I’d been on my way to get a ticket for Big Audio Dynamite when I spotted the add for Adam Ant. So while I was at the box office I picked up a ticket for Adam too. The worst that could happen would be a poorly attended event in the small venue side where Adam would lose the plot and go nuts. I might at least get some good pictures I could maybe sell to the papers.

Life in this one horse town was about as Rock N Roll as waiting in the queue for the till in the supermarket. Any opportunity for a night out or a mad mission that came my way I was up for. Life is too short and my clock is running fast. The previous week I’d got so frustrated with home life I’d travelled all the way to Wimborne just to see a singer I’d met perform with a band instead of backing tapes. What a contrast that was to tonight. I hoped Kate’s cold was better.

I never thought judging from the media that I’d ever see Adam Ant on stage again. Why would I ? The glory days of the early 1980’s was long gone. Adam And The Ants had split almost thirty years ago. Adam had gone solo, knocked out a couple of so-so albums and gone to Hollywood to pursue an acting career that pretty much fell on it’s arse. He’d disappeared for years finally resurfacing in the press after some wild breakdown in a pub that involved a firearm. The common general opinion was that Adam was a nutcase to be shunned. It seemed his music career was over and his credibility was blown.

Going through footage on U-Tube of Zodiac Mindwarp before their gig in March I’d happened on Adam invading Zodiac’s stage and taking over the vocals on ‘Prime Mover’. It’s the sort of thing I ached to do myself, but when it came to the Mindwarp gig I’d settled for enjoying ‘The High Priest Of Love’ in all his drunken vodka blazed glory singing the song himself and meeting him after the show. I’d also filmed that track and what great footage it was too. I wondered if I could get Adam to sing ‘Prime Mover’ tonight.

I’d told a friend I was going,

“It’s my birthday weekend then.”, he had replied.

I made my way over on the bus and met Nick and Roger in The Crown. We had a few jars and ambled over to the venue. Outside a long line snaked from the doors up the road in a manner I haven’t seen before. I wasn’t happy, because if this was what it was like already, getting down the front tonight might be a mission and a half. Nick and Roger strolled up to join the line while I had a quick word with one of the guys on the door.

We had decided on hitting the venue at just past 7:00pm tonight. Our tickets had the unusual door opening time of 6:30pm. Something else that I hadn’t seen before. I took it to mean that there would be maybe more than one support act, or a really long Ant show. It would be the big venue tonight, and by the look of it a full house too. The guy on the door told me,

“Oh he only got here ten minutes ago. The support will be on at 8:15pm and he should be on around 9:15pm.”

I called Nick and Roger back down the road out the queue. We had time for another jar yet. Around the corner in Ma Eggerton’s the bar had been invaded by a motley collection of Ant fans all in high spirits. ‘Antmusic’ came over the jukebox and pretty much the whole place sang along. It was going to be a good night tonight. We downed a jar each and went to join the queue outside. I’d judged it right because as we joined the back of the line the doors opened and the line started rapidly shortening.

“I’ll see you two at the nearest bar after the show. I got to get down the front so I can get some good pictures.”

Inside the crowd was already thick. I wasted no time making my way through the throng. I got as far as third row from the front before I encountered any resistance to my progress, but in this sort of crowd all I had to do was wait for my opportunity and a weak point when the gig started and the crowd moved forwards. Even from here I had a fair view of the stage. I’d manage my shots quite well from here if I had too.

So far I didn’t recognise anybody. I’d expected to see a number of Planet-X faces, but not so far. I wondered where Nick and Roger were ? I got chatting a little to the folken around me. They were shocked to learn Adam hadn’t arrived until after 7:10pm and wasn’t expected on stage before 9:15pm. Folken were in high spirits. There were a number of them that had dressed up all ‘Adam Ant’. There were blokes here far older than I was wearing ‘Ant’ jackets looking like over stuffed sofa’s. They must have been married to Ant nuts.

