Xmas message

Just in case anyone browses by, I am on holiday until January, so there will be no posts till then.

Happy Xmas!

Come back in 2006 for Terry Lee Miall and more from Marco.
Maybe I can get some of the other Ants interested too, watch this space!

AM4SP!

Ant Gif(t) for you!

These pix and others can be found at AntFan.com





















I shall be adding more over xmas from my collection.

updated burundi mp3

Ok sorry, the previous mp3 of burundi was a remix that came out later, this is the original version

Marco addendum....

My memory's failing me, Burundi black isn't warriors of the drum speeded up, but if you play it at 45 you have c39 c60 c90 go.

This is the orginal album (which I still have) that the burundi beat comes from (well you know what I mean)
you would probably spot other familar vocal phases- Antmusic, Prince Charming etc.....

After thoughts by Mr Pirroni

Of course the real inspiration for the whole Ants/Bow wow wow thing was BURUNDI BLACK by BURUNDI BLACK, an astounding single that came out in the early 70s (i think)and a big favorite with skinheads.
I dont know anything about it except it seems to be the original recording of "warriors of the drum" played at 45 and overdubbed onto,remember this was at least 10/15 years before sampling was even thought of.

burundi black

It was on the SEX jukebox but didnt make it to the Sex album.
This is really where it all comes from, it was the record that Malcolm played to Adam and started the whole thing off.

Marco on Kings and Press Darlings

Today we have Marco's comments on Kings of the Wild Frontier and Press Darlings- enjoy!

Kings was played regularly right throughout your touring career with Adam, and was drummed up spectacularly with the 2 drummers on the wonderful tour. There are 2 versions of it- how much of a headache was it to record?

It took ages as we didnt really know what it was supposed to be, it has no real chourus or even very much music at all. Adam talked about it for ages and I listened, desperately trying to find a way into this idea and still have it be commerical. At one point we were thinking of working with John Kongas who had done Tokoloshe Man and "Hes gonna step on you again" which were records we both really liked. Adam also wanted to work with the drummers of "ipi tombei", I wished we had done, that would have been completely unexpected but we already had two drummers and the logistics were daunting. Now it would be easy but we had no experience in recording anything except in the standard way at that time.

What is it with Adam and Sausages- in version one on Antbox he has a middle line about "all that grunty and groany business isn't worth a sausage"- Ii hope he always meant to remove that line!??

Actually no he didn't, I loved that line, but the last part was too long and something had to go.

The video looks very cool even now and the song always sounds great when you play it loud and I have to admit it's one of my favourite Ants singles and many an Ant fan's too.

Press Darlings was played a bit too during 1980 and 81- the recorded version sounds pretty much as the Ants played in during 79. What were your thoughts about that as a song? Who chose to do it?

I thought it was ok, Adam wanted to do it as his comeback at the press but I thought it was giving them too much creedence and really who cares what they thought? Adam always wanted to be loved and I wanted to be hated (which did cause some problems) but we did it anyway. I thought the intro was a bit lackluste so I added that Elected/ dream home heartache/out of the blue type chord sequence on the front. But we never played it very well, it needed that staccatto attack that the old Ants had, we were too "wall of sound" to do that.

It had an Alice Cooper bit added too sometimes- Schools Out- who's idea to do that?

Probably mine, I always liked puting references to other songs in things, it was also was coz Alice was coming to a show in LA and we wanted to crawl to him coz we loved him. Lovely guy tho, really funny. It's weird when the people you idolized as a kid know your name and say Hello, and you just chat about muso things - "How longs the tour?", "Who's doing your sound?", "Here's my number lets do lunch", its still weird.

Tell me something I might not know about Kings.

It had a vocal intro that went "kings of the wild frontieeeeeer" or something, but it was rubbish and we elbowed it and wrote a new one.

Ants Family Tree

Ok this is one of the first scans from the collection of cuttings I have been amassing. I guess it was done by Pete Frame as he did all these. I don't know where this came from though I think it's from a book not a magazine. I have a larger A3 one of these from Sounds, when I can find a way to scan that I will.

**edit added, doh, it says Pete Frame bottom left corner, so yes it was done by him!**

Remasters

Today I am listening to the Remasters series, it really is a great box. I played Friend or Foe earlier and am on Strip now.
If you don't yet own this box set with the first 3 Ants Albums added to make 7 CDs, then how can you call yourself an Ant fan?
And AntBox. And B Side Babies.
Get those and you have almost the complete Ants output.

Oh look over there >>>>> links to those albums!!

What would be missing I hear you ask? Tsk! Ant fans know that already, but to remind you, well there are still a few Ant gems not on CD anywhere. Lady (the original 7" version). Apollo 9 Orbit Mix (I've always loved that version). Press Darlings, now whilst this isn't on either the Remasters or B Side Babies, it IS on Super Hits and US (and a few other foreign) versions of Kings. Plus the 12" mixes of Strip, Puss n Boots and Vive le Rock.

This is a fantastic idea in my opinion. Hopefully Sony are seriously considering it and will be able to do it like this. There have been a few singles box sets already- Duran Duran have 2, Blondie have one, Depeche Mode have 6! And this would eliminate those few missing b sides and remixes and have them all in 2 little boxes. If Duran Duran can do it, why can't the Ants?
Come on Sony!!

Me out for the day!

We are guilty! We are beyond hope! We beg to differ! We are a terminal case!

Press Darlings 31st Dec 1979

Press Darlings 22nd May 1980

We are guilty
We are beyond hope
We beg to differ
We are a terminal case

Press darlings, press darlings, press darlings
Press darlings, press darlings
We depress the press darlings

We're on the outside
But we're not looking in
We are the vaseline gang
We don't play your little games

Press darlings, press darlings, press darlings
Press darlings, press darlings
We depress the press darlings

And if evil be the food of genius
There aren't many demons around
If passion ends in fashion
Nick Kent is the best-dressed man in town

Are we different? - no
We are exactly the same
There are no boxes for us
The ones you love to hate - so read on!

Press darlings, press darlings, press darlings
Press darlings, press darlings
We depress the press darlings

And if evil be the food of genius
There aren't many demons around
If passion ends in fashion
Bushell is the best-dressed man in town
(You can say that again, the scruffy sod!)

Press darlings, press darlings, press darlings
Press darlings, press darlings

We depress -
Press darlings, press darlings, press darlings
Press darlings, press darlings

We are the press darlings
The press darlings
The press darlings
The press darlings

Press darlingssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!

(And they tell fibs!)

Nick Kent is a British rock critic.
Along with such luminaries as Charles Shaar Murray and Danny Baker, he was seen as one of the most important and influential music journalists of his time. He wrote for British music publication New Musical Express in the 1970s and 1980s and is the author of "The Dark Stuff".
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Kent) He still writes music pieces for the Guardian, for instance this piece Here He also wrote some fairly scathing criticisms of the Ants between 1977 and 1979 (of which I shall endeavour to post up here when the website is up and running and I have scanned it!)

