414 Goodbye Adam and the Ants - The Antmusic EP ( The B-Sides )

Chart  entered : 13  March  1982

Chart  peak : 46

Adam  and  the  Ants  comfortably  beat  Bill  Haley  and  the  Comets  for  shortest  chart  life  though  of  course  we're  not  done  with  their  frontman  yet.

After  they  first  broke  through  Adam  Ant   became  the  top  teen  idol  of  his  day  and  the  band  were  chart  champions  of  1981  with  a  total  of  91  weeks on  the  chart  partly  due  to  re-released  singles  from  their  previous  record  companies. In  March  the  line  up  experienced  its  final  change  when  bassist  Kevin  Mooney   decided  he'd  had  enough of  Ant's  monomania  and  quit  in  dramatic  fashion  , throwing  his  bass  to  the  ground  at  the  end  of  their  slot  on  the  Royal  Variety  Show. The  cameras  were  on  Adam's  face  at  that  moment  and  his  "what  the  f**k  ? "  expression  is  priceless.  He  was  replaced  by  Gary  Tibbs  who  had  recently  departed  from  Roxy  Music.

Their peak  moment  came  when  "Stand  And  Deliver"  crashed  straight  in  at  number  one. I'd  been  in  Manchester  the  weekend  it  came  out  and  no  one  seemed  to  be  buying  anything  else  so  I  assured  everyone  at  school  who  would  listen that  it  would  be  ousting  Bucks  Fizz  that  week  and  so  it  did. Nevertheless  even  by  the  end  of  the  year  there  were  signs  that  the  appeal  of  Antmusic  was  on  the  wane. Their  new  album  "Prince  Charming"  was  roundly  trashed  in  the  press  and  failed  to  displace  Dare  from  the  number  one  slot  while  the  magnificently  unhinged  "Ant  Rap"  could  only  manage  number  three  as  a  single.

This  single  was  Do  It's  release  of  the  last  tracks  they  had  in  the  vaults, out-takes  from  the  band's  recording  sessions  for  Dirk  Wears  White  Sox.  "The  B-Sides "  is  a  bit  of  a  misnomer  since  only one  of  the  tracks,   "Kick"  had  appeared   before, in  a  substantially  re-worked  version  on  the  flip side  of  "Car  Trouble". As  a  reminder  the  group  at  this  stage  comprised  Adam, Matthew  Ashman , Dave  Barbarossa  and  Andy  Warren. None  of  these  three  tracks  are  all  that  good. "Friends"  is  a  mildly  amusing  dig  at  name-dropping  liggers  which  puts  Jim  Morrison  in  the  same  verse  as  Nobby  Stiles  and  sounds  like  XTC. I  do  like  the  sudden  emphasis  on  "Bryan  Ferry !"  but  otherwise  it's  ephemeral."Kick !" is  a  sub- two  minute  Banshees   impersonation  with back of  a  fag  packet  lyrics  while  "Physical"  aims  for  a  Velvets-esque  sleazy  grind  but  is  just  a  sluggish  , tuneless  piece  of  heavy  metal.

The  timing  of  the  release  was   poor  as  it  clashed  with  Ego's  re-release  of  "Deutscher  Girls"  which  did  rather  better in  the  charts. That  partly  accounted  for  the  lowly  chart  position

 A  month  later   Adam  announced   that  Gary  and   drummer  Terry  Lee  Miall  were  out  on  their  ear.  He  said  he  was  tired  of  showing  them  what  to  do  which  was  pretty  outrageous. Gary  wouldn't  have  been  in  Roxy  Music  for  two  albums  if  he  couldn't  play  and  there's  no  evidence  Adam  ever  picked  up  a  pair  of  drumsticks.  He  started  auditioning  for  new  members  but  then  guitarist  Marco  Pirroni  said  he  was  fed  up  of  touring  and   the  Ants  were  disbanded  completely  instead. Marco   would  remain  as  his  songwriting  partner  and  Chris  "Merrick"  Hughes  as  his  producer   for  solo  releases. Some  promo  and  picture  discs  for  his  next  record  had   been  produced  during  the  intervening  period   with  "Adam  and  the  Ants"  as  the  artist.

We'll  come  back  to  Adam  shortly.  Marco  stuck  with  him  until  1985  when  Adam  went  off  to  America  to  seek  fame  as  an  actor  though  he  was  back  on  board  for  Adam's  comeback  singles  in  the  nineties. In  the  meantime, he  had  been  working  with  another  artist  with  mental  health  problems  Sinead  O  Connor  and  played  on  three  of  her  first  four  albums, co-writing  the  single  Jump  In  The  River". He  also  had  a  brief  spell  in  Spear  of  Destiny  in  1987  playing  on  their  biggest  hit  "Never  Take  Me  Alive"  and  the  parent  album  "Outland".

