Adam Ant
Encyclopedia
Adam Ant is an English
musician
who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave
/post-punk
group Adam and the Ants
and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s. Ant was also a star in America where he not only scored a string of hit singles and albums, but was once voted sexiest man in America by the viewers of MTV
. He is also an actor, having appeared in over two dozen films or television episodes between 1985 and 2003.
Since 2010
, Ant has undertaken a major reactivation of his musical career, performing live regularly in his hometown London
and beyond, recording a new album and with a UK national tour now completed. His present comeback continues and thrives despite concerns about such activities being merely another symptom of the mental health issues which were in considerable part responsible for his lengthy spell of near-inactivity spanning the late 1990s and 2000s.
. One of the themes he used in his later work — oppressed minorities — was part of his heritage; he is of Romnichal
descent. His maternal grandfather, Walter Albany Smith, was a full-blooded Romani. Home was two rooms in De Walden buildings, St John's Wood
. He recalls "There was no luxury, but there was always food on the table." His father, Leslie Goddard, worked as a chauffeur and his mother, Betty Kathleen Smith, was a domestic cleaner, briefly working for Paul McCartney
.
His parents divorced when Goddard was seven years old, mainly on account of Les Goddard's chronic alcoholism and abusive behaviour. Goddard's first school was Robinsfield Infants School, where he created a considerable stir by throwing a brick through one of the headmistress's office windows. In the aftermath of this incident, Goddard was placed under the supervision of teacher Joanna Saloman, who encouraged him to develop his abilities in art and whom he would later credit as the first person to show him he could be creative artistically. He continued to attend Robinsfield and subsequently gained a place at St Marylebone Grammar School
where he would later become a school prefect.
After taking and passing his A levels, Goddard went on to the famous Hornsey College of Art
to study graphic design and for a time was a student of Peter Webb. He later dropped out of Hornsey, short of completing his B.A
, to focus on a career in music.
, in which he played bass guitar. It was at a gig in November 1975 at St. Martin's College, London, that Goddard was witness to the first-ever public performance of the Sex Pistols
, who were billed as Bazooka Joe's support act.
Goddard, alone of his band, was impressed by this performance, and consequently left Bazooka Joe to form a group of his own called the B-Sides (which rehearsed but never gigged). Since starting his course at Hornsey, Goddard had married fellow student Carol Mills, with whom he lived at her parents' residence in Muswell Hill
. Shortly after, he developed anorexia
. "I just didn't eat," he has said of this period, "I wasn't attempting to slim, I was attempting to kill myself." Eventually, Goddard took an overdose of all the pills he could find in his mother-in-law's kitchen cabinet. After having his stomach pumped, he was sent to Colney Hatch mental hospital in North London, eventually being discharged on condition of supervision by Mills. "I was totally fucked up in the head. Things went wrong and something snapped. I just became a vegetable for three months. I couldn't talk to people. I was very ill and that was part of the reason I left college."
Upon his discharge from the hospital, Goddard renamed himself Adam Ant (with Mills renaming herself Eve). Ant remade connections with fellow former B-Sides Lester Square
and Andy Warren and together with drummer Paul Flanagan, they formed Adam and the Ants (initially named just 'The Ants') in 1977, with the inaugural band meeting held in the audience at a Siouxsie and the Banshees performance at the Roxy Club in London's Covent Garden
.
's seminal "punk" film Jubilee in 1977, as Adam and the Ants were beginning to gig around London with manager Jordan
from the SEX Boutique
on Kings Road
. His debut as a recording artist was the song "Deutscher Girls", which featured on the film's soundtrack, along with "Plastic Surgery" which was performed in the film itself, and was re-released as a single in 1982. The band toured extensively around the UK, but proved to be unpopular with much of the British music press who disliked their fetishistic lyrics and imagery. Late 1979 saw the release of their début album Dirk Wears White Sox
(1979, Do It Records
).
Adam approached and asked Malcolm McLaren
(the manager of The Sex Pistols) to manage the band. McLaren subsequently stole the rest of the Ants from under Adam's feet when he introduced the singer Annabella Lwin
and began the process of honing Bow Wow Wow
for chart success. A new version of Adam and the Ants was formed with Marco Pirroni
(guitar), Kevin Mooney
(bass guitar), and two drummers, Terry Lee Miall and Chris Hughes
(ex-Dalek I Love You
), who used the name Merrick. The band signed a major label deal with CBS Records
and recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier
during the summer of 1980. That album was an enormous hit in the United Kingdom
and the "Antmania" that ensued put the band at the forefront of the New Romantic
movement. The single "Antmusic
" went to #2 on the U.K. singles chart by December 1980. Following the abrupt departure of Mooney in February 1981, the well known bassist Gary Tibbs
, formerly of Roxy Music
, joined the band.
In November 1981, Adam & the Ants released another highly successful album, Prince Charming
. The album featured two United Kingdom
#1 singles — "Stand and Deliver
" and the title track "Prince Charming" — as well as the #3 UK hit "Ant Rap". This trio of singles were promoted by some of the most lavish music videos of the period, and paved the way for Adam Ant's later acting career.
In March 1982, feeling certain band members "lacked enthusiasm", Ant disbanded the group. A few months after the split Ant launched a solo career (though he retained Marco Pirroni as guitarist and co-songwriter). Merrick returned to the band Dalek I Love You
and would subsequently produce many hits for Tears for Fears
.
album before moving on to other production work, while Miall and Tibbs' contracts were left to expire. The Friend or Foe album, released in late 1982, proved to be Ant's greatest American chart success and included the hit single Goody Two Shoes which made it to #1 in the UK and Australia, and #12 in the U.S. Other hits from that album included the title song (which made #9 on the UK chart) and "Desperate But Not Serious". "Goody Two Shoes" first charted in the UK in Spring 1982, reaching no.1 that summer, but its US peak did not come until 1983 when it reached #12 on the Billboard Top 100.
With the old Ants all gone except Pirroni, and even he unwilling to perform live any more for the time being, Ant recruited a new band for touring, consisting of new dual drummers Bogdan Wiczling (ex-Fingerprintz) and Barry Watts (ex-Q-Tips
), plus guitarist Cha Burns
(also ex-Fingerprintz), bassist Chris Constantinou
and the former Q-Tips
brass section of trumpet
er Tony Hughes and twin saxophonists Stewart van Blandamer and Steve Farr. Wiczling had already served as session drummer for the Friend or Foe album and had even re-recorded the drum part for Goody Two Shoes to fit the album sound - it would be this reworked version of the song that would achieve US success. The album sessions had also featured session brass players Jeff Daly and Martin Drover.
This new band made its debut at London's Astoria
Theatre on 1 October 1982 (the day after Tibbs and Miall's contracts ran out) and played a further five UK provincial tour dates on 1–6 November 1982 before heading off to the USA for the start of a US tour in New York
on 8 November. The New York concert would be the first of twenty six club-level US tour dates running up to the 16 December 1982 concert in Hollywood California
. These concerts were intended as a warm-up for a more intensive 1983 US tour of over 60 dates, scheduled to run until May 1983. However, on the nineteenth tour date on 20 February 1983 in Cleveland Ohio
, disaster struck when Ant suffered an injured knee onstage (a relapse of a previous injury suffered while filming Jubilee in 1977), forcing the postponement and/or cancellation of dates throughout February and March while he recuperated. Ant eventually returned to action when he appeared as a guest performer on the NBC
television network's Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever
special filmed on 25 March 1983 in Pasadena
, California (and aired in May that year), performing Where Did Our Love Go
, during which he was joined onstage by Diana Ross
. The following evening in Palm Desert, he resumed the US tour, which was finally completed on 18 May 1983 at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas, Texas
.
During his recuperation from the knee injury, Ant had stayed in New York and Los Angeles and worked with Pirroni on writing new material. The fruits of this and a further writing session with Pirroni in Paris in late May/early June formed the basis of Ant's second solo album Strip. The album was recorded at Polar Studios
in Stockholm
in the late summer of 1983 with Phil Collins
as both drummer and producer on both the title track and planned single Puss 'N Boots, with Richard James Burgess
adopting the same roles for the non-single album tracks . The single "Puss 'N Boots" reached #5 on the UK charts, but the BBC banned both the video and the song for the follow-up single "Strip." Despite a vocal cameo performance from former ABBA
member Anni-Frid Lyngstad
, "Strip" only managed to peak at #41 before being withdrawn by CBS while the parent album barely scraped the UK Top 20. However, the Strip single fared quite well in America, only narrowly missing out on a US Top 40 hit single. To promote the album, which reached #65 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums, in early 1984 Ant undertook another extensive US tour, some sixty dates in length, starting on 27 January 1984 at the Atlanta Civic Centre in Atlanta
in Georgia
and lasting until 27 April 1984 at the Irvine Meadow Amphitheatre in Laguna Hills, California. Although UK television performances of Puss N'Boots and Strip had featured a quartet of Ant, Pirroni, Wiczling and Constantinou, the US tour featured the same seven-piece backing band as the previous album's tour, except for Steve King in place of Stewart Van Blandamer on saxophone. The tour shows were also notable for featuring a recreation by Ant of the infamous Chinese Water Torture Cell
escapology
stunt originally performed by Harry Houdini
. In preparation for this Ant would, in keeping with the album title, undress onstage down to a pair of boxer shorts.
Around this time, Ant also received an endorsement contract from Honda
to promote their new line of motor scooters, where he appeared with model and fellow alternative musician Grace Jones
. In the commercial, Ant is being persuaded by Jones to try the new scooter. Ant, who had never driven anything in his life, hesitates before finally submitting. Ant did successfully obtain a driver's license a short time after the commercials began airing. Ant also made his second movie appearance during this time, in the science fiction thriller Nomads
starring Pierce Brosnan, eventually released in 1986.
With promotion on the Strip album complete, Ant reduced his band down to the quartet of himself, Pirroni (now out of retirement again), Wiczling and Constantinou. The latter two adopted the stagenames Count Wiczling and Chris De Niro respectively and were upgraded from live backing musicians to being full-time band members, featured on record sleeves, logos and even in song lyrics. Ant formally unveiled his new four-piece band, all clad in a leather motorcycle gang image, at the 1984 Montreux Pop Festival, where they gave a mimed performance of Dog Eat Dog, Goody Two Shoes and the Strip track Navel To Neck. Shortly thereafter, the new band began work with veteran producer Tony Visconti
on Ant's third solo album, Vive Le Rock
. Initial sessions in the summer of 1984 yielded the single Apollo 9, a UK #13 hit in September 1984; however the remainder of the album was not recorded until January–March 1985. That summer, Ant secured a spot at the Live Aid
concert - the first live performance of the "Ant/Marco/Wiczling/De Niro" band - but was asked to cut his set to one song, for which he chose his new single, the Vive le Rock title track The single, however stalled at #50 in the UK, in part due to a pressing error with many copies featuring the A-side track on both sides.
A year after the top 15 hit success of Apollo 9, the parent album Vive Le Rock was released in September 1985, to mixed reviews. As part of the promotion, around this time the band performed a live TV session for Channel 4
music show Bliss hosted by Muriel Gray
. Several songs were recorded although only two - Miss Thing from the new album and Killer In The Home from Kings Of The Wild Frontier - were actually transmitted. Following a warm up date in Puerto Banús
, Spain
on 23 August 1985, a seventeen date UK Vive Le Rock tour was due to start in Southampton on 10 September 1985, however due to insurance problems relating to the stage set (which included a particularly rickety bridge) and/or poor ticket sales, this was reduced down to three dates - 25 September 1985 in London, 27 September in Birmingham
and 28 September in Manchester. The tour fared better in North America
with 34 US and Canadian shows from 11 October 1985 in Santa Cruz
, California until 14 December 1985 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
. The Fort Lauderdale show would prove to be Ant's last full-length concert until February 1993 (while the four UK/Spanish shows plus Live Aid would be Ant's only public live concerts outside North America between December 1982 to February 1995 (other than a 1987 fanclub party performance and a September 1994 EMI
corporate event in Brighton
) as Ant decided to pause his career in music and at the end of the year to focus on his acting career. He would finally sever ties with CBS a year later, following the release of the Hits audio/VHS
compilation.
's Entertaining Mr. Sloane. In 1993 he played the lead in the Steven Berkoff
play Greek, which was directed by Bruce Payne
. He also appeared on American television shows, notably The Equalizer
, Sledge Hammer!
, Tales from the Crypt
and Northern Exposure
. He began taking roles in films such as Nomads
, Sunset Heat
, Love Bites
and Slam Dance
. He moved to Hollywood and appeared in a wide range of productions and shows, producing a musical about rock 'n' roll legends Gene Vincent
and Eddie Cochran
's days on tour in England Be Bop A Lula
, with a set designed by L.A. artist Michael Pearce.
world with the album Manners & Physique
, a collaboration with André Cymone
, a solo artist and an early member of Prince's band. The album was another moderate success, and featured the single Room at the Top, which was a Top 20 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Rough Stuff became the second single for the United States and Germany as Can't Set Rules About Love charted in the United Kingdom
In 1993, he toured in support of a planned album called Persuasion
. On account of a regime change at MCA
, the record company made the unilateral decision not to release this album on the basis that Manners & Physique had failed to achieve a gold sales certification. Ant was subsequently released from his contract with MCA and later signed by EMI
. Persuasion remains unreleased to this day and, as a result, it has become something of a lost legend among "Antfans", although it is widely available online for download.
Later in 1993-1994, following a move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, he found himself pursued by a stalker, Ruth Marie Torres, whose erratic behaviour - poisoning his fish pond, trying to kill his dogs, shouting obscenities while naked in the street outside his house - sent Ant over the edge. He suffered a breakdown and admitted himself to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. During this period, he had moved in with aspiring actress Heather Graham
but when that relationship fell apart he moved back to London.
In 1995, Ant released his last album to date, Wonderful
. The title track was a successful single, as was a tour of the U.S. in support of the album. While Ant and his group (which retained longtime guitarist Pirroni) played in smaller venues than they had played in the 1980s, the houses were often packed with enthusiastic fans. The tour was cut short due to Ant and Pirroni both contracting glandular fever. Ant also played three shows at Shepherds Bush Empire
in London and did a mini tour of Virgin Record
Shops playing selected tunes from the album Wonderful and signing records. Adam and his band also played shows in Dublin, Glasgow
, Middlesbrough
and Stoke-on-Trent
.
which would eventually emerge on the 2005 CD Redux
. The duo continued to demo other songs around this time, including such titles as Tough Blokes, Justine, Picasso Meets Gary Cooper and Call Me Sausage (the last of which leaked out into bootleg circulation among fans). and also guested with such bands as Dweeb
and Rachel Stamp
.
