There are at least five artists called The Idols.

1. The Idols included Steve Dior & Barry Jones who in 1976 were an integral part of London’s early punk scene being close to the fledgling The Clash, Damned, Generation X and The Boys to name a few. They’d loosely rehearsed with Chrissie Hynde and Keith Levene and others in a band called the Quickspurts until Barry started co-promoting the first 100 days of The Roxy Club, booking the bands and designing the flyers. His teenage pal Steve came down to see the Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers on a pre-opening gig and fell in with the band. When fellow ex-New York Dolls member Jerry Nolan left the Heartbreakers unhappy with the ‘L.A.M.F.’ mixes, he immediately formed The Idols with Steve & Barry, ending up in New York where they were joined by Arthur Kane.

The Idols recorded demos in London for Track Records and made waves in New York, releasing a self-titled single, The Idols on Ork Records featuring lead track 'You' with 'Girl That I love' on the B Side. When Sid Vicious came to NY, the Idols were his first choice of backup band, but planned recordings never got to happen, though a live performanced was documented on the album 'The Idols With Sid Vicious' (also released as Sid Vicious' Sid Sings). The Idols folded in 1979 when Jerry had work-permit problems getting back into the UK. Barry then got a job with Max’s Kansas City; Steve rehearsed with Jones & Cook’s Professionals. Over time The Idols evolved into the London Cowboys, with Glen Matlock on bass but that's another story.

Barry must be the only musicians who’ve played with both four band members of the New York Dolls and Sex Pistols and went on to play with Johnny Thunders, his performance captured on the Panic On Sunset Strip live album. Barry stayed in LA, working as an artist. Steve worked with L.A. Guns and former-Girl and Tormé frontman Phil Lewis in a side-project entitled Filthy Lucre, then took a break from music for a while but is back with a new band, The Delinquents.

2. The Idols are a band from Adelaide, South Australia. THE IDOLS are here to set the record straight, to bury all the rock pretenders with a punk rock kick to the teeth, the real bad-boy band of the scene.With a reputation for a loud, dangerous and out of control live show that never leaves the audience dissappointed, they are intent of reminding todays kids of what real rock/punk music is all about - breaking the rules!!! Combining the look and attitude of bands like the NEW YORK DOLLS and the SEX PISTOLS, and a splash of the 80's MOTLEY CRUE hair metal wave. Their sound is a mixture of all the best elements of those era's made into a more current sound taking influence from todays bands like the MURDERDOLLS and EIGHTEEN VISIONS.

3. The Idols was the name of the first band of Demis Roussos in the 1960s, before he joined Aphrodite's Child, founded by composer Vangelis.

4. The Idols was also the name of a group of finalists from 'Pop Idol 2' in the United Kingdom (2003). They had a U.K. Top 5 hit with their cover version of John Lennon's 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)'.

5. The Idols were a soul / R&B / doodop group of the 1960s, featuring Dorothy Berry, the wife of Richard Berry. They released just one single: 'Just a Little Bit More' b/w 'Why Must I Cry' (1961) on Reveille Records. The same single was also released by Dot Records two months later. On some of the Reveille Records the B-side, 'Why Must I Cry', is credited to The Swans, for mysterious reasons, because it it the same group. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.