Adam and the Ants

Formation Before forming Adam and the Ants, Adam Ant (Stuart Leslie Goddard) played bass in pub rock group Bazooka Joe, who are now mostly known for headlining the show at which the Sex Pistols played their first gig on 6 November 1975 at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Ant has since recounted how he left the band directly due to a dispute over Sex Pistols' performance, which he was the only member of the band to have enjoyed. While looking to form a new band, Ant befriended some influential figures in the burgeoning London punk scene, most notably Jordan, who worked in Malcolm McLaren's and Vivienne Westwood's SEX boutique. In early 1977, Ant formed a new band named The Ants with Lester Square on guitar, Andy Warren on bass guitar, and Paul Flanagan on drums. A month later, Square left to finish his course at Hornsey College of Art and he later formed The Monochrome Set. Square was replaced by Mark Ryan, and this line-up began to play regular gigs starting with the Institute of Contemporary Arts cafe on 10 May 1977 Towards the end of the year, difficulties with management resulted in Ryan being fired and replaced with Johnny Bivouac, while the band's name was extended to Adam and the Ants. Touring extensively around the UK, often with Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants were unpopular with much of the British music press, who disliked their fetishistic lyrics and imagery. In response, the group formed a strong – and at times ideological – rapport with amateur punk fanzines such as Ripped and Torn, which gave them more favourable coverage. The band built up a strong cult following but struggled to find mainstream success and sign a record deal – apart from the two Jubilee soundtrack songs – until 1978, when they were signed to Decca Records. as she regularly did during live performances until 14 May 1978, when she left the band after a gig at Roundhouse. The day after the Peel Session, they re-recorded "Deutscher Girls" and overdubbed a new guitar break on the Chapells Studio version of "Plastic Surgery" at AIR Studios for the Jubilee soundtrack album, which was released later that year. The un-dubbed version can be heard in the film itself. On 15 May 1978, the afternoon after Jordan's final gig with Adam and the Ants, Bivouac also left the band and soon after was replaced by Matthew Ashman. This line-up continued to demo new material, and on 10 July 1978, they recorded a second Peel Session that featured the songs "Zerox", "Physical", "Friends", and "Cleopatra". of "Zerox" and "Kick" at RAK Studios in London produced by Stephen "Snips" Parsons. In January 1979, the band embarked on their Young Parisians Tour of the UK, which ran throughout January and February. and the band recorded a third Peel Session on 26 March 1979 that included "Ligotage", "Tabletalk", "Animals & Men", and "Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)". Ant and Barbe worked on new material after which Warren joined The Monochrome Set in early October. He was replaced in the Ants by Leigh Gorman. Ashman soon returned to the Ants and the album was scheduled for a November release. The album was titled Dirk Wears White Sox; it peaked at number one on the UK Independent Albums Chart, which was launched in early January 1980. The label hired Hughes to produce the duo at Rockfield Studios in Wales, after which they asked Hughes to join. The label released the single under the title "Cartrouble" in March 1980, with Moss credited as "Terry 1+2". A third single "Antmusic" was released later in November; it peaked at number two in January 1981 and at number one in Australia, where it stayed for five weeks. The single became the band's first UK number-one record, staying at the top for five weeks in May 1981. By the end of January 1982 the band had completed their touring obligations. More of the band's early material was re-released in the first half of 1982. Polydor reissued the two songs for the Jubilee in February as a single with "Deutscher Girls" as the A-side; this single reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart, giving the original Ants a second post-breakup hit. Ant and Pirroni also received the Songwriter of the Year Award for "Stand and Deliver" at the 27th Ivor Novello Awards in April 1982. ==Break-up and aftermath==

In March 1982, Ant disbanded Adam and the Ants. Ant launched a solo career a few months after the split, retaining Pirroni as co-writer. The single "Goody Two Shoes" peaked at number one in the UK, and Ant released more albums during the 1980s. Hughes continued to work as a record producer. To date, Ant has released six solo studio albums. Songs by both versions of Adam and the Ants have remained staples of his solo live concerts. His partnership with Pirroni continued until the two fell out in March 2010. Hughes and Tibbs formed the short-lived duo Merrick and Tibbs and released the single "Call of the Wild" in 1983. It peaked at number 95 in the UK Singles Chart in February that year. Mooney later formed the acts Wide Boy Awake with Jordan, and Max with Ashman. Barbe's, Ashman's, and Gorman's post-Ants band Bow Wow Wow had two UK Top 10 hits. The trio later formed Chiefs of Relief and released a self-titled album on Sire Records, by which point only Ashman remained. The Monochrome Set, which included Warren and Square, has released fourteen albums to date. Bivouac starred as Strings in the BBC Television police comedy Operation Good Guys. == Re-releases ==