Garry Bushell is a British television critic, television presenter, and newspaper columnist. He most famously wrote for The Sun before leaving in 2001 as a result of a dispute whereby Bushell let the rival tabloid newspaper The Daily Star serialize his book.
He began his career in the late 1970s, writing for the left wing newspaper Socialist Worker, then music magazine Sounds in the early 1980s, covering the punk genre. Bushell's website claims that he started Oi!, a movement derived from punk. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Bushell)
He also annoyed Adam with some of his writings for Sounds during the 1970s.

Kings!

James Maw chapter 19

Before they went on tour, Adam and Marco got their dream, they recorded the Kings Of The Wild Frontier single and Press Darlings at Matrix Studios.
Kings turned out to be a ‘real bugger of a song to record’. Something was missing. Adam and Marco had gone over the lyrics again and again and knew that they were sound, but somehow it just wasn’t coming together in the studio. It was just a whole lot of drums ‘with all this shouting’ - as Marco described it.
Adam and Marco turned up with the tape at Jordan’s basement flat in Hyde Park Square and played it (Kings first version) to her and Mandy Donahoe, alias Jayne Vincent, the Ants make up artist. They both looked at each other and knew that it was nowhere near the mark.
‘I think it’s awful,’ said Jordan, bitterly disappointed. The song just didn’t gel, the voice wasn’t right, it wasn’t punchy enough.
So they went back to the studio and recorded it all over again. All in all it took seventy hours to record. The next version they played to her was ‘the one’.
They decided to do a private show at John Henry’s Studio, as an unveiling of the band for their friends. It was to be the first time the new band would be on stage together.
Jordan and Adam got a cab to John Henry’s, and on the way they got a puncture. They just looked at each other and began to sing Cartrouble. They ran through the pouring rain, that always seems to be about on these occasions, and arrived at the small studio. There were about thirty people there.
The Ants played the whole thing like a real gig. Adam was out to prove to everyone that it could be done and that their faith had been taken on good trust. Everyone was impressed and taken aback because it was a new sound being punched out. It wasn’t the old Adam anymore. It wasn’t the bloke who had always seemed introverted, he was writing stronger lyrics.
Everyone said to each other afterwards ‘He’s done it!’
The whole thing had come together quickly. He’d been over to Bernam and Nathan’s, the theatrical costumiers, and got a new jacket. From the moment he walked in he knew exactly what he wanted. He spoke to Charles David Whiteing who worked there and described the type of thing he wanted. Whiteing came up with a jacket, which had last been worn by David Hemmings in The Charge Of The Light Brigade. Adam hired it for the tour.

The band were all incredibly enthusiastic, it was their first tour together, for Kevin it was his first time on stage. He spent the preceding weeks learning to play the bass. After hours and hours of talking with friends long into the night, Adam felt sure that he had all the details of the band correct. On several occasions he had got through a whole box of tea bags in one sitting, designing the make up, and discussing the lyrics.
‘Do It single, put the band together, plan the tour, record the single, go on the road, and then hope that some record company would come and see the bloody band and want to sign!’
The tour began in London, on home ground at The Electric Ballroom. It was filled with the faithful and the curious, and those who though it would be a disaster and good for a laugh.
They looked great, Adam was the most athletic he had been for years. The new songs shined out and the ballroom began to move. Adam soon discovered exactly how powerful the songs were that night. A lot of the earlier Ants songs were a bit repetitive in mood and didn’t need so much emotion or vocal finesse as these did. The songs had become vocally a little bit more of a strain, so Adam had to discover for himself a happy medium where he could still look good and move but also sing as well. If you do too much you can get in a state vocally, so he was learning to get it all together, and conserving energy when he could. The band looked and sounded more invincible than any that had appeared in England for a long time.












Antz Invasion Tour 1980 dates:
May 18th 1980 - London (John Henry's PA Company)
May 22nd 1980 - Electric Ballroom, London
May 23rd 1980 - High Wycombe Town Hall
May 24th 1980 - Manchester Polytechnic
May 25th 1980 - Birmingham Top Rank
May 27th 1980 - Stateside, Bournemouth
May 28th 1980 - Tiffanys, Bristol
May 29th 1980 - St. Georges Hall, Bradford
Jun 1st 1980 - Valentinos, Edinburgh
Jun 2nd 1980 - Maryatt Hall, Dundee
Jun 4th 1980 - Top Rank, Sheffield (support - Martian Dance)
Jun 5th 1980 - King Georges Hall, Blackburn
Jun 6th 1980 - Cleopatras, Huddersfield (Riot in crowd)
Jun 7th 1980 - Leicester University
Jun 8th 1980 - Empire Ballroom, London (support - Dave Berry & the Cruisers) (Jap A.N.T.S. boot LP)








The pics used here can be bought (for a whacking great sum mind!) from Photorockstar

A New Royal Family

The first proper Ants single with the Marco era Ants gets the mp3 treatment today. Coming soon, Marco's comments on both these songs and more blog about them!

Kings Sheps Bush 22 march 1995
Kings Japan 1981
Press Darlings Japan 1981

Something for the girls and certain boys...

Adam appeared in the October 1984 edition of The Face magazine in their RUDE section, stars appearing semi nude.
This is his pic. Click on it to see larger version (as I'm sure you'll all do hehe)

Nice t shirt!

More Adam and Jordan pics

Thanks to Andrew from Only Anarchists Are Pretty here are 2 more rare Adam and Jordan pics from the same event as the pic below.









Click on them to see larger versions.

Adam and Jordan pic from new Sex Pistols Rex Features book

C30 C60 C90 GO!

Today I am posting the first Bow wow wow single- C30 C60 C90 GO! and it's b side Sun Sea and Piracy.
In the race to get a first single out with the burundi beat, Bow Wow Wow won with this. They're great little tracks and of course feature the fantastic drumming of mr Dave Barbarossa.

C30 C60 C90 GO!

Sun, Sea and Piracy

Bow Wow Wow!

Coming later this week.......

This lot:

A new set of mp3s for your delight......

Mooney, Miall and Mantra II!

I have some hot exclusive news from Mantra II, (These Guys )

We can today release some most excellent news for fans of Mantra II, and Adam & The Ants.

It has now been confirmed that the Mantra-Ant link will strengthen upon the release of the album “Werewolves of London”, available March 2006.

And here’s the buzz: Terry Lee Miall and Kevin Mooney will record together for the first time in 24 years as they guest on an all new Mantra II track to be included on the album. (Track title yet to be announced).

