Hurl Defiance At The Stars…

I need to preface this piece by outlining what Adam Ant means to me. Far from being an obsessive fan into my forties, there were 5 years of my life, between 1979 and 1984, when Adam was the absolute centre of my universe. I wanted to look like him. I wanted to sing like him. I wanted the adoration he garnered from women folk. I wanted to be Adam Ant. I used to dress like him (thankfully no pictures seem to exist of this) and this habit drew the intense displeasure of my father who equated my obsession with my potential sexuality as he couldn’t grasp how a boy would want to wear make up or tie gold braids in his hair. It was because of Adam’s adoption of the Burundi beat, suggested to him by the late Malcolm McLaren, that I discovered my passion and latent skill for drumming. Adam Ant has a lot to answer for in my book.

Something else I need to put out there is that I never really got ‘Dirk Wears White Sox’, his self-produced debut that preceded the global domination that ‘Kings Of The Wild Frontier’ would bring. The album just seemed too sparse, too jarring… just too weird. It lacked the flamboyance of his later work, and seemed far too gritty and edgy for a kid like me, back then. There was no colour to it, both visually or sonically, to my early teen ears. It wasn’t until I had grown up, matured in most ways, that it finally clicked with me. I don’t remember exactly when it happened but I remember digging the vinyl out, sticking it on and having this epiphany. All of a sudden, it all made total sense and from that day forward, that album has been up there as one of my all time favourites.

The last time I saw Adam Ant live was circa 1983 on the Friend or Foe tour. He was energetic, bounding around the stage. The set, by comparison to his last full scale tour, the legendary Prince Charming Revue, was minimalist and the all that was left of the Ants was Marco, looking for more comfortable as a laid back rocker than he ever did in his Prince Charming outfit. It was a great gig and I wanted more, but very soon, Adam would begin to fade in the pop ecosystem, replaced by electronic pop, fuelled by technology and politics and I was guilty of pushing him aside in my musical horizons. His album, ‘Strip’, was, in my opinion, his weakest work, and the subsequent albums (Vive Le Rock and Manners & Physique) seemed to be clutching at straws, as good as they were. After those, a slew of compilations was interrupted only by the mature, and shockingly overlooked, ‘Wonderful’ album and aborted label deals finally saw Adam slip quietly off most of our radar’s. Two boxsets of note were released in this wilderness period, ‘Antbox’ and the ‘Redux Remasters’, both of which delivering some superb content and whose liner notes hinted at new material and new label deals in the offing. It wasn’t until last year that we finally saw the first Adam Ant album in almost 20 years, 2013’s ‘Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter’. Excited as I was, it didn’t live up to my hopes, coming across as more a set of unfinished demos and works in progress. There was potential there, but no polish. But it saw Adam starting to tour again, building back up a loyal following and getting some great reviews, interspersed with some not so great ones from journalists who couldn’t see past Adam’s well publicised mental health issues.

So it was with equal amounts of excitement and trepidation that I ventured to see a special, one-off show at the Hammersmith Apollo last Saturday night, April 19th. This show was to be the first time that Adam had performed the entire ‘Dirk Wears White Sox’ album live, given that shortly after the album’s original release in 1979, his band was stolen out from under his nose by McLaren to form Bow Wow Wow. Some argue that this was the best thing that happened to Adam as it motivated him to do what he did that made him world famous. But it also meant that this particular chapter of his career was pretty much thrown into a box, locked up and stored away. A crass reissue of the album by CBS in 1983, dropping certain ‘sensitive’ tracks and adding non-album single tracks like ‘Zerox’, ‘Kick’ and ‘Whip In My Valise’, was bought by fans but failed to establish the album on to a mantle it so definitely deserved. But as time has gone on, the original album has been cited by many as hugely influential and one of the finest bodies of work to emerge from the ashes of the punk movement in the UK.

I had seen Adam earlier in the day, at a PA on Berwick Street, Soho, as part of Record Store Day, where he and guitarist Will, belted out some tracks from Dirk, a few other Ant classics plus Iggy’s ‘No Fun’ and Bolan’s ‘Get It On’. More of that in my Record Store Day post soon, as well as more on Adam’s reissue of the album on white vinyl and with a bunch of goodies thrown in. We made our way across to the Apollo (I lose track of the full name of the place, as it changes sponsors so bloody often) in Hammersmith and sat in the early evening spring sunshine, watching the faithful appear. It has to be said, as I grow older myself, and go and see acts that were around in my teens, there are many people my age at these gigs. Sadly, a lot of them still think it’s 1983 and dress like they did back then, trying to defeat the onslaught of time. Many more turn up in clothing that was neither appropriate or even in fashion back in the day. But at an Adam Ant gig, the queue seems to look like a fancy dress store model convention. Adam is a flamboyant dresser, but he does it all with 100% style. Many of these people could certainly learn a thing or two by setting fashions, not following them, to coin an Ant phrase. But they were the source of much personal amusement and we finally all streamed into the venue which, in my humble opinion, is one of the finest live music venue’s in the world. Not only does it look amazing, with it’s pre-war styling, but it has great acoustics and, of course, is steeped in music history. Don’t forget, this was the venue where Bowie famously killed off Ziggy.