In 1997, Ant married again to Lorraine Gibson, a 25-year-old PR for Vivienne Westwood. The ceremony took place in Dayton
, Tennessee
, between which and London they would divide their time. In April 1998, the couple had a daughter, Lily, but they separated soon afterwards. While in Tennessee, Ant bought a portastudio as a first step towards a home studio and began demoing new songs with Pirroni for Ant's own new label Blend Records. Pirroni would later refer to these recordings as the Blend Demos. Interviewed in 2000, Ant's then manager Bryan Stanton reported of Blend that "there’s loads of legal nonsense behind it. It was set up with two other people, and one of those people is causing a few problems. So what he needs to do is leave that and set up another one"
In 2000, Sony released Antbox - a 3-CD retrospective box set of Ant's career including various unreleased demos, many of them from the early punk days of unreleased songs from the original Ants' live repertoire.
In 2001, following the September 11 attacks Ant recorded a charity single for New York firefighters; a double A-side of Neil Young
's America with an X-rated new song of his own entitled Big Trouble. The latter received an abortive radio airplay on an edition of Nicky Campbell
's radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live
on which Ant was interviewed. In interviews from the time, Ant talked of numerous varied plans including starting another new record label, reforming Adam and the Ants and a star-studded benefit concert for a forest in Patagonia.
Ant was brought to court at the Old Bailey. The charges against him, which included criminal damage and threatening members of the public, were reduced to a single count of causing affray
, to which he pleaded guilty. He was fined £500 and ordered to psychiatric care with a suspended sentence
. In June 2003, he was arrested again by police after a conflict with a neighbour resulted in his attempting to smash the neighbour's patio door in with a shovel and then lying down on the concrete floor of a cafe basement with his trousers pulled down, curled up and trying to sleep. Once again he was charged with affray and criminal damage and spent time in psychiatric wards. In September of that year, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983
and spent a further six months of in-patient psychiatric care. He was eventually granted a conditional discharge
by the judge at Highbury
Magistrates Court.
While awaiting his court appearance for the café incident, Ant attempted several fresh musical projects. In 2003, Ant and Wonderful collaborator, Boz Boorer
teamed with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (now called The Gorilla Organisation) in a reworking of Stand and Deliver as Save the Gorillas. Originally intended as a benefit record for the endangered mountain gorilla, it was never released, due to copyright and licensing issues relating to the title track. One track from the EP, Jungle Rock, was eventually released on Boorer's 2008 solo LP Miss Pearl
Ant also began writing songs again, following a visit to his house by old schoolfriend Dave Pash, who had brought a guitar with him. The upshot of this was that it was reported that he was writing songs for an album Fist In The Skull in 2003 just before he was sectioned over the café incident. He was working on some "very personal" songs for it. Asked in retrospect about the project in a 2007 interview, Ant claimed that Fist In The Skull was the title of a song-idea, not an album title.
Another project in the pipeline was a concert planned for 25 September 2003 at the 100 Club
. Like the planned album and Save The Gorillas, this was postponed indefinitely and fell by the wayside (before any tickets went on sale) once Adam had been sectioned. One project from this period, however, which did go all the way to release was a guest appearance on an EP, Mike's Bikes by former Ants bassist Kevin Mooney
's new band, the Lavender Pill Mob, on Mooney's own label Le Coq Musique. Ant provided lead vocals for Black Pirates, a reworking of the song Chicken Outlaw by Mooney's earlier band Wide Boy Awake, which was inspired by Mooney's departure from the Ants.
was aired in the UK in 2003 documenting Ant's career and his struggle with mental illness (he was diagnosed as suffering with bipolar disorder
).
In 2004 and 2005, six remastered compact discs were released, spanning the years 1979 (Dirk) through to 1985 (Vive Le Rock). The CDs include previously unreleased demos and material from the "Ant vault". The project was overseen by Marco Pirroni
, and includes a written message from Adam Ant. A limited edition box-set, 'Adam Ant Remasters', was made to hold all 6 of the albums and Redux
. This product was re-released with all 7 albums in 2006.
In September 2006, he published his autobiography, Stand & Deliver. Marking the release of the book Adam Ant did a UK book signing, he went from London
to Edinburgh
. After the success of the first edition the paperback edition was published (a year later, September 2007); it contains a new epilogue which covers the year following the initial hardback release.
Ant performed a live reading from his autobiography and played some of his songs at the Bloomsbury Theatre
in London on 24 September 2007. It was his first live performance in 11 years.
The special performance is available on CD via adam-ant.net. The CD was officially released on the 12 December 2008. The CD is not available in the shops, only as an online purchase. It includes parts of the readings and songs performed on the night, complete with snatches of unscripted dialogue between Adam and his guitarist for the gig, Dave Pash.
In early October 2008, Ant was awarded the Q Music Icon Award
. Receiving the award from The Sugababes
, he said how flattering it was to get an award that last year had gone to Paul McCartney, and that it was an honour to be chosen for the work that he’d done in the past. He mentioned was looking forward to next year with anticipation, not only because it would be the 30th anniversary of his first album release.
On August 2009, Cherry Pop Records UK, a subdivision of Cherry Red
, re-released "Manners & Physique" remastered with bonus tracks.
. That month also marked a return to live music. Ant's first live performance since The Bloomsbury in 2007 was at Through The Looking Glass bookshop in London on 18 March, at which he played Ants Invasion, Cartrouble, Physical and a cover of Iggy Pop's The Passenger. A day later on 19 March, Ant guested at a Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction gig at the Pipeline Bar, London E1 in which he provided lead vocals for the band's Top 20 hit Prime Mover.
Ant performed yet another low key show at the Southwark Playhouse on Saturday 20 March.
During the intervals Ant talked about Sony records, how he rejected an alleged £2.6 million O2 deal and a new album collaboration with Chris McCormack.
On the Sunday, he appeared at another nightclub in London, this time at the Monarch's regular Sunday hard rock evening on Camden High Street tonight as part of his present assault on London's live circuit. He played alongside members of Zodiac Mindwarp's Love Reaction band for a second time that week, Ant performed Prime Mover again. He was also called to the stage by headliners Metalworks for a version of Born to Be Wild before making his leave. After a night off Ant was photographed outside the Groucho Club
on Dean Street with Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding
and the press reported on Wednesday that Ant was indeed back in the studio again after an absence of 16 years.
Adam Ant performed at The Troubadour Cafe on Friday 2 April. He played an extended live set of early Ants material including Red Scab, It Doesn't Matter and Lady along with hits such as Stand & Deliver and even a rare live outing for Prince Charming. The gig also saw the debut of Ant's new song,Gun In My Pocket the tale of the Russell Brand
and Jonathan Ross
incident involving Hayley’s friend Georgina Baillie. Added to this was a cover of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates "Shakin’ All Over", a favourite live number that Ant has been performing since around 1990. With recent late night visits to the recording studio that week, Ant had the benefit of playing the last minute set with a full backing band with Will Crewdson
and Dave Ryder-Prangley from the band Rachel Stamp
providing guitar and bass respectively, Hayley Leggs drumming, Peter Olive with keyboards and Tree Carr
backing up the vocal sound,
On 9 April 2010 Adam Ant appeared on a bill featuring Angie Bowie, The Glitter Band
, Spizzenergi and Bubblegum Screw
at the Scala
, London where he sang "Antmusic" and joined The Glitter Band
along with Spizz of Spizzenergi for the finale of 'I'm the Leader of the Gang'. In the early morning hours, he went on to play his own set and was joined by Angie Bowie for a rendition of Get It On by T Rex. For this performance, Ant was backed by a similar band lineup to his previous Troubador performance except for one Johnny Love of the musical project Modernless, instead of Hayley Leggs on drums, plus an additional guitarist, Miles Davis Landesman.
On 13 April Ant appeared at the Gary Numan
gig at the Scala, London where he joined Numan on "Cars".
Ant's scheduled live appearances with The Glitter Band on Friday 16 April (in Birmingham) and Saturday 17 April (in Manchester) were cancelled due to plans for Malcolm McLaren
's funeral that took place on Thursday 22 April.
Malcolm McLaren
's funeral was held on the 22nd. Ant attended the high profile ceremony which had the cortège pass through Camden High Street on its route towards Highgate Cemetery
. Images of Ant attending the event, several of them featuring him in the company of McLaren's former partner Dame Vivienne Westwood
, featured prominently in much of the media coverage of the funeral. The night after, the band appeared at the Purple Turtle in Camden at Simon Price
's Stay Beautiful evening, which was a warm up for the headlining show at the Scala on the 30th, (as was Adam's solo appearance in Portsmouth on the 29th). The Stay Beautiful performance featured the same lineup as the April 9th Scala lineup.
The sold out night on the last day of the month billed as The Pirate Metal Extravaganza would be the largest show that Ant had performed at since 1995. There was concern in the building as rumour had it (quite correctly) that Ant was still in Portsmouth
, but fears were put aside just after 8pm as he turned up and headed off into the venue to chat to fans waiting around the merchandise stall. The evening was running late, but as the band - also named Adam Ant's Pirate Metal Extravaganza as he explained at the start of the show - went on the place erupted, and rather than the expected half hour set, the final running time was almost 3 times that with a set consisting several covers and a batch of Ant material spanning from 1977 to 1985, although one glaring omission from the set was the planned new single "Gun In My Pocket" which was on the setlist but never performed. On this occasion, both Leggs and Love teamed up as double drummers, (as had been the custom on several of Adam's previous backing bands, most notably Hughes and Miall in the early 80s Ants) and two female backing vocalists (Sacha and Tasha) additional to Carr were featured. Much of Adam's entourage were on the stage also, including promoter Simon "Barnzley" Armitage (also designer of East-end fashion line Child of the Jago). Marc Almond
and Simon Price
were also in the audience that evening.
Following the concert, Ant returned to his holiday in Portsmouth, where he played further concerts including one at the Oasis Centre which ended in some acrimony between Ant and the venue owner and audience members. Ant subsequently returned to London where he and his band performed at the Paper Dresstival event at London's Paper Dress shop on 15 May.
This brief period of manic musical activity came to a pause on, or just prior to Tuesday 18 May 2010 when, for unspecifed reasons, Adam Ant was returned to psychiatric hospital - in his own words "at Her Majesty's Pleasure", albeit in a comfortable regime at a London NHS hospital, where he remained until mid-June, subsequently returning home under outpatient supervision. In an official statement, Ant expressed an intention to perform further gigs later in the year once his hospitalisation had ended.
drummer Gemma Clarke
and Suffrajets frontwoman Claire Wakeman on guitar. A possible concert on 12 August 2010 at the Electric Ballroom
, featuring songs from the lost Persuasion album, was mooted but did not materialize. Some smaller guerilla gigs were performed that Autumn which received no advance billing whatsoever, including a solo show at the Dark Mills festival at London's Colour House Theatre on 4 September 2010, the launch party of the Illamasqua store on 16 September (at which Boy George
served as DJ), and a guest spot at the Monster Raving Loony Party's annual conference in Fleet, Hampshire
, on 25 September.
On Thursday 21 October, Ant performed at the Union Chapel
, London. The gig, which was announced only two days beforehand and billed as Adam Ant (the last of the Punkrökkers) and his new band of buccaneers appearing live on stage in ... "THE GOOD, THE MAD AND THE LOVELY WORLD TOUR OF LONDON 2010/11" featured a line up including both Crewdson and veteran Ant-guitarist Boorer with Love now appearing on bass guitar, and saw Ant singing a selection of iconic songs from his back catalogue. The support act was Scottish funkster Jesse Rae. Sixteen days later, on 7 November 2010, Ant, accompanied by Crewdson, appeared on Today Is Boring, the regular radio show of Carr and her husband Adam Carr on the online radio station Recharged Radio. Although not Ant's first radio appearance in 15 years (contrary to the claim made in programme pre-publicity materials) it was nonetheless his first radio music session in that same timeframe as he and Crewdson gave an acoustic rendition of his punk-era (and later CBS B-side) song Juanito The Bandito. In the preceding interview, among other topics Ant revealed that the ...Blueblack Hussar ... album had now been rerecorded on a laptop studio belonging to Boorer and would consist of twelve songs, six co-written with Boorer, the other six co-written with McCormack (but made no mention of the previously intended collaborations with Baillee, Pirroni or Bell).
Ant headlined at the Scala again on 18 November (in a concert billed as the second date of his "THE GOOD, THE MAD AND THE LOVELY WORLD TOUR OF LONDON 2010/11" and featuring support from Birmingham
-based electro artist Johhny Normal, Rae again and Edward Tudor-Pole
) and three days later, topped the bill at a tribute concert for former Ant Matthew Ashman
on 21 November at the same venue, in a show also featuring later Ashman bands Bow Wow Wow
, Chiefs Of Relief
and Agent Provocateur)
. Boorer, a schoolfriend of Ashman's, again provided guitar for Ant's set The concert on 18 November received highly positive reviews from the Daily Telegraph and former Guns 'N Roses guitarist Duff McKagan
in his column for the Seattle Weekly
.
Ant thereafter made further broadcast media appearances - on Iain Lee's show on Absolute Radio on 28 November and, in a higher profile, on ITV
's London Tonight
regional news programme on 14 December. This featured Adam in preparation for two upcoming further dates of his "... WORLD TOUR OF LONDON" for 16 December at the Electric Ballroom
in Camden and 21 December at the London Forum
. The concerts attracted some controversy for their £50 ticket price and an incident with a heckler that forced an abrupt end to the Electric Ballroom gig as well as the last minute move of the Forum concert to the Relentless Garage
in Islington
. Ant was back playing live two days later on 23 December, when he and Baillee guested onstage at the Christmas party of West Rocks at Shepherds Bar in Shepherds Bush and played live again at Proud, Camden on 5 January 2011 Madame JoJo's in Soho on 17 January. He finished the month by playing further dates of his "... WORLD TOUR OF LONDON ..." with a two-night stand at the 100 Club
on 26 and 27 January 2011.
where he played low-key shows (his first gigs outside the UK in nearly 16 years.). On 29 March 2011, BBC Radio 4
transmitted an interview of Ant by John Humphrys
for the On The Ropes series in which Ant discussed his bipolar condition and its impact on his career. That same day, Ant held a press conference and media preview gig at Under The Bridge in Chelsea
at which he formally unveiled plans for an eleven date UK concert tour (as with the Paris concert, the first such event in 16 years) due to run from 16 May to 4 June 2011. Also announced at the Chelsea event was a public screening of the December 1981 Prince Charming Revue concert video plus a question-and-answer session to be held in South London's Coronet Cinema on 11 May 2011.
In April it was confirmed that Jamie Reynolds, bassist with The Klaxons
was set to produce and help film a new documentary about the forthcoming UK tour. "Adam is sounding great." said Reynolds of his foray into the film business. "I hadn’t seen him perform until last week when he announced his first tour and he’s back on form.". In an interview with Clink Magazine, Ant added that he was "going to go meet The Klaxons in the studio; they’re fans of mine. They’ve financed this film, this documentary that Jack Bond
is directing, who did a film called Dali in New York in 1965. And he’s been filming me for the last six months. And that was purely [The Klaxons] saying that they’d like to meet me, and I’m going to go down and have a little play with them. And they’re good-looking kids and they play good music. They’re trying to do something a bit different. And, erm, they’re good."