The recording sessions will take place from December 3rd 2005.

Werewolves of London was originally planned to be a single, however the production of the animated promo has taken longer than estimated.

We have recorded more tracks in the mean time so we thought, “what the hell, album no. 2!” This album will be focussed on the punk/post punk/new romantic sound that Mantra II have developed, whereas “This is called Fantasy” was more of a mix of ideas.
Formulative if you like. (But still fab!)

Two tracks which have very much crossed over will be included on the new album:
The “Single Version” of Werewolves of London (featuring Marco P. And Chris Constantinou of course) and (Chant) Mantra 2 (Carty’s brand new “Filthy” mix on which he has totally re-recorded the music and used his magic to mix it with Catboy’s original vocals)

The album should total 12 tracks. All up-tempo punk/post punk-pop which will appeal to generation x’ers and millennium trash alike.

We will release some snippets and stuff for the careful perusal/reviewing-ness of Music For a Future Age & Carty's Site when we get closer to release date.

M2 over and out for now.

Mantra 2's debut album This is called Fantasy is available on Amazon.co.uk (Here) and on Amazon.com (Here) , and to buy in all good music stores!

And keep your feet off the upholstery Ronnie!

Ok, today is the final post about Cartrouble and Kick.
We have Marco's thoughts on them and I will post some more mp3s of both songs later in the week, so watch this space. Cartrouble and Kick are both well loved Ant songs and Kick especially always sounds great live with the 2 drummers pounding away, even if it does give the singer and guitar player a right headache!

Coming soon, Kings of the Wild Frontier, but for now, Marco on the first truly great sounding Ant single.

Mini Marco interview:

Me:
Tell me about the making of Cartrouble and Kick, why you chose those songs, and what you did to make them what they were- they were the first to feature the prominent drumming (with Jon Moss). Was it a test before you went to make Kings?

Marco:
Yeah that's exactly what it was especially kick. Cartrouble didn't really lend itself to that, we just did a souped version of that, I liked the original version but it was a bit stark which is what they were going for, but i thought we could do a bigger sounding version.

Who's idea was it to do the 2 drum bits on Kick?

Adam's, But Chris worked it all out and Jon played it.

What role did Chris Hughes play?

He produced it, we told him our ideas and what we wanted to archive and he organized our thoughts into practical actions, for instance I had that Chinese two note chord riff in my head but I didn't know where to put it, Chris said put it in the third verse and outro.

What did you think of Jon Moss and his drum bits?

Jon was great, no problems with him at all, but we thought something wasn't right but couldn't put our finger on it, I still don't know exactly what was up but he wasn't well.

Why did Adam change the lyrics to Kick?

He never liked the original lyrics and wanted to start using the new lyrical ideas he had.

And what do you think of both songs now?

I still like Cartrouble but I don't like the mix on Kick.

Thanks as always to Marco for his time.

Addition: For some reason I got 2 emails off Marco, one went to my spam folder for some reason, and I only just saw it. Here's what he said in the other mail! :

We chose Cartrouble because it was my fav track off Dirk and I couldn't understand why it was in two parts, Adam chose Kick because he had never liked the lyrics and it was short enough to stick an intro and new middle 8 into.
These sessions was the first time we had ever met Chris Hughes. The story of how he came to be involved is long and too complicated to go into here, and I didnt even know it, till a few months ago till he told me.
The week before we went into the studio I was in bed with food poisioning so I had never even met Ian or Max at that point.
Jon was a friend of mine so I think I must have given Adam the number and he called him. Unbeknownst to me Jon had been having "problems" but to honest we never noticed, but he later told me that there were funny things going on in his head ,but he played great and was his normal good natured self.

Thats all we have time for today as I must go as I ve got some rissoloes on the stove!

More Cartrouble and Kick

Cartrouble Electric Ballroom 22nd May 1980

Kick Electric Ballroom 22nd May 1980

Ok it's quietened down a little here, I've been watching the entire LOST series on dvd and I thought perhaps I should slow it down a bit.
The DVD will be with us soon and Carty will soon have his new Marco interview ready to read on his website.
In the meantime, here for your pleasure are 2 more live versions of Cartrouble and Kick from the first gig of the Ants Invasion tour 1980.

Coming soon a few more mp3s and then onto Kings. And Marco's comments about Cartrouble and Kick. This single was the first pairing of Adam and Marco and the first use of the Burundi influenced double drums, and was made before they were able to go and record their first masterpiece, Kings of the Wild Frontier.

Carty remix appears on DMC DJ ONLY Remix Package CD!

Carty's Rachel Stevens vs Adam remix has been included on the November 2005 issue of the DMC DJ Only remix package.
It's the opening track on the 2nd CD of Issue 264 of their Commercial Collection.

DMC WORLD.COM

This is a great remix, and has already been featured on a blog like this (And in fact it was that blog posting that inspired me to start this one!)

We were all amazed to hear the original song at first because it is SO Adam and the Ants it's unreal!
Marco has also heard the remix and gave it the thumbs up!

Carty:
DMC have been producing remixes and mixes for DJ's in their clubs and on their radio shows since 1983.
They invented the word "megamix".
The way it works is this, DJ's all over the world subscribe to DMC (Disco Mix Club) to recieve these mixes every month. They have to pay for the priviledge. Back ten years ago I was paying £20/month.
Sometimes, these mixes gain so much interest that the record companies (who also recieve them) release the odd track. Some have been chart hits as remixes.
Some get to #1 (but that was by another UK DJ remix organisation).
The remixers featured on these albums are all big names in the club/DJ world and getting on them is tough.
I asked Marco if either of the two UK organisations had contacted him or Sony for permission to do a mix like the one I had just completed. He said no, but added why not send mine in.

Edit: Sorry I thought this was a magazine, it's not.
I am being spanked at the moment!

Push Push Push PUSH!!

The first thing to do now was to get straight into the studio, not to record all the new ideas he and Marco had, but to get themselves free of the Do It deal. Adam was only contracted for one more single, when that was done he would be free to build everything up from the beginning again. Things had been getting a little fraught at Do It; there were many disputes, mainly about sales figures. The company and the artist no longer saw eye to eye. The trust had gone.
Kings Of The Wild Frontier would have to wait. They had to decide upon a number and chose Cartrouble from the Do It Dirk album, the pair of them would rework it. Less than three weeks after their meeting in the cake shop, Adam and Marco were in Rockfield Studios recording. It was a good start to their relationship, there is no substitute for having to get on and do something. They had two days to record Cartrouble and Kick, and Marco had never heard the songs before.
They needed a producer. Falcon Stewart had been producer as well as manager for X-Ray Spex, but in this instance he didn’t want to take up the controls. He was a busy man, looking after several acts, and anyway he thought it better that someone more involved with Adam should do it. Chris Hughes was ‘luckily’ around at the time, working with Do It. They asked him to produce, and in the course of recording Cartrouble he also became the drummer, now known as Merrick.
Adam was the first one into the studio when they began and he put down the bass line and a rhythm machine. Then Marco walked in and said, ‘It’s not good enough,’ and recorded the bass line again himself. Marco did all the guitars on the record while Adam sat in the gallery. It was a good sound. If you play the version on the album, then lift off the needle and play the single - you could hardly compare the two. The first begins with a standard thump thump thump in just the way a million and one other songs do, the type of technique which is totally unmusical and treats the listener as if he’s an idiot, having to tell him again and again what the rhythm is. The recording with Marco however is a whole different ball game. The guitars are strong, and Adam’s voice is that of someone who’s determined to win. It’s the first piece of the warrior voice of Adam Ant. When he sang ‘Push Push Push’ before, it was like an upward struggle with a wet fish.

