"A new Royal Family, a Wild Nobility, We are the Family"
(I'm sure I caught some of you singing that already)
One of the truisms about the Punk Explosion of the late seventies was that the musics' influence was far greater than its sales. The best selling Punk album was "Never Mind by the Bollocks" by the Sex Pistols. Given the number of times that it is cited as influence by the great and the good (and not so good), you may have expected it to have been the best selling album of 1977, its year of release (and probably the height of Punk) but whilst it went in at No. 1, it was only the 13th best selling album of the year behind such cutting edge classics as 20 Golden Greats by the Shadows, The Sound of Bread, bloody Hotel California, and, Lord help us all, Endless Flight by Leo Sayer. The only other Punk Albums in the years best selling list were Rattus Norvegicus and No More Heroes, both by the Stranglers (and there has always been a long debate as to whether The Stranglers were actually punks or 4 chancers from the Pub Rock scene who caught a ride on the Punk bandwagon). Of such august Punk names as The Clash and The Damned there was no sign.
However Punk gave birth to New Wave and commercially that was a different kettle of fish altogether. From 1978 to 1981, New Wave bands had an extraordinary amount of commercial success in the UK. 1978's Top 40 albums included New Boots and Panties by Ian Dury plus Blockheads, Tonic for the Troops by Boomtown Rats and Plastic Letters by Blondie. And it was Blondie who took the whole thing into the stratosphere by becoming the biggest Pop Band in the UK in 1979, they had two No. 1 Singles (Heart of Glass and Sunday Girl) and the best selling album of the year with the mighty Parallel Lines.
Hot on their heels came The Police, who also had 2 No.1 singles (Message in a Bottle and Walking on the Moon) and the No 9 (Regatta De Blanc) and No 14 (Outlandos D'Amour) albums. In 1980 The Police overtook Blondie by having the No 2 (Zenyatta Mondatta), No 6 (Regatta) and No 18 (Outlandos) albums as well as the best selling single of the year in Don't Stand So Close To Me.
(At this point Singles Charts Nostalgics and Paul Weller Fans may start to belly ache and claim that The Jam were the Biggest Band in 1980. This is largely fuelled by The Jams' achievement of being the first band since Slade to go straight in at No 1 with Going Underground. Whilst this made for a memorable playground experience, The Police kicked Weller and the lads off the park sales wise (Going Underground/Dreams of Children was only the No. 14 single of the year whilst Sound Affects was a pathetic 47 in the 1980 bestselling list behind Sometimes you Win by Dr Hook and Wheels of Steel by Saxon!!)
New Wave's domination seemed so great the obvious question was who's next?
The answer came from a totally unexpected source and produced, in my mind, one of the most unique multi- selling albums of all time. An album that didn't seem to have much relevance to what came before (Unless you count a drum sound that came from Burundi and echoes of Duane Eddy- scarcely a prominent influence at the time) and more or less doesn't appear to have influenced anyone since. That album was Kings of The Wild Frontier and the band of course Adam and the Ants.
My first enounter with Adam and The Ants was when I went to WH Smiths in Petersfield, where they had the Top 50 singles on display (Ooh those were the days!) and there at No.48 was Kings of the Wild Frontier. Now I was somewhat confused. I thought of myself as being up to speed with the Hit Parade (Apologies for sounding like Bruno Brookes) and I listened to the radio a lot but I had never heard of this waxing. Now if I had been listening to David "Kid" Jensen in the evening, I would have stumbled upon it but I was too busy studiously doing my homework (That's actually bollocks, I was at this stage of my life put off the Kid as he tended to play spiky stuff like Wire, Devo or early Echo and the Bunnymen!).
Now if the internet had existed in those days, I could have discovered more about this bizarrely entitled combo. Sadly not christened Adam Ant, the singers real name (as all Antfans are no doubt screaming) was Stuart Goddard. Stu was caught up in the punk movement, hanging around with such luminaries as Siuoxsie Sioux and the Arthur Daley of Punk, Malcolm McLaren. Clearly Stuart Goddard was no name for a punk (or indeed a wouldd be rock star) so he chamged his name to Adam Ant.
He released an album called Dirk Wears White Sox (Spelling the Bands Own), which was clearly a post punk album and the lyrics featured such commercially attractive subjects as Art History, Fetishism and that old favourite, Adolf Hitler. Whilst it was warmly received critically, the public stayed away en masse. The band therefore appointed McLaren as manager, hoping that he would do for them what he did for the Pistols. As was the way with McLaren, however, he promised Ant that he would make him famous then promptly nicked his whole band (The unsurprisingly named Ants), found a schoolgirl called Anabella Lynn and founded Bow Wow Wow (Most of the punk bands had REALLY bad names, Penetration and The Lurkers being other examples). Ant therefore had to start from scratch.