While awaiting the tour, Ant continued to perform solo concerts including a Get Tested Hepatitis C
fundraiser on 31 March 2011 at London's Jazz Café
(at which he duetted with fellow pop icon Boy George
), a show at Woody's tattoo parlour in High Wycombe
, Buckinghamshire
on 1 April 2011, the We Love Japan fundraiser for victims of the Tōhoku Earthquake marking his return to the Relentless Garage on 2 April 2011, a book launch at Monto
in London on 7 April 2011, London's St Moritz club on 22 April and the Zetland Arms in Kingsdown
on 29 April. A more formal tour preview gig with the full band was held on 9 May at Bush Hall in London and a solo gig was included as part of the proceedings at the aforementioned Coronet Cinema concert video screening two nights later on 11 May.
By the time the tour itself got underway on 16 May in Brighton
, the original eleven date itinerary had been expanded to fifteen dates. In defiance of sceptics, Ant successfully completed the entire schedule of tour dates which were overwhemlingly enthusiatically received - Dave Simpson of The Guardian
rated the 24 May 2011 Sheffield Academy concert four stars out of five, lauding "Ant still has the moves. However, this near two-hour voyage through his back catalogue delves beyond the hits. From his edgy, leftfield punk days, Zerox, Car Trouble and the rest sound icy, sensual and dangerous. This entertaining, fun show has everything: sex (he playfully removes a backing singer's top and hands it back, quipping, "Phew, I don't need that at my age"), surreal banter ("Hello, I'm Bryan Ferry") and controversy (Bob Geldof is "a twat")." and concluding " If an apparently finished album is anything like as good, Prince Charming's could be one of the great pop comebacks." The Daily Mail
reviewed the showcase 26 May 2011 concert at London's IndigO2 venue before an audience of 2,500 (at which Ant fell offstage but recovered to complete the concert) and reported "it sounds like the man who dominated the charts in the Eighties hasn't lost his touch," and quoted an online review as stating "Antmusic has lost none of its taste judging by a triumphant gig from Prince Charming himself and suggested he could lead his own Ant Army again at the drop of a hat," adding that "fans said it was good to see him back on form.".
The Wolverhampton Express and Star praised his 1 June 2011 show at the Birmingham's O2 Academy saying "From the moment the Prince Charming singer opened his mouth for his first song, Plastic Surgery, his performance was full of energy with him barely pausing for breath as he played hit after hit." Even the one serious negative onstage incident, at Fat Sam's in Dundee
on 21 May 2011 when Ant reacted angrily to some crowd elements who booed his kilt decorated with the St George's Cross
(as previously worn at the Dark Mills concert) was mitigated by local newspaper The Courier
as merely a "disappointing end to what had been a great show by the 56-year-old, who still looks the part and still managed a near two-hour set including hits like Goody Two Shoes, Stand And Deliver, Dog Eat Dog and Kings Of The Wild Frontier, bringing huge cheers and two encores." The tour closed in Manchester on 5 June with a show at the city's Manchester Academy
which was applauded by frequent supporter John Robb in hyperbolic fashion: "What a great singer he is, the yodelling is really fab, it’s that very Adam touch of pure pop and dark underground... this is one of the great rock n roll voices, a brilliant clarity that cuts like a knife even two weeks into a tour. The set list is perfect. Loads of ‘Dirk’ period stuff. Plastic Surgery, Kick, Cartrouble, Cleopatra, Physcial but also the hits including a great stripped down Prince Charming, and a whole host of off the cuff covers. It’s packed in here - Totally sold out.... The word is out. The tour has been brilliant and this is one of the great comebacks."
Similar acclaim was given to the five date Seaside Tour of coastal resorts in the south of England which Ant undertook on 17–22 June 2011. Local Cornish
radio station The Source FM
cheered the 18 June 2011 Falmouth
concert on its website: "The audience goes wild. Adam stalks the stage, in control, he already knows he’s got us ... he plays songs that a man in his mid fifties shouldn’t really get away with, but he does, with dignity. Here’s a man who still has something to say and manages to say it with 30 year old songs...Someone boos, Adam retaliates and we’re with him. There’s nothing to boo here... Did that really just happen? Did Adam Ant really just blow us all away with the best gig of the year so far? I think he did." The Seaside Tour served both as a follow-up to the main UK tour and a warm-up to Ant's appearance at Hard Rock Calling 2011 in Hyde Park
on 26 June 2011, third on the bill to Rod Stewart
and Stevie Nicks
before an audience of 45,000. The festival's official website lauded his performance, reporting that "Adam Ant returned to London in tip-top shape this afternoon on the Main Stage in Hyde Park ...he left the stage to rapturous applause and cheers, leaving no question as to who was the real Prince Charming this weekend."
After Ant slotted in some more solo gigs, including the Soho Festival in London's Wardour Street
on 11 July, he and the band next played the Guildford
GuilFest
festival on 15 July. His set won applause from online reviewer Virtual Festivals
, who reported that the band "rocked the Good Time Guide Stage at Guilfest, leaving festival-goers wondering why anyone was watching anybody else. Unlike some of the other performers across the day, interaction with the crowd was at its peak and the band were introduced in full, mid-set, sandwiched amongst favourites such as Antmusic, Stand and Deliver and Goody Two Shoes." The next day, 16 July 2011 he played the Southwold
Latitude festival., winning more critical praise as Clash
's online reviewer commented "Ant knows how to write pop songs, and he knows how to entertain ... Ant (and his saucy backing vocalists) flirts with the crowd, and need only say two words to us (“Good afternoon”) the whole show, but with such a cheeky grin, he doesn’t need to elaborate. The Adam Ant of today’s Latitude shows no flakiness of recent times, and it’s testament to his enduring popularity that fans are left wide-eyed, grinning and speechless by a performance that’s every bit as theatrical as you’d hope." Writing for The Guardian, Paul Lester likewise enthused "Adam Ant was a revelation, albeit mystifyingly low on the bill. He looked in great shape and sounded even better, treating the sheltering hordes to one thrilling hit after another"
's Vintage Festival at the Southbank Centreand his band played two more shows at Chelsea's Under The Bridge (site of the 29 March press conference/preview gig) on 5 and 6 August 2011. Ant performed solo at a screening of the 1981 Adam and the Ants "Live In Japan
" concert video and the recent Hyde Park show at Finchley's Phoenix Cinema, He completed his summer with two festival appearances with the full band over the Bank Holiday weekend - firstly headlining at the West Dean
Festival on 27 August 2011 and the next day 28 August playing at the Voewood festival in Kelling
, Norfolk
.
Ant has also announced a follow-up UK tour (described as the "second leg" of the 2011 tour), initially scheduled to run for twelve dates from 11 November 2011 in Bristol until 13 December 2011 in Newcastle. As with the previous leg, Ant passed the time until the tour playing one-off dates, appearing with his tour band in Bedford on 10 September before three days later reuniting with 2010 band members Crewdson and Love for a charity show on board HMS Belfast. He then played a three night series over 7-9 October, appearing in York and Clacton with his full current band and Brighton's Expo festival solo and followed this with another solo appearance at a 'Burlesque Evening' on 15 October in Deal
.
In an April 2010 interview for the NME, Ant announced he was also working a new album, with the title Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner's Daughter
. This was planned to feature collaborations with former 3 Colours Red guitarist Chris McCormack, Ant's long-time songwriting partner Marco Pirroni, a member of Oasis (later identified as Andy Bell
) and Morrissey's writing partner Boz Boorer. According to Ant, the album is a "live record that lends itself to performance" and will feature a "kind of concept. It's a very old fashioned, old school, step-by-step album". In addition, Ant rerecorded a song in tribute to the late Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren
, who died earlier that month, and who also once managed Adam & The Ants. Named Who's A Goofy Bunny Then?, the track was only previously available as a demo recorded in the early '80s, but Ant said he wanted to release a new version in tribute to the late punk manager. "Malcolm was a sort of mentor in my life" he explained. "As close as you can get to a surrogate father." The song took its name from a term of endearment bestowed upon McLaren by Ant - referring to his "quite prominent teeth".
Ant also reported that he still has "a whole bunch" of demos from the early part of his career that he is considering revisiting and recording properly now. "[There are] literally about a hundred songs done on a four-track and I use them whenever I can," he explained. "There was a whole album before 'Dirk Wears White Sox' (1979 debut album) that never really came out, but I've still got the masters. It's a labour of love, this catalogue. To get rid of it would be like giving away something John Lennon and Paul McCartney banged out in a night in a pub in Liverpool. I think it's your duty to catalogue your work."
On 31 December 2010, Ant gave an interview for The Sun (featured in the "Something For The Weekend" segment) in which he discussed in considerable detail the various controversies surrounding his recent life and musical activities. He summed up his upcoming album thus: "The Blueblack Hussar is me coming back to life. I'm like The Terminator - I was a dead man walking". He also discussed individual songs on the album - as well as Gun In My Pocket (which, aside from the Troubador live performance, had also been given a club dancefloor play by Ant himself as guest DJ at the Family Affair clubnight in Shoreditch
, London on 24 April 2010), the 31 December 2010 Sun interview also made mention of Shrink, a song about Ant's experiences in the mental healthcare system. Ant had previously discussed both of these songs in his April 2010 interview with Simon Price
for online fanzine The Quietus. On his second visit to Iain Lee's show on Absolute Radio on 4 January 2011, two further new tracks were premiered - Hard Men Tough Blokes and punkyoungirl [sic]. In an interview for Bizarre magazine published that month, Ant named the song co-written with Andy Bell as Cool Zombie
while promoting the northern leg of his tour. “Adam is also designing a menswear collection with his friend, Rob Lucas. The logo is apt: 'An 18th century brain in a 21st century head'. It's borrowed from a line in his song 'Room at the Top
'".
, was defined as glitzy glam pop with "tongue-in-cheek tunes, delivered with an excess of flair and good humour". It was also described as being "one of Ant's best records and one of the best new wave albums".
In a review for Strip, the songs were considered to contain a "mixture of driving, danceable rock with humour".
The music on Vive Le Rock
has been said to be a "50s-style rock & roll sound".
The fourth studio album, Manners and Physique was said to be a combination of "contemporary dance tracks" and Ant's "old flair for mockery". Ant himself later claimed that the album was styled after the bass heavy Minneapolis sound
of which Cymone, in Ant's words, was "one of the architects".
between 1977 and 1981, Jamie Lee Curtis
in 1983 and Heather Graham
in the early 1990s.
He was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder
when he was 21, and has spoken candidly about his experiences with the effects of the illness. In his 31 December 2010 interview for The Sun, Ant also discussed the side effects
of medication for his bipolar condition: "In the past I've been a robot. It's been an out-of-body experience. Bipolar means up and down and that's me... Music has always been the best medication. I was on sodium valproate
for seven years.... I couldn't get to sleep and I didn't make love for seven years. My hair fell out and I couldn't pick up a book as I couldn't concentrate. I didn't write a song or pick up a guitar in that time — and piled on the weight. I might as well have been dead. I work very closely with my GP and any decisions I make are made with him". During an interview with BBC 6 Music
, he declared that "mental health needs a great deal of attention. It's the final taboo and it needs to be faced and dealt with."
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
/post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
group Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were a British rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The original group, which existed from 1977 to 1980, became notable as a cult band marking the transition from the late-1970s punk rock era to the post-punk and New Wave era...
and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s. Ant was also a star in America where he not only scored a string of hit singles and albums, but was once voted sexiest man in America by the viewers of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. He is also an actor, having appeared in over two dozen films or television episodes between 1985 and 2003.
Since 2010
2010s
The 2010s, pronounced "twenty-tens" or "two thousand tens", is the current decade which began on January 1, 2010 and will end on December 31, 2019...
, Ant has undertaken a major reactivation of his musical career, performing live regularly in his hometown London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and beyond, recording a new album and with a UK national tour now completed. His present comeback continues and thrives despite concerns about such activities being merely another symptom of the mental health issues which were in considerable part responsible for his lengthy spell of near-inactivity spanning the late 1990s and 2000s.
Biography
Stuart Goddard was born an only child in MaryleboneMarylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
. One of the themes he used in his later work — oppressed minorities — was part of his heritage; he is of Romnichal
Romnichal
The Romanichals are a Romani sub-group in the United Kingdom.Romanichals are thought to have arrived in Britain in the 16th century...
descent. His maternal grandfather, Walter Albany Smith, was a full-blooded Romani. Home was two rooms in De Walden buildings, St John's Wood
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district of north-west London, England, in the City of Westminster, and at the north-west end of Regent's Park. It is approximately 2.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem...
. He recalls "There was no luxury, but there was always food on the table." His father, Leslie Goddard, worked as a chauffeur and his mother, Betty Kathleen Smith, was a domestic cleaner, briefly working for Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
.
His parents divorced when Goddard was seven years old, mainly on account of Les Goddard's chronic alcoholism and abusive behaviour. Goddard's first school was Robinsfield Infants School, where he created a considerable stir by throwing a brick through one of the headmistress's office windows. In the aftermath of this incident, Goddard was placed under the supervision of teacher Joanna Saloman, who encouraged him to develop his abilities in art and whom he would later credit as the first person to show him he could be creative artistically. He continued to attend Robinsfield and subsequently gained a place at St Marylebone Grammar School
St Marylebone Grammar School
St Marylebone Grammar School was a grammar school in London from 1792 to 1981.-Philological School:Founded as the Philological School by Thomas Collingwood, under the patronage of the Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, its object was to help "the heads of families, who by unexpected...
where he would later become a school prefect.
After taking and passing his A levels, Goddard went on to the famous Hornsey College of Art
Hornsey College of Art
Hornsey College of Art is a former college centred in Crouch End, London, England. Since 2008, the building has been a part of Coleridge Primary School, upon its expansion to four form entry...
to study graphic design and for a time was a student of Peter Webb. He later dropped out of Hornsey, short of completing his B.A
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
, to focus on a career in music.
Early career (1975-76)
The first band Goddard joined was Bazooka JoeBazooka Joe (band)
Bazooka Joe or Bazooka Joe and the Lillets was a British pub rock band formed by John Ellis and Danny Kleinman in 1970. It featured Stuart Goddard, who would later change his name to "Adam Ant". Both Ellis and Goddard would go on to find success with The Vibrators and Adam and the Ants, respectively...
, in which he played bass guitar. It was at a gig in November 1975 at St. Martin's College, London, that Goddard was witness to the first-ever public performance of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, who were billed as Bazooka Joe's support act.
Goddard, alone of his band, was impressed by this performance, and consequently left Bazooka Joe to form a group of his own called the B-Sides (which rehearsed but never gigged). Since starting his course at Hornsey, Goddard had married fellow student Carol Mills, with whom he lived at her parents' residence in Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill is a suburb of north London, mostly in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated about north of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. Muswell Hill is in the N10 postal district and mostly in the Hornsey and Wood Green parliamentary constituency.- History :The...
