Adam and the Ants

Prior to Adam and the Ants, Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard) 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 (guitar), Andy Warren (bass guitar) and Paul Flannagan (drums). Lester Square left to finish his course at an art school (and later formed The Monochrome Set) just days after The Ants played their first gig on 5 May 1977, at a bedroom in Muswell Hill.[2] Mark Ryan replaced him on guitar and played the first formal gigs (starting with a performance at the ICA in London on 10 May 1977). In early June, Flannagan was replaced with Dave Barbarossa (also known as Dave Barbe) and the resulting line-up recorded "Plastic Surgery" (along with seven other unreleased demos later dubbed the "Jubilee Demos" by bootleggers) and featured in the film Jubilee as the band of Adam's character Kid, until Ryan was replaced by Johnny Bivouac in October 1977.[3] Shortly after this, the group adopted the longer Adam and the Ants bandname.

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 on lead vocals (as she would regularly do on live performance of the song from mid-1977 until May 1978 when she split from the band). The following day, Adam and the Ants re-recorded "Deutscher Girls" (and overdubbed a guitar solo onto the above-mentioned version of "Plastic Surgery") 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".[4] 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.[5][6] The band built up a strong cult following (the early "Antpeople") but struggled to find overground success or even a record deal (apart from the two Jubilee soundtrack songs) 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 (vocals and guitar), Matthew Ashman (guitar), Andy Warren (bass guitar) and Dave Barbe (drums). 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 nineteen demo recordings (including another version of "Zerox") 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 (except for live shows), signed with independent label Do It Records and rerecorded and released their second single "Zerox" (with a changed B-side, "Whip In My Valise") 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.

Late 1979 saw the release of Dirk Wears White Sox (1979, Do It Records). 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 (who had replaced Warren in November 1979) and drummer Dave Barbe – to leave Adam and the Ants and form Bow Wow Wow, fronted by Annabella Lwin.

Between February and April 1980, a new version of Adam and the Ants was formed with Marco Pirroni (an ex-member of Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Models, Rema Rema and Cowboys International) (guitar), Kevin Mooney (bass guitar), and two drummers, Terry Lee Miall and Chris Hughes (ex-The Blitz Brothers, future Tears for Fears producer), 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 (with Moss credited as "Terry 1+2"), 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" (reaching No. 4 on the UK singles charts in October 1980), "Antmusic" (No. 2 in January 1981) and "Kings of the Wild Frontier" (No. 2 in March 1981, previously No. 48 in August 1980). 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 (giving the old Ants band a posthumous UK Top 10 hit single) 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".

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,[7] followed by "Prince Charming", which topped the UK charts for 4 weeks in September 1981.[8] "Ant Rap" reached No. 3 in January 1982.[9]

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 (giving the original Ants band a second posthumous Top 15 hit), while Antmusic EP, a 12" EP of three unused tracks from the Dirk sessions plus a remix of "Cartrouble (Parts 1 & 2)"), was released by Do It in March, reaching No. 46.

• Young Parisians Tour, Great Britain, January–February 1979, 15 dates including London Electric Ballroom support slot for The Lurkers
• Zerox Tour, Great Britain, July–August 1979, 17 dates plus private preview show
• Ants Invasion Tour, Great Britain May–June 1980, 15 dates plus private preview show
• Kings of the Wild Frontier Tour, Great Britain, November–December 1980, 32 dates
• Stand And Deliver Tour, worldwide, March–October 1981, 54 dates (not including April 1981 London charity show)

Individual legs:

• Stand And Deliver UK Tour, Great Britain, March 1981, six dates
• US Ants Invasion Tour, United States and Canada, April 1981, 13 dates
• Stand And Deliver European Tour, assorted Western European nations, May–June 1981, 19 dates
• Kings Of The Wild Frontier World Tour, United States, Japan and Australia, September–October 1981, 16 dates

• The Prince Charming Revue, Great Britain, December 1981-January 1982, 25 dates at ten venues

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"

Marquee Club, London, England
5-26 January 1978 (four successive Thursdays)