Adam Ant Talks About Being at the Forefront of the Punk Movement

British punk/New Wave singer-songwriter Adam Ant says that when he first launched his musical career, which stretches back to the mid-1970s, he had no idea it would still be going strong after nearly 50 years. But Ant, who's currently at work on a new studio album, has steadily kept at it.

“No, you just can’t imagine [a long career] because punk was such a young art form,” he says via Zoom from London. Adam Ant performs with the English Beat at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 30, at the Goodyear Theater in Akron. “It’s taken this long to see what we’re capable of. I think we’re just discovering that now. I’m just pleased to be still doing it, really.”

The mid-’70s in the UK were a unique time period. Ant was at the forefront of the punk explosion that arguably began with the Sex Pistols first show in 1975. He attended that concert.

“A friend of mine was in a band, and he was their drummer, and we went to the gig that night,” says Ant, who played in the pub rock band Bazooka Joe at the time. “I watched their show and was very impressed and left the band I was in that night. I thought there was something exciting going on, and I wanted to be a part of it. And it just happened to be punk rock. That was it. It was a real catalyst.”

Ant says the simplicity of the music contributed to its impact and appealed to him.

“[The punk approach] was very straightforward,” he says. “They weren’t particularly interested in the applause from the audience. It’s almost as if they were using the audience as a test trial. The songs were very simple. From what I remember, they played '(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone' by the Monkees and ‘Substitute’ by the Who — very simple songs that hit home. It was good.”

Adam and the Ants held their first practice in 1977 and released their debut, Dirk Wears White Sox, in 1979.

“It just felt a sense of freedom," Ant says of those early days. "I was starting from a new place with a blank page. I had done some writing in Bazooka Joe but was focused on the Ants and starting a new catalog. I started writing all the time. We practiced and played anytime and anyplace we could play. Dirk Wears White Sox wasn’t particularly enamored by the established press at the time. But that was nothing new. If anything, it made us work harder. I changed the lineup and three of the members went off with [manager] Malcolm McLaren, and I formed Adam and the Ants, part two. I did the Top of the Pops show and [the single] ‘Dog Eat Dog’ went to No. 3. It was hard work after that.”

After the Ants split in 1982, Ant started a solo career and struck gold with “Goody Two Shoes,” a catchy New Wave tune that benefited from a colorful music video that got airplay on MTV.

“MTV enormously helped me as it did all British bands” says Ant. “I had studied in filmmaking and could not only write the music and lyrics with [guitarist and so-songwriter] Marco [Pirroni] but could do the storyboard for the video. I extended that to the vision for the music. When it came to making the video, it was more personalized and had a historic theme with the costumes. It paid off in the end.”

Ant took a break from touring in the late '80s and early '90s but went back on the road in 1993 and has steadily toured ever since.

“I got out of music when I felt like I had exhausted it," he explains. "I had my daughter Lily, and I needed a break. I really missed it. I came back to it for the right reasons. I found out that I could still move and still do the singing and could work on being a bit better.”

Ant released a new studio album, Adam Ant is the Blueback Hussar in Marrying the Gunnar’s Daughter, in 2013. He toured briefly behind it and was set to return to the States in 2020, but COVID wiped out those plans. As a result, he says he’s particularly excited for the upcoming tour that brings him to Akron. It marks his first U.S. trek in five years.

“After the pandemic and all the kicking the world has taken recently, I think everyone has had a bad time, I want to play my music and celebrate the catalog and some of the songs I haven’t played in a long time or at all,” he says. “There will be some new tracks on [the setlist]. It's a good show, and I’ll be playing the hits that I hope people can still groove to.”

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed