1977–1982: Adam and the Ants Adam and the Ants began performing around London while Ant acted in
Derek Jarman's film
Jubilee in 1977. They were initially managed by
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. In late 1979 they released their debut album
Dirk Wears White Sox (1979,
Do It Records) featuring
Matthew Ashman on guitar,
Andy Warren on bass and
Dave Barbarossa on drums. Ant approached
Malcolm McLaren to manage the band, who subsequently hired the rest of the Ants to form
Bow Wow Wow fronted by
Annabella Lwin. The second version of Adam and the Ants featured
Marco Pirroni (guitar),
Kevin Mooney (bass guitar), and two drummers, Terry Lee Miall and
Chris Hughes (formerly of
Dalek I Love You), who used the name "Merrick". The band signed a deal with
CBS Records and recorded
Kings of the Wild Frontier during the summer of 1980. The album gained success in the United Kingdom, and the "Antmania" that ensued put the band at the forefront of the
New Romantic movement. The single "
Antmusic" went to No. 2 on the
UK singles chart by December 1980. Following the departure of Mooney in February 1981, bassist
Gary Tibbs, formerly of
Roxy Music, joined the band. In November 1981, Adam & the Ants released the album,
Prince Charming, that featured two United Kingdom No. 1 singles – "
Stand and Deliver" and the title track, "
Prince Charming" – as well as the No. 3 UK hit "
Ant Rap". In March 1982 the group disbanded.
1982–2001: Solo career A few months after Adam and the Ants split, Ant launched his solo career and retained Pirroni as guitarist and co-songwriter. The
Friend or Foe album also produced another top ten single, "
Friend or Foe", which reached No. 9 in September 1982. Ant recruited a new band for touring, consisting of new dual drummers Bogdan Wiczling (ex-
Fingerprintz) and Barry Watts (ex-
Q-Tips), plus guitarist
Cha Burns (also ex-Fingerprintz), bassist
Chris Constantinou and the former Q-Tips brass section of trumpeter Tony Hughes and twin saxophonists Stewart van Blandamer and Steve Farr. The new band made its debut at London's
Astoria Theatre on 1 October 1982. A US tour began in New York on 8 November. On the 19th tour date on 20 February 1983 in
Cleveland, Ohio, Ant suffered a knee injury onstage (a relapse of a previous injury suffered while filming
Jubilee in 1977), forcing the postponement or cancellation of dates throughout February and March while he recuperated. Ant eventually returned to performing, appearing as a guest on the
NBC special
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, singing "
Where Did Our Love Go" with
Diana Ross. He resumed the US tour, completed on 18 May 1983 at the Bronco Bowl in
Dallas, Texas. During his recuperation from the knee injury, Ant worked with Pirroni on new material The latter two adopted the stage names
Count Wiczling and Chris
De Niro respectively and were upgraded from live backing musicians to being full-time band members, featured on record sleeves, and even in song lyrics. The LP
Strip produced a top ten single, "Puss'n Boots", that reached No. 5 in the UK charts in October 1983. Ant formally unveiled his new four-piece band at the 1984 Montreux Pop Festival, Ant later said he regretted playing the fundraiser, stating, "I was asked by
Sir Bob to promote this concert. They had no idea they could sell it out. Then in Bob's book, he said, 'Adam was over the hill so I let him have one number.'... Doing that show was the biggest f**king mistake in the world. Knighthoods were made,
Bono got it made, and it was a waste of f**king time. It was the end of rock 'n' roll." A year after the hit single success of "Apollo 9", which reached No. 13 in September 1984, the parent album
Vive Le Rock was released in September 1985, to mixed reviews. As part of the promotion, the band performed a live TV session for
Channel 4 music show
Bliss hosted by
Muriel Gray. Several songs were recorded, although only two – "Miss Thing" from the new album and "Killer in the Home" from
Kings of the Wild Frontier – were actually transmitted. Ant paused his career in music at the end of 1985 to focus on his acting career. a 1987 fanclub party performance, and a September 1994
EMI corporate event in
Brighton. He severed ties with CBS in late 1986, following the release of the
Hits audio/VHS compilation. Subsequently in 1995, Adam Ant performed "Physical" live with Nine Inch Nails on their
Self Destruct Tour for two nights in a row. In 1995, Ant released the album,
