Generation X (later known as Gen X) were an English punk rock band, formed in London in 1976. They were the musical starting point of the career of their frontman Billy Idol, and issued six singles that made the UK singles chart and two albums that reached the UK Albums Chart.
History Formation During the punk rock movement in London in late 1976, William Broad (aka Billy Idol), a 21-year-old guitar-playing university drop-out from Bromley and associate of the Bromley Contingent; the drummer John Towe, a West End music shop assistant;'London's Burning – True Adventures on the Frontlines of Punk 1976-1977', by Dave Thompson (Pub. Chicago Review Press, 2009) and at Broad's suggestion, having already met via an advertisement previously placed in the Melody Maker by Broad seeking other musicians'England's Dreaming Tapes', by Jon Savage (Faber & Faber, 2009), p. 281 – Tony James, a 23-year-old university graduate bass player from Twickenham and former member of the London S.S.Interview with Tony James, 'Gary Crowley's Punk & New Wave Show', 21 October 2015, Soho Radio, London all replied to an advert placed in the Melody Maker by John Krivine, the owner of a fashion clothing shop called Acme Attractions on the King's Road in Chelsea, seeking musicians to form a new West London band around the vocalist/frontman John O'Hara aka Gene October.Interview with Tony James in April 2002 for the 'Generation X Anthology' (2003) After a few weeks of rehearsals the band became known as Chelsea, and began by playing a few support gigs in West London and Manchester, primarily playing cover versions of rock and roll songs from the 1960s. However, by November, Gene October felt that Broad and James were becoming too dominant creatively and were beginning to make music that he considered too lightweight,Interview with Gene October, 'Punk Rock: An Oral History', by John Robb (Pub. Ebury Press, 2006) and that his personal chemistry with them was not good – a feeling which they reciprocated. Consequently, Broad and James along with Towe abandoned Chelsea (jettisoning October on stage from the line-up in the midst of a gig), and formed a new band called Generation X, named after the title of a book belonging to Broad's mother, that James found when visiting his family home.Punk Rock – An Oral History, by John Robb. p. 240. (Pub. P.M. Press, 2012) The new band was initially managed by Andrew Czezowski, Acme Attractions' accountant.
With his photogenic looks and egotism, Broad – styling himself with a punk pseudonym of "Billy Idol" – abandoned the guitar to be the frontman and lead singer of the new unit. When the 17 year old lead guitarist Bob "Derwood" Andrews was recruited from the Fulham rocker band Paradox, 'Generation X' took the stage for the first time in public at the Central School of Art and Design on 10 December 1976. The new band played its second gig four days later at the newly opened The Roxy, which Czezowski had also begun managing. Generation X was the first band to play at the venue.(This performance and off-stage interactions at the gig were included as part of The Punk Rock Movie (1978) Soon after formation Generation X abandoned playing cover versions in its live performances around London, and began writing its own material, with Idol writing music around James' lyrical song constructions.
1977–1978 In early 1977, the management for the band was passed from Czezowoski, who preferred club management to live acts, to a dual management of Stewart Joseph, a fanzine promoter from Rough Trade Records, with the Sounds journalist Jonh Ingham, who professionalized the act's business aspect, and began approaching record companies to secure a recording deal.The Roxy, WC2 – A Punk History, by Paul Marko (Pub. Punk 77 Books, 2007), p .78
On 16 February 1977, the band went into a studio for the first time to record a demo session of five songs at De Lane Lea Studios in Wembley, North London, sponsored by Chiswick Records. The lyrics of some of the songs possessed a partially politicized tone (with a critique of The National Front, and The Troubles) that the band would abandon after its early months. Later in the year, Generation X's first record was released by the band itself in the form of an unmarked white label for promotional purposes, with the song "Your Generation" as its A-side, and "Listen" as the B-side, taken from the De Lane Lea demo session. 250 copies were initially pressed, followed by another 500 copies, all in unmarked white paper sleeves.
In mid-March 1977, amidst a heavy performance schedule in London and increasingly beyond the confines of the capital city into England's provinces, a gig had to be abandoned at the University of Leicester mid-performance, due to Derwood Andrews requiring hospitalization from being struck on the head by a beer bottle thrown from the crowd.'Generation X – Day by Day' website, band gig list, entry 11 March 1977 In mid-April 1977, having just played their first international date in Paris in a joint billing alongside the upcoming bands The Jam and The Police, and recorded their first live radio session at the British Broadcasting Corporation's Maida Vale Studios, John Towe was asked to leave the band by James and Idol as they felt that his style of playing was too overt for what they wanted from a drummer, and James, the band's strategist, had come to the view that Towe's personality did not fit with the image that he was formulating for the band.Interview with Tony James, Punk Rock – An Oral History, by John Robb, p. 316. (Pub. P.M. Press, 2012) Towe moved on to join a new outfit called Alternative TV. He was replaced on drums by the 18 year old Mark Laff from North Finchley, recruited from Subway Sect after an extensive audition process for the vacancy organized by Idol and James in May 1977. From June to August 1977 in between gigs the band practiced in a rehearsal space in the basement beneath a Beggars Banquet record shop in the Fulham Road.
