On Saturday October 23rd, BILLY IDOL, STEVE STEVENS, BILLY MORRISON, STEPHEN McGRATH and JEREMY COLSON performed an acoustic set at the Shoreline Amphitheater in San Jose;CA as part of the Bridge School Benefit show, organized by NEIL YOUNG. Morrison has updated the band's tour diary, an excerpt is below:

“'Would you guys like to do The Bridge School Benefit show at The Shoreline Amphitheater with Neil Young, ELVIS COSTELLO, PEARL JAM, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD and MODEST MOUSE?' Umm……OF COURSE!! We learnt that we had been asked to do this show while we were on tour, and while it was Billy’s fourth appearance at the annual benefit show, it would be my first. And I was excited to be a part of such a huge show, with such long reaching and beneficial arms. For those of you who don’t know, The Bridge School is an innovative organization educating children with severe speech and physical impairments. The kids are amazing and Neil Young organizes and hosts the annual concert to help raise funds for the school. So a few weeks after our US tour finished, I found myself in a car with Steve Stevens (we had played in San Francisco the previous night with CAMP FREDDY) driving down to meet Jeremy, McG and Billy at the early morning soundcheck. Feeling somewhat worse for wear after the previous nights festivities (even being sober, the effects of rock n roll, way too much coffee and a late night get to you after a while!!) we arrived backstage at the venue to find our trusty crew all set up and ready for us.

Last time I was here was at the 2007 Ozzfest with my band CIRCUS DIABLO and I absolutely love the place. Meeting up with the guys was great and it felt completely natural to play again – no rustiness or forgetting parts…..we really do seem to work so well together. But I started to notice a problem. It was fucking cold!! The fingers didn’t really seem to understand the instructions my brain was sending them, and Steve said the same thing. After a great soundcheck, we realized that we didn’t play until around 8.00pm and that it was only going to get colder by then. Hmmm….this should be interesting!"

Click here for more.

As previously reported, Billy Idol has signed with Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster, to write his memoir, Dancing With Myself. Idol, a natural-born storyteller who helped forge the early punk music scene on his way to multiplatinum worldwide success, will write the book himself. His bold, strikingly literary account will capture not only his remarkably colorful life, but also an extended period in music history that saw punk rock’s emergence through to its lasting impact on musicians across the world. Stacy Creamer, Vice President and Publisher of Touchstone made the agreement for North American, open market and first serial rights with Kirby Kim at WME. In addition, Dancing with Myself will be published in the UK by Simon & Schuster UK, where Colin Midson will edit. Touchstone will publish Dancing With Myself sometime in late 2011 or early 2012.

An early architect of punk rock’s sound, style, and fury who went on to become an iconic and controversial superstar through the nascent era of music video and MTV, Idol is penning a memoir that mixes punk’s audacious, take-no-prisoners attitude with a voice that is both unflinching, as it describes the debauchery that success allowed, and profound, in its vulnerability as it exposes the human experience beneath the headline-garnering chaos.

“Life gave me a golden key when I fell in love with rock n roll music,” said Idol. “It was the key to the answer of how to live and achieve your dreams. This world opened up to me with all the good opportunities but also every temptation—the drugs, the booze, the women, the 24-hour around-the-clock excess. And yet you have to write good songs to survive. Life had to be lived to do all that! Now I’m putting it all down in book form—from the heart. I’m going out on a limb here, so watch my back.” Commented Creamer: “In part a survivor’s story, but equally a very funny, sometimes chilling, and always riveting account of one man’s creative drive joining forces with unbridled human desire, Dancing With Myself is unambiguously literary in its character and brave in its sheerwillingness to tell. Billy Idol is destined to emerge as one of the great writers among his musical peers.”

In live news, Billy Idol will close out 2010 with the following shows:

December

15 - San Diego, CA - House Of Blues
16 - Los Angeles, CA - TBA
18 - Ventura, CA - Ventura Theater
20 - San Francisco, CA - The Filmore