Adam Ant

Born Stuart Goddard on 03/11/1954, Adam studied art in school, including the erotic art and use of sexual art imagery which would later inspire the bondage-centric image of ants. After brief periods in the bands ‘Bazooka Joe’ and ‘The B-Sides’, neither of which went anywhere, Stuart renamed himself ‘Adam Ant’ in 1975. Punk was just beginning to emerge, and Adam was in the right place and at the right time to form a new band: the Ants, and to create a new sound, which he dubbed ‘Antmusic’. After several years and frequent line-up changes, Adam met Malcolm McClaren(through Jordan, a long-time friend of Adams’ who worked in McClarens ‘SEX’ shop) who became his manager and introduced him to Burundi music and idea of two drummers that would become central to the early Ants tribal sound. With an audition-created line-up of

Adam Ant - vocals/guitar
Matthew Ashman - Guitar
Leigh Gorman - Bass/Vocals
Dave Barbarossa - Drums

The first Ants album, Dirk Wears White Socks, was released in 1979 - two months later, however, McClaren decided Adam was too old and dropped him, taking the other band members with him to form Bow Wow Wow.

At this point Jordan stepped in again, introducing Adam to Marco Pirroni and starting a partnership which would continue for years. Marco played guitar in the new incarnation of the Ants, and would stick with Adam through his solo career. Previous record label interest culminated in the Ants signing to CBS in July 1980, and the new line-up

Adam Ant - Vocals/Guitar
Marco Pirroni - Guitar/Vocals
Kevin Mooney - Bass
Merrick - Drums
Terry Lee Miall - Drums

released several hit singles taken from the 1980 album Kings of the Wild Frontier, whose unique sound combining tribal beats with pop hooks, and a canny marketing scheme based around video clips and romantic-era outfits, saw the album reach #2 in the charts and the Ants become one of the biggest bands in Britain. In 1981 bassist Kevin Mooney was replaced with Gary Tibbs and the hit-single-source Prince Charming album was released, backed with the massive ‘Prince Charming Revue’ tour. However, Adam felt the Ants lacked enthusiasm, and in 1982 he departed from the band to go solo, taking Marco with him

Adam’s solo sound, with less emphasis on the drums and the addition of horns, was still popular in Britain and the 1982 album Friend or Foe was a hit in both Britain and America. Adam’s 1983 American tour saw him finally break the country where the Ants had had only limited success. However, follow-up albums Strip(1983) andVive Le Rock(1984) had only limited success, not helped by the BBC banning the single ‘Strip’. After performing the single Vive Le Rock at Live Aid, Adam took a break from music to concentrate on acting. He wouldn’t return to music until 1987, when the album Manners and Physique was released, spawning US hit single ‘Room at the Top’. Planned follow-up album Persuasion was never released, and Adam switched his focus back to acting again until 1995, when latest album Wonderful was released. Since then Adam continued acting but made no further musical releases, except for rarities and best-of collections.