Wonderful. The title track was a successful single, as was a tour of the US in support of the album. While Ant and his group, which retained longtime guitarist Pirroni alongside
Kris Dollimore (
The Godfathers,
The Damned), Bruce Whitkin, Dave Ruffy (
The Ruts) and Dave Barbarossa (Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow), played in smaller venues than they had played in the 1980s, the houses were often packed with enthusiastic fans. The tour was cut short due to Ant and Pirroni both contracting
glandular fever. Ant made a guest appearance on an EP released in 2005 – ''Mike's Bikes'' by former Ants bassist Kevin Mooney's new band, the Lavender Pill Mob, on Mooney's own label Le Coq Musique. Ant provided lead vocals for "Black Pirates", a reworking of the song "Chicken Outlaw" by Mooney's earlier band Wide Boy Awake, inspired by Mooney's departure from the Ants. In September 2006, he published his autobiography,
Stand & Deliver. Marking the release of the book, Ant did a UK book signing, which went from London to
Edinburgh. That month also marked a return to live music. Ant's first live performance since The Bloomsbury in 2007 was at Through The Looking Glass bookshop in London on 18 March, at which he played "Ants Invasion", "
Cartrouble", "Physical", and a cover of
Iggy Pop's "
The Passenger". A day later, on 19 March, Ant guested at a
Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction gig at the Pipeline Bar, London E1, in which he provided lead vocals for the band's Top 20 hit "Prime Mover". Ant performed another low key show at the
Southwark Playhouse on Saturday 20 March. Ant played a sold-out headline concert, dubbed The Pirate Metal Extravaganza at the
Scala in London on 30 April. He also performed some smaller
guerilla gigs in Autumn 2010, which received no advance billing, including a solo show at the Dark Mills festival at London's Colour House Theatre on 4 September 2010, the launch party of the Illamasqua store on 16 September (at which
Boy George served as DJ), and a guest spot at the
Monster Raving Loony Party's annual conference in
Fleet, Hampshire, on 25 September. On 21 October, Ant performed at the
Union Chapel, London. Ant headlined at the Scala again on 18 November, joined by a trio of female backing singers. The gig received positive reviews and three days later again topped the bill at a tribute concert for former Ant Matthew Ashman on 21 November at the same venue, in a show also featuring later Ashman bands Bow Wow Wow,
Chiefs of Relief,
Agent Provocateur and London rock act Slam Cartel. Ant was back playing live two days later on 23 December, when he and backing vocalist
Georgina Baillee guested onstage at the Christmas party of West Rocks at Shepherds Bar in
Shepherd's Bush and played live again at Proud,
Camden on 5 January 2011 and at
Madame Jojo's in
Soho on 17 January. He finished the month by playing further dates of his World Tour of London with a two-night stand at the
100 Club on 26 and 27 January 2011. Ant spent time in Paris where he played low-key shows (his first gigs outside the UK in nearly 16 years.). On 29 March 2011,
BBC Radio 4 transmitted an interview of Ant by
John Humphrys for the
On the Ropes series in which Ant discussed his bipolar condition and its impact on his career. That same day, Ant held a press conference and media preview gig at Under The Bridge in
Chelsea at which he formally unveiled plans for an eleven date UK concert tour (as with the Paris concert, the first such event in 16 years) due to run from 16 May to 4 June 2011. Also announced at the Chelsea event was a public screening of the December 1981 Prince Charming Revue concert video plus a question-and-answer session to be held in
South London's
Coronet Cinema on 11 May 2011. By the time the tour got underway on 16 May in
Brighton, the original eleven date itinerary had been expanded to fifteen dates. There was one negative onstage incident at Fat Sam's in
Dundee on 21 May 2011 when Ant reacted angrily to some crowd elements who booed his kilt decorated with the
St George's Cross. The tour closed in
Manchester on 5 June with a show at the city's
Manchester Academy. , December 2011 The Seaside Tour follow-up to the main UK tour and a warm-up to Ant's appearance at
Hard Rock Calling 2011 in
Hyde Park, London, on 26 June 2011, third on the bill to
Rod Stewart and
Stevie Nicks before an audience of 45,000. Ant later slotted in some more solo gigs, including the Soho Festival in London's