There was more leather, hair dye, and Goth garb on show tonight than I’d seen in years. It took me back, way back, to when I was a teenager. At thirteen me and two lads from the same registration class had made it to the first gig of our lives for the price of £4.50. My Ma had took us there and brought us back, her heart in her mouth as she left us to join the line. It was January 22nd 1982, Deeside Leisure Centre, and ‘The Prince Charming Revue’. It had been a splendid show though somewhat over dramatic and lavish. There had been three separate sets, ‘Kings’, ‘Dandy Highwayman’, and ‘Prince Charming’. There had also been at least one unexplained dance routine in there too. This was showmanship on a grand scale that wouldn’t be repeated with such pageant again until Kylie came along.

Please don’t ask me what the set list was that night, it was twenty nine and a half years ago. I’ve had a few sleeps since then and one or two other experiences. All I can tell you is that seeing that show gave me the live band fever that has little chance of being cured now. The musical show was great, but I still have my doubts about that dance routine and the costume changes. Even then my critical eye was sharp.

There was no doubt at all that ‘Kings’ was Adam’s finest work, but then it would be, because there was such a lot Adam had riding on it. He’d made the mistake of trusting Malcolm McLaren. Fresh from destroying the Sex Pistols with his stupid and absurd publicity stunts and claiming that ‘The Great Rock N Roll Swindle’ was all his idea and an accurate account of the Sex Pistols story (utter bullshit), Malcy had been hard talked into taking over management of The Ants by his shop worker and former Ants manager Jordan, girlfriend of Adam.

Malcolm did however come up with the ideas of ‘The Pirate’, ‘The Indian’, ‘The Romantic Warrior’, and got Adam to insert the phrase ‘Ant music for sex people’ from his posters into a new song before essentially sacking Adam from his own band and constructing Bow Wow Wow. The whole thing is very well documented by James Maw in his ‘The Official Adam Ant Story’, Futura Publications 1981, which also documents Adam’s story from birth on 3rd November 1954, that famous Bazooka Joe support slot for the Sex Pistols, and follows the story right up to just before ‘Prince Charming’ was released.

I didn’t really like ‘Prince Charming’. It was too polished, too overblown, too much make up and costume. I wasn’t taken by it’s content either. If the ‘Kings’ album was an A side then ‘Prince Charming’ was its B side. All pomp and panto fantasy, a million miles away from the reality of an increasingly socially devastated nation suffering from the Thatcher dictatorship. To this date the only song I really like on that album is the last one, ‘S.E.X.’, and not just because of a little blonde that hailed from Droitwhich. ‘Friend Or Foe’ and the ‘Strip’ album had already been released by the time I met her.

‘Friend Or Foe’ I thought was better than ‘Prince Charming’ in a lot of ways. I didn’t like it all but liking half an album is better than liking only one song. I’d pretty much give up on Adam by then. It took that cute little blonde to rekindle my former interest. She had been enamoured I think that I’d actually been to one of his gigs. To the soundtrack of Adam Ant and the phenomena that became Frankie Goes To Hollywood I had the best and longest romance of my life so far. That ‘Strip’ album got played a lot when I used to visit when her parents were at work. I never actually bought a copy of it though and I don’t think I’ve heard it in something like twenty six years. Would Adam be playing any of it tonight I wondered ? My best guess was no. If he had any sense he’d stick to the hits and the favourites. Then again, Adam wasn’t too well known for sensible decisions these days. Things could get interesting.

The last time I remembered coming across anything recorded by Adam was back in my University days in the February of 1995 writing for ‘Shout’ magazine. In the same week I wrote a review of a three track demo tape from a then unheard of Skunk Anansie of whom I’d said, “They are an unusual mix of power, talent, and conviction. Destined to be a success.”, and Shampoo’s ‘Delicious’ I’d also reviewed Adam’s ‘Wonderful’.

Dressing For Pleasure; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Movement on stage interrupted my musing. The support act took the stage. Two pretty girls similarly dressed, one bass the other guitar, and a bloke on drums. I noticed the drum kit straight away. A stand up kit like that favoured by Slim Jim Phantom of Stray Cats. Could this be a new Psychobilly revival ? Ooh, this might be interesting. They blasted through a song or two with the drummer striking up a beat that reminded me of The Cramps, The Meteors, and Stray Cats all in one while I took a few shots before,

“Are you two sisters or what ?”