After  Britpop  no  one  was  interested  in  signing  Adam  and  Marco  concentrated  on  his  new  record  label  Only  Lovers  Left  Alive.   He  made  appearances  on  documentaries  and  nostalgia  shows. In  2006  he  and  Paul  Cook  got  together  to  help  The  Slits  , now  featuring  the  latter's  daughter  Hollie, launch  a  comeback, playing  on  and  producing  their  EP  "Return  of  the  Killer  Slits".  There  are  two  tracks  of  their  dub  punk  fusion  which  has  aged  reasonably  well  but  still  isn't  my  cup  of  tea   and  a  punk  number  "Number  One  Enemy"  which  suggests  a  nostalgia  trip  back  to  the  sound  of  1977  was  enjoyed  by  all.

2006  also  saw  the  first  release  by  Marco's  new  band  The  Wolfmen, also  featuring  Chris  Constantinou  who'd  played  with  Adam  after  the  Ants  split. "Jackie  Says"  was  a  decent  attempt  at  modern  rock  and  garnered  support  from  ex-punks  like  Jonathan  Ross  and  Steve  Jones. The  Wolfmen  have  since  put  out  two  decent  albums  ,working  with  Coutrney Taylor-Taylor  of  The  Dandy  Warhols  but  the  world  isn't  that  interested  in  two  sidemen  from  yesteryear  and  they  haven't  made  much  impression. Marco  famously  commented  on  some  of  his  number  ones  on  Popular  as  "The  Wolfmen"  around  this  time. He  has  now  retired  from  performing  but  helped  out  Sinead  and  Adam  on  recent  albums.

Chris  produced  Adam's  next  single  but  abandoned  the  sessions  for  his  next  album  early  on  to  go  and  work  on  Tears  For  Fears  debut  album , being  handsomely  rewarded  with  a  number  one. He  also  formed  a  shortlived  duo  with  Gary, imaginatively  named  Merrick  and  Tibbs  who  released  the  one  single  "Call  Of  The  Wild"  at  the  beginning  of  1983 . It  got  a  bit  of  radio  play  at  the  time  but  now  sounds  pretty  rubbish. Whichever  one  of  them's  singing  isn't  much  cop  and  the  single  is  all  production  and  not  much  song. He  stayed  on  board  for  Tears  For  Fears  next  album  copping  a  lucrative  co-writing  credit  on  mega-hit  Everybody  Wants  To  Rule  The  World . He  has  remained  a  successful  producer  working  with  Robert  Plant, Tori  Amos, Electric  Soft  Parade , Propaganda  ( whose  vocalist  Betsi  Miller  he  later  married ), Jon  Bon  Jovi  and  Peter  Gabriel  amongst  others.  His  solo  LP  in  1994  "Shift "  was  a  re-working  of  pieces  by  his  hero  Steve  Reich.

After  the  single  with  Chris,  Gary  founded  the  group  Zu Zu  Sharks  with  Alisdair  Gordon  and  Richard  Darbyshire.  They  released  three  singles  between  1983  and  1985  ,"Love  Tumbles  Down "  ( which  reached  number  one  in  Spain ), "Eyes  of  the  World"  and  "Changes". Their  funk  pop  sound  seems  very  dated  now  but  they  all  had  half-decent  tunes  and  Darbyshire  went  on  to  have  hits  as  lead  singer  of  Living  In  A  Box  with  a  not  dissimilar  sound.

The  band  split  in  1985  and  Gary  went  on  to  play  an  aspiring  rock  star  in  the TV   series  Strike  It  Rich  in  1986-87. After  that  he  became   a  session  musician ,appearing  on  albums  by  brian  May, Kirsty  McColl, Aztec  Camera  and  Corey  Hart  and  at  some  point   relocated  to  LA. In  2002  he  appeared  in  the  satirical  short  Ant  Muzak  as  Dirk  the  white  sock  wearing  supermarket  manager  while  "Gary  Tibbs"  was  played  by  McKenzie  Crook. The  following  year  he  joined  The  Fixx. Dismissed  in  the UK  as  Police-imitators  after  two  minor  hits  in  1982  , they were  more  successful  in  the US  although  grunge  had  chased  them  out  of  the  US  charts  long  before  Gary  joined. He  was  with  them  for  five  years  playing  on  one  album  "Want  That  Life " in  2003. Their  atmospheric  guitar  rock  holds  up  pretty  well  but  they  were  never going  to  make  a major  comeback. Gary  left  when  the  original  bassist  returned  in  2008  and  his  last  recorded  work  was  a  contribution  to  an  album  of  spa  relaxation  music  that  same  year.

