“I don’t think I’m going to do the Frank Carter, you know, throwing myself into the mosh pit, but God only knows, it depends on how it rolls.”
Gearing up for a full UK tour with her new band, XGenerationX, you get the feeling Elizabeth Westwood is just as excitable, mischievous and vivacious now as she was in 1986 when she first fronted nu-rockabilly sensations Westworld.
Back then, the band’s smash hit single Sonic Boom Boy lit up the UK charts with its teddy boy riff and hip-hop neon freshness.
“Listen to this. Sonic Boom Boy sold 247,000 copies. If you sold 247,000 copies of fucking anything now, you would be number one for like a year. It’s structured totally differently. And we only got to number 11 with that… I don’t think we had a long enough run to fall into true debauchery, but for the time that we had, we gave it a good try. I was having a blast.”
After three albums, Westworld called it a day. Elizabeth then released several singles with the more experimental Moondogg. In 2016, she joined vocalist trio The Rebelles, alongside Phoebe White and Tracie Hunter (daughter of Mott The Hoople singer Ian Hunter).
For her latest venture, Elizabeth finds herself in yet more excellent company. The new band features Subway Sect and Generation X drummer Mark Laff and Spandau Ballet’s genius multi-instrumentalist Steve Norman. They’re her kind of people.
Formed in London in 1976, punk band Generation X became the rocket launcher for the career of singer Billy Idol, with hits including Ready Steady Go, King Rocker and Valley of the Dolls.
Elizabeth’s connections to Generation X are multifarious. She formed Westworld with Generation X guitarist Bob ‘Derwood’ Andrews – and was his partner at the time. Later on, Elizabeth was married to James Stevenson, who ultimately replaced Andrews in Gen X, the final iteration of the punk outfit, in 1980. Confused? Excellent.
“I have known Mark Laff since 1983, when we were both just toddlers. And the cool thing about Steve, he can play any instrument. You know people that can do that. Prince could do that. They can play keys, they can play horns, they can play guitar… We met down in Brighton in March. Stevie Norman lives down there. Mark came over. I came down from London and we just got into a room and we started with King Rocker. The only other person in the room was Tom Wilcox.”
Ahh, yes. Tom Wilcox. The alchemist at work behind the scenes. Tom is mister music biz. Manager, curator, tour producer. He’s worked with countless stars – Glen Matlock, Tony Visconti, Steve Harley and Clem Burke of Blondie, to name a mere few. He put together a Bowie tribute supergroup called Holy Holy back in 2010. Elizabeth joined the project as backing vocalist, along with Lisa Ronson, Maggie Ronson and others. In 2024, Tom created the band Lust For Life, a supergroup homage to Iggy Pop, fronted by Katie Puckrik.
“I saw that. Katie Puckrik was phenomenal. I was blown away. She’s a performer and she nailed it. I was super, super excited for them.”
The notion of a female-led band playing tracks made famous by a male rock star as iconic as Iggy may seem risky. But it worked. Similarly, XGenerationX will no doubt be performing a chunk of the first two Generation X albums – the records that turned Billy Idol into a household name. Billy made those songs his own with his trademark punk sneer. Surely, I suggest to Elizabeth, stepping into such shoes must feel strange, to say the least?
“But who would you have? Do you have somebody that looks like Idol, that sounds like Ido, who tries to be Idol? Or do you have somebody who puts their own take on it? It actually makes it much easier if it’s a chick singing. Stylistically, it works. Let’s say that the female vocal was out of the equation. Who can you think of that might do it justice? It’s hard one.”
Elizabeth is not one to shy away from a challenge. She has lived, travelled, experimented and thrived in numerous environments. Brought up in Washington DC, she moved to the UK when she was 12.
“I was a kid. I’d been to school and I grew up in a city that was 95 percent black and there was a huge delineation between black and white. That was really awful. And I came here and you could walk around in a bikini at three o’clock in the morning and nobody would fuck with you. Not really. I thought ‘This is how it should be. This is how people should get on with each other.’ Black, white, unite, the whole thing.
“When I first got here, I would go into people’s houses and they wouldn’t have any heat, or they’d live in a squat. So I was blown away that there was that amount of poverty. But out of the poverty came creativity and the drive to create music that pushed back against that, or that would highlight the environment of those times.”
Elizabeth Westwood is the embodiment of a more courageous and rapacious time, of a spikier bygone era, when passion was the fashion and attitude was essential. Thank heavens she’s back.
Follow Elizabeth Westwood and XGenerationX on Instagram.
XGenerationX UK Tour Schedule
• Sunday 9th November – The Brunswick, Hove.
• Tuesday 11th November – The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge. Support from Herbie May (The Lounge Society)
• Wednesday 12th November – Oran Mor, Glasgow. Support Herbie May
• Thursday 13th November – The Cluny, Newcastle. Support Herbie May
• Friday 14th November – The Tunnels, Aberdeen. Support David Delinquent and The I.O.U’s
• Saturday 15th November – Beat Generator, Dundee. Support David Delinquent and The I.O.U’s
• Sunday 16th November – The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh.
• Tuesday 18th November – Social, Hull. Support Herbie May
• Wednesday 19th November – Future Yard, Birkenhead. Support Herbie May and Pareidolls
• Thursday 20th November – The 100 Club, London. Support Herbie May and Pareidolls
• Friday 21st November – Holy Diver, Stockport
• Saturday 22nd November – The Flapper, Birmingham
• Sunday 23rd – Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester. Support Herbie May
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