. Shortly after, he developed anorexia
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
. "I just didn't eat," he has said of this period, "I wasn't attempting to slim, I was attempting to kill myself." Eventually, Goddard took an overdose of all the pills he could find in his mother-in-law's kitchen cabinet. After having his stomach pumped, he was sent to Colney Hatch mental hospital in North London, eventually being discharged on condition of supervision by Mills. "I was totally fucked up in the head. Things went wrong and something snapped. I just became a vegetable for three months. I couldn't talk to people. I was very ill and that was part of the reason I left college."
Upon his discharge from the hospital, Goddard renamed himself Adam Ant (with Mills renaming herself Eve). Ant remade connections with fellow former B-Sides Lester Square
Lester Square
Lester Square is the lead guitarist for The Monochrome Set. He also sings backing vocals, designed some of the band's record sleeves, and co-wrote much of their music...
and Andy Warren and together with drummer Paul Flanagan, they formed Adam and the Ants (initially named just 'The Ants') in 1977, with the inaugural band meeting held in the audience at a Siouxsie and the Banshees performance at the Roxy Club in London's Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
.
Adam and the Ants (1977-82)
Adam and the Ants started as part of the burgeoning punk rock movement. Ant later acted in Derek JarmanDerek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
's seminal "punk" film Jubilee in 1977, as Adam and the Ants were beginning to gig around London with manager Jordan
Jordan (Pamela Rooke)
Jordan , is a model and actress noted for her work with Vivienne Westwood and the SEX boutique in the Kings Road area of London in the mid-1970s, and for being a fixture at many of the early Sex Pistols performances...
from the SEX Boutique
SEX (boutique)
SEX was a boutique run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at 430 King's Road, London between 1974 and 1976. It specialized in clothing that defined the look of the punk movement.-History:...
on Kings Road
Kings Road
King's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England...
. His debut as a recording artist was the song "Deutscher Girls", which featured on the film's soundtrack, along with "Plastic Surgery" which was performed in the film itself, and was re-released as a single in 1982. The band toured extensively around the UK, but proved to be unpopular with much of the British music press who disliked their fetishistic lyrics and imagery. Late 1979 saw the release of their début album Dirk Wears White Sox
Dirk Wears White Sox
Dirk Wears White Sox is Adam and the Ants' first album, released on Do It Records in 1979, before Adam went on to fame with "Kings of the Wild Frontier." Dirk Wears White Sox features a much more eclectic, sometimes brooding sound than Ant's later work...
(1979, Do It Records
Do It Records
Do It Records was an independent record label in London. It is best known for having been an early label of Adam and the Ants, releasing their debut album Dirk Wears White Sox in November 1979 as well as singles Zerox in June 1979 and...
).
Adam approached and asked Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
(the manager of The Sex Pistols) to manage the band. McLaren subsequently stole the rest of the Ants from under Adam's feet when he introduced the singer Annabella Lwin
Annabella Lwin
Annabella Lwin is an Anglo-Burmese singer, songwriter and record producer best known as the lead singer of Bow Wow Wow.-Biography:Lwin was born to a Burmese father and an English mother in Rangoon, Burma .Medina, Maximillian Mark; ChopBlock.com Her birth name in Burmese translates to "High,...
and began the process of honing Bow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow were an English 1980s New Wave band created by Malcolm McLaren to promote his and business partner Vivienne Westwood's New Romantic fashion lines.The group's music is described as having an "African-derived drum sound".-History:...
for chart success. A new version of Adam and the Ants was formed with Marco Pirroni
Marco Pirroni
Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni is an English guitarist, songwriter and record producer...
(guitar), Kevin Mooney
Kevin Mooney
Kevin Mooney is an English rock bassist and guitarist who has worked with Adam Ant, Sinéad O'Connor, and others.-Career:...
(bass guitar), and two drummers, Terry Lee Miall and Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes (record producer)
Chris Hughes is a music producer and a former drummer for Adam and the Ants....
(ex-Dalek I Love You
Dalek I Love You
Dalek I Love You may refer to:* Dalek I Love You, a synthpop group* Dalek I Love You , the group's self-titled album* Dalek I Love You , an audio play broadcast on BBC Radio...
), who used the name Merrick. The band signed a major label deal with CBS Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
and recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier
Kings of the Wild Frontier
Kings of the Wild Frontier is a New Wave album by Adam and the Ants, released in 1980 . This album introduced the new Burundi drum sound. After having his previous backing band wooed away by producer Malcolm McLaren, who used them to form Bow Wow Wow, Adam Ant recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier...
during the summer of 1980. That album was an enormous hit in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the "Antmania" that ensued put the band at the forefront of the New Romantic
New Romantic
New Romanticism , was a pop culture movement in the United Kingdom that began around 1979 and peaked around 1981. Developing in London nightclubs such as Billy's and The Blitz and spreading to other major cities in the UK, it was based around flamboyant, eccentric fashion and new wave music...
movement. The single "Antmusic
Antmusic
"Antmusic" was the third single released in the UK in 1980, from the Adam and the Ants album Kings of the Wild Frontier. The first single from the album Kings of the Wild Frontier, was the title track, making number 48 . The follow-up "Dog Eat Dog" made number 4 on the UK charts...
" went to #2 on the U.K. singles chart by December 1980. Following the abrupt departure of Mooney in February 1981, the well known bassist Gary Tibbs
Gary Tibbs
Gary Tibbs is a bass guitarist and actor, who appeared in the film Breaking Glass, alongside Hazel O'Connor....
, formerly of Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
, joined the band.
In November 1981, Adam & the Ants released another highly successful album, Prince Charming
Prince Charming (album)
Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated Prince Charming three-and-a-half out of five stars. He explained that it was "a markedly different record than [Kings of the Wild Frontier], intentionally so", and that "the songs just aren't there." However, he concluded by stating that it "simply has style...
. The album featured two United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
#1 singles — "Stand and Deliver
Stand and Deliver (song)
"Stand and Deliver" was Adam and the Ants' most successful single. It entered the UK Top 40 at Number One and stayed there for five weeks. It was featured on their Prince Charming album...
" and the title track "Prince Charming" — as well as the #3 UK hit "Ant Rap". This trio of singles were promoted by some of the most lavish music videos of the period, and paved the way for Adam Ant's later acting career.
In March 1982, feeling certain band members "lacked enthusiasm", Ant disbanded the group. A few months after the split Ant launched a solo career (though he retained Marco Pirroni as guitarist and co-songwriter). Merrick returned to the band Dalek I Love You
Dalek I Love You
Dalek I Love You may refer to:* Dalek I Love You, a synthpop group* Dalek I Love You , the group's self-titled album* Dalek I Love You , an audio play broadcast on BBC Radio...
and would subsequently produce many hits for Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...
.
Solo career (1982-85)
After the split, Ant went solo, taking his song writing partner Pirroni with him. Merrick also briefly stayed aboard as drummer/producer for the UK edition of the first solo single Goody Two Shoes and demos for the upcoming Friend Or FoeFriend or Foe (album)
Friend or Foe was the first solo album by Adam Ant, released after Adam and the Ants disbanded in early 1982. Friend or Foe also became Adam Ant's most successful solo album giving him the hit song "Goody Two Shoes" which peaked at #1 on the UK charts, and at #12 in the USA; along with the...
album before moving on to other production work, while Miall and Tibbs' contracts were left to expire. The Friend or Foe album, released in late 1982, proved to be Ant's greatest American chart success and included the hit single Goody Two Shoes which made it to #1 in the UK and Australia, and #12 in the U.S. Other hits from that album included the title song (which made #9 on the UK chart) and "Desperate But Not Serious". "Goody Two Shoes" first charted in the UK in Spring 1982, reaching no.1 that summer, but its US peak did not come until 1983 when it reached #12 on the Billboard Top 100.
With the old Ants all gone except Pirroni, and even he unwilling to perform live any more for the time being, Ant recruited a new band for touring, consisting of new dual drummers Bogdan Wiczling (ex-Fingerprintz) and Barry Watts (ex-Q-Tips
Q-Tips (band)
Q-Tips were an English blue-eyed soul and rock band, first formed in 1979 from the remnants of the 1970s rock outfit Streetband. Saddled with the novelty song "Toast", a B-side made successful from incessant airplay by Capital Radio's’s Kenny Everett, and despite two albums, Streetband had failed...
), plus guitarist Cha Burns
Cha Burns
Cha Burns was the guitarist for the Scottish band, The Silencers.-Biography:Born Charles Burns, in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire in 1957, Burns became a guitarist on the London punk and new wave scene of the mid 1970s...
(also ex-Fingerprintz), bassist Chris Constantinou
Chris Constantinou
Chris Constantinou is an English musician. Famous for being the bass guitarist and backing vocalist for Adam Ant. He is now the lead singer and bassist of the band, The Wolfmen.- Childhood and early bands :...
and the former Q-Tips
Q-Tips (band)
Q-Tips were an English blue-eyed soul and rock band, first formed in 1979 from the remnants of the 1970s rock outfit Streetband. Saddled with the novelty song "Toast", a B-side made successful from incessant airplay by Capital Radio's’s Kenny Everett, and despite two albums, Streetband had failed...
brass section of trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er Tony Hughes and twin saxophonists Stewart van Blandamer and Steve Farr. Wiczling had already served as session drummer for the Friend or Foe album and had even re-recorded the drum part for Goody Two Shoes to fit the album sound - it would be this reworked version of the song that would achieve US success. The album sessions had also featured session brass players Jeff Daly and Martin Drover.
This new band made its debut at London's Astoria
London Astoria
The London Astoria was a music venue, located at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. It had been leased and run by Festival Republic since 2000. It was closed on 15 January 2009 and has since been demolished...
Theatre on 1 October 1982 (the day after Tibbs and Miall's contracts ran out) and played a further five UK provincial tour dates on 1–6 November 1982 before heading off to the USA for the start of a US tour in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on 8 November. The New York concert would be the first of twenty six club-level US tour dates running up to the 16 December 1982 concert in Hollywood California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. These concerts were intended as a warm-up for a more intensive 1983 US tour of over 60 dates, scheduled to run until May 1983. However, on the nineteenth tour date on 20 February 1983 in Cleveland Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, disaster struck when Ant suffered an injured knee onstage (a relapse of a previous injury suffered while filming Jubilee in 1977), forcing the postponement and/or cancellation of dates throughout February and March while he recuperated. Ant eventually returned to action when he appeared as a guest performer on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television network's Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever is a 1983 television special produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown Records, to commemorate Motown's twenty-fifth year of existence. Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever is a 1983 television special produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown Records, to...
special filmed on 25 March 1983 in Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, California (and aired in May that year), performing Where Did Our Love Go
Where Did Our Love Go
"Where Did Our Love Go" is a 1964 song recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label.Written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, "Where Did Our Love Go" was the first single by the Supremes to go to the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart...
, during which he was joined onstage by Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
. The following evening in Palm Desert, he resumed the US tour, which was finally completed on 18 May 1983 at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
During his recuperation from the knee injury, Ant had stayed in New York and Los Angeles and worked with Pirroni on writing new material. The fruits of this and a further writing session with Pirroni in Paris in late May/early June formed the basis of Ant's second solo album Strip. The album was recorded at Polar Studios
Polar Studios
Polar Studios is one of the most famous recording studios in Scandinavia. Originally located in a former movie theater from 1934 at Sankt Eriksgatan 58-60 on Kungsholmen in Stockholm, Sweden, Polar Studios was founded by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA in 1977 and had its grand opening on...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
in the late summer of 1983 with Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
as both drummer and producer on both the title track and planned single Puss 'N Boots, with Richard James Burgess
Richard James Burgess
Richard James Burgess is a studio drummer, music-computer programmer, recording artist, record producer, composer, author, manager, marketer and inventor. He was the producer for Spandau Ballet's first two albums.-Education:...
adopting the same roles for the non-single album tracks . The single "Puss 'N Boots" reached #5 on the UK charts, but the BBC banned both the video and the song for the follow-up single "Strip." Despite a vocal cameo performance from former ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
member Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Anni-Frid Prinzessin Reuss von Plauen , is a Norwegian-born Swedish pop singer...
, "Strip" only managed to peak at #41 before being withdrawn by CBS while the parent album barely scraped the UK Top 20. However, the Strip single fared quite well in America, only narrowly missing out on a US Top 40 hit single. To promote the album, which reached #65 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums, in early 1984 Ant undertook another extensive US tour, some sixty dates in length, starting on 27 January 1984 at the Atlanta Civic Centre in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and lasting until 27 April 1984 at the Irvine Meadow Amphitheatre in Laguna Hills, California. Although UK television performances of Puss N'Boots and Strip had featured a quartet of Ant, Pirroni, Wiczling and Constantinou, the US tour featured the same seven-piece backing band as the previous album's tour, except for Steve King in place of Stewart Van Blandamer on saxophone. The tour shows were also notable for featuring a recreation by Ant of the infamous Chinese Water Torture Cell
Chinese Water Torture Cell
The Chinese Water Torture Cell is a predicament escape made famous by Hungarian-American magician Harry Houdini. The illusion consists of three parts: first, the magician's feet are locked in stocks; next, he is suspended in mid-air from his ankles with a restraint brace; finally, he is lowered...
escapology
Escapology
For the Jessica Mauboy song, see Inescapable.Escapology is the practice of escaping from restraints or other traps. Escapologists escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, burning buildings, fish-tanks and other perils, often in combination.-History:The art...
stunt originally performed by Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts...
. In preparation for this Ant would, in keeping with the album title, undress onstage down to a pair of boxer shorts.
Around this time, Ant also received an endorsement contract from Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
to promote their new line of motor scooters, where he appeared with model and fellow alternative musician Grace Jones
Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
. In the commercial, Ant is being persuaded by Jones to try the new scooter. Ant, who had never driven anything in his life, hesitates before finally submitting. Ant did successfully obtain a driver's license a short time after the commercials began airing. Ant also made his second movie appearance during this time, in the science fiction thriller Nomads
Nomads (1986 film)
Nomads is a 1986 horror film which was written and directed by John McTiernan and stars Pierce Brosnan and Lesley-Anne Down.The story involves a French anthropologist who is an expert on nomads...
starring Pierce Brosnan, eventually released in 1986.
With promotion on the Strip album complete, Ant reduced his band down to the quartet of himself, Pirroni (now out of retirement again), Wiczling and Constantinou. The latter two adopted the stagenames Count Wiczling and Chris De Niro respectively and were upgraded from live backing musicians to being full-time band members, featured on record sleeves, logos and even in song lyrics. Ant formally unveiled his new four-piece band, all clad in a leather motorcycle gang image, at the 1984 Montreux Pop Festival, where they gave a mimed performance of Dog Eat Dog, Goody Two Shoes and the Strip track Navel To Neck. Shortly thereafter, the new band began work with veteran producer Tony Visconti
Tony Visconti
Anthony Edward Visconti is an American record producer and sometimes a musician or singer.Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers; his lengthiest involvement with any artist is with David Bowie: intermittently from Bowie's 1969 album Space Oddity to 2003's Reality, Visconti...
on Ant's third solo album, Vive Le Rock
Vive Le Rock
Vive Le Rock is the third solo album by Adam Ant, released in 1985.This album at first received only minor attention in the United States, peaking only at #131. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at #42...
