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CONCERT: ADAM ANT

By Jon Pareles

• Nov. 28, 1985

TEEN-AGE girls screamed every time Adam Ant came to the front of the Radio City Music Hall stage Tuesday night, and every time he made a leaping, two-legged kick. When he finally removed his shirt, the screams redoubled.

When he tossed his T-shirt, audience members battled over the shreds.

Yet Mr. Ant is a curious sort of teen idol. For one thing, he rarely smiles; when he spoke about ''attractive women'' in the audience, it was the ironic introduction to a song called ''Playboy.'' He started Tuesday's concert with a 10-minute tape collage of songs and voices, from which the final recurring message was, ''With rock-and-roll you can make money''; the logo for his current tour is a dollar sign.

Mr. Ant's lyrics mix defensiveness, mockery of such male stereotypes as playboys and Clint Eastwood, and dry, sloganeering lines about sex and power. He sings in an arch, mannered voice that most often sounds like David Bowie sneering. His songs, written with the guitarist Marco Pirroni, use ordinary chords in off-center ways; they borrow from rockabilly, the Beatles and punk-rock in odd proportions, adding heavy-handed drumming. (His current drummer has trouble holding a steady tempo.) The material varies; it can be desultory or modestly intriguing. Good, bad or indifferent, it has a decidedly callous edge - but its irony seems lost on Mr. Ant's audience.

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Adam Ant’s still ready to ‘Stand and Deliver’ as he nears 70

• Updated: Mar. 28, 2024, 11:21 a.m. |
• Published: Mar. 26, 2024, 8:00 a.m.

Adam Ant performs Saturday, March 30 at the Goodyear Theater in Akron. (Photo by Gary Mather) Gary Mather

• Gary Graff, special to cleveland.com

Forty-five years ago Dirk put on his white socks and Adam Ant was born.

London-born Stuart Goddard became Adam Ant during the punk rock revolution of 1977, forming the band Adam and the Ants and debuting with “Dirk Wears White Sox” in 1979. Despite a false start with the infamous Sex Pistols Svengali Malcolm McLaren, Ant and his Edwardian-attired company became all the rage with hits such as “Antmusic, “Stand and Deliver,” “Prince Charming” and “Ant Rap,” and the persona was strong enough to sustain Ant himself into a solo career that began in 1982.

Since then he’s been more passionate than prolific, with just nine studio albums during these past 45 years -- most recently 2013′s “Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter.” He’s also acted on screens large and small (“Nomads,” “Love Bites,” “The Equalizer,” “Northern Exposure,” “Tales From the Crypt”) and on stage, in “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” and “Funeral Games” and producing the musical “Be Bop a Lula” about early rockers Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.

Primarily Ant, 69, has been a road warrior; his Friend Or Foe Tour took him around North America and the U.K. during 2019, and he was on the road back in Great Britain This year finds him back on our side of the pond, with show dubbed ANTMUSIC that assures us this rock prince is still charming after all these many years. Her performs Saturday with the English Beat at the Goodyear Theater in Akron.

Tell us about the show?

Ant: After the pandemic, I just want to come back with something that’s a celebration of the entire catalog -- not just the hits but some songs I haven’t played live before out of the catalog and just take a new look on it all.

It’s been 45 years since “Dirk Wears White Sox,” your first album. What’s that feel like?

Ant: I don’t think about the time, really. In the lead-up to a tour I just think about the set I’ve got to do, choosing the order of songs and which songs to put where. That takes quite a bit of time and rehearsal. I’ve got my routine of getting the legs going again and getting in shape for everything, so hopefully by the time I go on stage I’ll be rockin’ ready.

What kind of perspective does that passage of time give you about the career?

Ant: I think I’ve created quite a diverse sort of quality of music. The instrumentation’s different on a lot of songs from album to album. A song from “Dirk” is a completely different kettle of fish than doing one from “Kings of the Wild Frontier” or “Strip” or “Wonderful” or “Friend or Foe.” They’re so different that it’s almost like you have to go back and say, “How’s this gonna work with that? How’s this gonna blend in?”