James Maw chapter 19

Car, Car Car Trouble!!!

Coming very soon.........More Cartrouble and Kick mp3s and Marco's comments......

oh, ah! Where were you, 22nd March 1995?

oh
ah

Whip in my Valise

Here for today is chapter 17 of the James Maw Book.
And here also are 2 Whip in my Valise live mp3s:
Whip Ealing College 10th June 1978

Whip Electric Ballroom 31 Dec 1979

SEVENTEEN: ‘XEROX’

As soon as they were back from the gigs in Berlin, Adam decided they should go on tour again, playing nearly all the places they had covered on Parisians. The Xerox Tour was practically a carbon copy of the tour before. They had established a firm following in the North and West, which he wanted to keep. Dave Barbe’s wife, Mandy, had taken charge of the fan club, which had grown to two thousand, she invented the character of Brenda the secretary and wrote to everyone under this guise. The 1978 gig’s had been very ‘bitty’. This wasn’t going to happen any more. No longer would they support anybody, and if anyone supported them, they were to get better treatment than The Ants had frequently received. This was a decision Adam had taken way back in ‘77. They had supported Generation X at Kings College and had been kept waiting seven hours for a sound check, and they decided then that they would never treat a support band like that. No more. Adam went into Do It and said:
‘Right, let’s stop all this beating about the bush.’
He designed another hand out for the fans, printed off lyrics and information. He made a set of designs of what he was going to be wearing on stage.
The tour began with the release of the single Zerox/Whip In My Valise on July 6th, and then dates in Retford, Birmingham, Newport, Leeds, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bradford, York, Liverpool, Middlesborough, Jacksdale, Swansea, Exeter, Plymouth, Port Talbot, Newport and London. Seventeen dates in twenty-four days. Some of the places they played, however, were still the pits, places like Circles, Swansea and Plymouth Woods.
The worst gig of Adam’s life was the one on this tour when they played Plymouth Woods. He was wearing a new type of make-up, which was like a multi-coloured camouflage all over his face. It was the most gruesome of make-up schemes, which made him look as if he’d been mining in a greasepaint factory. The ceiling was very low over the stage with great vicious looking beams at angles. During the second number Adam’s head cracked against a beam and his head split open with a very deep cut. Adam continued to sing but the blood started to flow over his face. Everyone thought it was a stunt, all part of his shocking make-up. He turned round and looked at Andy Warren, Andy went completely white. Adam cupped his hands and they filled with blood, it would not stop, the lights were keeping the wound open. As soon as the gig was over they drove him off in the van to a little hospital in the middle of nowhere. He sat on a chair in casualty waiting for a doctor. When the doctor arrived he walked in to see a young man, covered in blood, with make-up all over his face and wearing a blue kilt.
He looked at Adam and said ‘Don’t tell me, the Martians have landed’.
Adam was losing consciousness a little. He heard a nurse say,‘What’s your name?’ and Dave Barbe replying:
‘His name is Mr. Ant’
As they laid him down he could hear them all laughing. They were whispering, thinking that he couldn’t hear, but as he lay looking up at the little Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck designs on the ceiling he heard the doctor say:
‘Nurse, I think this is a bit deep, a bit nasty, and I think we’re going to have to have a local anesthetic’, and the nurse replied:
‘We haven’t got any. ’
‘Well, Mr. Ant, this is going to hurt a bit’, said the doctor. Adam thought the whole thing so bizarre that he didn’t really feel anything. He just remembers the feeling of his ears moving upwards as they stitched the top of his head together.
After that, he had had enough of the ‘toilets’ - no more clubs, no more awful venues. In future everything was to be better organised.

I'm a Zerox Machine!!

How often have we felt like that?
Never? No, me either, though I've had days stuck in front of a Zerox Machine photocopying ad infinitum!!

Here for your pleasure are 2 mp3s of Zerox:

Zerox New Year's Eve 1979 Electric Ballroom London

Zerox 22nd May 1980 Electric Ballroom London

One's the old Ants on their last gig, and one is with the New Ants on their first date of the Ants Invasion Tour.

Enjoy!

I'm a Zerox Machine!!

Coming this week!

I shall also put up the NME and Sounds reviews of Young Parisians later tonight, by Julie Burchill and Gary Bushell no less! (I'm not sure if Melody Maker reviewed Young Parisians, couldn't find it in my notes but I'll have another looky later). I'll also add a few live reviews from 77 and 78 too.

Here for today is the first Ants feature by Jane Suck from Sounds 1977!

Whip In My Valise: Adam and the Ants
Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 10 December 1977

