I don’t know, but I find it very creepy.
White Wedding is actually one of my favorite 80’s songs. But it’s not a particularly upbeat song.
Have you ever seen the video? There was one scene that still sticks in my mind. A girl was up at the alter and when it was time for the groom to put the ring on, he forces it on her finger and her finger bleeds.
I always thought the song was about a girl who marries a guy because she’s pregnant. The guy she marries will completely dominate her. Maybe the song is critical of marriage, in general.
I agree that it’s probably about a shotgun wedding. Never really seen the video, but the lyrics always seemed to support the theory - especially with the word “Shotgun” in the first verse.
According to VH1 “Pop-Up Video” thing I saw (hey! Remember those? Those were fun), Billy Idol was being pretty literal. His sister got knocked up and married the guy, and Idol, who was too progressive for marriage was sneering about it. Which, come to think of it, is an incredibly dickish thing to do.
According to the Pop-Ups, Idol was since broken up with his unmarried paramour (the bride in the video), while little sister and groom are still married.
It’s probably creepy because Billy Idol himself is such a creep.
When I was a lad back in the 70s, I saw his band Generation X on a few occasions (once, at the University of Leicester, nearly getting my head kicked in, but that’s a different matter). Not a bad band, really. Except for that pillock of a lead singer. I had to laugh when he went to America after the band split up and apparently became quite popular. If only you realised!
Judging by the song and the video:
- Incest
- Satanism
- Necrophilia
- Billy’s sneer
(bolding mine)
Is pillock a less offensive word for cunt? Wanker? Dickhead? a self-absorbed, self-obsessed guy?
I may be completely misremembering but I could’ve sworn Billy Idol got into trouble for domestic violence in the late 80s.
I saw Billy Idol naked. He signed my white vinyl White Wedding 12".
There’s a joke here somewhere.
"Got me the strangest woman
Believe it, this chick’s no cinch
When I wanna get her goin’
Then I whip out my big ten inch…
“…Record of the band that plays the blues
Well the band that plays the blues
She just loved my big ten inch…
…Record of her favorite blues”
– Bull Moose Jackson
Read “moron.”
Probably a hijack…
But why does a song have to mean anything?
It’s just a song.
It doesn’t, but this one does. It’s pretty much as described earlier in this thread.
I’d imagine that “Pillock” is probably a bit less severe than the first and second, but closure to the third and fourth. But all five apply in the case of Billy Idol.
I thought it was about Billy Idol helping his virgin kid sister organize her wedding. He organized all of the flower arrangements, the caterer, and the band. 
I heard that Billy Idol’s sister was a born again Christian who had zipper problems and thus wound up pregnant without the wedding ring. A quickie marriage followed. Idol was mocking her.
With apologies, we’ve deleted the posts of a previously-banned multiple-name jerk. He posted something fairly trollish, and we’ve also removed responses to his post. Sorry about that; that’s our policy with such people. Blame him, not us.
Also, why didn’t more people report his posts when he was calling names in this forum? We’da nailed him long ago. (Sorry, don’t respond to that here.)
In 1992, he pled guilty to assault and battery charges after punching companion Amber Nevel outside a West Hollywood restaurant. He paid $2,700 in fines and was required to appear in a series of anti-drug commercials
(IMDB)