Adam and the Ants


Adam and the Ants were an English rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The group, which lasted from 1977 to 1982, existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant. The first, founded in May 1977 and known simply as The Ants until November that year, achieved considerable cult popularity during the transition from the punk rock era to the post-punk and new wave era, and were noted for their high camp and overtly sexualised stage performances and songs. The final line-up of this first incarnation – Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman and Leigh Gorman – left the band in January 1980 at the suggestion of then-de facto manager Malcolm McLaren, to form the instrumentalist personnel of the controversial Bow Wow Wow.
The second incarnation of Adam and the Ants featured guitarist Marco Pirroni and drummer-producer Chris Hughes, and was noted for its use of Burundi drums. It lasted from February 1980 to March 1982, and achieved major commercial success in the UK and abroad which continued into Ant's solo career. With their music videos receiving airplay on MTV – with Adam Ant also appearing as a guest VJ on the station – they were associated with the Second British Invasion of the US.

History

Formation

Prior to Adam and the Ants, Adam Ant played bass in pub rock group Bazooka Joe, now primarily known as the band that headlined when the Sex Pistols played their first concert on 6 November 1975 at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. After witnessing this, Adam quit the band with the intention of forming his own, inspired by the Pistols.
Tentatively called The B-Sides, they practised regularly over the following months but, lacking a drummer, never managed to play a gig. Meanwhile, Adam Ant had befriended some influential figures in the burgeoning London punk scene, most notably Jordan, who worked in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's SEX boutique. The Ants eventually formed in early 1977 with a line-up of Lester Square, Andy Warren and Paul Flannagan. Lester Square left to finish his course at an art school just days after The Ants played their first gig on 5 May 1977, at a bedroom in Muswell Hill. Mark Ryan replaced him on guitar and played the first formal gigs. In early June, Flannagan was replaced with Dave Barbarossa and the resulting line-up recorded "Plastic Surgery" and featured in the film Jubilee as the band of Adam's character Kid, until Ryan was replaced by Johnny Bivouac in October 1977. Shortly after this, the group adopted the longer Adam and the Ants bandname.

Early recordings

The band made their radio debut on the John Peel show with a session recorded on 23 January 1978; this included the song "Lou", featuring the group's manager Jordan guesting on lead vocals. The following day, Adam and the Ants re-recorded "Deutscher Girls" for the Jubilee soundtrack album, which would be released in April—the two tracks on the album being the group's vinyl debut.
Although popular, the outfit were, according to critic Simon Price, "dismissed by the punk cognoscenti as something of a joke band". Touring extensively around the UK, often with Siouxsie and the Banshees, they proved to be unpopular with much of the British music press who disliked their fetishistic lyrics and imagery. In response, the group formed a strong – at times ideological – rapport with amateur punk fanzines such as Ripped And Torn which gave them more favourable coverage. The band built up a strong cult following but struggled to find overground success or even a record deal until 1978, when they were signed to Decca.
By this time, Adam and the Ants had been through several line-up changes before eventually settling on the stable line-up of Adam Ant, Matthew Ashman, Andy Warren and Dave Barbe. It would be this line-up that recorded and released their first single "Young Parisians" to confused reviews and little success. They also recorded both sides of a planned second single, "Zerox"/"Kick" at RAK Studios, plus a total of 19 demo recordings all of which were recorded at Decca's own studio in West Hampstead. All of these, as well as other early recordings and demos, eventually surfaced as bootleg recordings. They also recorded two further John Peel Sessions in July 1978 and March 1979; all three sessions were released in 2001 on The Complete Radio 1 Sessions.
Apparently unable to satisfactorily market the band, Decca let them go in early 1979, and the group, still with the same line-up but employing a lighter sound than previously, signed with independent label Do It Records and rerecorded and released their second single "Zerox" before recording their debut album Dirk Wears White Sox, after which Warren also left to join Lester Square in The Monochrome Set. Ashman also temporarily left the band at this point, and Ant and Barbe recorded a set of nine demos at Solid Gold Sound Studios in London for a putative Ant solo project, using a heavily soul/funk/disco influenced sound. Do It rejected the new songs and Ashman returned to the band shortly thereafter.

