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Adam Ant

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For similar terms like Adam Adamant, Atom Ant, adamant, adamantium, etc, see Adamant (disambiguation).
Adam Ant

Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard on 3 November 1954) is an English musician, who gained popularity as the lead singer of 1980s New Wave/post-punk group Adam & the Ants and later as a solo artist. He is also an actor, having appeared in two dozen films or television episodes between 1985 and 1999.[1]

Biography

Early life

Stuart Goddard, an only child, was born in Marylebone, London. One of the themes he used in his later work - suppressed minorities - was part of his inheritance; he is of Romnichal stock. His grandfather, Walter Albany Smith, was a full-blooded Romany and a heavy drinker. Home was two rooms in de Walden buildings, St John's Wood. He recalls "There was no luxury, but there was always food on the table." His father, Leslie Goddard, worked as a chauffeur and his mother, Kathleen Smith, was a cleaner, briefly working for Paul McCartney.

His parents divorced when Stuart was seven years of age, mainly on account of Les Goddard's chronic alcoholism and abusive behaviour. Stuart's first school was Robinsfield Primary where he created a considerable stir by heaving a brick through one of the chapel windows. Matters were presumably settled to everyone's satisfaction for he continued to attend at Robinsfield. He then gained a place at St Marylebone Grammar School even became a school prefect. For a brief time, he stayed at an orphanage in Berkshire when he had come down with a case of shingles while his mother was in hospital undergoing a hysterectomy procedure to treat a gynaecological problem and could not take care of him herself.

After taking and passing his A levels, Stuart went on to the famous Hornsey College of Art to study graphic design and for a time was a student of Peter Webb. He later dropped out of Hornsey, short of completing his B.A., to focus on a career in music.

Early career

The first band the young Stuart Goddard joined was Bazooka Joe,[1] in which he played bass. It was at a gig at St. Martin's College, London, in November 1975 that Stuart was witness to the first-ever public performance of the Sex Pistols, who were billed as Bazooka Joe's support act.

After leaving Bazooka Joe and forming a group called the B Sides, which never gigged, Stuart married a fellow Hornsey student named Carol, with whom he lived at her parents' residence in Muswell Hill. Shortly after, he suffered a nervous breakdown which led to a suicide attempt and hospitalization. Upon his discharge from the hospital, Stuart Goddard renamed himself Adam Ant. He formed the Ants in 1977 after seeing Siouxsie and the Banshees perform at the Vortex club in London's Covent Garden.

Adam and the Ants then became part of the burgeoning punk rock movement. He later acted in Derek Jarman's "punk" film Jubilee in 1977 as the Ants were beginning to gig around London with manager Jordan from the Sex boutique on Kings Road. His debut as a recording artist was the song "Deutscher Girls", which featured on the film's soundtrack, along with "Plastic Surgery" which was performed in the film itself, and was re-released as a single in 1982.

Adam and the Ants

Main article: Adam & the Ants

In 1979, having released the album Dirk Wears White Sox and unsatisfied with his cult status, Adam hired former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren to manage the Ants. After a few weeks of the band and singer writing how Malcolm wanted them to, things came to a head and three other band members decided to leave the Ants and form Bow Wow Wow instead. then he started a song called "Dont be square be there." In early 1980 Adam Ant recruited old friend Marco Pirroni to reform the lineup, sound and image of the band, now featuring two drummers and pirate dress. This new look was used to market the album Kings of the Wild Frontier. Several singles from this album were chart successes. The band's popularity grew, and the follow-up album Prince Charming was highly successful, with three UK top-ten singles (two reaching #1). The Ants split up in early 1982. Newspaper articles of the time offered various explanations for the motivations behind the split. Initially Adam was quoted as saying that the split was amicable but later he was to say that "the interest just wasn't there anymore. It might have been Adam and the Ants on the billboards but not on stage." In addition, it is said that Pirroni quit as he was tired of touring.

Solo career

After the split, Ant went solo, taking his songwriting partner Pirroni with him. His greatest chart success was 1982's Friend or Foe album, which included the hit single "Goody Two Shoes" which made it to #1 in the UK and Australia, and #12 in the U.S. Other hits from that album included the title song (which made #9 on the UK chart) and "Desperate But Not Serious".

In 1983, Ant worked with Phil Collins and Richard James Burgess on the Strip album which was recorded at Polar Studios in Stockholm. The single "Puss 'N Boots" reached #5 on the UK charts, but the BBC banned both the video and the song for the follow-up single "Strip," which peaked at #41. In the same year he was involved in a court case (Merchandising v Harpbond), where it was argued his face-paint was a painting and should be therefore protected by copyright. This claim was rejected by the Court of Appeal, which preferred to opt for the more traditional image of a painting as canvas on a wall.

In 1985, he worked with veteran producer Tony Visconti on his third solo album, Vive Le Rock. He secured a spot at the Live Aid concert, but was asked to cut his set to one song. He chose his new single, "Vive le Rock."[2] Vive Le Rock was intended to be his ultimate hard rock album but the single underwent a mispressing error and the album received mixed reviews. As a result, Adam decided to end his career in music and focus on his acting career.