Terry  Lee  was  gutted  by  the  split . He  got  married, moved  to  the  States  and  became  a  plumber.  In  2000  he  returned  to  the  UK  and  got  a  job  with  Warner  Brothers. He  plays  in  a  part-time  band  The  Magnificent  7.

After  his  abrupt  departure  from  the  Ants  Kevin  formed  a  new  group  Wide  Boy  Awake  to  be  managed  by  his  wife  Pamela  Rooke  ( the  original  Jordan ).  They  got  a  deal  with  RCA  but  only  ended  up  releasing  three  singles. "Chicken  Outlaw"  from  October  1982   is  a  strange  mix  of  synth-pop , country  hoedown  and  nonsense  lyrics. "Bona  Venture"  the  follow-up  is  a  more  coherent  song with  the  hillbilly  influence  more  pronounced  though  the  beats  are  modern. "Billy  Hyena"  from  early  1984  drops  the  country  leanings  for  a  blend  of  jazz  melody  in  the  verses  and  an  electro-funk  backing. All  three  are  let  down  by  Kevin's  weedy  nasal  vocals  and  none  troubled  the  charts.

Kevin  kept  in  touch  with  Marco  who  produced  the  first  single  for  his  new  band  Max  in  August  1987. "Little  Ghost" ,an  electro-funk  number  which  is  completely  tuneless. Boy  George  later  covered  it. An  album  was  recorded  but  never  released. Kevin  also  appeared  on  Sinead  O  Connor's  The  Lion  And  The  Cobra. He  and  model  girlfriend  Leslie  Winer  co-wrote  the  final  track  "Don't  Call  Me  Joe"  with  her.  He  reconvened  Max  in  the  early  nineties  with  a  line  up  that  included  fellow  ex-Ant  Matthew  Ashman  and  released  the  album  "Silence  Running "  with  Trevor  Horn  producing  but  I  haven't  heard  anything  from  it.

The  band  dissolved  again  and  Kevin  relocated  to  the  US  with Winer  helping  her  out  on  her  albums  "Witch"  ( 1993 )  and  "Spider" ( 1999 ).  In  1995  he  reconciled  with  Adam  and  co-wrote  a  couple  of  tracks  on  his  Wonderful  album.  In  the  early  noughties  he  returned  to  the  UK  and  launched  a  new  group  The  Lavender  Pill  Mob  with  former  Renegade  Soundwave  man  Gary  Asquith   who   released  two  albums  of   hip-hop   inflected  rock  somewhere  between  Eels  and  Primal  Scream  in  2003-04 . Adam  sang  the  lead  vocal  on  the  track  "Black  Pirates"  on  the  second  one. Kevin  now  resides  in  Berlin  and  works  as  a  DJ.

As  we  already  know  Matthew  deserted, along  with  drummer  Dave  Barbarossa  and  bass  player  Leigh  Gorman  ( who  didn't  record  anything  with  the  Ants )  in  1980  to  join   Bow  Wow  Wow. The  group  eventually  started  having  respectably-sized  hits  in  1982  peaking  in  the  summer  when  "I  Want  Candy"  reached  number  9  despite  Malcolm   McLaren's stupid  gimmick  of  having  an  unplayable  B-side. That  was  McLaren's  last  contribution  to  the  group; having  had  his  kiddie  porn  scam  exploded  by  Fred  Vermorel  he  went  off  to  make  his  own  LP  with  Trevor  Horn  leaving  the  band  to  fend  for  themselves. They  recorded  another  album  "When  The  Going  Gets  Tough"  with  Mike  Chapman  which  was  a  minor  hit  in  the  US  but  bombed  completely  over  here. The  boys  then  decided  to  oust  Annabella  Lwin  and  reconstitute  themselves  as  Chiefs  of  Relief. Dave  ( along  with  Gorman )  bowed  out  of  the  project  almost  immediately  and  was  replaced  by  ex-Pistol  Paul Cook. The  band  are  therefore  covered  in  the  Goodbye  Sex  Pistols  post.

Chiefs  of  Relief  packed  up  in  1989. Matthew  then  joined  the  next  incarnation  of  Max  covered  above. His  final  band  was  the  electronica  outfit  Agent  Provocateur  who  released  their  first  single  "Kicks "  in  1994.  Their  take  on  trip  hop  and  dance  wasn't  for  me  but  it's  well  enough  done. Around  the  time  of  the  second  single  the  rockier  "Red  Tape"  Matthew  slipped  into  a  diabetic  coma  and  died  aged  35. He  was  featured  on  seven  of  the  tracks  on  their  only  album  "Where  The  Wild  Things  Are"  eventually  released  in  1997  but  not  their  minor  hit  single  "Agent  Dan"  that  year. In   November  2010  they  reunited  for  a  tribute  concert   headed  by  Adam  Ant   for  Matthew ;   versions  of  Bow  Wow  Wow  and  Chiefs  of  Relief  were  also  on  the  bill.