. Initial sessions in the summer of 1984 yielded the single Apollo 9, a UK #13 hit in September 1984; however the remainder of the album was not recorded until January–March 1985. That summer, Ant secured a spot at the Live Aid
Live Aid
Live Aid was a dual-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom ...
concert - the first live performance of the "Ant/Marco/Wiczling/De Niro" band - but was asked to cut his set to one song, for which he chose his new single, the Vive le Rock title track The single, however stalled at #50 in the UK, in part due to a pressing error with many copies featuring the A-side track on both sides.
A year after the top 15 hit success of Apollo 9, the parent album Vive Le Rock was released in September 1985, to mixed reviews. As part of the promotion, around this time the band performed a live TV session for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
music show Bliss hosted by Muriel Gray
Muriel Gray
Muriel Gray is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster.-Personal life:Gray is of partly Jewish ancestry...
. Several songs were recorded although only two - Miss Thing from the new album and Killer In The Home from Kings Of The Wild Frontier - were actually transmitted. Following a warm up date in Puerto Banús
Puerto Banús
Puerto José Banús, more commonly known as Puerto Banús is a marina located in the area of Nueva Andalucía, to the southwest of Marbella, Spain on the Costa del Sol. It was built in May 1970 by José Banús, a local property developer, as a luxury marina and shopping complex for the rich and famous...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
on 23 August 1985, a seventeen date UK Vive Le Rock tour was due to start in Southampton on 10 September 1985, however due to insurance problems relating to the stage set (which included a particularly rickety bridge) and/or poor ticket sales, this was reduced down to three dates - 25 September 1985 in London, 27 September in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and 28 September in Manchester. The tour fared better in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
with 34 US and Canadian shows from 11 October 1985 in Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
, California until 14 December 1985 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. The Fort Lauderdale show would prove to be Ant's last full-length concert until February 1993 (while the four UK/Spanish shows plus Live Aid would be Ant's only public live concerts outside North America between December 1982 to February 1995 (other than a 1987 fanclub party performance and a September 1994 EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
corporate event in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
) as Ant decided to pause his career in music and at the end of the year to focus on his acting career. He would finally sever ties with CBS a year later, following the release of the Hits audio/VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
compilation.
Acting career (1986-89)
As the 1980s wore on, Ant's attention turned toward acting, especially television and movie roles. He spent three months in England on stage starring in Joe OrtonJoe Orton
John Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...
's Entertaining Mr. Sloane. In 1993 he played the lead in the Steven Berkoff
Steven Berkoff
Steven Berkoff is an English actor, writer and director. Best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, he is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt...
play Greek, which was directed by Bruce Payne
Bruce Payne
Bruce Martyn Payne is an award winning English character actor and producer and was a member of the 1980's Brit Pack. Although he is best known for his villainous roles, Bruce Payne has played characters across the spectrum...
. He also appeared on American television shows, notably The Equalizer
The Equalizer
The Equalizer is an American television series that ran for four seasons, initially on CBS, between 1985 and 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as an aging New York vigilante with a mysterious past...
, Sledge Hammer!
Sledge Hammer!
Sledge Hammer! is an American satirical police sitcom produced by New World Television that ran for two seasons on ABC from 1986 to 1988. The series was created by Alan Spencer and stars David Rasche as Inspector Sledge Hammer, a preposterous caricature of the standard "cop on the edge" character,...
, Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt (TV series)
Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series that ran from 1989 to 1996 on the premium cable channel HBO...
and Northern Exposure
Northern Exposure
Northern Exposure is an American television series that ran on CBS from 1990 to 1995, with a total of 110 episodes.-Overview:The series was given a pair of consecutive Peabody Awards: in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a...
. He began taking roles in films such as Nomads
Nomads (1986 film)
Nomads is a 1986 horror film which was written and directed by John McTiernan and stars Pierce Brosnan and Lesley-Anne Down.The story involves a French anthropologist who is an expert on nomads...
, Sunset Heat
Sunset Heat (film)
Sunset Heat is a 1992 thriller film starring Michael Paré, 1980s pop star Adam Ant, and Dennis Hopper. In its obituary of Hopper, The Telegraph called this a "forgettable film" which nonetheless allowed Hopper to pay his alimony...
, Love Bites
Love Bites (film)
Love Bites is a 1993 comedy film starring 1980s pop star Adam Ant, Kimberly Foster, Roger Rose and Michelle Forbes...
and Slam Dance
Slam Dance (film)
Slam Dance is a 1987 thriller directed by Wayne Wang and starring Virginia Madsen, Tom Hulce, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. It was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:A married cartoonist named C.C...
. He moved to Hollywood and appeared in a wide range of productions and shows, producing a musical about rock 'n' roll legends Gene Vincent
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly...
and Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the...
's days on tour in England Be Bop A Lula
Be Bop A Lula (play)
Be Bop A Lula is a dramatic play with music written by Rex Weiner about young American rockabilly stars Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent touring England in 1960...
, with a set designed by L.A. artist Michael Pearce.
Return to recording and touring (1989-1995)
In 1990, Ant re-entered the pop musicPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
world with the album Manners & Physique
Manners & Physique
Manners & Physique is the fourth solo album from Adam Ant. It was released by March 1990 by MCA Records. The single "Room at the Top" peaked at number 13 in England and number 17 in America...
, a collaboration with André Cymone
André Cymone
André Cymone is an American bassist, songwriter and record producer. Cymone was a bass guitarist for recording artist Prince's touring band, pre-Revolution. Cymone began a solo career in 1981. His song, "The Dance Electric" , reached number ten on the R&B charts...
, a solo artist and an early member of Prince's band. The album was another moderate success, and featured the single Room at the Top, which was a Top 20 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Rough Stuff became the second single for the United States and Germany as Can't Set Rules About Love charted in the United Kingdom
In 1993, he toured in support of a planned album called Persuasion
Persuasion (Adam Ant album)
Persuasion was the planned fifth studio solo album by Adam Ant, planned for 1992-3 but never released. The album has however surfaced as bootlegs and nowadays circulates on file sharing networks...
. On account of a regime change at MCA
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
, the record company made the unilateral decision not to release this album on the basis that Manners & Physique had failed to achieve a gold sales certification. Ant was subsequently released from his contract with MCA and later signed by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
. Persuasion remains unreleased to this day and, as a result, it has become something of a lost legend among "Antfans", although it is widely available online for download.
Later in 1993-1994, following a move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, he found himself pursued by a stalker, Ruth Marie Torres, whose erratic behaviour - poisoning his fish pond, trying to kill his dogs, shouting obscenities while naked in the street outside his house - sent Ant over the edge. He suffered a breakdown and admitted himself to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. During this period, he had moved in with aspiring actress Heather Graham
Heather Graham
Heather Joan Graham is an American actress. She has appeared in such films as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Lost in Space, Bowfinger, From Hell, Anger Management, and The Hangover...
but when that relationship fell apart he moved back to London.
In 1995, Ant released his last album to date, Wonderful
Wonderful (Adam Ant album)
Wonderful is Adam Ant's fifth solo studio album, the eighth LP overall of his career and at present his most recently released album. It peaked at #143 on the Billboard 200 chart. The band for this album included ex-Ruts drummer Dave Ruffy and Morrissey's guitarist Boz Boorer and Marco Pirroni...
. The title track was a successful single, as was a tour of the U.S. in support of the album. While Ant and his group (which retained longtime guitarist Pirroni) played in smaller venues than they had played in the 1980s, the houses were often packed with enthusiastic fans. The tour was cut short due to Ant and Pirroni both contracting glandular fever. Ant also played three shows at Shepherds Bush Empire
Shepherds Bush Empire
The O2 Shepherds Bush Empire is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, London, England, run by the Academy Music Group. It was built in 1903, as a music hall, and in 1953 became the BBC Television Theatre...
in London and did a mini tour of Virgin Record
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
Shops playing selected tunes from the album Wonderful and signing records. Adam and his band also played shows in Dublin, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
and Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
.
Second marriage and child, further music projects, box set (1996-2001)
In 1996, Ant and Pirroni recorded two new songs, Lamé and Inseminator for the soundtrack to Ant's latest film Drop Dead Rock. Also around this time, they recorded a cover version of the T.Rex song Dandy in the UnderworldDandy in the Underworld
Dandy in the Underworld is the twelfth and final studio album by British rock band T. Rex. It was released on March 11, 1977 and reached a chart peak in the UK of #26. It was the band's highest-charting album since 1974's Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow. After three commercially weak...
which would eventually emerge on the 2005 CD Redux
Redux (Adam Ant album)
Redux an album by Adam Ant & Adam and the Ants. It is a 15 track bonus disc that only came with the Adam Ant Remastered box set. It features previously unreleased demo versions of songs from his previous albums. It also contains a T...
. The duo continued to demo other songs around this time, including such titles as Tough Blokes, Justine, Picasso Meets Gary Cooper and Call Me Sausage (the last of which leaked out into bootleg circulation among fans). and also guested with such bands as Dweeb
Dweeb (band)
[dweeb] were an indie band from Coventry in the United Kingdom. Band members are Tim Alford , 'The Badgerman' , Matt Donald and Dave Ashworth...
and Rachel Stamp
Rachel Stamp
Rachel Stamp is a British rock band formed in London, England in 1994. Their debut album, Hymns For Strange Children was released in 2000, followed by Oceans of Venus two years later.-Biography:...
.
In 1997, Ant married again to Lorraine Gibson, a 25-year-old PR for Vivienne Westwood. The ceremony took place in Dayton
Dayton
Dayton is a city in Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, United States.Dayton may also refer to:-United States:*Dayton, Alabama*Dayton, California, in Butte County*Dayton, Lassen County, California*Dayton, Idaho*Dayton, Indiana...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, between which and London they would divide their time. In April 1998, the couple had a daughter, Lily, but they separated soon afterwards. While in Tennessee, Ant bought a portastudio as a first step towards a home studio and began demoing new songs with Pirroni for Ant's own new label Blend Records. Pirroni would later refer to these recordings as the Blend Demos. Interviewed in 2000, Ant's then manager Bryan Stanton reported of Blend that "there’s loads of legal nonsense behind it. It was set up with two other people, and one of those people is causing a few problems. So what he needs to do is leave that and set up another one"
In 2000, Sony released Antbox - a 3-CD retrospective box set of Ant's career including various unreleased demos, many of them from the early punk days of unreleased songs from the original Ants' live repertoire.
In 2001, following the September 11 attacks Ant recorded a charity single for New York firefighters; a double A-side of Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
's America with an X-rated new song of his own entitled Big Trouble. The latter received an abortive radio airplay on an edition of Nicky Campbell
Nicky Campbell
Nicholas Andrew Argyll "Nicky" Campbell is a Scottish radio and television presenter and journalist. He is known for his time presenting on programmes such as the consumer affairs programme Watchdog...
's radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
on which Ant was interviewed. In interviews from the time, Ant talked of numerous varied plans including starting another new record label, reforming Adam and the Ants and a star-studded benefit concert for a forest in Patagonia.
Here & Now Tour, arrests for causing affray, new music and psychiatric hospitalisation (2002-03)
Ant was poised to join the '80s-focused Here & Now tour in January 2002, but was unable to do so after he was charged with throwing a car alternator through a pub window and then threatening patrons with an imitation firearm. The previous evening, Adam has since claimed, he had received telephone threats to himself and his young daughter from the jealous husband of a female Camden Market stallholder who had agreed to make some clothing for him. The following morning, advised by people around Camden that he would find the man in question at the Prince Of Wales pub in Camden, Ant arrived there to confront his persecutor. Some of the pub patrons made fun of his appearance and told him in mocking terms that the man he was looking for was not present. Staff then asked him to leave as the premises was in fact a private members' club. Ant angrily told them all that he would be back before storming off and, some hours later, finding a discarded car alternator in the street, threw it through the pub window, the broken glass injuring a local musician. Chased through the backstreets of Camden by pub security and others, he drove them away by pulling out an old World War II-era starting pistol, once the property of his father. Returning afterwards to the main street, he was spotted by a police patrol, gun still in hand, and arrested as he tried to leave the scene in the back of a minicab.Ant was brought to court at the Old Bailey. The charges against him, which included criminal damage and threatening members of the public, were reduced to a single count of causing affray
Affray
In many legal jurisdictions related to English common law, affray is a public order offence consisting of the fighting of two or more persons in a public place to the terror of ordinary people...
, to which he pleaded guilty. He was fined £500 and ordered to psychiatric care with a suspended sentence
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
. In June 2003, he was arrested again by police after a conflict with a neighbour resulted in his attempting to smash the neighbour's patio door in with a shovel and then lying down on the concrete floor of a cafe basement with his trousers pulled down, curled up and trying to sleep. Once again he was charged with affray and criminal damage and spent time in psychiatric wards. In September of that year, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983
Mental Health Act 1983
The Mental Health Act 1983 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which applies to people in England and Wales. It covers the reception, care and treatment of mentally disordered persons, the management of their property and other related matters...
and spent a further six months of in-patient psychiatric care. He was eventually granted a conditional discharge
Conditional discharge
A discharge is a type of sentence where no punishment is imposed. An absolute discharge is unconditional: the defendant is not punished, and the case is over. In some jurisdictions, an absolute discharge means there is no conviction despite a finding that the defendant is guilty...
by the judge at Highbury
Highbury
- Early Highbury :The area now known as Islington was part of the larger manor of Tolentone, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Tolentone was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Road. The manor house was situated by what is now...
Magistrates Court.
While awaiting his court appearance for the café incident, Ant attempted several fresh musical projects. In 2003, Ant and Wonderful collaborator, Boz Boorer
Boz Boorer
Boz Boorer is a British guitarist and producer most known for his work founding the new wave rockabilly group, The Polecats, and later for his work as a co-writer, guitarist and musical director with Morrissey.-The Polecats:The band "Cult Heroes" was formed in 1977 by Tim Worman , Boz...
teamed with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (now called The Gorilla Organisation) in a reworking of Stand and Deliver as Save the Gorillas. Originally intended as a benefit record for the endangered mountain gorilla, it was never released, due to copyright and licensing issues relating to the title track. One track from the EP, Jungle Rock, was eventually released on Boorer's 2008 solo LP Miss Pearl
Ant also began writing songs again, following a visit to his house by old schoolfriend Dave Pash, who had brought a guitar with him. The upshot of this was that it was reported that he was writing songs for an album Fist In The Skull in 2003 just before he was sectioned over the café incident. He was working on some "very personal" songs for it. Asked in retrospect about the project in a 2007 interview, Ant claimed that Fist In The Skull was the title of a song-idea, not an album title.
Another project in the pipeline was a concert planned for 25 September 2003 at the 100 Club
100 Club
The 100 Club is a music venue in London situated at 100 Oxford Street, W1, originally called The Feldman Swing Club.The 100 Club attained legendary status in modern British music, having played host to live music since 24 October 1942....
