London, UK · new wave · post-punk

Adam Ant

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Burundi drums, pirate costumes, and glam swagger — 'Stand and Deliver', 'Prince Charming', and the rest of a hits catalog that defined new wave's dress-up era at its most gleefully theatrical.

Adam Ant is the stage name of Stuart Goddard, born in Marylebone, London, in 1954 to a chauffeur father and an embroiderer mother who worked for Norman Hartnell. His parents divorced when he was seven, and money was tight growing up in two rooms in St John's Wood. He started out playing bass in the band Bazooka Joe before turning to the punk scene that produced Adam and the Ants.

With guitarist Marco Pirroni and a twin-drummer setup borrowed from Burundi drumming records, the group moved from the art-punk of their debut, Dirk Wears White Sox, toward a percussive, hook-driven pop. Malcolm McLaren, asked to manage the band, instead took its backing musicians to form Bow Wow Wow, forcing Ant to rebuild the lineup around Pirroni.

Kings of the Wild Frontier topped the UK album chart in 1980 and became the best-selling album in Britain the following year, winning Best British Album at the 1982 BRIT Awards. The Ants' run of singles included 'Antmusic', 'Stand and Deliver' and 'Prince Charming', both title tracks reaching number one, paired with highwayman and pirate imagery that made the band a fixture of early MTV and British television.

Adam Ant went solo in 1982, retaining Pirroni as co-writer, and scored an immediate number one with 'Goody Two Shoes' from Friend or Foe, his most successful solo album. Later releases sold less, and by the mid-1980s he had turned toward acting in film and television. A 1990 album, Manners & Physique, produced by André Cymone, brought another US hit before a shelved follow-up ended his deal with MCA.

He returned to music from 2010 onward, releasing Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter in 2013 and completing multiple UK, US and Australian tours, often performing the classic albums in full.

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new wavepost-punk