''Dirk Wears White Sox''

Late 1979 saw the release of Dirk Wears White Sox. The title referenced Dirk Bogarde. The album was somewhat dark, with post-punk riffs and some vestiges of glam rock, as well as attempts to fuse this sound with funk and soul. Lyrically it addressed subjects such as fetishism, historical figures like Adolf Hitler, John F. Kennedy and Cleopatra, and art history, particularly the Futurism movement. It gained a cult following rather than commercial success, leading a frustrated Adam to hire Malcolm McLaren, former manager of the Sex Pistols, in the hope of gaining more widespread recognition.
On 26 January 1980, McLaren convinced the rest of the band – then comprising guitarist Matthew Ashman, bassist Leigh Gorman and drummer Dave Barbe – to leave Adam and the Ants and form Bow Wow Wow, fronted by Annabella Lwin.

''Kings of the Wild Frontier''

Between February and April 1980, a new version of Adam and the Ants was formed with Marco Pirroni , Kevin Mooney, and two drummers, Terry Lee Miall and Chris Hughes, who took the pseudonym of "Merrick". Pirroni would become an influential member of the group, co-writing all of their new songs with Adam Ant.
While in the process of assembling the band, Ant and Pirroni re-recorded the Dirk Wears White Sox track "Cartrouble Pt.2" as a contract-fulfilling single for Do It, together with future Culture Club drummer Jon Moss and with Hughes producing. The label released the single under the shorter title "Cartrouble" in March 1980, and it reached No. 1 on the UK Independent Singles Chart. The following month, the by-then recruited full band recorded the single "Kings of the Wild Frontier" for prospective record companies.
Without label support, the band carried out a major UK "Ants Invasion" tour, at the end of which, they signed a major label deal with CBS Records and began recording Kings of the Wild Frontier, having first rush-released the title track as a single. That album was a hit in the United Kingdom and put the band at the forefront of the New Romantic movement. The album reached No. 1 on the UK album charts on 24 January 1981.
There were three hit singles from this LP, including "Dog Eat Dog", "Antmusic" and "Kings of the Wild Frontier". In addition, "Antmusic" made it to No. 1 in Australia for five weeks. In the UK, both "Antmusic" and "Kings of the Wild Frontier" were kept from the top spot by songs by the then recently murdered John Lennon.
Decca and Do It Records both repromoted all of the band's previous output to cash in on the success of the album and its satellite singles. "Young Parisians" reached No. 9 in December 1980 while Dirk Wears White Sox made it to No. 16 in the album charts in February 1981. "Zerox" and "Cartrouble" also charted that month, making it to No. 33 and No. 45, respectively, in the UK Singles Chart.
Bassist Kevin Mooney left the band in 1981, and was replaced with Gary Tibbs, who joined just in time to promote the hit single "Stand and Deliver".

''Prince Charming''

In November 1981, Adam & the Ants released Prince Charming. The band had two United Kingdom No. 1 singles: "Stand and Deliver" was a No. 1 single in the UK for 5 weeks in May 1981, followed by "Prince Charming", which topped the UK charts for 4 weeks in September 1981. "Ant Rap" reached No. 3 in January 1982.
There would be a further round of cash-in reissues of early material in early 1982. The two Jubilee soundtrack songs were reissued in February as a 7-inch single with "Deutscher Girls" as the A-side, reaching No. 13 on the UK singles chart, while Antmusic EP, a 12" EP of three unused tracks from the Dirk sessions plus a remix of "Cartrouble, was released by Do It in March, reaching No. 46.

Break-up

In early 1982, the band received a BRIT Award for Best Album and a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist.
In March 1982, feeling certain band members "lacked enthusiasm", Adam Ant disbanded the group. Newspaper articles at the time offered various explanations for the motivations behind the split. Initially Adam was quoted as saying that the split was amicable, but later he was to say that "the interest just wasn't there any more. It might have been Adam and the Ants on the billboards but not on stage". In addition, it is said that Pirroni quit as he was tired of touring. Adam Ant launched a solo career a few months after the split, enjoying immediate success with a third UK No. 1 hit single "Goody Two Shoes". Some copies of the single are credited to Adam and the Ants, but only Ant and Pirroni from the band feature, plus also Merrick on the UK single mix. Merrick subsequently rejoined Dalek I Love You; later in 1982, he began a successful career as a producer with Tears For Fears.