They giggled a little,

“Yes, were sisters.”, replied the bass player.

They sounded good. They looked good, although the drummer could do with a bit of a make over. They were sharp, punchy, and yet still pop like. This was a band with a future. I wondered who they were ? The drummer was energetic, laying down a pretty standard Rockabilly/Psychobilly beat I liked. The bass player was solid enough, and the guitarist was pretty good too. A few lessons from Poison Ivy wouldn’t hurt her though. They knocked out another track before starting a song I was more than familiar with, The Clash ‘Should I Stay’. The intro was sung low and soft, with the gentle emotion of heartache, but when the singer got to,

“…. or should I go ?”,

I just couldn’t resist,

“You can both stay at mine if you like. ……… (pause, and pre-empting with my tongue firmly in my cheek in full wind up mode, mocking) …… It’s always tease, tease, tease.”

Dressing For Pleasure; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

The singer and bass player cracked up and half the crowd down front pissed themselves laughing. They recovered nicely, and blasted through the song beautifully. They were so good I even started pogoing. I was sold. I wondered how they might cover ‘I Only Want To Be With You’. This was definitely a band with a future. They introduced the next song saying it had something to do with a bloke with a leather fetish,

“Here I am.”

Again both band and crowd broke up laughing. It wasn’t until after some extensive internet research that I actually found out what they were called. On stage the singer, Naomi, had said something about their name meaning, “getting dressed up so you can be undressed”. I tried Dressed To Thrill, found a bunch of stuff on rubber fashion, tried again with Dressed To Kill and drew a blank, tried Dressed For Pleasure and found a load of stuff relating to a fetish film of the same name made in London in 1977. How I eventually found them as ‘Dressing For Pleasure’ I forget, but it took a couple of hours. I found their band page on Reverbnation.com through which I then found their Facebook page.. They also had three demo tracks available for a listen too, including ‘Should I Stay’. If it were my choice, I’d say that would be the one to make their first single. Radio One and a million others like me will love it.

When I found their Facebook page they had way less than 500 followers which I found surprising. How could those who’d already seen them not like them ? Maybe they were having the same difficulty in finding them as I had. I also found someone had uploaded a clip of them doing ‘Should I Stay’ from the gig. You can’t hear me, but you can clearly see Naomi just fall about laughing because of me. I posted the link on a couple of sites. It couldn’t hurt to give them a little extra exposure.

It isn’t the first band I’ve seen before they broke. I’d seen Transvision Vamp play to less than two hundred spirits in June 1988 and known straight away they were going to make it. A few weeks later ‘I Want Your Love’ was released and by the time they came back that October they were playing to a sell out audience. It was similar when I saw Skunk Anansie in the original Lomax on Cumberland Street in Febuary 1995, before ‘Selling Jesus’ was released. As soon as I saw them there was no doubt in my mind that the band would make a world wide name for themselves. It was nice to be in at the start of things again.

Oh Gods, one day I might actually get paid for doing what I do for fun. Wouldn’t that be nice ?.

Dressing For Pleasure finished their set to loud applause. Not least of all because of the way Naomi had dealt with the heckler who’d told them to get off the stage. She’d come straight back with the offer of a fight before continuing and after finishing the set. Just before leaving the stage,

“I’m still up for that fight by the way. We’ll be in the crowd, so come and have a go if you want to.”

Dressing For Pleasure; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

The crowd had loved that. A band that could play, looked good, had a stand up drummer doing his best Nick Knox impression, and they had an attitude to go with it. How could they fail ?

Anticipation began to rise in the crowd. There were some high expectations here tonight. For my own part I’d arrived at The Crown deeply sceptical. What kind of audience would Adam still be able to pull after all these years ? I knew there would be a contingent coming from Planet-X, old timers like myself coming out of nostalgic curiosity and loving the excuse for a night out, but what about others ? The press had done a fairly substantial job at undermining and destroying Adam’s come back credibility. I’d come across a two page slagging in the Daily Mail painting Adam as a reclusive, broke, mentally disturbed individual hankering after long gone glory days.