The angel Gabriel sent me to give you a little bit of sympathy...’('Plastic Surgery')
THE ANTS, like my other perversion the Banshees, are what it must be like at the world’s edge when they’ve just give the four minute warning and fall out’s imminent: everybody else in sight fornicating their way to oblivion and "these geeks in make-up and fancy threads" (Do you know what Jordan is wearing these days? Soft woolies and a tweed skirt. Oh yeah!! Does Seditionaries sell handbags yet? No, no, no) picking their way through the bones and rubble for a gig. Aw, the audience are dead anyway, fiction or non-fiction.
The Ants introduced their greatest fan, he follows them everywhere and dresses in Roxy binliner circa January ’77 (remember 1977) style. But my heart broke when I saw the jerk banging his head against thin air... he never looked at the stage once, only waiting for the moment when he could jump up on the stage and obscure Adam Ant (bet that moniker gave you a laugh, sweetie) from view and be a marionette for five minutes.
YES, I AM SITTING on the Berlin Wall but I believe in rock ‘n’ roll in its natural environment should be 75% visual and 25% heart-wrenching music. Clue: when I crawled into town at the beginning of the year I’d seen — count ’em — three gigs. I was into reading the music papers, album sleeves and catching the odd gem (Bowie, Roxy Music) on TV. Within a month I’d seen every "hip" punk (punk? spunk) band in existence and I was so bored I developed nasty habits just in the hope the audience would go away and let the film begin!
Then I saw the Banshees and, well, you old voyeur... logical conclusion was to check out their favourite support band, the Ants. More "obviously" manic than Sioux and boys, the Ants two front runners, Adam and Jordan, went to exhaustive lengths to ensure that you got that fact out of the drink and their way: Adam with his rippling muscles and tattoos was a welcome departure from the wasted punies littering the circuit.
Adam was also very good-looking and knew it. I like natural-self-love; you just got to learn how to manipulate it without ending up in a corner making pretty faces at yourself. Jordan — now, here was the original "shocker": up in the train from Sussex to ‘Sex’ every day in fish-net stockings, black leather and bee-hive hair, when you were still hiding your stack heels in the wardrobe. Anyway, Jordan got me out of the drunk’s closet... er, bog at the Nashville with one ear-shattering yelp. So many goldfish in their bowls...couldn’t even hate the band. I stared then — later (the ####), I’d be poking the jerk’s eyes out and generally making their lives a misery. "You’re so violent!" I screamed at Adam.
Want me to stop jiving and lay the esoteric stuff on you? It’s easy but it isn’t the Ants. Articles in the music press don’t change minds — look at all the nothing bands we’ve laid on you this year along. Hardly number one with a bullet, and outside London it’s mostly ‘So what?’ not ‘Who taught you to torture?’ (‘Whip In My Valise’). I mean, the other side of "rock" can be dangerous, hon, if you forget it’s surrogate celluloid and soundtrack and attempt to live it — you won’t be walking those streets too long. Where else could a guy like Adam say:
One day, girlI’m gonna straightenyou outgonna stopyour mealsMaybe I’ll sew up yourmouth...’('Fat Fun')
or let’s really get the bile flowing, uh?
Want to describemy special punishment roomover my garage.There’s a whipping post and a vertical beamyou have to be in charge...('Whip In My Valise')
Did that get you off? What would you do if Adam jumped out of his cage at the high school hop and demanded with bared teeth that you hit him? Go home with the boyfriend and think what you’re going to have to surrender this time — Life can be made much better for you:
...miracles do notcome cheepGonna take you downto Harley Street
('Whip In My Valise')
Freaked out, darling? I doubt it. Would you rather hear Jordan talk about her pet subject armadilloes and how the ants will be the last remaining life force on earth? Who wants a private party?
DID I forget to tell you what the band SOUNDED like? (Wired up).
Did I forget to let them speak? Actually Adam did his definitive interview in Ripped and Torn explaining his influences and motivation (sexual of course) behind all those "nasty" little songs like 'Deutscher Girls':
Remember the curlsOf the Deutscher GirlsCamp 49way down on the Rhine
and the neo-classic ‘Whip In My Valise’ (cut my right hand off for not thinking of a title like that — sulk):
I’m just a bundle of misery since you kicked my cheekbones in...
oh, oh, oh...love to see the vicious ‘Plastic Surgery’ as a single. But hold on, here comes Adam himself with his posters (collages of S/M photographs and juicy extracts) and ‘Meet The Ants’ — how sweet. Whip it on ’em, Jim:
WINKLEANDWATSON (BASSANT) — 5’ 7"/ dark greasy hair. Likes: Maxine/armpits/Dirk Bogarde/Velvets. Dislikes: everybody else except the Banshees.
DAVE ‘BARBE’ BRILLIANT (DRUMMERANT) — 5’ 8"/black hair. Likes: a new drumkit/The Ants/Bowie’s snare. Dislikes: everybody else except the Banshees.
JOHNNY BIVOUAC (GUITARANT) — 6’ 1" blonde hair. Likes: Dislikes: everybody else except the banshees.
ADAMANT (ANTVOICE) — 5’ 7"/Brown hair. Likes: Dirk Bogarde/short black things/sex. Dislikes: everybody else except the Banshees.
JORDAN (MANAGER) — 5’ 2" /silver hair 6 with brown grey/black). Likes: Glen Campbell/The Ants/rhinoes/spotty-dog/doing Aqua-Marinas on tables: Dislikes: everybody else except the Banshees and especially the new Lou Reed and his games (as can be heard on the Ants’ opus ‘Lou’).
Finally, words of encouragement for future fans: "As long as the music’s loud enough they won’t hear the world falling apart..."
© Vivien Goldman, 1977

1987 Fan Club appearance

In 1987 Adam made his only appearance so far at a Convention/ Disco. He turned up with a guitar and played 3 songs. Here is an mp3 of all 3 songs he played (Juanito the Bandito, Young Parisians and Never Trust a Man (with Egg on his Face)). I'm afraid that it's a big file and also not THAT good quality, I am seeking out better, but this will have to do for now!

Anyway, enjoy!

Just a small post for now about this "blog"

I've slowly come to realise that this blog site is the book I keep saying I want to write about the Ants. It's a way for me to get out of my system all the little things I want to say about Adam and the Ants. I could still write a book, but it seems to me that that needs a LOT of spare time that I just don't have. This however takes minutes to do, and is easy. I have lots of bits of research stuck away on an A4 pad, I've been researching the music press, and have a fair old collection of stuff myself bought off the evil ebay!
So think of this as reading my book in progress!
At the moment on here I am focussing on each single as it was written and posting live/ alternate versions of those (with the occasional tangent of a new remix as they appear simply because for me remixes of Ant tunes are a new way of hearing the song. I'd do my own remixes if i had the patience, but alas I do not, to sit for hours putting them together like Carty does (and others) would drive me to distraction. Writing is my thing. So I shall keep posting away on here bits and bobs, and write about the Ants and the music I love, and also include Marco's thoughts when he has them and if I'm lucky who knows, I may even get another Ant or two to speak to me.
At the moment I am playing AntBox for the first time in ages, and I love it! I was unhappy that a few of the B Sides had been missed off when I first got it, and to be honest I still think that it misses out on those gems, Beat My Guest, Christian Dior, Friends, Fall In, Red Scab, Juanito the Bandito, Press Darlings, Greta X- those are an important part of the Ants early history and the re-done versions with Marco on feedbacking guitar are FANTASTIC! But never mind, it just means you HAVE to go buy B Side Babies (or have all the singles like a real Ant Fan does!*)

Anyway, I am having a lot of fun with this! And I have a LOT of very cool stuff to scan and post up on the webspace I bought- the Fantastic Adventures of Adam Ant from TOP comic, the many poster magazines, Look In articles and pics, and a TON of cuttings and pics. So I hope that you all enjoy seeing and reading and hearing all this stuff. Welcome to my Antbook online!!

