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 and the Ants and later as a solo artist. Goddard was also a star in America where he not only scored a string of hit singles and albums, but was once voted sexiest man in America by the viewers of MTV. He is also an actor, having appeared in two dozen films or television episodes between 1985 and 1999.^[1]

Biography

Early life

Goddard was born an only child 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 maternal grandfather, Walter Albany Smith, was a full-blooded Romany^[2]. Home was two rooms in De Walden buildings, St John's Wood^[3]. 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 domestic cleaner, briefly working for Paul McCartney.

His parents divorced when Goddard was seven years old^[4], mainly on account of Les Goddard's chronic alcoholism and abusive behaviour. Goddard's first school was Robinsfield Infants School, where he created a considerable stir by heaving a brick through one of the headmistress's office windows^[5]. Matters were presumably settled to everyone's satisfaction as he continued to attend Robinsfield. He then gained a place at St Marylebone Grammar School and later became a school prefect.

After taking and passing his A levels, Goddard 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, in which he played bass. It was at a gig in November 1975 at St. Martin's College, London, 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) Goddard 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, Goddard renamed himself Adam Ant. He formed Adam and the Ants in 1977 after seeing Siouxsie and the Banshees perform at the Vortex club in London's Covent Garden.

Adam and the Ants

Adam and the Ants started as part of the burgeoning punk rock movement. Goddard later acted in Derek Jarman's "punk" film Jubilee in 1977, as Adam and 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. The band toured extensively around the UK, but proved to be unpopular with much of the British music press who disliked their fetishistic lyrics and imagery. Late 1979 saw the release of their début album Dirk Wears White Sox (1979, Do It Records).

Adam approached and asked Malcolm Mclaren (the manager of The Sex Pistols) to manage the band. Mclaren subsequently stole the rest of the Ants from under Adams feet when he introduced the singer Annabella Lwin and began the process of honing Bow Wow Wow for chart success. A new version of Adam and the Ants was formed with Marco Pirroni (guitar), Kevin Mooney (bass guitar), and two drummers, Terry Lee Miall and Chris Hughes (ex-Dalek I Love You), called also Merrick. The band signed a major label deal with CBS Records and recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier during the summer of 1980. That album was an enormous hit 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 #2 on the U.K. singles chart by December 1980.

In November 1981, Adam & the Ants released another highly successful album, Prince Charming. The album featured two United Kingdom #1 singles — "Stand and Deliver" and the title track "Prince Charming" — as well as the #3 UK hit "Ant Rap". This trio of singles were promoted by some of the most lavish music videos of the period, and paved the way for Adam Ant's later acting career.^[6]

In March 1982, feeling certain band members "lacked enthusiasm", Goddard disbanded the group. A few months after the split Goddard launched a solo career (though he retained Marco Pirroni as guitarist and co-songwriter). Merrick returned to the band Dalek I Love You and would subsequently produce many hits of Tears for Fears.

Solo career

After the split, Goddard went solo, taking his song writing 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".

Around this time, Goddard also received an endorsement contract from Honda to promote their new line of motor scooters, where he appeared with model Grace Jones. In the commercial, Goddard is being persuaded by Jones to try the new scooter. Goddard, who has never driven anything in life, finally submits. The commercial ends with Jones biting him on the ear, which was edited out for the American market, but left intact when it aired overseas. Goddard did successfully obtain a driver's license a short time after the commercials began airing.

In 1983, Goddard 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. Although the Strip album, had some highlights and hit singles, it marked the end of his reign as one of Britain's top pop stars for a while.

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."^[7] 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, Goddard'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!, Tales from the Crypt 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.

Return to recording and touring

In 1989, whilst maintaining an interest in acting, Goddard 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. On account of a regime change at MCA, the record company made the unilateral decision not to release this album on the basis that Manners & Physique had failed to achieve a gold sales certification. Ant was subsequently released from his contract with MCA and later signed by EMI. Persuasion remains unreleased to this day and, as a result, it has become something of a lost legend among "Antpeople."

In 1995, Goddard released his last album to date, Wonderful, still under the stage name Adam Ant. The title track was a successful single, as was a tour of the U.S. in support of the album. While Goddard 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 cut short due to Goddard and Pirroni both contracted glandular fever^[8]. Goddard 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-on-Trent.

Arrests for causing affray and psychiatric hospitalisation

Goddard 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). By his own account, he was in an agitated hypomanic state at the time and had gone to a pub in Camden to look for a man (apparently, the jealous husband of a female acquaintance) who had been bothering him with threatening telephone calls. When Goddard showed up, some of the pub patrons made fun of his appearance and told him that the man he was looking for was not present. Goddard angrily told them he would be back before storming off and finding the car alternator in the street.

Goddard was brought to court at Old Bailey, where his late father, Leslie Goddard, had been tried and sentenced fifteen years previously for having made indecent suggestions to a minor. 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 £500 and ordered to psychiatric care with a suspended sentence.