No sooner had we taken our seats in the circle, the first support act appeared. I shan’t be reviewing them in any detail, but suffice to say, Vuvuvultures and New Killer Shoes were not only appropriate acts for the main event but certainly impressed me enough for me to get some of their material as soon as I got home 🙂

As the filler music faded, the stage manager flashed his torch to the guys on the desk and the lights dimmed, only to come back up again, much to the crowd’s disappointment. I have to say that I feared that this might be a sign of things to come, having read conflicting reports of previous gigs and Adam’s alleged propensity to “go off on one”. Much to my (slightly guilty) relief, the lights went down again, the band took the stage, Adam entered stage left and the kick drum intro of ‘Cartrouble Pt.1’ commenced. At this point, I’d like to mention one of Adam’s drummer’s. For this set of gigs, Adam had re-recruited Dave Barbarossa, the original Ants drummer who played on ‘Dirk…’ and who was, and is, a drumming hero of mine. And it was certainly great to see Adam in front of two drum kits again after all these years.

And so, we were off. Off on a ride through history, with Adam and his band delivering each track from the album with uncanny and well rehearsed precision, with Adam’s now typically eccentric yet incredibly witty tales in between. A little song history here, a little musical politics there. The man is steeped in knowledge and experience, so I particularly like that he shares his insights with his audience. The haunting vocal delays of ‘Tabletalk’ were brilliantly recreated and the technically difficult ‘Animals & Men’ was successfully delivered with aplomb. And by the time we reached ‘The Idea’, the album’s closing track, it all felt like it was over too soon. But I can honestly say that they did the album complete and total justice. It was incredible to hear and see these seminal tunes belted out with as much energy and gusto as the day they were recorded. My only complaint was Adam’s tendency to rearrange the cadence and rhythm of his vocal. I know it’s live, I know it’s his material, but leaving long pauses where words should be, only to rush the line out before falling behind on the next one can be a little bit more than disconcerting. It didn’t last long, and seemed to happen less and less as the show went on, but it niggled me nonetheless.

Now we were treated with full on, high energy renditions of some of his greatest hits, but also some curve balls, such as ‘Strip’ and ‘Wonderful’, title tracks to two of his later albums. I hadn’t expected to hear those, and the emotion he delivered the latter track fair brought a tear to my eye, as it did to his. This was splendid stuff. The on-stage striptease behind a screen during ‘Whip In My Valise’ was very tongue in cheek and allowed Adam to change costume without interrupting the flow of the show, something that had been almost impossible in his heyday!

Sitting on the stage was Adam’s classic Honey coloured Fender Telecaster, with the two skull & crossbones stickers on the body and it was at this point he finally strapped it on to deliver the high pitched, frenetic intro to Beat My Guest, one of my favourite Ant b-sides. The energy was palpable and the band were, quite simply, tight as fuck. Whether this had to do with the fact that Dave Barbarossa was keeping time like a boss, or Leigh Gorman on bass, another returning member of an early incarnation of the Ants delivering punchy, slick bass lines or maybe it was Boz Boorer, more recent Ant collaborator and Morrisey cohort, and his musical direction. Whatever it was, they supported the enigmatic, charismatic and entrancing Mr Ant to perfection.

As the show thundered on, we were treated to more classics, both a and b-sides, as well as two T-Rex numbers before they closed the show with ‘Physical (You’re So)’ and left the stage to rapturous applause. No encore, and none was needed. The band returned to take a bow, Adam beaming from ear to ear and the love in the room was thick and sincere.

And with that, we went into the night. Adam Ant had delivered a show that both fully entertained and demonstrated his significant role and place in pop music history. The man, even as he approaches 60 of your earth years, is still relevant, still capable and still as much of a showman as he ever was. This show was that good, I honestly think I may never want to see him again for fear of it not matching this performance. The only thing that will convince me otherwise is if he can assemble a new album, more well formed and coherent than last years admirable effort. I’m sure that will happen.

If you missed this gig, it was filmed and mention was made of a possible commercial release in the near future.

The Set List:

Cartrouble (parts 1&2)
Digital Tenderness
Nine Plan Failed
Day I Met God
Tabletalk
Cleopatra
Catholic Day
Never Trust a Man (With Egg on His Face)
Animals & Men
Family of Noise
The Idea
Whip in My Valise
Stand and Deliver
Antmusic
Vive Le Rock
Beat My Guest
Wonderful
Strip
Dog Eat Dog
Goody Two Shoes
Kings of the Wild Frontier
Zerox
Red Scab
Get It On
20th Century Boy
Physical (You’re So)

image courtesy of Berwick Street, London