Wardour Street on 11 July. Ant also announced a follow-up UK tour (described as the "second leg" of the 2011 tour), initially scheduled to run for twelve dates from 11 November 2011 in
Bristol until 13 December 2011 in
Newcastle. As with the previous leg, Ant passed the time until the tour playing one-off dates, appearing with his tour band in
Bedford on 10 September As with the previous tour, the itinerary was expanded from the initial 12 dates to an eventual 21 dates running from 10 November in
Frome until 16 December in
Norwich. The first record release of Ant's 2010s comeback also occurred at this point, with the release of the
Sex Drugs and HIV compilation album featuring Ant's version of "Get a Grip" which had been recorded a year earlier while the World Tour of London was in progress. A few days before the end of the second leg of his UK tour, it was officially announced that Ant would make his return to the US with a 15-date North American tour in February 2012, starting on 2 February in Ant's former adopted hometown of Los Angeles and running until 25 February in nearby
Anaheim. A five-date warm-up UK mini tour for Ant and his band nonetheless went ahead for 19–24 January 2012. with the same two band members as the
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club concert from the previous December. The concert was well received, although an inebriated
Chrissie Hynde who was in attendance, heckled throughout the performance. While this exhibition was on, Ant took his band on tour to Australia with an initial five date schedule spread over a two-week period from 23 March to 8 April, taking in
Sydney,
Perth,
Melbourne,
Adelaide and
Brisbane. In mid February, Ant made a warm-up visit to Australia, including an appearance on the
Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight show recorded on 13 February 2012 for transmission on 15 February and promotional work in Melbourne and Sydney. Although poor ticket sales forced the cancellation of the Adelaide gig, the remaining four concerts all went ahead. The
Sydney Morning Herald gave a reservedly positive review of the opening Sydney date on 23 March (which it rated three stars out of five), noting "In a set plus two encores (the first cheered for; the second not really but played anyway) comprising 30 songs, it was kind of the equivalent of throwing a lot of make-up at the mirror and seeing what stuck." Ant also made further Australian TV appearances including a return to
Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight recorded on 26 March for transmission on 28 March, including live performances of "Stand and Deliver" and new album track "Vince Taylor" with his full band. ,
Atlanta, 2012 Subsequently, for the second year running, Ant was scheduled to make appearances on the summer festival circuit, interspersed with various one-off dates around the UK. This got off to an early start when Ant stepped in as replacement headliner at the
Bearded Theory festival in Derby on 18 May 2012, when the
Levellers had to pull out due to one of the band members being injured. Ant also played the first full band concert in continental Europe of his 2010s comeback on 24 June 2012 at the
Parkpop festival in the
Zuiderpark in
the Hague, Netherlands, with his set broadcast on Dutch national TV. After six assorted dates around the UK in early July, Ant's next major show was a headline slot at the
Silverstone Classic Festival on 21 July followed the next day by an appearance at Rewind in
Perth and then at
Camp Bestival on 27 July 2012. The rest of the summer saw Ant mix festivals such as the
Summer Sundae Weekender on 18 August,
Solfest on 24 August and the
Isle of Wight Festival with dates in such locations as
Swindon,
Southend-on-Sea,
Warrington and
Croydon. According to Ant, the album is a "live record that lends itself to performance" and will feature a "kind of concept. It's a very old-fashioned, old-school, step-by-step album". He also described the album as "very autobiographical, very personal." In addition, Ant re-recorded a song in tribute to the late Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, who died earlier that month, and who also once managed Adam & The Ants. Named "Who's A Goofy Bunny Then?", the track was only previously available as a demo recorded in the early 1980s, but Ant stated he wanted to release a new version in tribute to the late punk manager. "Malcolm was a sort of mentor in my life", he said. "As close as you can get to a surrogate father". The song took its name from a term of endearment bestowed upon McLaren by Ant – referring to his "quite prominent teeth". On 31 December 2010, Ant gave an interview for