In 1990, a ten-track selection of the early radio sessions was released as Peel Sessions. Antbox, a retrospective box-set spanning Ant's career from the late 1970s to the 1990s was released in 2000. The box set included 66 tracks on three CDs and quickly sold the initial 10,000 units. In 2003, Antbox was re-released in a different form with the same tracks and was commercially successful. In 2004, the albums Dirk Wears White Sox, Kings of the Wild Frontier, and Prince Charming were digitally remastered and re-released with previously unreleased demo songs as bonus material. These were overseen by Pirroni, and Kings of the Wild Frontier and Prince Charming were remastered by Hughes. In 2014, Ant, Barbe, and Gorman, the surviving three-quarters of the December 1979 - January 1980 lineup, reunited to perform with selected members of Ant's current band; they performed Dirk Wears White Sox in its entirety and in sequence at Hammersmith Apollo, to promote the album's reissue on Ant's Blueblack Hussar label. In 2016, this exercise was repeated with the Kings of the Wild Frontier album, which was performed on tour in the UK and the US to promote a deluxe-gold vinyl reissue by Sony Records, which charted in the UK Albums Chart at number 69. The Singles, a compilation credited to Adam and the Ants but also featuring Adam Ant solo material, was released in 2025 ==Legacy==

The visual aspect formed a large part of the impact of Adam and the Ants, especially at the height of their success between 1980 and early 1982. Al Spicer noted, "Adam's career is better defined by his changing image than his music". The band seized the opportunities provided by music videos on the new channel MTV to develop a theatrical, charismatic, and heroic persona. and the video for "Ant Rap" includes Scottish pop singer Lulu as the "damsel in distress". The band is mentioned in the Last of the Summer Wine episode "The Waist Land". In early 1995, Ant and Pirroni joined Nine Inch Nails on stage to perform "Physical (You're So)", "Red Scab", and "Beat My Guest"; three songs from Adam and the Ants' early catalogue. Nine Inch Nails also covered "Physical (You're So)" on their 1992 EP Broken. On 8 May 2006, Hyper released their debut album We Control, which includes a cover of "Antmusic" with Leeroy Thornhill of The Prodigy on lead vocals. In April 2009, No Doubt performed a cover of "Stand and Deliver" on the US television show Gossip Girl episode "Valley Girls", and performed it at The Bamboozle music festival in May 2009. In 2011, CBBC programme Horrible Histories featured the song "Dick Turpin", which is a pastiche on Adam and the Ants' "Stand and Deliver". A short film starring Nick Moran as Ant and Mackenzie Crook as Tibbs, called Ant Muzak (2002), depicts Adam and the Ants visiting a supermarket late at night at the same time as Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Tibbs appears in the film as Dirk, the supermarket manager, and wears white socks. ==Members==

• Adam Ant – vocals, guitar, harmonica (1977–1982), piano (1978–1981), bass (1981–1982) • Andy Warren – bass (1977–1979) • Paul Flanagan – drums (1977) • Lester Square – guitar (1977) • Mark Ryan – guitar (1977; died 2011) • Dave Barbarossa – drums (1977–1980) • Jordan - vocals (1977–1978; died 2022) • Johnny Bivouac – guitar (1977–1978) • Matthew Ashman – guitar (1978–1979, 1979–1980; died 1995), piano (1979) • Leigh Gorman – bass (1979–1980) • Chris "Merrick" Hughes – drums (1980–1982), acoustic guitar (1981), piano (1981–1982) • Terry Lee Miall – drums (1980–1982) • Marco Pirroni – guitar (1980–1982) • Kevin Mooney – bass (1980–1981) • Gary Tibbs – bass (1981–1982) Lineups Timeline ==Discography==

• Dirk Wears White Sox (1979) • Kings of the Wild Frontier (1980) • Prince Charming (1981) ==Awards==