot of the bands that were popular in the eighties were now being pushed to the wayside in favour of the new "Seattle" movement. Cyberpunk is considered to be ahead of its time by many people, and very experimental ( technobeats) for the US market. The inclusion of multimedia software as a special feature was unheard of when Idol first included the Billy Idol's Cyberpunk diskette.Nevertheless, the album tanked. Meanwhile, Idol was knee deep in drug addiction, resulting in another close brush with death when he overdosed and had to be treated in a Los Angeles hospital in 1994. After the incident, Idol realised that his children would never forgive him for dying of a drug overdose, and he began to focus more on fatherhood. Idol has never admitted that he is totally off drugs, just that he has his habit under control.

Idol returned to the popular eye in 1998, when he played himself in The Wedding Singer, an Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore 80s romantic comedy, where "White Wedding" was used as the title track. In 2001, Idol reunited with guitarist Steve Stevens to write and record a new album. Idol and Stevens started touring, which generated a lot of attention. A Greatest Hits CD was issued in 2001. The album also includes a live acoustic version of "Rebel Yell" which is taken from a performance at L.A. station KROQ's 1993 Acoustic Christmas concert. EMI expected the Greatest Hits album to sell around 100,000 copies. The album eventually sold over 1,000,000 copies and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 18, 2005.



01 - Dancing With Myself (4:50)
02 - Mony Mony (5:01)
03 - Hot In The City (3:33)
04 - White Wedding (Part 1) (4:12)
05 - Rebel Yell (4:46)
06 - Eyes Without A Face (4:57)
07 - Flesh For Fantasy (4:37)
08 - Catch My Fall (3:41)
09 - To Be A Lover (3:52)
10 - Don't Need A Gun (Single Edit) (5:23)
11 - Sweet Sixteen (4:14)
12 - Cradle Of Love (4:38)
13 - L.A. Woman (Single Edit) (4:03)
14 - Shock To The System (3:36)
15 - Rebel Yell (Live And Acoustic) (5:35)

Lite Billy (-14)
Billy Idol - Greatest Hits ( * 99mb)

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