In mid-July Generation X signed a recording contract with Chrysalis Records, and went into Wessex Sound Studios in North London for the band's first formal recording session for commercial release. Under the supervision of the producer Bill Price the session proved to be abortive due to the band being unhappy with the results, and Chrysalis Records sought another producer, which it found in Phil Wainman. At the end of July 1977, the band worked with Wainman at Morgan Studios in Willesden, recording its first single "Your Generation". Wainman was not impressed with the musical ability of the band, particularly with Laff's technical proficiency'Idol & James find the new X factor', New Musical Express, 6 December 1980 or with Idol's capacity as a singer, and in response to Idol asking for his opinion during production as to whether he thought Generation X were "going to make it", answered with some dubiety.Radio interview with Phil Wainman, 'The Producers' Wnew.Radio.com 13 September 2011 On release at the start of September 1977, "Your Generation", with a b-side of the high-energy disaffected punk-rock song "Day by Day" (with a title taken by James from the recent publication of Robin Day's autobiography), went to No. 36 in the UK singles chart, after being critiqued by Elton John in a review column in the Record Mirror as 'dreadful garbage'.'If that's your generation you can keep it', Record Mirror, 3 September 1977 The band played the song on Marc Bolan's afternoon variety show, Marc, a few days later using Granada Television's Manchester studio instruments for the performance, afterwards making off with the drum-kit and being banned by Granada for 10 years as a result.
Along with writing and performing the band's musical output, James and Idol around this period sought to extend the band's brand identity beyond purely the musical sphere, by designing and manufacturing a series of op-art and pop-art T-shirts for use in Generation X's photo-shoots and live performances,'England's Dreaming Tapes', by Jon Savage (Pub. Faber & Faber 2009), p. 283 and James was attentive to its public image conveyed in the act's dress and styling.Punk Rock – An Oral History, p. 316, by John Robb. (Pub. P.M. Press, 2012) The band's co-manager Jonh Ingham introduced them to the graphic artist Barney Bubbles, who with them created the cover for the "Your Generation" single release, drawing inspiration from the 1920s abstract geometric work of Russian designer El Lissitzky, which introduced the Russian Constructivist school into English pop music design, which would be utilized by other bands into the 21st Century. Bubbles was also commissioned by the band to design its newspaper adverts and posters.
In September 1977, Generation X was one of the first punk units to appear on the BBC's mainstream pop music programme Top of the Pops, and began to acquire some mass media recognition as one of the punk-rock acts that had an accessibility of sound and image, with the potential to achieve commercial pop music success. Contrarily, the same analysis led to recurring adverse criticism of the band in the media of the alternative music scene from which it had emerged, with a number of reviewers dismissing the act as artistically and intellectually vapid,'Clean Punks: The Menace to our Kids', interview with Generation X by Tony Parsons, New Musical Express, 29 January 1977 and suggesting that it was using the guise of being a part of the punk movement cynically as a stepping-stone in pursuance of more prosaic pop music fame and fortune. Because punk-rock developed an increasingly radical overtone, driven partly by the politicized content of the songs of The Clash, Generation X also faced accusations of being middle-class interlopers upon what was increasingly espoused as a working-class sub-culture movement;'Generation X', interview with Tony James, 'Q' Magazine, April 2002, p. 114 evidence for this being a story in circulation within the scene originating from the music journalist Tony Parsons of the New Musical Express that when Idol and James had turned up in The Ship pub in Wardour Street for an interview with him, on being asked what they wanted to drink, had requested orange juices,The England's Dreaming Tapes by Jon Savage (Faber & Faber, 2009), p. 283 and had openly criticized and rejected on an intellectual basis the hedonism of the "Sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll" lifestyle. The interview had been conducted shortly after the band's formation, and James and Idol (particularly the latter) had since moved some way from this stance as they moved through the social circles of London's pop music scene, but the initial impression from it lingered in the British punk rock movement.'Clean Punks: The Menace to our Kids', New Musical Express, 29 January 1977
Generation X stood out in the burgeoning milieu of punk-music bands for its combination of the raw raucous energy of punk-rock, with a more commercially melodic sound and visual image in the tradition of earlier British pop music styles of the 1960s, drawing influences from bands such as The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, and the Beatles. It also produced songs that lyrically focused on the concerns of being an adolescent in West London in the late 1970s and, apart from playing a few gigs in support of Rock Against Racism, eschewed the societal commentary, cultural nihilism and radical politics of the punk movement, for which it drew some criticism from its peers, including John Lydon, the frontman-lyricist of the preeminent Sex Pistols.
In late September/early October 1977, the band spent several days recording demo sessions, overseen by Phil Wainman, at Utopia Studios in Primrose Hill, North London, in preparation for its first album release.