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