(* If you're a REAL Antfan, you have EVERYTHING! And if you're a magpie like me and my Babe Aimee then you have everything else too!)

ps thanks go to Caroline Richards and Gordon Moss for being kind enough to lend me articles and other stuff that I don't yet have, Carty for the great website that is an inspiration and what a good Ant website shound be, and also special mention to Adam Ant Net and Ant Lib websites which both in their day were bloody good sites too. I like to think that I and Carty at least are carrying on some of their good work and doing perhaps what they may have intended to do but for one reason or another didn't get round to doing. Antlib is being overhauled so let's hope we see it as good as it was before soon! Remember, it's all about the passion for the music imo.

More Parisians live

Young Parisians 1981

Young Parisians/ Strip San Juan 1993

Here as promised are 2 more live mp3s, one is the Marco era Ants performing Young Parisians, and the other is the little tease I mentioned Adam performing at San Juan in 1993.
Enjoy!

Young Berliners

Once again we have Marco Pirroni's thoughts, here on Young Parisians, Lady, Zerox and Whip in my Valise. Marco wasn't part of the Ants when these were released, but seeing as we can't ask Adam (And I would LOVE to ask Adam!), this is the next best thing! Enjoy!

I'm not sure what to say about Young Parisians, I never really liked it, it's not very funny and it's not very good. I don't know why Adam wanted to release it or why Decca let him (I have my own theories but i won't go into them now).

Lady's ok but I never wanted to play it.

I thought Xerox sounded great but it isn't that great a song, though it's fun to play live.

As for "whip" I thought it was dated S+M punk imagery when it came out and a bit naff really.
I don't dislike it but I never wanted to play that either.

I'm generally ambivalent to the Ants recorded output before I joined, on the few occasions that Adam mentioned Young Parisians he just said "what was I thinking?
If he doesn't know then there's not much chance of the rest of us understanding it!

"The Deal"

This is from Chapter 13 of the James Maw Adam Ant Official Biography from 1981, which until now has been the only biography of Adam and the Ants. I will add more Young Parisians Reviews later.

If you take a Southern Region train to Victoria you will pass over one of the largest railway stations in the world. Clapham Junction.
It’s a maze of old tracks and dead railway buildings, and right in the midst of it is an enormous crescent-shaped place that looks abandoned. In large letters on the side it says DECCA. It is not an inspiring recommendation for their label; rather, it expresses in brick and steel the image that most people had of the company in 1978.
The Decca record company had been for some time in decline, they didn’t even have an A & R department: that worthy body of company men that actually go out and see new bands, and can always be seen at forty-five degree angles to the bar being abetted by the music press. But in 1978 they started up a department under the leadership of two men, Mike Smith and Frank Hodges.
One of their first ports of call was The Marquee where the ‘Ants’ were doing their Thursday night residency. They were immediately impressed. They thought The Ants were a more appealing version of The Banshees and, moreover that they were the absolute best of the new crop of bands.
They approached The Ants manager at Megalovision, Howard Malin, and offered him the standard contract of two singles and an album.
Adam was very dubious. Decca was a unknown quantity, it was run by two men both in their eighties called Bill Townsley and Sir Edward Lewis. Adam decided that they should sign but because he didn’t trust them he had a clause built into the contract, which meant all the demo time would be his and he would own the tapes. (Bands do not just go into a company and record one single at a time; they are made to spend a long time in the studio recording all their material as demo tapes for the company)
There were only five people in the company who liked the band; everyone else thought it a waste of time to have signed them. So Howard Maplin had the idea of organizing a trip for all the Decca executives to see the band play live. This was bound to do the trick, since the concerts were electric and the audiences enthusiastic. They had a strong following at this time and Adam was often up all night replying personally to every fan letter he received.
The executives were bought to see them during a gig underneath the arches in Battersea, just a few yards up the track from the cataleptic Decca building: ‘Three thousand punks crushed to death in a rush of wheelchairs leaving.’ It was a bizarre night, which only increased the gulf between the young and the old.
Adam decided upon the single that they would record. The release of Young Parisians caused quite a lot of fuss. It was hated by the press and many of the fans and associates of the band alike. The choice of their first single is a crucial decision for a band, because as soon as you are on record it can be one step further away from your fans. The friends of a band, naturally, get very excited about the first pressing, seeing their band ‘ Make It’, so it becomes a kind of fulfillment of a promise. Much has been said about the release of Young Parisians, the simple fact is this: Adam intended it to be a double A side with Lady. ‘But they did the dirty on me and they made Parisians the A side.’
Adam found the whole experience of Decca a bit strange. He found it ridiculous that every cheque and pound note had to be passed by an old man upstairs. The last band that they’d really worked with was in the sixties. He found it an archaic company in which not much happened. They wouldn’t ‘get in behind the band’. That’s partly the reason why he gave them ‘Parisians’ because he didn’t really trust them with any of his other work.
This he came to regret, the fact that he didn’t put out his strongest product at the time, because ‘Parisians’ was obviously a joke. Adam was concerned that people thought of them as a ‘four-four kind of crash, bang, wallop band’. He thought ‘Parisians’ was the last thing people expected, which was the most important thing at that stage for him. People were making their minds up about The Ants too much and too regularly.
Together, ‘Parisians’ and Lady could be called songs for voyeurs. A great many of Adam’s lyrics have to do with watching or looking, or one image being copied by another, as in Zerox. This was obviously part of the legacy of having been a designer, the fascination with isolated images, or one image upon another. ‘Parisians’ is a fairly subversive song that is posed as a ballad. Voyeurism is the theme of decadence, of Berlin, of dark clubs and atmospheres. The theme of Lady is that Adam is being sexually assaulted through his eyes by an unmoving naked lady whom he has discovered by chance, in a very surreal way, in a corridor somewhere, perhaps in a dream. It’s a vision of life that is always expectant of sudden sexual encounter. It’s the type of song which is likely to be raped in the foyer of a respectable banking company. The lyrics of someone molested in the photocopying room by a very ordinary, straight-laced secretary. In Lady Adam is the one doing the watching. The whole plot is tantalisingly perverse.
The reviewers of the music press however were not really prepared to listen at all. Sounds printed a review, which ran:
‘Laugh? I nearly split my bondage trousers. Good old Adam. He’s at last dumped all that punk outrage and gone onto punk singalongs extolling the virtues of Paris. Maybe it’s his way of conning a French promoter into bringing his band over.’