What accounted for that kind of diversity?

Ant: It’s kind of a lower boredom threshold. With the success of “Kings” I could’ve pretty much stayed in that zone of musicality, but I found that after working the album for over a year and touring and going around the world with it, and you’re wearing similar costumes...After that I wanted to completely start again with a fresh, white page. I look at that with every album and every concept, not just a visual concept but a musical concept as well. Each album was completely different, hopefully, both musically and visually, not just for me but for the audience as well.

What’s surprised you over the years?

Ant: I think hitting in America with the “Goody Two Shoes” single (in 1982). Having a brass section was quite a bit turn for me. I was recording “Goody Two Shoes” in London and there was a group of guys, a brass section, who had just been in there doing a session for somebody and I listened to some of the session they were doing and it was such a completely different avenue of music than anything I’d tried on any of my records before. I thought, “OK, I think I’ll just try with this [sings the horn riff], and instead of doing that on guitar let’s do it on brass. So they tried it and it just sounded really great; these were top-class musicians and they really delivered the goods and we kept it and it sounded great. And then of course we had a new secret ingredient, if you like, to put into the “Friend or Foe” album tracks, and then we made it part of the live show. It was very exciting.

You’ve had that kind of brash attitude throughout your career. Are you generally confident that even the wild ideas will work?

Ant: Yeah. Back then, I think calling the album “Kings of the Wild Frontier” we had to sort of get up some kind of bravado to that and to feel like kings and go out and perform like kings and give it our best shot. In a way we wanted to be the best band around -- not that there’s anything wrong with that. I think it’s something all good bands are; they want to be the best band around, so there’s a healthy competitiveness of really great bands out there.

And there were a lot of those at the time Adam and the Ants crawled out there?

Ant: Oh, definitely. We had the punk scene and the post-punk scene. You had bands like the Stray Cats, for instance, who were my favorite band of all time. But there was some competition there; you really had to bring out your best act on the night, because everybody else would be doing the same thing. You had Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran...just a lot of good bands. It was all around us.

Where did the Adam Ant character come from? Was it an extension of Stuart or a completely different kind of person?

Ant: I didn’t look like a ‘70s pop singer, a rock singer; I was sort of skinny. But I used to be a grounds man on the tennis court and get up early in the morning and push a roller up and down a sand tennis court to flatten it. I built up my physique by doing that and doing these sort of physical jobs before I’d go to school. So the shape of me was not waif-like. I liked the name Adam; it seemed to be an appropriate name for someone who looked like I did. And then the Ants came together so I was Adam Ant.

What did the persona allow you to do, or be, that was different from what you otherwise were?

Ant: The best and most useful place to put it was on stage, really, to just immerse yourself in the moment and immerse yourself in the music completely, and then off stage be the opposite of that. I’m quite quiet, really, and just focused on writing the songs. What you saw on stage wasn’t what you saw off stage; off stage I was quite relaxed. I think it would have been too much to try to live with that 24-7.

Other performers have been taken over by their personas, though. How did you keep Adam Ant from taking over the rest of your life?

Ant: It was a sort of balance. I know how to go places. I don’t go to many sorts of events and openings and things like that where I know there’s gonna be people. All throughout that period I just kept to myself, really, apart from the occasional awards event or something like that. Most of the time I was quite happy to be at home with a book. I used to walk a lot. When I was off stage I was focused on writing the music and getting on with the work, which was the most important thing to me. The work was its own reward. I was fortunate in that I was in love with my work -- and I still am.

You turn a certain age (70) in November. How’s that feeling?

Ant: I feel OK. If it’s anything like I feel now, I’m ready to rock, as they say. I still give everything I’ve got on stage; that’s going to be different now, but I still feel there’s a lot of energy to use up on stage and I try to use all of it I’ve got every single night.