In June 2003, Goddard was arrested again by police after a conflict with a neighbour resulted in his attempting to smash the 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. He was eventually granted a conditional discharge by the judge at Highbury Magistrates Court.^[9]

Recent activity (2003 - present)

In 2003 Goddard and Wonderful collaborator, Boz Boorer teamed with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (now called The Gorilla Organisation) in a reworking of "Stand and Deliver" as "Save the Gorillas". Originally intended as a benefit record for the endangered mountain gorilla, it was never released, due to copyright and licensing issues.

In 2003, the successful Antbox was re-released due to popular demand, but presented in a different form. A television special entitled The Madness of Prince Charming was aired in the UK in 2003 documenting Goddards's career and his struggle with mental illness (he was diagnosed as suffering with bipolar disorder). Recently, the TV special was made available on the online video website YouTube. ^[10]

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 box-set, '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. ^[11] After the 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 hardback release.

Goddard performed a live reading from his autobiography and played some of his songs at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London on 24 September 2007. It was his first live performance in 11 years. ^[12] The special performance is available on CD via adam-ant.net. The CD was officially released on the 12 December 2008. The CD is not available in the shops, only as an online purchase. It includes parts of the readings and songs performed on the night, complete with snatches of unscripted dialogue between Adam and his guitarist for the gig, Dave Pash. ^[13]

In early October 2008 Goddard was awarded the Q Music Icon Award. Receiving the award from The Sugababes, he said how flattering it was to get an award that last year had gone to Paul McCartney, and that it was an honour to be chosen for the work that he’d done in the past. He mentioned was looking forward to next year with anticipation, not only because it would be the 30th anniversary of his first album release. ^[14]

Future projects

Goddard is planning on putting a new record out in 2009, with "sources" telling The Sun that labels are involved in a bidding war over the new material. Adam Ant has also expressed interest in working with The Kaiser Chiefs. ^[15]

Musical style

Adam Ant has been regarded by some critics^[who?] as "one of the last true versatile performers".^{[citation needed]}

The tone of Adam's début solo album, Friend or Foe, was defined as glitzy glam pop with "tongue-in-cheek tunes, delivered with an excess of flair and good humour". It was also described as being "one of Ant's best records and one of the best new wave albums".^[16]

In a review for Strip, the songs were considered to contain a "mixture of driving, danceable rock with humour".^[17]

The music on Vive Le Rock has been said to be a "50s-style rock & roll sound".^[18]

The fourth studio album, Manners and Physique was said to be a combination of "contemporary dance tracks" and Adam's "old flair for mockery".^[19]

Personal life

Goddard has one child, Lily, from divorced second wife Lorraine.

Goddard was teetotal for 23 years, but he took up alcohol again on his 47th birthday. He said, "My daughter Lily made me realise I should loosen up, live a bit."

He suffers from bipolar disorder, and has spoken candidly about his experiences. ^[20]

Goddard has dated Amanda Donohoe, whom he met when she was just fifteen and whom he lived with for six years, the relationship ending in 1981 after she had appeared in the video for " Stand And Deliver". He has also dated Jamie Lee Curtis, Vanity and Heather Graham. Out of all his relationships he has only married twice, once to Carol Mills in 1975 (then divorced her shortly after) and married again, to Lorraine in 1997, but they divorced shortly after their daughter Lily's birth in 1998.^[21]

Discography

Adam and the Ants

• Dirk Wears White Sox
• Kings of the Wild Frontier
• Prince Charming

Adam Ant

• Friend or Foe
• Strip
• Vive Le Rock
• Manners and Physique
• Wonderful

TV & Film

• Junk (2003) (short British film)
• Sweetwater (1999) Tele-film based on the 1960s band.
• La Femme Nikita (1999) TV Episode
• Face Down (1997)
• Lover's Knot (1996)
• Batman: The Animated Series (1995) TV Episode
• Cyber Bandits (1995)
• Desert Winds (1995)
• Drop Dead Rock (1995)
• Acting on Impulse (1993)
• Love Bites (1993)
• Northern Exposure (1992) TV Episode
• Spellcaster (1992)
• Tales from the Crypt (1992) TV Episode
• Midnight Heat (1991)
• Trust Me (1989)
• Out of Time (1988)
• World Gone Wild (1988)
• Cold Steel (1987)
• Sledge Hammer! (1987) TV Episode
• Slam Dance (1987)
• Amazing Stories (1987) TV Episode
• Nomads (1986)
• Amazing Stories Season 2 (1986)
• Honda Advert with Grace Jones (1986)
• The Equalizer (1985) TV Episode
• Cannon and Ball Show (1982) TV Episode
• Jubilee (1977)

Theatre

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

Awards and nominations

Literature

• Ant, Adam. (2007), Stand and Deliver: The Autobiography, London: Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-330-44012-7

References

External links

• adam-ant.net - The official Adam Ant website
• Ant Rap - The Official Forum of adam-ant.net
• Adam Ant at the Internet Movie Database
• Music For A Future Age (New Website Featuring Scans and discographies)
• Excerpt from Stand and Deliver
• Ants In My Pants chat forum - Home of the Loyal and Proud Fans of Adam Ant