Post break-up activity

Antbox, a retrospective box set spanning Ant's career from the late 1970s through the 1990s, was released in 2000. The box set included 66 tracks on three CDs, and quickly sold the initial 10,000 units. In 2003, the Antbox set was re-released in a different form and sold once again with success.
2004 saw the digitally remastered re-release of the albums Dirk Wears White Sox, Kings of the Wild Frontier, and Prince Charming, with bonus material in the form of previously unreleased demo songs. These were overseen by Marco Pirroni, and Kings of the Wild Frontier and Prince Charming were remastered by Chris Hughes.
On 10 September 2008, the Daily Mail gave away a CD copy of Prince Charming with the newspaper.

Offshoots

To date, Ant has released six solo albums. His partnership with Pirroni would continue until the two fell out in March 2010. During the 2000s, Pirroni was a member of The Wolfmen with Ant's 1982-1985 bassist Chris Constantinou; together they released two albums.
Hughes has also released two solo albums. He and Tibbs formed the short-lived duo Merrick and Tibbs, which released one single in the early 1980s. Mooney later formed Wide Boy Awake with Jordan, and Max with Ashman.
Barbe, Ashman and Gorman's post Ants band Bow Wow Wow eventually scored two UK Top 10 hits. The trio later formed Chiefs of Relief and released an album on Sire Records by which point only Ashman remained. The Monochrome Set, featuring Warren and Square, have released fourteen albums to date. Bivouac achieved TV comedy success as Strings in a BBC police sitcom, Operation Good Guys.

Legacy

Adam and the Ants have inspired several artists that have emerged since the band's short career, including Nine Inch Nails. In early 1995, Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni joined Nine Inch Nails on stage to perform "Physical ", "Red Scab" and "Beat My Guest", three songs from Adam and the Ants' early catalogue. Nine Inch Nails also covered "Physical " on their 1992 EP Broken.
On 8 May 2006, Hyper released their debut album featuring a cover of "Antmusic", with Leeroy Thornhill of the Prodigy on lead vocals. In April 2009, No Doubt performed a cover of "Stand and Deliver" on an episode of the American TV show Gossip Girl, and performed it at the Bamboozle music festival, New Jersey, in May 2009, although they had no plans to release the song as a single.
In 2011, CBBC Horrible Histories wrote a song called "Dick Turpin" that was a pastiche on Adam and the Ants "Stand and Deliver". This has made the song popular within the younger generations.
An affectionate short film, featuring Nick Moran as Adam and Mackenzie Crook as Gary Tibbs, called Ant Muzak, featuring Adam and the Ants visiting a supermarket late at night at the same time as Sigue Sigue Sputnik, was made in 2002. Gary Tibbs appeared in the film as Dirk, the supermarket manager, and wore white socks. The film is available on DVD with two similar parodies.

Music videos

The band seized the opportunities provided by music videos on the new MTV channel to develop a theatrical, charismatic on-screen persona. With romantic costumes and heavy make-up, the band was often seen as an early example of the New Romantic movement. Lavish videos were produced for "Stand and Deliver", "Prince Charming", and "Ant Rap". All Adam and the Ants music videos were produced and storyboarded by Adam Ant. These videos helped to establish the band in the United States when MTV began airing them.
"Prince Charming" features a guest appearance by British screen legend Diana Dors as the fairy Godmother, and "Ant Rap" features Scottish pop singer Lulu as the "damsel in distress".

Members

Timeline

Discography

Headlining

In addition, seven dates in April 1978, four in London and one each in Nottingham, Liverpool and Sheffield were advertised on a handbill as being the "Dirk Wears White Socks Tour"

Residency

, London, England
5-26 January 1978

Awards

Cultural references

In the Judge Dredd story "The Ant Man", from the British comic 2000AD, one of the three-man-eating ants is called Adam.