. Like the planned album and Save The Gorillas, this was postponed indefinitely and fell by the wayside (before any tickets went on sale) once Adam had been sectioned. One project from this period, however, which did go all the way to release was a guest appearance on an EP, Mike's Bikes by former Ants bassist Kevin Mooney
Kevin Mooney
Kevin Mooney is an English rock bassist and guitarist who has worked with Adam Ant, Sinéad O'Connor, and others.-Career:...
's new band, the Lavender Pill Mob, on Mooney's own label Le Coq Musique. Ant provided lead vocals for Black Pirates, a reworking of the song Chicken Outlaw by Mooney's earlier band Wide Boy Awake, which was inspired by Mooney's departure from the Ants.
Biography, Bloomsbury concert and reissues (2003-2009)
In 2003, the successful Antbox was re-released due to popular demand, but presented in a different form. A television special entitled The Madness of Prince Charmingwas aired in the UK in 2003 documenting Ant's career and his struggle with mental illness (he was diagnosed as suffering with bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
).
In 2004 and 2005, six remastered compact discs were released, spanning the years 1979 (Dirk) through to 1985 (Vive Le Rock). The CDs include previously unreleased demos and material from the "Ant vault". The project was overseen by Marco Pirroni
Marco Pirroni
Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni is an English guitarist, songwriter and record producer...
, and includes a written message from Adam Ant. A limited edition box-set, 'Adam Ant Remasters', was made to hold all 6 of the albums and Redux
Redux (Adam Ant album)
Redux an album by Adam Ant & Adam and the Ants. It is a 15 track bonus disc that only came with the Adam Ant Remastered box set. It features previously unreleased demo versions of songs from his previous albums. It also contains a T...
. This product was re-released with all 7 albums in 2006.
In September 2006, he published his autobiography, Stand & Deliver. Marking the release of the book Adam Ant did a UK book signing, he went from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. After the success of the first edition the paperback edition was published (a year later, September 2007); it contains a new epilogue which covers the year following the initial hardback release.
Ant performed a live reading from his autobiography and played some of his songs at the Bloomsbury Theatre
The UCL Bloomsbury
The Bloomsbury Theatre is a theatre on Gordon Street, Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, owned by University College London.The Theatre has a seating capacity of 535 and offers a professional programme of innovative music, drama, comedy and dance all year round.Funded by a UGC grant and a...
in London on 24 September 2007. It was his first live performance in 11 years.
The special performance is available on CD via adam-ant.net. The CD was officially released on the 12 December 2008. The CD is not available in the shops, only as an online purchase. It includes parts of the readings and songs performed on the night, complete with snatches of unscripted dialogue between Adam and his guitarist for the gig, Dave Pash.
In early October 2008, Ant was awarded the Q Music Icon Award
Q Awards
The Q Awards are the UK's annual music awards run by the music magazine Q. Since they began in 1990, the Q Awards have become one of Britain's biggest and best publicised music awards, helped in no small part by the often boisterous behavior of the celebrities who attend the event...
. Receiving the award from The Sugababes
Sugababes
The Sugababes are an English pop girl group based in London, consisting of members Heidi Range, Amelle Berrabah and Jade Ewen. The Sugababes were formed in 1998 with founding members Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan. Their debut album, One Touch, was released in 2000 under London...
, he said how flattering it was to get an award that last year had gone to Paul McCartney, and that it was an honour to be chosen for the work that he’d done in the past. He mentioned was looking forward to next year with anticipation, not only because it would be the 30th anniversary of his first album release.
On August 2009, Cherry Pop Records UK, a subdivision of Cherry Red
Cherry Red
Cherry Red is a London-based independent record label formed in 1978.-History:Cherry Red grew from the rock promotion company founded in 1971 to promote rock concerts at the Malvern Winter Gardens...
, re-released "Manners & Physique" remastered with bonus tracks.
Return to live work - The Pirate Metal Extravaganza (2010)
On 4 March 2010 Adam Ant registered his new label Blue Black Hussar Ltd. as a private limited company at Companies HouseCompanies House
Companies House is the United Kingdom Registrar of Companies and is an Executive Agency of the United Kingdom Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills . All forms of companies are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by the...
. That month also marked a return to live music. Ant's first live performance since The Bloomsbury in 2007 was at Through The Looking Glass bookshop in London on 18 March, at which he played Ants Invasion, Cartrouble, Physical and a cover of Iggy Pop's The Passenger. A day later on 19 March, Ant guested at a Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction gig at the Pipeline Bar, London E1 in which he provided lead vocals for the band's Top 20 hit Prime Mover.
Ant performed yet another low key show at the Southwark Playhouse on Saturday 20 March.
During the intervals Ant talked about Sony records, how he rejected an alleged £2.6 million O2 deal and a new album collaboration with Chris McCormack.
On the Sunday, he appeared at another nightclub in London, this time at the Monarch's regular Sunday hard rock evening on Camden High Street tonight as part of his present assault on London's live circuit. He played alongside members of Zodiac Mindwarp's Love Reaction band for a second time that week, Ant performed Prime Mover again. He was also called to the stage by headliners Metalworks for a version of Born to Be Wild before making his leave. After a night off Ant was photographed outside the Groucho Club
Groucho Club
The Groucho Club is a well-known private social club located at Dean Street in Soho, London. Its members are mostly drawn from the media, entertainment, arts and fashion industries....
on Dean Street with Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding is a British artist, comedian and actor. He is known for his roles as Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh, which he co-writes with comedy partner Julian Barratt, and as team captain on the music panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.-Stand-up comedy:Noel Fielding performed regularly as a...
and the press reported on Wednesday that Ant was indeed back in the studio again after an absence of 16 years.
Adam Ant performed at The Troubadour Cafe on Friday 2 April. He played an extended live set of early Ants material including Red Scab, It Doesn't Matter and Lady along with hits such as Stand & Deliver and even a rare live outing for Prince Charming. The gig also saw the debut of Ant's new song,Gun In My Pocket the tale of the Russell Brand
Russell Brand
Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...
and Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...
incident involving Hayley’s friend Georgina Baillie. Added to this was a cover of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates "Shakin’ All Over", a favourite live number that Ant has been performing since around 1990. With recent late night visits to the recording studio that week, Ant had the benefit of playing the last minute set with a full backing band with Will Crewdson
Will Crewdson
Will Crewdson is a London-based guitarist/writer/producer best known for his work with the UK band Rachel Stamp, US singer Johnette Napolitano and Adam Ant....
and Dave Ryder-Prangley from the band Rachel Stamp
Rachel Stamp
Rachel Stamp is a British rock band formed in London, England in 1994. Their debut album, Hymns For Strange Children was released in 2000, followed by Oceans of Venus two years later.-Biography:...
providing guitar and bass respectively, Hayley Leggs drumming, Peter Olive with keyboards and Tree Carr
Tree Carr
Tree Carr is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist and actress who has played in a variety of London based bands and has appeared in several films.She is also the owner of "Today is Boring" a DVD rental shop and film society based in east London.-Music:...
backing up the vocal sound,
On 9 April 2010 Adam Ant appeared on a bill featuring Angie Bowie, The Glitter Band
The Glitter Band
The Glitter Band are a glam rock band from England, who initially worked as Gary Glitter's backing band under that name from 1973, when they then began releasing records of their own. They were unofficially known as the Glittermen on the first four hit singles by Gary Glitter from 1972 to 1973. The...
, Spizzenergi and Bubblegum Screw
Bubblegum screw
Bubblegum Screw is a London glam punk band heavily influenced by New York 1977 punk and other American bands such as New York Dolls, The Dead Boys and The Stooges. Along with bands such as Backyard Babies and Buckcherry, they have been called the new blood of Glam Punk...
at the Scala
Scala (club)
Scala is a nightclub in London, England, near King's Cross railway station.-History:The Scala was originally built as a cinema to the designs of H Courtney Constantine, but construction was interrupted by the First World War and it spent some time being used to manufacture aircraft parts, and as a...
, London where he sang "Antmusic" and joined The Glitter Band
The Glitter Band
The Glitter Band are a glam rock band from England, who initially worked as Gary Glitter's backing band under that name from 1973, when they then began releasing records of their own. They were unofficially known as the Glittermen on the first four hit singles by Gary Glitter from 1972 to 1973. The...
along with Spizz of Spizzenergi for the finale of 'I'm the Leader of the Gang'. In the early morning hours, he went on to play his own set and was joined by Angie Bowie for a rendition of Get It On by T Rex. For this performance, Ant was backed by a similar band lineup to his previous Troubador performance except for one Johnny Love of the musical project Modernless, instead of Hayley Leggs on drums, plus an additional guitarist, Miles Davis Landesman.
On 13 April Ant appeared at the Gary Numan
Gary Numan
Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...
gig at the Scala, London where he joined Numan on "Cars".
Ant's scheduled live appearances with The Glitter Band on Friday 16 April (in Birmingham) and Saturday 17 April (in Manchester) were cancelled due to plans for Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
's funeral that took place on Thursday 22 April.
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
's funeral was held on the 22nd. Ant attended the high profile ceremony which had the cortège pass through Camden High Street on its route towards Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
. Images of Ant attending the event, several of them featuring him in the company of McLaren's former partner Dame Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
, featured prominently in much of the media coverage of the funeral. The night after, the band appeared at the Purple Turtle in Camden at Simon Price
Simon Price
Simon Price is a British music journalist and club promoter, born on 25 September 1967 in the Welsh town of Barry. He is now best known for his weekly review section in The Independent on Sunday and his book on Manic Street Preachers.-Career:...
's Stay Beautiful evening, which was a warm up for the headlining show at the Scala on the 30th, (as was Adam's solo appearance in Portsmouth on the 29th). The Stay Beautiful performance featured the same lineup as the April 9th Scala lineup.
The sold out night on the last day of the month billed as The Pirate Metal Extravaganza would be the largest show that Ant had performed at since 1995. There was concern in the building as rumour had it (quite correctly) that Ant was still in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, but fears were put aside just after 8pm as he turned up and headed off into the venue to chat to fans waiting around the merchandise stall. The evening was running late, but as the band - also named Adam Ant's Pirate Metal Extravaganza as he explained at the start of the show - went on the place erupted, and rather than the expected half hour set, the final running time was almost 3 times that with a set consisting several covers and a batch of Ant material spanning from 1977 to 1985, although one glaring omission from the set was the planned new single "Gun In My Pocket" which was on the setlist but never performed. On this occasion, both Leggs and Love teamed up as double drummers, (as had been the custom on several of Adam's previous backing bands, most notably Hughes and Miall in the early 80s Ants) and two female backing vocalists (Sacha and Tasha) additional to Carr were featured. Much of Adam's entourage were on the stage also, including promoter Simon "Barnzley" Armitage (also designer of East-end fashion line Child of the Jago). Marc Almond
Marc Almond
Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...
and Simon Price
Simon Price
Simon Price is a British music journalist and club promoter, born on 25 September 1967 in the Welsh town of Barry. He is now best known for his weekly review section in The Independent on Sunday and his book on Manic Street Preachers.-Career:...
were also in the audience that evening.
Following the concert, Ant returned to his holiday in Portsmouth, where he played further concerts including one at the Oasis Centre which ended in some acrimony between Ant and the venue owner and audience members. Ant subsequently returned to London where he and his band performed at the Paper Dresstival event at London's Paper Dress shop on 15 May.
This brief period of manic musical activity came to a pause on, or just prior to Tuesday 18 May 2010 when, for unspecifed reasons, Adam Ant was returned to psychiatric hospital - in his own words "at Her Majesty's Pleasure", albeit in a comfortable regime at a London NHS hospital, where he remained until mid-June, subsequently returning home under outpatient supervision. In an official statement, Ant expressed an intention to perform further gigs later in the year once his hospitalisation had ended.
World Tour Of London (2010-11)
Ant was subsequently reported to have been rehearsing in East London, with a band retaining Landesman but otherwise featuring a new all-female lineup including former BabyshamblesBabyshambles
Babyshambles are an English indie rock band established in London. The band was formed by Pete Doherty during a hiatus from his former band The Libertines, but Babyshambles has since become his main project . Babyshambles has released two albums, three EPs and a number of singles...
drummer Gemma Clarke
Gemma Clarke
Gemma Clarke is a professional musician who was previously the drummer for The Suffrajets, The Krak and Babyshambles.-Babyshambles:For a year, Clarke played drums for the ex-Libertine Pete Doherty's band Babyshambles...
and Suffrajets frontwoman Claire Wakeman on guitar. A possible concert on 12 August 2010 at the Electric Ballroom
Electric Ballroom
The Electric Ballroom is a performance venue and indoor market located at 184 Camden High Street in Camden Town, London . The Electric Ballroom has been in operation for over seventy years, during which time it has been used in many different ways.The two storey building has two dance floors and...
, featuring songs from the lost Persuasion album, was mooted but did not materialize. Some smaller guerilla gigs were performed that Autumn which received no advance billing whatsoever, including a solo show at the Dark Mills festival at London's Colour House Theatre on 4 September 2010, the launch party of the Illamasqua store on 16 September (at which Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
served as DJ), and a guest spot at the Monster Raving Loony Party's annual conference in Fleet, Hampshire
Fleet, Hampshire
Fleet is a town and civil parish in the Hart district of Hampshire, England, located 37 miles south west of London. It is part of Hart District. The 2007 population forecast for Fleet was 31,687.-History:...
, on 25 September.
On Thursday 21 October, Ant performed at the Union Chapel
Union Chapel, Islington
The Union Chapel is a Grade II* listed church and music venue in Islington, North London, England, located on Compton Terrace.An example of Victorian gothic architecture, it was designed by James Cubitt, and constructed between 1874 and 1877, with further additions 1877-90, providing an ambitious...
, London. The gig, which was announced only two days beforehand and billed as Adam Ant (the last of the Punkrökkers) and his new band of buccaneers appearing live on stage in ... "THE GOOD, THE MAD AND THE LOVELY WORLD TOUR OF LONDON 2010/11" featured a line up including both Crewdson and veteran Ant-guitarist Boorer with Love now appearing on bass guitar, and saw Ant singing a selection of iconic songs from his back catalogue. The support act was Scottish funkster Jesse Rae. Sixteen days later, on 7 November 2010, Ant, accompanied by Crewdson, appeared on Today Is Boring, the regular radio show of Carr and her husband Adam Carr on the online radio station Recharged Radio. Although not Ant's first radio appearance in 15 years (contrary to the claim made in programme pre-publicity materials) it was nonetheless his first radio music session in that same timeframe as he and Crewdson gave an acoustic rendition of his punk-era (and later CBS B-side) song Juanito The Bandito. In the preceding interview, among other topics Ant revealed that the ...Blueblack Hussar ... album had now been rerecorded on a laptop studio belonging to Boorer and would consist of twelve songs, six co-written with Boorer, the other six co-written with McCormack (but made no mention of the previously intended collaborations with Baillee, Pirroni or Bell).
Ant headlined at the Scala again on 18 November (in a concert billed as the second date of his "THE GOOD, THE MAD AND THE LOVELY WORLD TOUR OF LONDON 2010/11" and featuring support from Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
-based electro artist Johhny Normal, Rae again and Edward Tudor-Pole
Edward Tudor-Pole
Edward Tudor-Pole is an English musician, singer , TV presenter and actor.- Musical career :Tudor-Pole formed the band Tenpole Tudor in 1974, and eventually came to prominence after appearing in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle as a possible replacement for Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols...