It turned out though that McLaren's shenanigans were a blessing in disguise because this turn of events brought Ant into contact with a gentleman called Marco Pirroni. Pirroni had briefly been the bassist in Siouxsie and The Banshees (Punk was INCREDIBLY incesteous). Pirroni and Ant started to write songs together which lead to a change in sound and recruited a full band, including two drummers! They then embarked on a long tour of the UK's less salubrious venues (I located a copy of the itinerary on the internet, it included High Wycombe- I rest my case).
All this was unknown to the 16 year old R.Marsh esq. I forgot all about them after seeing the single nestling in Smiths until on 16th October 1980 I switched on Top of The Pops and there they were with their new single, Dog Eat Dog. (You can find the clip on Youtube but watch out for the endless interview with a clearly drunk Michael Palin beforehand). I was geniunely mesmerised. Now I have to say at this point that at the age of 16, I was a true child of Punk in that I thought that Music started in 1976 and that anything before then was BAD, especially if it was made by HIPPIES (Notable exceptions to this were 60s ska, Motown and the Original Mod stuff but that was all made a LONG time ago). I therefore had some trouble in working out who had been influenced by what. All I knew is that most of the Bands that I loved sounded broadly similar and the music sounded as if it had been made after 1976. Even the ska revival bands such as the Specials, Madness and The Beat had post 1976 influences and in case Ska wasn't made by HIPPIES so that was fine!
This though sounded like it had been beamed down from another planet! For a start there was that drum sound! At this point in my life the furthest abroad I had been was a day trip to Belgium. I had certainly never been to Burundi and heard that drums like that but that was because they had never popped up on a pop song before. Also I had never seen a spaghetti western so couldn't have told you that the guitar sound was influenced by Ennio Morricone. There was a lot of chanting in there which reminded me vaguely of the name that we can no longer mention- G@ry Gl@tter. There was WHISTLING near the end (And this was before Winds of Change by the Scorpions made whistling on records legitimate.....er no it didn't). The lyrics also were unlike anything I had encountered before, stuff about truth, warriors, innocence and pride. What it all meant was anyone's guess. The combined effect was, to be honest, somewhat threatening. There was a definite edge to this music. It was tense, distinctive and exciting. It was also undeniably catchy.
What undoubtedly added to the whole package though was the image! There were many things you could say about Punk and New wave but from an image perspective, they were as dull as ditch water. Many of the acts wore suits or clothes that this day would be manufactured by Tu or George. Several of the acts weren't exactly oil paintings, Joe Jackson, sundry members of Squeeze and Ian Dury himself leap to mind here. I would say that I would have fitted right in but as one of my nicknames then was Elvis Costello I probably did. The exception to all of this lack of glamour was, of course, Debbie Harry but that is because she was as sexy as hell. Here, though, was a band with an image! And what an image. They appeared, frankly, to have raided a fancy dress shop. For a start, there was a ruddy stripe across Mr Ant's face. What was that all about? He looked like a Red Indian (Before you write to complain, this is 1980, before they were all called native Americans, OK). Mind you then there was that jacket, which made him look like a pirate. And the trousers! Whilst the other members weren't quite so distinctive, they certainly wouldn't have been mistaken for members of the Jam!
Over the next few weeks, the record ascended to Number 4 (Behind, if memory serves, Special Brew by Bad Manners, What You're Proposing by ver Quo and that bloody abomination of a Number 1, Woman In Love by Barbara Streisand, it wasn't all Classic Hits in those days let me tell you).
Then the lad Ant (Aided and assisted by his record label, CBS- not short of a few bob) did something incredibly clever. He rushed out a follow up, Antmusic, whilst Dog Eat Dog was still meandering down the charts. In one sense this was a bit of a gamble, as there was always the risk that it would get lost in the flood of Christmas releases, these being the days when there were still such things. (Actually 1980 was infamous for having in my view the worst Christmas No 1 ever, "There's no one quite like Grandma" by St Winifred's School Choir, a record that still brings me out in HIVES after 33 years!). However we are looking at a time when records generally went in relatively low and then rose steadily. This meant that Antmusic was still around and getting airplay after Christmas and before other acts could release new material. Antmusic therefore reached No 2. In fact if some bastard hadn't shot John Lennon then he would have had his first No.1. As it was he had to wait a few months for a certain Dandy Highwayman to rectify matters.