With  a  family  to  support  Dave  judged  that  session  work  would  provide  a  steadier  income  than  Chiefs  of  Relief  and  was  soon  proved  right  with  either  session  or  live  work  for  Beats  International, Chicane  and  Republica. In  the  mid-nineties  he  had  an  outfit  called  Ping  Pong  who  supported  Adam  on  his  Wonderful  tour  in  1995  and   released  a  single  "It's  About  Rhythm"  in  1996. In  the  noughties  he's  had  various  short-lived  projects  - Guilty  Fawn, DATHE, Horse  Brothers   and  currently  Cauldronated. In  2013  he published  a  novel  "Mud  Sharks"  which  has  been  well  received.

After  leaving  the  Ants  Andy  joined  original  Ants  guitarist  Tom  Hardy  ( Lester  Square )  in  The  Monochrome  Set, in  time  to  play  on  their  debut  LP  "Strange  Boutique"  which  turned  out  to  be  their  commercial  peak   when  it  charted  at  62  early  in  1980 despite  having  no  hit  singles. It's  a  strong  collection  of  leftfield  guitar  pop  and  it's  hard  to  pinpoint why  the  band  never  managed  to  cross  over  to  the  mainstream. They   were  going  for  quite  a  while  and  had  a  good  reputation  as  a  live  band.  Perhaps  they  were  ahead  of  their  time  and  would  have  appealed  to  Smiths  and  Pulp  fans. The  instrumental  track  "The  Puerto  Rican  Fence  Climber"  is  pretty  close  to  the  former's  Oscillate  Wildly.  It  was  probably  a  combination  of  the  esoteric  song  titles  and  something  in  the  desultory  tone  of  Anglo-Indian  singer  Bid  that  led   to  a  suspicion  that  they  were  a  bit  too  clever  for their  own  good.

The  quickfire  follow  up  "Love  Zombies"  released  the  same  year   failed  to  follow  it  into  the  charts  and  brought  their  time  on  Dindisc  to  an  end.  After  a  standalone  single   the  psychedelic-flavoured   "10  Don'ts  For  Honeymooners" on  Charisma  offshoot  Pre  in  summer  1981  they  signed  for  Cherry  Red  in  1982 . Two  more  singles  the  poppier  "The  Mating  Game"  and  "Cast  A  Long  Shadow" , which  sounds  like  The  Inspiral  Carpets  doing  a  pastiche  of  the  Rawhide  theme,  followed  before  their  third  album  "Eligible  Bachelors".  They  released  another  single  from  the  album   "The  Jet Set  Junta"   which  again  sounds  similar  to  the  Carpets. It  did  get  a  bit  of  radio  play  but  didn't  trouble  the  charts.

Nearly  two  years  later  they   re-surfaced  on  their  fourth  label  blanco  y  negro  with  the  single - "Jacob's  Ladder "  and  there  were  some  hopes  that  its  radio-friendly  tune , bright  production  and  stomping  beat  might  finally  break  the  band. It  wasn't  to  be  and  inevitably  its  parent  album  "The  Lost  Weekend"  didn't  make  any  impact. After  one  more  single , the  over-cluttered  "Wallflower"  in  1985  they  split  up.  In  1990  the  three  main  players  reunited , re-signed  with  Cherry  Red  and  released  another  five obscure  albums  before  ceasing  operations  again  in  1998.  During  this  time  the  band  worked  on  a  couple  of  albums  with  fellow  Cherry  Red  artist  Jessica  Griffin  who  recorded  under  the  name  Would-Be-Goods. Eventually  there  was  a  full  band  of  that  name  and  in  2004  Andy  joined  them  playing  on  their  fifth  album  and  so  far  final  album  "Eventyr". What  strikes  me  on  a  first  listen  is  how  much  Jessica  sounds  like  Kirsty  MacColl. In  2010  the  Set  reconvened  once  again  and  have  released  three more  albums  including  "Spaces  Everywhere"  in  March  this  year. How  Andy  makes  his  living  when  he's  not  playing in  these non-selling  bands  I've  no  idea.

That  just  leaves  us  with  guitarist  Johnny  Bivouac  who  played  on  "Deutscher  Girls".  His  real  name  is  John  Beckett  and  he  still  works  in  the  music  industry  as  a  soundtrack  composer  known  for  the  TV  series  Operation  Good  Guys  in  which  he  also  had  a  small  acting  part. He  is  also  a  director  of  the  Fugitive  film  company.