) and three days later, topped the bill at a tribute concert for former Ant Matthew Ashman
Matthew Ashman
Matthew James Ashman was an English guitarist with Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow. He died of diabetes-related complications in 1995, aged 35.-Career:...
on 21 November at the same venue, in a show also featuring later Ashman bands Bow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow were an English 1980s New Wave band created by Malcolm McLaren to promote his and business partner Vivienne Westwood's New Romantic fashion lines.The group's music is described as having an "African-derived drum sound".-History:...
, Chiefs Of Relief
Chiefs of Relief
Chiefs of Relief were a British rock group formed shortly after the demise of Bow Wow Wow in 1984. Led by guitarist-vocalist Matthew Ashman , drummer Paul Cook , keyboard player Duncan Grieg, and bassist Lance Burman...
and Agent Provocateur)
Agent Provocateur (band)
Agent Provocateur were a British electronica band, consisting of John Gosling, Matthew Ashman , Dan Peppe, Danny Saber and Cleo Torez...
. Boorer, a schoolfriend of Ashman's, again provided guitar for Ant's set The concert on 18 November received highly positive reviews from the Daily Telegraph and former Guns 'N Roses guitarist Duff McKagan
Duff McKagan
Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan is an American musician and writer. He is best known for his twelve-year tenure as the bassist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
in his column for the Seattle Weekly
Seattle Weekly
Seattle Weekly is a freely distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as The Weekly...
.
Ant thereafter made further broadcast media appearances - on Iain Lee's show on Absolute Radio on 28 November and, in a higher profile, on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's London Tonight
London Tonight
London Tonight is a regional news programme broadcast on ITV London . Produced by ITN, the programme is broadcast at 6pm every weeknight, also including local sports news and local features of interest.Like all regional news programmes on ITV in England and Wales and Channel Television, it uses...
regional news programme on 14 December. This featured Adam in preparation for two upcoming further dates of his "... WORLD TOUR OF LONDON" for 16 December at the Electric Ballroom
Electric Ballroom
The Electric Ballroom is a performance venue and indoor market located at 184 Camden High Street in Camden Town, London . The Electric Ballroom has been in operation for over seventy years, during which time it has been used in many different ways.The two storey building has two dance floors and...
in Camden and 21 December at the London Forum
London Forum
The London Forum, or sometimes Kentish Town Forum is a well-known venue for concerts in Kentish Town, London, United Kingdom owned by the MAMA Group. The venue was built in 1934 and was originally used as an art deco cinema. After the closure of the cinema, The Town & Country Club was established...
. The concerts attracted some controversy for their £50 ticket price and an incident with a heckler that forced an abrupt end to the Electric Ballroom gig as well as the last minute move of the Forum concert to the Relentless Garage
MAMA Group
MAMA Group Limited is a live venue and artist management company which was founded in 2002 and is owned by the HMV Group. It is a parent company of a range of music and marketing businesses...
in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
. Ant was back playing live two days later on 23 December, when he and Baillee guested onstage at the Christmas party of West Rocks at Shepherds Bar in Shepherds Bush and played live again at Proud, Camden on 5 January 2011 Madame JoJo's in Soho on 17 January. He finished the month by playing further dates of his "... WORLD TOUR OF LONDON ..." with a two-night stand at the 100 Club
100 Club
The 100 Club is a music venue in London situated at 100 Oxford Street, W1, originally called The Feldman Swing Club.The 100 Club attained legendary status in modern British music, having played host to live music since 24 October 1942....
on 26 and 27 January 2011.
UK Tour - First Leg (2011)
Ant subsequently spent time in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where he played low-key shows (his first gigs outside the UK in nearly 16 years.). On 29 March 2011, BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
transmitted an interview of Ant by John Humphrys
John Humphrys
Desmond John Humphrys , is a Welsh-born British author, journalist and presenter of radio and television, who has won many national broadcasting awards...
for the On The Ropes series in which Ant discussed his bipolar condition and its impact on his career. That same day, Ant held a press conference and media preview gig at Under The Bridge in Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
at which he formally unveiled plans for an eleven date UK concert tour (as with the Paris concert, the first such event in 16 years) due to run from 16 May to 4 June 2011. Also announced at the Chelsea event was a public screening of the December 1981 Prince Charming Revue concert video plus a question-and-answer session to be held in South London's Coronet Cinema on 11 May 2011.
In April it was confirmed that Jamie Reynolds, bassist with The Klaxons
The Klaxons
The Klaxons were a Belgian accordion based band who had a minor UK hit in 1983 with "The Clap Clap Sound", which reached number 45 in the UK charts...
was set to produce and help film a new documentary about the forthcoming UK tour. "Adam is sounding great." said Reynolds of his foray into the film business. "I hadn’t seen him perform until last week when he announced his first tour and he’s back on form.". In an interview with Clink Magazine, Ant added that he was "going to go meet The Klaxons in the studio; they’re fans of mine. They’ve financed this film, this documentary that Jack Bond
Jack Bond (director)
Jack Bond is a British film producer and director. He is best known for his work for The South Bank Show and his creative partnership with the British writer, actor and director Jane Arden between 1965 and 1979....
is directing, who did a film called Dali in New York in 1965. And he’s been filming me for the last six months. And that was purely [The Klaxons] saying that they’d like to meet me, and I’m going to go down and have a little play with them. And they’re good-looking kids and they play good music. They’re trying to do something a bit different. And, erm, they’re good."
While awaiting the tour, Ant continued to perform solo concerts including a Get Tested Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...
fundraiser on 31 March 2011 at London's Jazz Café
Jazz Café
The Jazz Café is a music venue in Parkway in Camden Town, London, England. It opened in 1990, in the former premises of Barclays Bank, and has been run by Mean Fiddler Music Group since 1992, now a subsidiary of the MAMA Group.-History:...
(at which he duetted with fellow pop icon Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
), a show at Woody's tattoo parlour in High Wycombe
High Wycombe
High Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
on 1 April 2011, the We Love Japan fundraiser for victims of the Tōhoku Earthquake marking his return to the Relentless Garage on 2 April 2011, a book launch at Monto
Monto Water Rats
Monto Water Rats, also known as The Monto and Water Rats, is a music venue at 328 Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross, London. Until 1992 it was known as The Pinder of Wakefield....
in London on 7 April 2011, London's St Moritz club on 22 April and the Zetland Arms in Kingsdown
Kingsdown, Kent
Kingsdown is a village immediately to the south of Walmer, itself south of Deal, on the English Channel coast of Kent. Parts of the village are built on or behind the shingle beach that runs north to Deal and beyond, while other parts are on the cliffs and hills inland...
on 29 April. A more formal tour preview gig with the full band was held on 9 May at Bush Hall in London and a solo gig was included as part of the proceedings at the aforementioned Coronet Cinema concert video screening two nights later on 11 May.
By the time the tour itself got underway on 16 May in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, the original eleven date itinerary had been expanded to fifteen dates. In defiance of sceptics, Ant successfully completed the entire schedule of tour dates which were overwhemlingly enthusiatically received - Dave Simpson of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
rated the 24 May 2011 Sheffield Academy concert four stars out of five, lauding "Ant still has the moves. However, this near two-hour voyage through his back catalogue delves beyond the hits. From his edgy, leftfield punk days, Zerox, Car Trouble and the rest sound icy, sensual and dangerous. This entertaining, fun show has everything: sex (he playfully removes a backing singer's top and hands it back, quipping, "Phew, I don't need that at my age"), surreal banter ("Hello, I'm Bryan Ferry") and controversy (Bob Geldof is "a twat")." and concluding " If an apparently finished album is anything like as good, Prince Charming's could be one of the great pop comebacks." The Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
reviewed the showcase 26 May 2011 concert at London's IndigO2 venue before an audience of 2,500 (at which Ant fell offstage but recovered to complete the concert) and reported "it sounds like the man who dominated the charts in the Eighties hasn't lost his touch," and quoted an online review as stating "Antmusic has lost none of its taste judging by a triumphant gig from Prince Charming himself and suggested he could lead his own Ant Army again at the drop of a hat," adding that "fans said it was good to see him back on form.".
The Wolverhampton Express and Star praised his 1 June 2011 show at the Birmingham's O2 Academy saying "From the moment the Prince Charming singer opened his mouth for his first song, Plastic Surgery, his performance was full of energy with him barely pausing for breath as he played hit after hit." Even the one serious negative onstage incident, at Fat Sam's in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
on 21 May 2011 when Ant reacted angrily to some crowd elements who booed his kilt decorated with the St George's Cross
St George's Cross
St George's Cross is a red cross on a white background used as a symbolic reference to Saint George. The red cross on white was associated with St George from medieval times....
(as previously worn at the Dark Mills concert) was mitigated by local newspaper The Courier
The Courier
The Courier & Advertiser, more commonly known as simply The Courier, is a broadsheet newspaper published by DC Thomson in Dundee, Scotland...
as merely a "disappointing end to what had been a great show by the 56-year-old, who still looks the part and still managed a near two-hour set including hits like Goody Two Shoes, Stand And Deliver, Dog Eat Dog and Kings Of The Wild Frontier, bringing huge cheers and two encores." The tour closed in Manchester on 5 June with a show at the city's Manchester Academy
Manchester Academy
Manchester Academy is a brand name used by the University of Manchester Students' Union for its four concert venues in Manchester, England, which reside on Oxford Road both within and adjacent to the main Students' Union building....
which was applauded by frequent supporter John Robb in hyperbolic fashion: "What a great singer he is, the yodelling is really fab, it’s that very Adam touch of pure pop and dark underground... this is one of the great rock n roll voices, a brilliant clarity that cuts like a knife even two weeks into a tour. The set list is perfect. Loads of ‘Dirk’ period stuff. Plastic Surgery, Kick, Cartrouble, Cleopatra, Physcial but also the hits including a great stripped down Prince Charming, and a whole host of off the cuff covers. It’s packed in here - Totally sold out.... The word is out. The tour has been brilliant and this is one of the great comebacks."
Similar acclaim was given to the five date Seaside Tour of coastal resorts in the south of England which Ant undertook on 17–22 June 2011. Local Cornish
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
radio station The Source FM
Source fm
Source FM is a community radio station, designed to establish a voice for the 40,000 members of the combined Falmouth and Penryn community. The Source is committed to providing a community-specific, social gains radio service that addresses the needs of the groups that make up that community...
cheered the 18 June 2011 Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
concert on its website: "The audience goes wild. Adam stalks the stage, in control, he already knows he’s got us ... he plays songs that a man in his mid fifties shouldn’t really get away with, but he does, with dignity. Here’s a man who still has something to say and manages to say it with 30 year old songs...Someone boos, Adam retaliates and we’re with him. There’s nothing to boo here... Did that really just happen? Did Adam Ant really just blow us all away with the best gig of the year so far? I think he did." The Seaside Tour served both as a follow-up to the main UK tour and a warm-up to Ant's appearance at Hard Rock Calling 2011 in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
on 26 June 2011, third on the bill to Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
and Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
before an audience of 45,000. The festival's official website lauded his performance, reporting that "Adam Ant returned to London in tip-top shape this afternoon on the Main Stage in Hyde Park ...he left the stage to rapturous applause and cheers, leaving no question as to who was the real Prince Charming this weekend."
After Ant slotted in some more solo gigs, including the Soho Festival in London's Wardour Street
Wardour Street
Wardour Street is a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street south to north from Leicester Square, up through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street.-History:...
on 11 July, he and the band next played the Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
GuilFest
GuilFest
GuilFest, formerly the Guildford Festival of Folk and Blues is a music festival held in Stoke Park, Guildford, England each July. The festival, like the larger Glastonbury Festival, features a range of genres including rock, folk, blues, and in recent years pop...
festival on 15 July. His set won applause from online reviewer Virtual Festivals
Virtual Festivals
Virtual Festivals is a leading UK-based website publishing news, reviews, listings, photographs and interviews on music festivals.Started by Steve Jenner in 1999, the website has grown from its humble origins in his bedroom to its present day central London offices...
, who reported that the band "rocked the Good Time Guide Stage at Guilfest, leaving festival-goers wondering why anyone was watching anybody else. Unlike some of the other performers across the day, interaction with the crowd was at its peak and the band were introduced in full, mid-set, sandwiched amongst favourites such as Antmusic, Stand and Deliver and Goody Two Shoes." The next day, 16 July 2011 he played the Southwold
Southwold
Southwold is a town on the North Sea coast, in the Waveney district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located on the North Sea coast at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is around south of Lowestoft and north-east...
Latitude festival., winning more critical praise as Clash
Clash (magazine)
Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine based in the United Kingdom. Its magazine title is published 12 times a year. It has a circulation of around 40,000....
's online reviewer commented "Ant knows how to write pop songs, and he knows how to entertain ... Ant (and his saucy backing vocalists) flirts with the crowd, and need only say two words to us (“Good afternoon”) the whole show, but with such a cheeky grin, he doesn’t need to elaborate. The Adam Ant of today’s Latitude shows no flakiness of recent times, and it’s testament to his enduring popularity that fans are left wide-eyed, grinning and speechless by a performance that’s every bit as theatrical as you’d hope." Writing for The Guardian, Paul Lester likewise enthused "Adam Ant was a revelation, albeit mystifyingly low on the bill. He looked in great shape and sounded even better, treating the sheltering hordes to one thrilling hit after another"
UK Tour - Second Leg (2011)
On 31 July 2011 Ant guested at Wayne HemingwayWayne Hemingway
Wayne Andrew Hemingway, MBE is an English fashion designer and co-founder of Red or Dead. He is also chairman of the South Coast Design Forum, and chair of Building For Life .Hemingway is the son of Canadian Mohawk chief and former wrestler Billy Two Rivers...
's Vintage Festival at the Southbank Centreand his band played two more shows at Chelsea's Under The Bridge (site of the 29 March press conference/preview gig) on 5 and 6 August 2011. Ant performed solo at a screening of the 1981 Adam and the Ants "Live In Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
" concert video and the recent Hyde Park show at Finchley's Phoenix Cinema, He completed his summer with two festival appearances with the full band over the Bank Holiday weekend - firstly headlining at the West Dean
West Dean, West Sussex
West Dean is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located north of Chichester on the A286 road just west of Singleton. The parish includes the hamlets of Binderton and Chilgrove....
Festival on 27 August 2011 and the next day 28 August playing at the Voewood festival in Kelling
Kelling
Kelling is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is west of Cromer, north of Norwich and north-east of London. The village straddles the A149 Coast road between Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
.
Ant has also announced a follow-up UK tour (described as the "second leg" of the 2011 tour), initially scheduled to run for twelve dates from 11 November 2011 in Bristol until 13 December 2011 in Newcastle. As with the previous leg, Ant passed the time until the tour playing one-off dates, appearing with his tour band in Bedford on 10 September before three days later reuniting with 2010 band members Crewdson and Love for a charity show on board HMS Belfast. He then played a three night series over 7-9 October, appearing in York and Clacton with his full current band and Brighton's Expo festival solo and followed this with another solo appearance at a 'Burlesque Evening' on 15 October in Deal
Deal, Kent
Deal is a town in Kent England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover and eight miles south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town...