But what Antmusic did was to maintain momentum. And that momentum continued as CBS re-released Young Parisians off Dirk and then in February re- released Kings of the Wild Frontier. No hanging around in Smiths at No.48 this time. No sir, it rose to No 2 (Again my fading memory suggests that it was kept from No.1 by another artist who changed his name, this time from Michael Barrett to one Shakin' Stevens)
Just before the release of Antmusic, Adam and the Ants had released the album, Kings of the Wild Frontier. it went in the charts in the Top 10 where it stayed over the Christmas period. On 24th January 1981, buoyed by the success of Antmusic, it reached No 1. We then had a break for John Lennon's Double Fantasy and Sir Philip of Collins' "My wife has left me for the decorator" inspired opus "Face Value" but on 24 March it hit the top of the charts again where it stayed for an astonishing 10 uniterupted weeks.
I bought the album after it got to Number 1 (The glory hunter that I was). As alluded to earlier, to this day I don't think it sounds like anything else. And I struggle to think of another album I could say that about (with the possible exception of Big Science by Laurie Anderson but that's unlistenable old shit and features one "song" where the backing is simply the sound of a baby crying, it's as bad as it sounds, trust me). Because of this, I don't think it's aged at all. There is always a Proustian element to hearing records from back in the day and they transport you back to the time when you first heard them. But that aside, this sounds as fresh now as it did then.
The problem though is that when one mentions Adam and the Ants to people who weren't into them, they tend to react in one of two ways
1. "Oh Stand and Deliver, costumes, video with Diana Dors, dreadful appearance on Live Aid. Summary: Bit of a joke really"
2. Didn't he go mental?
As a result, this album, its undoubted quality and the massive success it had is forgotten. That is a huge shame and in my view this album is worth rediscovering.
The first thing I would say about it is that it creates its' own world. We have become used to artists constantly referring to themselves in songs. My suspicion is that rap popularised this (Enimem for example) but it then spread to the wider pop world (Behold, Lady Gaga). The lyrics are a constant reference to the band, to Adam himself and to what they are doing and represent. The lyrics to all intents and purposes are a manifesto. What has gone before has had its' day and now here is a new breed (Time's a coming when a new breed say, welcome to tomorrow- Los Rancheros) coming to bring a new music "Unplug the jukebox and do us all a favour, that music's lost it's taste, so try another flavour"- Antmusic.
Now to be honest a lot of this is all a tad vague in hindsight (or bollocks if you're being brutal). They were a pop band for crying out loud so describing themselves as warriors (Antpeople are the warriors, where's the warrior without his pride and so forth) seems like an inappropriate metaphor. A number of the lyrics pointed to a persecution complex ("Too emotional am I?"- Feed Me to the Lions,) which would a couple of years later come through in the lyrics of Kevin Rowland on Too Rye Ay and (and I appreciate that this is probably a less welcome comparison) Michael Jackson on Thriller (Read the lyrics to Wanna Be Startin' Something if you don't believe me). Then there's the constant use of the ant as the totem for the tribe to which his followers belong. Ants are tiny creatures to be trodden on rather than the afore mentioned warriors.
However, unless you're an anthropologist or an arse, there is no real mileage in applying detailed scrutiny to the lyrics of pop songs. The fact was that this all created an identity which distinctly appealed to an audience of teenagers, particularly boys. Now I went to an all male school and people generally were very proud of the bands that they followed (With the possible and understandable exception of Spandau Ballet). This was the age of the Musical Tribes. As well as Punk and New Wave, you had Heavy Metal, Mods, Ska, PROG ROCK (Confined to 6th formers and people who didn't wash). The New Romantics were about to swing by with their eyeliner and bizarre hairdos. We even had a couple of lads who were into the Rockabilly Revival (The Stray Cats, Darts, Matchbox and even, heaven help us, Showaddywaddy. We would like to have laughed at these people but one of them was East Kent Judo Champion so we demurred in this regard).
Perhaps uniquely Adam and The Ants fans formed their own tribe and the playground was soon awash with people wearing "Antmusic for Sexpeople" badges, which as far as I recall didn't go down too well with the Deputy Head! Sadly I don't remember anyone coming in with a white stripe painted across their face, that would have been something! But they were the Kings of The Wild Frontier! They were a New Royal Family! They were a Wild Nobility (But you knew that)!