Acting career

As the 1980s wore on, Ant's attention turned toward acting, especially television and movie roles. He spent three months in England on stage starring in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane. He also appeared on American television shows, notably The Equalizer, Sledge Hammer! and Northern Exposure. He began taking roles in films such as Nomads and Slamdance. He moved to Hollywood and appeared in a wide range of productions and shows.

Father's arrest and trial

In June 1985, while Ant was performing a six-week run in Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the Royal Exchange Theatre, his father, Leslie Goddard, was arrested for suspicion of committing gross indecency with a minor. The pop star did his best to provide for his father's legal defense and keep his name out of the press, but when the case eventually came to court the scandal broke. The elder Goddard's mental health and quality of life had been deteriorating ever since the death of his second wife, Doreen, in September 1982; and as a result, his alcoholism worsened. In June 1987, at the Old Bailey courthouse, Les Goddard was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment; eight years following his release, he died in March 1997.

Return to recording and touring

In 1989, whilst maintaining an interest in acting, Ant returned to America and re-entered the pop music world with the album Manners & Physique, a collaboration with André Cymone, a solo artist and an early member of Prince's band. The album was another moderate success, and featured the UK and U.S. hit single "Room at the Top". "Rough Stuff" became the second single for the United States and Germany as "Can't Set Rules About Love" charted in the United Kingdom.

In 1993, he toured in support of a planned album called Persuasion. For reasons unknown, however, this album remains unreleased.

In 1995, he released his last album to date, Wonderful. The title track was a successful single, as was a tour of the U.S. in support of the album. While Ant and his group (which retained longtime guitarist Pirroni) played in smaller venues than they had played in the 1980s, the houses were often packed with enthusiastic fans. The tour was curtailed, however, when Ant and Pirroni both contracted a respiratory illness. Adam also played three shows at Shepherds Bush Empire in London and did a mini tour of Virgin Record Shops playing selected tunes from the album Wonderful and signing records. Adam and his band also played shows in Dublin, Glasgow, Middlesbrough and Stoke.

Arrests for causing affray and psychiatric hospitalization

Adam Ant was poised to join the '80s-focused Here & Now tour in January 2002, but was unable to do so after he was charged with throwing a car alternator through a pub window and then threatening patrons with an imitation firearm (actually, his late father's World War II starter pistol). He was brought to court at Old Bailey, where his father had been tried and sentenced fifteen years previously. The charges against him (which included criminal damage and threatening members of the public) were reduced to a single count of causing affray, to which he pleaded guilty. He was fined and ordered to psychiatric care with a suspended sentence.

In June 2003, Ant was arrested again by police after attempting to smash his neighbour's patio door in with a shovel and then lying down on the concrete floor of a cafe basement with his trousers pulled down, curled up and trying to sleep. Once again he was charged with affray and criminal damage and spent time in psychiatric wards. In September of that year, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 and spent a further six months of in-patient psychiatric care. Eventually, he was given a conditional discharge at Highbury Magistrates Court.[3]

Recent activities

Antbox, a retrospective box set spanning Ant's career from the late 1970s through the 1990s, was released in late 2000. The box set included 66 tracks on three CDs, and quickly sold the initial 10,000 units. The box set was re-released in a different form (with the same tracks) and sold once again in 2003.

A television special entitled The Madness of Prince Charming was aired in the UK in 2003 documenting his career and his struggle with mental illness (he was diagnosed as suffered with bipolar disorder). Recently, the TV special was made available on the video file sharing site YouTube.

In 2004 and 2005, six remastered compact discs were released, spanning the years 1979 (Dirk) through 1985 (Vive Le Rock). The CDs include previously unreleased demos and material from the "Ant vault." The project was overseen by Marco Pirroni, and includes a written message from Adam Ant. A limited edition boxset, 'Adam Ant Remasters', was made to hold all 6 of the albums and Redux. This product was re-released with all 7 albums in 2006.

In September 2006, he published his autobiography, Stand & Deliver. Marking the release of the book Adam Ant did a UK book signing, he went from London to Edinburgh. After ther success of the first edition the paperback edition was published (a year later, September 2007) it contains a new epilogue which covers the year following the initial hardcover release.

Ant performed a live reading from his autobiography, (it was his first live performance in 11 years) at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on 24 September 2007.

It was recently stated on Adam Ant's website that he was writing new music for a new album titled Fist in the Skull (the title refers to Ant's own description of his experience of the effects of bipolar disorder). This was re-addressed in an Adam Ant Q&A Session which was posted on his website. When he was asked by the interviewer about Fist in the Skull, Adam Ant said it was originally an idea for a song and not an album and there should be no more about it.

Discography

Main article: Adam Ant discography

TV & Film

Theatre

  • Funeral Games (1996)
  • Be Bop A Lula (1993)
  • West (1993)
  • Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1985)

References

  1. ^ Adam Ant at IMDb
  2. ^ Paphides, Peter (2005-07-02). "Sound advice". Times Online. Retrieved 2006-09-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Adam Ant admits pub affray". BBC News. 2002-08-13. Retrieved 2006-09-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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