.
Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter (2011)
In 2009, it was announced that Ant was planning on putting a new record out, with "sources" telling The Sun that labels were involved in a bidding war over the new material. Adam also expressed interest in working with The Kaiser Chiefs.In an April 2010 interview for the NME, Ant announced he was also working a new album, with the title Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner's Daughter
Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter
Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner's Daughter is the upcoming sixth solo studio album by Adam Ant. The album is due to be released in 2012 by Ant's own record label Blueblack Hussar Records, as confirmed by Ant's official website and numerous interviews. The album's title was...
. This was planned to feature collaborations with former 3 Colours Red guitarist Chris McCormack, Ant's long-time songwriting partner Marco Pirroni, a member of Oasis (later identified as Andy Bell
Andy Bell (musician)
Andrew Piran "Andy" Bell is a Welsh musician, currently playing guitar in the band Beady Eye. He is a songwriter, singer, producer, DJ and former member of the early 1990s shoegazing band, Ride, and later, Hurricane #1...
) and Morrissey's writing partner Boz Boorer. According to Ant, the album is a "live record that lends itself to performance" and will feature a "kind of concept. It's a very old fashioned, old school, step-by-step album". In addition, Ant rerecorded a song in tribute to the late Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
, who died earlier that month, and who also once managed Adam & The Ants. Named Who's A Goofy Bunny Then?, the track was only previously available as a demo recorded in the early '80s, but Ant said he wanted to release a new version in tribute to the late punk manager. "Malcolm was a sort of mentor in my life" he explained. "As close as you can get to a surrogate father." The song took its name from a term of endearment bestowed upon McLaren by Ant - referring to his "quite prominent teeth".
Ant also reported that he still has "a whole bunch" of demos from the early part of his career that he is considering revisiting and recording properly now. "[There are] literally about a hundred songs done on a four-track and I use them whenever I can," he explained. "There was a whole album before 'Dirk Wears White Sox' (1979 debut album) that never really came out, but I've still got the masters. It's a labour of love, this catalogue. To get rid of it would be like giving away something John Lennon and Paul McCartney banged out in a night in a pub in Liverpool. I think it's your duty to catalogue your work."
On 31 December 2010, Ant gave an interview for The Sun (featured in the "Something For The Weekend" segment) in which he discussed in considerable detail the various controversies surrounding his recent life and musical activities. He summed up his upcoming album thus: "The Blueblack Hussar is me coming back to life. I'm like The Terminator - I was a dead man walking". He also discussed individual songs on the album - as well as Gun In My Pocket (which, aside from the Troubador live performance, had also been given a club dancefloor play by Ant himself as guest DJ at the Family Affair clubnight in Shoreditch
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
, London on 24 April 2010), the 31 December 2010 Sun interview also made mention of Shrink, a song about Ant's experiences in the mental healthcare system. Ant had previously discussed both of these songs in his April 2010 interview with Simon Price
Simon Price
Simon Price is a British music journalist and club promoter, born on 25 September 1967 in the Welsh town of Barry. He is now best known for his weekly review section in The Independent on Sunday and his book on Manic Street Preachers.-Career:...
for online fanzine The Quietus. On his second visit to Iain Lee's show on Absolute Radio on 4 January 2011, two further new tracks were premiered - Hard Men Tough Blokes and punkyoungirl [sic]. In an interview for Bizarre magazine published that month, Ant named the song co-written with Andy Bell as Cool Zombie
Fashion label
On 1 April 2011, in an interview with Oliver Franklin for GQ Online, Ant revealed “I'm bringing out my own fashion line next year. I'm in business with a guy called Rob Lucas at Pimpernel in Oxford. It's called Blueblack Hussar." On 5 May 2011 some of the label's logo was revealed in an interview in the Yorkshire Evening PostYorkshire Evening Post
The Yorkshire Evening Post is a daily evening publication published by Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
while promoting the northern leg of his tour. “Adam is also designing a menswear collection with his friend, Rob Lucas. The logo is apt: 'An 18th century brain in a 21st century head'. It's borrowed from a line in his song 'Room at the Top
Manners & Physique
Manners & Physique is the fourth solo album from Adam Ant. It was released by March 1990 by MCA Records. The single "Room at the Top" peaked at number 13 in England and number 17 in America...
'".
Musical style
The tone of Ant's debut solo album, Friend or FoeFriend or Foe (album)
Friend or Foe was the first solo album by Adam Ant, released after Adam and the Ants disbanded in early 1982. Friend or Foe also became Adam Ant's most successful solo album giving him the hit song "Goody Two Shoes" which peaked at #1 on the UK charts, and at #12 in the USA; along with the...
, was defined as glitzy glam pop with "tongue-in-cheek tunes, delivered with an excess of flair and good humour". It was also described as being "one of Ant's best records and one of the best new wave albums".
In a review for Strip, the songs were considered to contain a "mixture of driving, danceable rock with humour".
The music on Vive Le Rock
Vive Le Rock
Vive Le Rock is the third solo album by Adam Ant, released in 1985.This album at first received only minor attention in the United States, peaking only at #131. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at #42...
has been said to be a "50s-style rock & roll sound".
The fourth studio album, Manners and Physique was said to be a combination of "contemporary dance tracks" and Ant's "old flair for mockery". Ant himself later claimed that the album was styled after the bass heavy Minneapolis sound
Minneapolis sound
The Minneapolis sound is a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave that was pioneered by Prince in the late 1970s. Its popularity was given a boost throughout the 1980s, thanks to his musical adherents, including The Time, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Morris Day, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Ta...
of which Cymone, in Ant's words, was "one of the architects".
Personal life
Ant has been married twice: first to Carol Mills in 1975 (he divorced her shortly after); then to Lorraine in 1997 (they divorced shortly after their daughter Lily's birth in 1998). He dated Amanda DonohoeAmanda Donohoe
Amanda Donohoe is an English film and television actress. She is known for her 1980s relationship with popstar Adam Ant and her later work on television — including L.A. Law and Emmerdale — and her roles in successful movies including Liar, Liar.-Early life:Donohoe was born in London, the daughter...
between 1977 and 1981, Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
in 1983 and Heather Graham
Heather Graham
Heather Joan Graham is an American actress. She has appeared in such films as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Lost in Space, Bowfinger, From Hell, Anger Management, and The Hangover...
in the early 1990s.
He was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
when he was 21, and has spoken candidly about his experiences with the effects of the illness. In his 31 December 2010 interview for The Sun, Ant also discussed the side effects
Side Effects
Side Effects is an anthology of 17 comical short stories written by Woody Allen between 1975 and 1980, all but one of which were previously published in, variously, The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Kenyon Review. It includes Allen's 1978 O...
of medication for his bipolar condition: "In the past I've been a robot. It's been an out-of-body experience. Bipolar means up and down and that's me... Music has always been the best medication. I was on sodium valproate
Sodium valproate
Sodium valproate or valproate sodium is the sodium salt of valproic acid and is an anticonvulsant used in the treatment of epilepsy, anorexia nervosa, panic attack, anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, migraine and bipolar disorder, as well as other psychiatric conditions requiring...
for seven years.... I couldn't get to sleep and I didn't make love for seven years. My hair fell out and I couldn't pick up a book as I couldn't concentrate. I didn't write a song or pick up a guitar in that time — and piled on the weight. I might as well have been dead. I work very closely with my GP and any decisions I make are made with him". During an interview with BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
, he declared that "mental health needs a great deal of attention. It's the final taboo and it needs to be faced and dealt with."
Adam and the Ants
- Dirk Wears White SoxDirk Wears White SoxDirk Wears White Sox is Adam and the Ants' first album, released on Do It Records in 1979, before Adam went on to fame with "Kings of the Wild Frontier." Dirk Wears White Sox features a much more eclectic, sometimes brooding sound than Ant's later work...
- Kings of the Wild FrontierKings of the Wild FrontierKings of the Wild Frontier is a New Wave album by Adam and the Ants, released in 1980 . This album introduced the new Burundi drum sound. After having his previous backing band wooed away by producer Malcolm McLaren, who used them to form Bow Wow Wow, Adam Ant recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier...
- Prince CharmingPrince Charming (album)Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated Prince Charming three-and-a-half out of five stars. He explained that it was "a markedly different record than [Kings of the Wild Frontier], intentionally so", and that "the songs just aren't there." However, he concluded by stating that it "simply has style...
Adam Ant
- Friend or FoeFriend or Foe (album)Friend or Foe was the first solo album by Adam Ant, released after Adam and the Ants disbanded in early 1982. Friend or Foe also became Adam Ant's most successful solo album giving him the hit song "Goody Two Shoes" which peaked at #1 on the UK charts, and at #12 in the USA; along with the...
- Strip
- Vive Le RockVive Le RockVive Le Rock is the third solo album by Adam Ant, released in 1985.This album at first received only minor attention in the United States, peaking only at #131. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at #42...
- Manners and Physique
- WonderfulWonderful (Adam Ant album)Wonderful is Adam Ant's fifth solo studio album, the eighth LP overall of his career and at present his most recently released album. It peaked at #143 on the Billboard 200 chart. The band for this album included ex-Ruts drummer Dave Ruffy and Morrissey's guitarist Boz Boorer and Marco Pirroni...
- Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner's DaughterAdam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's DaughterAdam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner's Daughter is the upcoming sixth solo studio album by Adam Ant. The album is due to be released in 2012 by Ant's own record label Blueblack Hussar Records, as confirmed by Ant's official website and numerous interviews. The album's title was...
TV & Film
- Sweetwater (1999) Tele-film based on the 1960s band.
- La Femme Nikita (1999) TV Episode
- Junk (1997) (short British film)
- Face Down (1996)
- Lover's Knot (1996)
- Batman: The Animated SeriesBatman: The Animated SeriesBatman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...
(1995) TV Episode - Cyber BanditsCyber BanditsCyber Bandits is a 1995 science fiction film directed by USC graduate Erik Fleming, with Visual Effects by fellow USC graduate Steven Robiner, and starring Alexandra Paul, Robert Hays along with lead Martin Kemp of the rock group Spandau Ballet; also featuring other British rock personalities Adam...
(1995) - Desert Winds (1995)
- Drop Dead Rock (1995)
- Acting on Impulse (1993)
- Love Bites (1993)
- Northern ExposureNorthern ExposureNorthern Exposure is an American television series that ran on CBS from 1990 to 1995, with a total of 110 episodes.-Overview:The series was given a pair of consecutive Peabody Awards: in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a...
(1992) TV Episode as "Brad Bonner" on the episode "Heroes" - SpellcasterSpellcaster (film)-Plot:Winning a trip to Italy through a contest, Jackie and her brother Tom join other winners Myrna , Yvette , Terri , Harlan and Tony . They settle into the rooms of an old castle, together with Cassandra , a rock star playing along in the contest...
(1992) - Tales from the CryptTales from the Crypt (TV series)Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series that ran from 1989 to 1996 on the premium cable channel HBO...
(1992) TV Episode - Midnight Heat (1991)
- Trust Me (1989)
- Out of TimeOut of Time (1988 film)Out of Time is a 1988 science fiction film, starring Bruce Abbott and Bill Maher. It was a failed television pilot made into a television movie.-Synopsis:...
(1988) - World Gone Wild (1988)
- Cold Steel (1987)
- Sledge Hammer!Sledge Hammer!Sledge Hammer! is an American satirical police sitcom produced by New World Television that ran for two seasons on ABC from 1986 to 1988. The series was created by Alan Spencer and stars David Rasche as Inspector Sledge Hammer, a preposterous caricature of the standard "cop on the edge" character,...
(1987) TV Episode - Slam DanceSlam Dance (film)Slam Dance is a 1987 thriller directed by Wayne Wang and starring Virginia Madsen, Tom Hulce, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. It was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:A married cartoonist named C.C...
(1987) - Amazing StoriesAmazing Stories (TV series)Amazing Stories is a fantasy, horror, and science fiction television anthology series created by Steven Spielberg. It ran on NBC from 1985 to 1987, and was somewhat erratically screened in Britain by BBC1 and BBC2 - billed in the Radio Times as "Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories" - with episodes...
(1987) TV Episode - NomadsNomads (1986 film)Nomads is a 1986 horror film which was written and directed by John McTiernan and stars Pierce Brosnan and Lesley-Anne Down.The story involves a French anthropologist who is an expert on nomads...
(1986) - Amazing Stories Season 2 (1986)
- Honda Advert with Grace JonesGrace JonesGrace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
(1986) - The EqualizerThe EqualizerThe Equalizer is an American television series that ran for four seasons, initially on CBS, between 1985 and 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as an aging New York vigilante with a mysterious past...
(1985) TV Episode - Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, ForeverMotown 25: Yesterday, Today, ForeverMotown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever is a 1983 television special produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown Records, to commemorate Motown's twenty-fifth year of existence. Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever is a 1983 television special produced by Suzanne de Passe for Motown Records, to...
(1983) - Cannon and BallCannon and BallCannon and Ball are an English comedy double act consisting of Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball. The duo met in the early 1960s while working as welders in Oldham, Lancashire...
Show (1982) TV Episode - JubileeJubilee (1977 film)Jubilee is a 1977 cult film directed by Derek Jarman. It stars Jenny Runacre, Ian Charleson, and a host of punk rockers. The title refers to the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977.-Plot:...
(1977)
Theatre
- Funeral Games (1996)
- Be Bop A LulaBe Bop A Lula (play)Be Bop A Lula is a dramatic play with music written by Rex Weiner about young American rockabilly stars Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent touring England in 1960...
(1993) - West (1993)
- Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1985)
Awards and nominations
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Adam and the Ants | Grammy Award Grammy Award A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry... s: Best New Artist Grammy Award for Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967... |
|
| Kings of the Wild Frontier Kings of the Wild Frontier Kings of the Wild Frontier is a New Wave album by Adam and the Ants, released in 1980 . This album introduced the new Burundi drum sound. After having his previous backing band wooed away by producer Malcolm McLaren, who used them to form Bow Wow Wow, Adam Ant recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier... |
BRIT Awards Brit Awards The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust... : Best British Album |
||
| Stand and Deliver Stand and Deliver (song) "Stand and Deliver" was Adam and the Ants' most successful single. It entered the UK Top 40 at Number One and stayed there for five weeks. It was featured on their Prince Charming album... |
Ivor Novello Awards: Songwriters of the Year | ||
| 2008 | Adam Ant | Q Awards Q Awards The Q Awards are the UK's annual music awards run by the music magazine Q. Since they began in 1990, the Q Awards have become one of Britain's biggest and best publicised music awards, helped in no small part by the often boisterous behavior of the celebrities who attend the event... : Q Icon |
Literature
- Ant, Adam. (2007), Stand and Deliver: The Autobiography, London: Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-330-44012-7