(Incidentally, a point of order here. At the age of 48 one's memory does play tricks but I recall that the teenage male following started to drift away when Stand and Deliver sold by the bucketload and it had gone almost completely by the time the Prince Charming album was released. Leaving aside the fact that that album was a dog, there were two reasons why this occurred. Firstly, they had become too popular and the idea of belonging to a distinct gang had dissipated. You couldn't belong to a group of WARRIORS if your leaders were appearing on the Royal Variety Performance. Secondly because of said popularity, they had started to attract two other fanbases which were anathema to Teenage lads a) GIRLS- Adam was after all a handsome lad b) Boys Under 10! Again WARRIORS could not share the same band with girlies and brats so it was time to move on!)
The attraction of all this, particularly to teenage boys was reinforced by the fact that there was a sense of danger about Adam and The Ants at the time of Kings of The Wild Frontier. To people who know of Adam and the Ants only by the Panto style video to Prince Charming, this may sound unbelievable but it was true and it generated from both the lyrics and the music. Lyrically the songs are peppered with the sort of subjects not found on multi million selling records in those days, all the afore mentioned warrior references for example, there's an underlying threat to a lot of the songs ("My Times a coming when those despised take shelter from the power of my Kiowa Eyes"). Then there's the whole question of SEX! When you look at the REALLY popular groups of the late 70s/early 80s there weren't many explicit references to the Rumpy Pumpy. Debbie Harry was all about sex of course but most of her songs were actually quite chaste (the nearest she got to a blatant reference was the line in Dreaming "You asked me what I want, a movie or a measure, I'll have a cup of tea" which is one of the most bizarre lyrics ever). The Police were too busy singing about Moons and Bottles and De Do Do Do De Da Da Da! The Jam meanwhile were all about being ANGRY and the concept of Paul Weller getting his legover was frankly ridiculous. But here were Adam and the Ants flagrantly using the word Sex in songs and stating that Antmusic was for Sexpeople. Now I don't think anyone in my class could have been described as a sexperson and most of us wouldn't have known what a bra looked like, never mind unclip it. But the fact was that sexpeople sounded dangerous and risque. Hence the appeal.
Then you had the music. I've already mentioned that when I first heard Dog Eat Dog, it sounded threatening. Several of the songs on the album had that effect. The music is frequently atmospheric and draws you in to its own world. I find it almost impossible to use the album as background music even after 33 years so attention grabbing is the sound of many of the songs.
This is all best epitomised by the most dramatic song on the record, Killer in the Home. Like most of these songs I'm not entirely sure exactly what it's about but the implication is that the singer is domesticated but inside is this DANGEROUS WARRIOR desperate to get out. On paper it sounds vaguely ludicrous. Set to a tense, well paced musical background (It's those drums and Duane Eddy guitars again, with some choice use of feedback) and sung/chanted errily by Ant, it was to my 16 year old ears almost as scary as the words "Your elderly relatives are about to visit"
When all is said and done, though, this is a magnificent POP (in the broadest sense of the term) record, brimming with confidence and verve. In Adam Ant here was a man who didn't just want critical credibility (although as said, the lyrics betrayed that he quite fancied that too), he wanted to be a STAR. And this wasn't something that you could say about many of his contemporaries (If any). As fantastic as much of the music was, New wave (as Punk did before it) represented a stride away from the GLAMorous era Marc Bolan, David Bowie and other poster boys. The ordinary was the order of the day. Elvis Costello, Paul Weller, Difford and Tillbrook from Squeeze, Geldof, the lads from Madness and the Specials, Kevin Rowland even Sting, they were all brilliant musicians and songwriters and performers but they weren't Pop Stars. But Adam Ant was! And, in many ways he was the John The Baptist for the New Romantics and the BIG POP bands that ruled from 1982 to 1985 (Duran Duran, Spandau, Culture Club and Wham!).
In amongst all the dramatic stuff, the danger and the (oo err missus) sex, nestled and indeed fitted in perfectly well (and that was in many ways the genius of the record) 3 magnificent singles plus 2 more wonderful tracks that should have been singles: Feed Me To The Lions, Dog Eat Dog's paranoid brother and (probably my favorite track) the clearly Clint Eastwood inspired Los Rancheros.
We have already alluded to the subsequent demise of Adam and the Ants. What is good is that Adam appears to be in good fettle these days, both health wise and creatively. He has been touring extensively and released an album earlier this year. Fascinatingly my mate saw him at Latitude last year and remarked that he was the only person that he saw who thought that it was his job to entertain. Good Old Adam, still the Pop Star after all these years. This is all particularly heartening because no one should remember the way it fell apart, Adam and the Ants deserve to be remembered for the magnificent Pop band that they were and in particular for Kings for the Wild Frontier, one of the 80s defining records.
So unplug the jukebox and do yourself a favour.......................
No comments:
Post a Comment