The Sun (featured in the "Something for the Weekend" segment) in which he discussed in considerable detail the various controversies surrounding his recent life and musical activities. He summed up his upcoming album thus: "The Blueblack Hussar is me coming back to life. I'm like
The Terminator – I was a dead man walking". The interview in
The Sun also made mention of "Shrink", a song about Ant's experiences in the mental healthcare system. Ant had previously discussed both of these songs in his April 2010 interview with
Simon Price for online fanzine
The Quietus. On his second visit to
Iain Lee's show on Absolute Radio on 4 January 2011, two further new tracks were debuted, "Hard Men, Tough Blokes" and "punkyoungirl" . In an interview for
Bizarre magazine published that month, Ant named the song co-written with Andy Bell as "Cool Zombie". 21 January 2013 release date was officially announced by Ant onstage at his September 2012 concert in
Chatham by Ant's own record label Blueblack Hussar Records. To promote the album, Ant performed a series of concerts around the
British Isles during April and May (billed as a "Spring Tour") culminating in a gig at
The Roundhouse on 11 May. A free concert in Rome took place on 14 June and a second full length 40 plus show US tour got underway on 17 July in
San Diego and ran to 21 September in Anaheim. and a full UK tour in Spring 2015. Leigh Tarrant's film was released by Ant's own production company BlueBlack Hussar but has now been out of print since its initial release in late 2014 and remains a highly sought after concert release. This remains Ant's last professionally filmed concert to date. Further, Tarrant's originally commissioned insider documentary
White Sox which captures a candid look at Ant during his Spring 2014 UK tour is currently unreleased and awaits distribution as of 2024. However,
Jack Bond's documentary on Ant,
The Blueblack Hussar, covering his life and performances from late 2010 to mid 2011, was released on DVD in July 2014 by Sunrise Pictures. Ant toured the UK in 2016 and North America in early 2017, performing his
Kings of the Wild Frontier album in its entirety. Sony Records issued a deluxe box set of the album linked to the UK leg of the tour, including a gold vinyl pressing of the album (as previously announced by Ant at the 100 Club gig in 2014). After his January 24, 2017 show in Boston, Ant's guitarist and music director, Tom Edwards, suddenly died due to suspected heart failure; he was 41. After cancelling shows in New York and Philadelphia, the tour continued with his other recently re-recruited guitarist
Will Crewdson taking on sole guitar duties for the rest of the dates. Later the same year, he toured the UK and announced he would return to North America with another tour, titled Anthems: The Singles in the autumn, and afterwards would be taking the Kings tour to Australia and New Zealand. Ant announced the
Friend or Foe tour, which traveled North America and the United Kingdom from September to December 2019. He performed the album in its entirety in an 18-date tour in North America before returning to the United Kingdom for 26 shows. A further North American tour originally planned for April–May 2020 was shifted back to 2021 then 2022 as result of the
COVID-19 pandemic. It was eventually scrapped due to the glut of rescheduled tours, but a 19-date Antics Tour of the UK did go ahead. In 2023, Ant was scheduled to perform at the
Cruel World Festival in
Pasadena,
California on May 20. However, shortly before the festival was to take place, Ant cancelled his appearance, due to "unforeseen circumstances". He played at the festival in 2024 and toured the United States later that year, but his
Antmusic tour of the United Kingdom was postponed until the autumn of 2025 after Ant was taken ill days before the initial schedule started. The tour went ahead in late 2025 with former
Jubilee co-star
Toyah Willcox supporting on select dates, with the rest of the dates being supported by
Yee Loi, a
Liverpool-based
punk rock outfit, and a compilation album entitled
The Singles was also released early in the tour. Ant is scheduled to headline a "run up" show for the 2026
Rebellion Festival. ==Musical style==