During the punk rock movement in London in late 1976,[5] 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;[6] and – at Broad's suggestion, having already met via an advertisement previously placed in the Melody Maker by Broad seeking other musicians[7] – Tony James, a 23-year-old university graduate bass player from Twickenham and former member of the London S.S.[8][9] 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.

[13] 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,[14] and that his personal chemistry with them was not good – a feeling which they reciprocated.

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.

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.

[25][Note 1] 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.

[39] 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;[40] 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,[41] and had openly criticized and rejected on an intellectual basis the hedonism of the "Sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll" lifestyle.

[43] 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,[5] 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.

[44] 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.

It was produced by Phil Wainman at Utopia Studios, with an experimental b-side track entitled "Wild Dub" attempting an early fusion, before the subsequent Two-tone movement, of the ska music of the West and South London Afro-Caribbean immigrant communities with Generation X's punk-pop sound, following on from The Clash's foray into the same area a few months earlier, with their cover of the song "Police and Thieves".

Towards the end of 1977, Jonh Ingham resigned from Generation X's management as a preliminary to his going to live in the United States, and after having come into conflict with Tony James,[46] leaving Stewart Joseph in sole charge.

[55] In January 1979, the band with its manager Stewart Joseph was called into the offices of Chrysalis Records, where they were told that the label was unhappy that the money that it had invested into the act since mid-1977 was not being reflected in its chart success, and that if its next single, entitled "King Rocker", was not a hit its contract would be dropped.

[56] On release in the same month "King Rocker" (1979), with a b-side cover of John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth", taken from a BBC live radio performance in 1977, became the band's commercial career high point, going to No.

The situation was not improved by Generation X being driven off stage by an onslaught of missiles from a mob of U.K. Subs fans, during a triple-bill concert at the Lyceum Ballroom in London in February 1979,[5] as a part of an ongoing violent tendency from a proto-street punk element that dogged the band's live appearances.

[59] As the year progressed amidst a continuing heavy touring and increasing television performance schedule, induced by the commercial failure of the Valley of the Dolls, and a lessening impact on the UK singles chart of its releases, with the title song from the LP peaking at No.

Andrews, who had been impressed by the recent work of the critically acclaimed Joy Division, favoured a move into the new indie rock sound, and wanted more of an involvement in the band's song composition,[26] whilst Idol and James were drawn to a more mainstream and apparently commercial dance-punk one,[61] were flirting with the idea of incorporating elements of shock rock into the band's act,[62] and refused to admit his material into their song-writing partnership.

[citation needed] Idol and James wanted New to be Gen X's guitarist, but, after recording and rehearsing with him through the early months of 1980, they abandoned the idea over concerns about his professional reliability due to a narcotic habit.

[71] Chrysalis Records, now subject to the influence of Aucoin, had shown reluctance to fund it after the commercial failure of Valley of the Dolls in the previous year, and the debacle at the Olympic Studios a few months before, and to secure the new financing, Idol had to recourse to entering into discussions with the label of the option of a potential solo career signed to it beyond the band's existence.

[79] In consequence, after receiving notification from Aucoin that Idol was now willing to abandon the band, Chrysalis Records dropped the contract, writing off the quarter of a million pounds that it had invested into the act's development over four years,[80] and Gen X broke up in February 1981.

[85] Idol left England with a solo artist contract from Chrysalis Records to start anew in the United States, taking Gen X's single "Dancing with Myself" as a calling card.

[86] On 20 September 1993, during the England leg of Idol's 'No Religion' tour, the late 1970s Generation X reformed for a one-off performance at the Astoria Theatre in London's West End.