Young Parisians

Young Parisians are so French
They love Patti Smith
Young Parisians are so French
At the Champs d'elysee

I want to go to Paris with you
Just to see what the French boys do
Why don't you come to Paris with me?
And see the Young Parisians

Young Parisians are so French
They sit on the metro
Young Parisians are so French
Not like me and you

I want to go to Paris with you
Just to see what the French boys do
Why don't you come to Paris with me?
And see the Young Parisians

Alors... et maintenant:

I want to go to Paris with you
Just to see what the French boys do to you
Why don't you come to Paris with me?
And see the Young Parisians

Young Parisians are so French
They're always called Dubois
Young Parisians are so French
Talk nothing but French

I want to go to Paris with you
Just to see what the French boys do
Why don't you come to Paris with me?
And see the Young Parisians

They're so French
They're so French
They're so French
Ah-ooh

Young Parisians

Young Parisians Ealing College 10th June 1978

Lady Ealing College 10th June 1978

Perhaps showing how much of a joke Adam thought Young Parisians was (He said he gave it to Decca to be released as a first single to test them, to see how they handled it) it was never played very much live. I have found this great little recording of it from the Rock Against Racism gig played in June 1978, where Lady also comes from. Lady (Adam meant this to be a double A side with Young Parisians but Decca made it simply the B side) was played quite a few times until the Marco Era Ants, and it has as far as I can tell never been played by that incarnation.

Young Parisians was given 2 airings by the Marco era Ants in 1981 at the Dominion Theatre London on the Stand and Deliver Tour, then in 1993 at the San Juan gig on the Persuasion Tour, Adam played the first few bars before singing part of Strip instead. I doubt many casual Ants fans know of Young Parisians (and it sounds like the audience at San Juan didn't know it either!) though it appears rather bizarrely on quite a few Punk Compilations! Adam also performed Young Parisians as part of his 3 song set at the fan club gig in 1986. Later in the week I will post the San Juan "performance" and the fan club gig too!

Anyway, ENJOY!!

PANZER MADCHEN!

In September 2004 Marco Pirroni and Carty collaborated on their first song together- Panzer Madchen. It's the Deutscher Girls riff as played by Marco and edited and put together by Carty, with some remixing and cutting up and pasting and all that clever stuff that remixers do! It also features bass by Chris Constantinou (Ex De Niro, who is also part of The Wolfmen with Marco).

Carty talking about Panzer can be found here

I asked Marco for his take on Panzer, and this is what he said:

The story of Panzer Machden isn't very interesting, but if you really wanna know, I'll tell ya.

I was sitting around having a bit of writers block playing Adam's guitar, and whenever I play one of Adam's Telecasters I start playing the Deutcher Girls riff which I have never played live and I don't even know how the rest of the song goes, but I like that bit.

So out of sheer boredom I turned it into this track, but I didn't know how to finish it or even what to do with it, so I thought I know I'll send it to Chris Carty, he's good with things like this so I cut it all up and uploaded the files to him and he re-assembled it and added more stuff then sent it back and I added more stuff and sent it back to him and so on and so forth.

This was the first time I had ever worked with somebody who wasn't in the same room or even in the same country, but its not as strange as you might think, I didn't know it was the first time he had ever worked with live instuments and apart from a franky awful bassline that he actually played, he did rather well.
It was intended to be the first of "Ant tracks" that I have never played before but as yet we haven't done another one . I'd like to as it's fun and I can't think of any other way of playing this stuff now. So I'm just waiting for Carty to have an idea.

It's quite frankly yet another tasteless, immature, irresponsible, offensive and silly flirtation with Nazi Imagery, I cannot justify it in any way at all, except to say that I don't it think glorifies Nazism anymore than Freddie Star's impersonation of Hitler does.
It's about as political as an episode of Hogans Heros.
If you would like to debate whether watching "Cabaret" is the same as condoning industrialized mass murder then I would suggest you do it amongst yourselves and leave me out of it, coz I don't really care what you think anyway.

So, if you haven't been and downloaded it yet, here is the link to mix 1.

Panzer Madchen mix 1

There are 2 more remixes, if you go to Carty's page above, you will find links to those too.

Enjoy!

Desperate But Not Serious (Delirious remix)

Hot off the press, ANOTHER Carty remix!
This is the last track of volume 8 of Carty's remixes.

Desperate But Not Serious Delirious Remix






Coming later this week

EXCLUSIVE TO THIS BLOG SITE!

Remixer extraordinare Carty has donated a brand new EXCLUSIVE remix of The Lavender Pill Mob's "It Dosn't Matter" to this site It Dosn't Matter Alpha Remix

Over to Carty:

For those who don't know already, the Lavender Pill Mob consist of ex-Adam And The Ants bassist Kevin Mooney and ex-Renegade Soundwave person Gary Asquith. They have just released their second album, Mikes Bikes on their own label, www.lecoqmusique.com. The stand out track on that album for me is "It Dosn't Matter". It has no connection to the Ant track with a similar title. In fact, it is spelt slightly differently! But I felt it lacked in the production department and had a lot more to offer, so I suggested to Gary that I'd like to try my hand at remixing it. He seemed interested in hearing it, so I set about ripping it apart, bit by bit. I created three remixes and this is the first and main one which I've called the Alpha Remix. It still retains the fantastic opening riff, but I've programmed some brand new funky drums, added some new deeper bass and a mellow string section to accompany the "ahhhs".There's a also a slight acid groove in there and a slight hint at some scratching too. But this is close to how I would have liked the track to sound, even if it is a little longer. But what's new eh?

Remember the curls.........

Deutscher Girls Dec 31st 1979 Electric Ballroom London

We'll do the tango
We'll try the foxtrot
I'll eat a mango
You'll drink a straight scotch
You know I told you
You could be classy
So why did you have
to be so nasty

Remember the curls
Of the Deutscher girls
Lover of mine
From down the Rhine

I'll fill your bath with
The finest champagne
I'll lick your skin dry
I cherish your name
The stakes get higher
As your dress sparsely
So why did you have
to be so nasty

Remember the curls
Of the Deutscher girls
Lover of mine
From down the Rhine

I love your blonde hair
I kiss your pigtails
And I could not share
The scratch of your nails
And though you mock me
Your eyes so glassy
Oh why did you have
to be so nasty

Remember the curls
Of the Deutscher girls
Lover of mine
From down the Rhine
I said Remember the curls
Of the Deutscher girls
Lover of mine
From down the Rhine

THE WORLD'S FORGOTTEN BOY And IT WAS MORE ABOUT THE TROUSERS!!

In September 2004 Richard Cabut interviewed Kevin Mooney about the punk days, Adam & The Ants and his current project, Lavender Pill Mob for the 3am website (http://www.3ammagazine.com/musicarchives/2004/sep/interview_kevin_mooney.html)
Here is the link to that, and also in January the same year George Berger did a 2 part interview with Marco Pirroni (http://www.3ammagazine.com/musicarchives/2004/jan/interview_marco_pirroni.html)
Both are very good and worth a read!

Some choice quotes: "I used to go to college in the morning and just sit there and look at someone wearing Brutus jeans and hate them -- consumed with hate about these jeans. It was more about trousers than anything else!"