When Nick and Roger met me in The Crown they’d asked me if I thought it would be the small stage or the big one upstairs. For the first time in years I couldn’t call it. Not until we walked around the corner of Hotham Street and saw that long queue of folken, some in Adam clone fancy dress, then I knew,

“Upstairs, definitely upstairs tonight. Gods ! Look at them already.”

Here down the front I looked behind me. The place was rammed. A complete sell out. Who could have predicted this turn out ? The only questions now were; would he be any good, what kind of band would he have behind him, and what songs would he perform ? I hoped he’d do ‘Physical’, a long time favourite of mine I still long to sing to someone. Maybe one day, but Gods please, make it soon.

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Just then the lights went down, a roar rose from the assembled. The bass player took up position, the guitarist followed suit, and the drummer, no, two drummers slid in behind their respective kits. Holy shit, he was back with two drummers. That two drummers idea had come from Gary Glitter’s Glitterband sound. Then out came Adam sporting a look that seemed to imply ‘I’m the Duke of Wellington’ and wearing thick lense’d heavy rimmed glasses. Well at least he’d be able to see us tonight. There was a long build up intro before Adam went into ‘Plastic Surgery’.

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Wow, I hadn’t really expected him to go that far back with his material tonight I wondered what other delights he had in store for us ?

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

O.K. now to make life much easier for myself, almost the entire concert is now up on U-Tube for you to be able to see for yourself how good this gig was. The set list was :

Intro/Plastic Surgery
Dog Eat Dog
Beat My Guest
Kick
Cartrouble
Zerox
Deutcher Girls
Stand And Deliver
Catholic Day
Kings Of The Wild Frontier
Wonderful
Ant Music
Never Trust A Man With Egg On His Face
Cleopatra
Goody Two Shoes
Viva Le Rock
Christian Do’r
Lady/Fall In
A.N.T.S.
Prince Charming
Fat Fun
Press Darlings
Get It On
Physical

The crowd loved the opening number. When he followed it with ‘Dog Eat Dog’ and that lovely heavy drum beat kicked in they went nuts. Way back in 1980 it had been ‘Dog Eat Dog’ that had broke Adam And The (new) Ants to the world. As a result of shooting up the charts from 37 to 19 in a week, on the back of the ‘Ants Invasion Tour’, and someone dropping out from Top Of The Pops the band received a call at their recording studio. Would they do the show ? The song released October 1980 had been inspired from a newspaper article that Adam had been reading about that bitch Thatcher. The rest as they say, is history.

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

At the time all I remembered was hearing the name Adam And The Ants. Periodically they’d crop up in Sounds music paper. I’d found out more about Adam looking up stuff about Toyah and the Derek Jarmen directed ‘Jubilee’. Usually the band were slagged off, but the new look had something. It was like a step forwards to a lot of punks out of the bondage trousers and cheese cloth shirts into something a little classier, sharper, sexier. The sound they had was also very different from any other artiste of that day too, except Bow Wow Wow who’d put out ‘C30, C60, C90, Go’ in July.

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

I once heard, or read, a story about Adam and Marco breaking into Malcolm’s office to steal a tape of ‘C30, C60, C90, Go’ because Adam was desperate to find out what kind of sound his former Ants had come up with under McLaren’s direction. Malcy had been going on about leaving guitars behind and, “just hit things with sticks boy, that’s all you need. Just hit things with sticks.”, which was how Adam came to add a second drummer Glitterband style. It’s also interesting to note that Public Image Ltd hit the charts big with ‘Flowers Of Romance’ the following April.