With all the years of experience you have now, what would you tell that kid who put the war paint on 45 years ago?

Ant: I’d say go for it -- and I pretty much would’ve done the same thing, anyway. Nothing would have stopped me from going for you. You throw a certain caution to the wind. You’ve got to go for the adventure. You’ve got to pursue it and create the opportunity. That’s the art of it, creating the opportunity and then being ready to take it when it’s there and give it everything you’ve got.

Adam Ant and the English Beat perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 30 at the Goodyear Theater, 1201 E. Market St., Akron. 330-690-2307 or GoodyearTheater.com .

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ANTMUSIC 2024 17 Oct 2023

ANTMUSIC 2024

Performing his classic, chart-topping hits and personal favourites, Adam will be appearing live across the UK throughout October and November 2024.

“I’m really looking forward to the thrills of playing live again… there’s nothing like it!”

Pre-Sale ticket link here (Live from Thursday 19th October 2023 at 10am UK time)

General sale ticket link here (Live from Friday 20th October 2023 at 10am UK time)

106.5 The Arch Welcomes ANTMUSIC 2024

with The English Beat

About Adam Ant

It was on a Thursday night, 16th October 1980, when millions of living rooms across the UK, were set on fire by a blazing TV performance by Adam and the Ants. After 3 ferocious, minutes of ‘Dog Eat Dog’, on the weekly music show, Top of the Pops, the phenomenon rapidly began and they would go on to dominate the charts with extraordinary success. But this was no ‘overnight success’, Adam Ant had been working hard behind the warpaint and feathers for his moment. The journey had started at Hornsey College of Art, where Adam had teamed up with some college friends to form the band Bazooka Joe. With Adam on bass guitar, they played the pubs and colleges around London and it was on a night in November 1975 that he saw a group that was to change his life forever.

The Sex Pistols played their first ever gig, supporting Bazooka Joe, at St Martins College of Art and the explosive punk band inspired Adam to start something new. He formed The Ants and performed live repeatedly at many venues including the Vortex and The Roxy before getting a Thursday night residency at the famous Marquee club in London....

The Sex Pistols played their first ever gig, supporting Bazooka Joe, at St Martins College of Art and the explosive punk band inspired Adam to start something new. He formed The Ants and performed live repeatedly at many venues including the Vortex and The Roxy before getting a Thursday night residency at the famous Marquee club in London. The band built a huge cult following despite being unpopular with the established music press, and in 1979 they released their debut album, Dirk Wears White Søx, which topped the independent chart on release. It has been said that if Adam and the Ants had appeared on television at this time, then they would have ‘made it’ but the moderate success made the rest of the band despondent and in early 1980, the Ants left Adam, after an offer to work with the former Sex Pistols manager, Malcolm McLaren.

With a new sense of freedom and clarity, Adam immediately put his ideas for a new ‘warrior’ sound into practice and within months had put together a fresh band that included two drummers. The new band signed a major label deal and recorded the album ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’. Released in November 1980 it became a worldwide hit, spending 12 weeks at number 1. The singles, ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’ and ‘Antmusic’ both hit number 2 in the UK chart and ‘Dog Eat Dog’ reached number 4. “Antmania” swept the nation and after winning the Brit Award for ‘Best British Album’, Adam Ant became one of the most publicised faces in Britain.

In May 1981, ‘Stand and Deliver’ hit the number 1 spot and stayed there for 5 weeks, and became his most successful single, winning him the prestigious Ivor Novello Award For Songwriting. On it’s release, the follow up album and single ‘Prince Charming’ went straight to number one and a further 12 singles went top 30, at one point, Adam had 8 singles in the top 40. . . in one week!