3AM: What were you trying to do?
MP: I was trying to put off getting a job for as long as possible.
3AM: You've done pretty well so far!
MP: Yeah, I think so! Still haven't got one!

"I remember one time in Middlesbrough. The skins were throwing sharpened up 50ps and kung fu stars, so I said, tactfully: 'If they dropped an atomic bomb on this town it would do £5 worth of damage. I've travelled all over England, I've seen every skinhead in the country and you, standing at the back, you've got the ugliest girlfriend around'. And then this big riot broke out."

Marco Pirroni on 'Plastic Surgery'

I asked Marco Pirroni about Plastic Surgery. Adam and the Ants pre- Marco used to open the shows with it during 1977 and 78, and then they stopped playing it. In 1980 on the Ants Invasion Tour the new Ants played it as an encore. This only lasted for this short tour before they were signed, and it hasn't been played since. I asked why and what he thought of the song.

Marco:
"I always liked it,which is why we kept doing it,we didn't think it worked at the beginning of our set coz we wanted to have a big start to our show,and the moody intro wasn't right for us. I liked doing it and thought we did a fuck off version once we got into the main part of the song but the clipped stark 3 chord intro didn't suit us, I alway thought it sounded too much when the band came in over the bass intro and the orginal band did that bit better(I can't belive I just said that) I remember rehersing it for the first time with Adam and when it came to the guitar solo I did it note for note as it used to be,this really pissed Adam off for some reason,"that was what John used to play,I expect a lot better from you!" I thought "yeah you're right I'm being lazy" unfortunetly nothing else seem to fit so in the end I did it like Jason Voorhees would have played it,on the verge of getting out of control and being totally wrong,turning this little rinky dink solo into a screaming microphonic feedback ampethamine overdose( thats what I thought anyway) We dropped it later coz most of our audience didnt even know what it was, I wanted to do it for the shepherd bush shows as it is an part of the history of the band,but we never got round to it."

Plastic Surgery January 1978 Marquee, London

Plastic Surgery 22nd May 1980 Electric Ballroom, London

Plastic Surgery

Coming next, 2 live mp3s of Plastic Surgery, one from 1978 and one from 1980 with Marco on guitar. I'm gonna go through each single in order of recording and post versions of the songs. So Plastic Surgery first, then next will be Deutscher Girls and then Young Parisians. etc......

Watch this space fuckers!

Hey, you got a face like a labrador
I don't mind, that's what I'm here for
The angel Gabriel sent me
To give you a little bit of sympathy

Ooh, I'm gonna take you down to Harley Street

Such a shame you had that crash
That will teach you to drive flash
And that lorry, hit you at full power
Your blood gushing like a shower

Gonna take you down to Harley Street

Plastic surgery, it's so plastic
Plastic surgery, fantastic

Well, you might have to sell you car
And your parents brand new house
You lie awake and you lose your sleep, baby
Miracles do not come cheap

Gonna take you down to Harley Street

Well, you can have a brand new nose
Light blue eyes or even hazel
Little ears will be much better
When you are a real go-getter

Gonna take you down to Harley Street

Plastic surgery, it's so plastic (alright now)
Plastic surgery, fantastic (and you'd better take me away)

Well don't go sitting in the sun
Your new face might start to run
Just forget your make-up scheme
Clean your face with Mr Sheen

Ooh I'm gonna take you down to Harley Street

Plastic surgery, it's so plastic (okay)
Plastic surgery, fantastic

Gonna take you down
Take you Gonna take you down there
Take you Take you down to Harley
Gonna take you down I'm gonna take you down there

Hear Marco on Scottish BBC radio
Here

Ant 3

A cool pic of Adam and a Bass Guitar

This pic and some more and info about them can be found
Here

Ant 2

Today I am posting the original song that Black Pirates is a cover? reworking? of. It's by Kevin Mooney's band that he formed after the Ants (Wide Boy Awake).
I prefer this version.

Chicken Outlaw

You can read Lavender Pill Mob's other half Gary Asquith's reaction to some criticism of Black Pirates
Here (Scroll down the page a bit).

Ant 1

Hi, welcome to the Adam and the Ants/ Adam Ant MP3 blog!

Here you will find odd bits of Ant news, links to Ant sites and News, and some mp3s.

The first mp3s will be added shortly!

I will rotate the mp3s a few each week, so grab them fast!

I will also try and keep them to rare live versions or remixes, demos, etc, rather than the ones readily available on cd (so you won't see Goody Two Shoes here!). The odd official track will appear now and then, but with the intent on making you GO BUY THE CD! A link will be given where available for you to do so.

Antmusic for Sexpeople!

Ok, first mp3: Black Pirates

02 - Black Pirates:
Love to Marco, Adam, Terry, Chris + all the Crew of the Stellamaris. ♥
[03:07]

Carty - Mooney once said in a 3am interview that Adam sings this version of "Chicken Outlaw" better than he did when Wide Boy Awake performed it back in the 80's. He must have been taking the piss. This was recorded in 2003 and has to be Adam's worst vocal performance ever released ("Wannabe" and "Save The Gorilla" remain unreleased). It's ironic that Mooney wrote this about Adam, and it does question what state of mind he was in when this was (poorly) recorded. The hardest part for me is after Adam sings "clever, clever, clever, fucker". The "oh" that follows is, to put it bluntly, sad.

Steve - Oh dear. It features Adam Ant on vocals. I want to be nice because overall I like this album. But this song really does not fit. The album has some odd moments, but this is more than odd, it sounds like a mess about in the studio one day. It is of course a re-recording of a Wide Boy Awake song, "Chicken Outlaw", re-named "Black Pirates". But it's not even a re-recording, it sounds like Kev said to Adam one day "'Ere I wrote this song about you ages ago when I left the Ants", played it to him and Adam said "hehehe that's great, pass me another beer, 'ere, 'ere, let's have a mess about, let's tape it!" The results really ought to have been left off as a curio, something they did one day for a laugh. because apart from the fact that with Adam on it it becomes an ADAM song (and it is way below what Adam can do - even the covers on the "Gorillas" single were better than this, even "Gorillas" itself was better), it doesn't sound complete. It's too messy, it's all over the place and sounds unfinished. In a word it's awful and really should have been left off the otherwise fantastic album. When I first heard it I thought well ok
if the rest of the CD is like this then at least it fits and it will take some getting used to, but as my review shows, the rest of the album ISN'T like this. So it's just a shame that this is in there. And being an Ant fan I tried hard there to be kind, but really it ruins the CD, and is skipped, sorry.

Taken from http://www.cartrouble.nl/news/mikesbikesreview.html

Mikes Bikes is available to buy from www.LeCoqMusique.com for £9.99