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

I was surprised to hear ‘Wonderful’ but it complimented the set and gave those of us who’d been bopping time to recover before ‘Ant Music’. Still with that distinctive sticks on the rim intro. I wasn’t so sure about ‘Goody Two Shoes’ and ‘Viva Le Rock’. I’d have preferred some more cuts from the ‘Kings’ album but they went down well with the crowd and I have to admit I got carried away enjoying myself and had a bit of a bop to ‘Vive Le Rock’ regardless.

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

During the set Adam mentioned Eric’s a couple of times, the first time reminiscing playing there,

“Does that mean your coming to the Planet-X reunion tomorrow ?”, I shouted up.

Adam smiled playfully eyeing me,

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

“I like your accent.”,

he said before going into the next song. His second mention came with a story about Margi Clarke just before ‘Vive Le Rock’,

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam ended the set with ‘Press Darlings’ before re-emerging to do a tribute cover of Marc Bolan’s ‘Get It On’. All through the set I’d been shouting up alternatively for him to play ‘Physical’ and ‘Prime Mover’. I didn’t manage to get him to do ‘Prime Mover’, but he closed the night with a long version of ‘Physical’.

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse; Liverpool O2 Academy 28/5/2011

The crowd began to dissipate. It had been a great gig. Two full hours. Adam had a nice band behind him and the added appeal of a female drummer and two pretty, and top heavy, backing singers who changed costumes at least thrice during the set. The bass player also scored points for wearing a Psychobilly T-Shirt. I wasn’t so sure about the guitarist though. He was pretty good, but he was no Marco and his sound was a little too light weight I thought.

I was knackered. My ankle hurt. So did my knees, hips, and the buggered disc in my lower back. My physiotherapist would likely scold me given the chance. I was soaked in sweat. My shirts were wringing wet, and I’d sweated right through my old leather too. My trousers clung to my legs. Fabulous. I hadn’t gotten this sweaty since seeing Public Image Ltd last July. It was a far better and far more enjoyable way to do a two hour work out than it could ever be at any gym or keep fit studio. It would sure help to keep my recently recovered waist line too.

I wondered where Nick and Roger were ? I rang Nick. I couldn’t really hear him properly but I got the impression he was in some pub or club somewhere else. Surely they hadn’t walked out before the end of the set, had they ? To the date of this writing I still don’t know.

I’d left The Lair that night a sceptic, unsure what to expect, and predicting a so-so set of classics and new material. I was going to return a revitalised sex person for Antmusic. Adam’s voice hadn’t changed at all. True he was a bit sensitive about the threadbare rug under his hat, but he had given a smooth performance with the simple ease of an old pro like he’d never been gone. There was no mistaking it, Adam Ant was back, and you better expect an upcoming chart invasion in the near future.

I moved outside with the crowd and wandered over to the Crazy House to replace a little of the liquid now drying on my skin. I lasted about five minutes. There was no decent cider in the place to be had. I went downstairs and demanded a refund of my entrance fee. I didn’t get it. All I can say is the place sucks the sweat of a dead mans balls. If you like drinking cider this is not the place to go, ever. They charge too much at the bar too.

I moved on to tomorrow nights venue for the Planet-X reunion, Le Bateau. Inside I had the same problem. No cider. The bar man was helpful though and between us I finally found something to slake my thirst with. I started going through some of the pictures on my camera and a cute red haired girl came up to my side,

“I like your leather.”

I was still wet from sweat. I must have smelt like a horse after running the Aintree National but,

“Would you like to try it on ?”

If only I hadn’t been so knackered I might just have got lucky, but ………. I left her with my contact and went upstairs to find out who was in charge. I wasn’t going to come willingly to a place for a good night out knowing there was no cider behind the bar.

“Hey fella, who’s the boss man tonight ?”

“That guy out on the steps mate.”

I collared him,

“You the boss man in charge ?”

“Er, yeah.”

“Tomorrow night, a lot of lovely Planet-X people will be coming.”

“Yeah ?”

“Well you’ll have to get your cider situation sorted out man.”

Viper 2/6/2011

Edited 9/3/2012

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First Published 5/6/2011 by Viperslair.co.uk

Editing and updated links 6/6/2011, thrice.

Re-published 14/3/2012

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