He became the first VJ (video jockey) on MTV and at a time when videos were the most popular way to promote music, Adam’s charismatic performances in some of the most lavish visuals of the period paved the way for his acting career. His first solo album, ‘Friend or Foe’ continued his success in the USA, delivering 3 top twenty hits on the Billboard Top 100. ‘Goody Two Shoes’ was also a number 1 in both the UK and Australia and after being voted ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ by the viewers of MTV, he celebrated this success in the USA with a ‘Best New Artist’ Grammy nomination. In 1983 he appeared on NBC Television Network’s ‘Motown 25 Special’, alongside Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. The second solo album ‘Strip’ produced the top 5 UK hit ‘Puss ‘n Boots’ but the follow-up single ‘Strip’ and the sexy spectacular video was banned by the BBC. While recording his third solo album ‘Vive Le Rock’ with legendary producer, Tony Visconti, Adam set out on an acting career by appearing in a theatre production of Joe Orton’s ‘Entertaining Mr Sloane’ at The Royal Exchange in Manchester.

In 1985 Adam performed ‘Vive Le Rock’ at Live Aid and spent the next few years concentrating solely on acting in a string of films including Nomads, Junk and Slam Dance! as well as appearing in several US TV shows such as La Femme Nikita, Northern Exposure, The Equalizer and Sledge Hammer! During the 1990’s, Adam again, split his time between acting and music, returning to the studio to record and release the album ‘Manners and Physique’ in 1990 which included the UK top 20 hit, ‘Room at the Top’. The follow up album, ‘Persuasion’ remains in limbo without an official release to this day, but in 1994 Adam recorded his next album, ‘Wonderful’ in London’s famous Abbey Road studios. Released the following year, the album, along with ‘Wonderful’ the single and the follow up ‘Gotta Be A Sin’ were accompanied by successful tours of the UK and USA. It would be twelve years before he would play live again, with an acoustic show, in 2007, at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, where he read extracts from ‘Stand and Deliver’ his recently released autobiography. In 2008, Adam was presented with the ‘Q Music Icon Award’ placing him alongside fellow recipients Paul McCartney and Bryan Ferry. This rekindled recognition resulted in a series of low key gigs in 2010 which enabled him to select a new band and to perform several sell-out shows in London. In 2011, Adam performed at the Hard Rock Calling in London’s Hyde Park and over the year continued playing live to over 250,000 people. After 2 successful tours the USA, mainland Europe and Australia, Adam released his first album for 16 years: Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner’s Daughter.

2014 saw Adam return to his roots to perform the Dirk Wears White Søx album at a sellout show at Hammersmith Apollo, along with 2 live performances for Record Store Day in London that afternoon. This coincided with the release of a limited edition white vinyl of the Dirk album. Adam then closed the year with 4 more performances at Islington’s Assembly Hall. Due to public demand Adam toured the Dirk album early in 2015 at a series of intimate concerts around the country to much critical acclaim with several of the venues selling out within minutes. A DVD of the 2014 Apollo show was made available and Adam finished off 2015 working on the re-mastered anniversary release of his iconic Kings of the Wild Frontier album, which was released prior to Adam embarking on the Kings of the Wild Frontier Live 2016 tour throughout the UK. With the LP back in the charts, the sold out tour had Adam playing the classic and now iconic album, in sequence, to over 30,000 people, which culminated at Brixton Academy in London in a true riotous Ant gathering with fans coming together from all around the world to be part of the spectacle.

Over the summer of 2016 Adam took part in the Isle of Wight festival closely followed by 3 headlining slots at each of the Rewind festivals in Perth, Cheshire and Henley. After the phenomenal success of the Kings tour Adam returned to the Roundhouse venue in Camden for one additional sold out date, in his hometown, to finish off the year in a glorious celebration of style and jubilation. Adam is very pleased to announce his ANTMUSIC 2024 tour which will include dates in the UK and USA.

Connect with Adam Ant

Connect with The English Beat

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Doors 7:00 pm

Show 8:00 pm

Venue The Pageant

Age Restrictions All Ages

Media Policy

Reserved Balcony $60.00, $55.00 GA $40.00adv | $45.00dos

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