Music For A Future Age

Masters

2011-09-28T11:40:00.001+01:00

It's time for an update.

2011-09-28T11:15:00.001+01:00

Hi, sorry for no posts for ages....Ant fans know what Adam's been up to, so no need for me to post about him (check AntRap for news of Adam).

"We are Rema Rema..."

Months ago members of Rema Rema got together for a radio interview for an online radio station (sorry I can't remember or find which one it was for now!), where they talked about the band and many rare Rema Rema songs were played.
I couldn't find an online link to it anymore, so I have uploaded it for your pleasure here.
It's a great listen and if you love Marco's feedback guitar, this is the stuff for you! It's what Adam heard and liked in 1979. Rema Rema were like many bands, ahead of their time. Maybe we will hear some of these recordings on a CD sometime soon.

"For you... he did this all for you..." Horse Brothers.

Dave Barbarossa and Daniel Stewart have been playing one gig a month since last March across london, and have recorded a few tracks (available to hear on Soundcloud).

As their roadie I have had the good fortune to be at every one of those gigs, and have heard how they have progressed and gotten better and better each time. In my mind they were amazing from the very first gig I saw, so to get better than that- well, wow!

I asked them a few questions about the band.

1 How did you two get to know each other?

We were both asked to help a mutual 'friend' out by playing on his songs. When the others were taking breaks from rehearsals we would jam out some ideas, just dicking about more than anything serious. That project thankfully died off and Dave called me up some time later and asked if I would play along to some beats he had written with the premise of 'what's the worst that can happen'.

2 Were you aware of each other’s past work before you joined up, and was that a factor in you two getting together?

I have a vague knowledge of Dave's past bands, and I'm sure he has no idea of any of the many, mostly terrible, bands I have played in. I think that works well for me. If I knew more about Dave's past, there may be a temptation for me to try and play in that way due to the following he has.

3 How do you write songs- do you write the guitar/ vocals then add drums, or do you jam ideas, or what?

We have a team of songwriters locked under an old railway arch with rudimentary instruments and basic recording equipment...

It's actually all of the above and more. Some were little keyboard riffs, some were little things in our heads when drinking too much coffee, etc

4 How do you think it is going so far, are you happy with it all so far?

It's fun. Not enough things in life are this much fun without there being an element of guilt later on.

5 Are there plans to record an ep/ album any time soon?

It's tricky to know what to do. The current plan is to do a small run of CD's and either give them away, or sell them at cost price. My problem is that I want everything to be perfect; sound quality, packaging, design and that comes at a cost. Either way, they'll be done as a 'collectors item'.

6 Dave this is the first time since Bow Wow Wow that you have played in your BWW style of drumming- what made you start playing that way again?

Steve, although I can see how someone might think that the drumming in Horse Brothers is the same as BWW, it is, in fact very different in feel, swing, tempo and pattern. Just because I'm not playing kick/hat & snare straight beats, does not automatically mean I'm going back to BWW style.

I play with far more abandon and adventure in Horse Brothers. I take far more risks.

7 Did you enjoy the short reunion with BWW and would you ever play with them again if they asked? Were there ever any plans or talk of playing more with them? (I’m sure for instance that a reunion BWW tour over here would do very well).

I played with BWW last year purely in Matthew Ashman's memory. I'm very proud of the work I did with BWW and other bands I've played for.

Horse Brothers continue to play about once a month in London and have a website you can keep up with here

I highly recommend you give them a listen, live if possible, because they really are a breath of fresh air amongst so many other bands who all sound alike after a while.

Blues Burundi, it's where it's at!

Until next time, adios muchachos.

Horse Brothers Water Rats 16th March 2011

2011-03-18T20:01:00.003Z

Having been an Ants and Bow Wow Wow fan all these years, and having heard the 3 songs on their soundcloud site, I was very excited to go see them play at Water Rats in London last wednesday evening.

I urge all fans of Bow Wow Wow and that great burundi style drumming to go see them.
Horse Brothers merge bluesy rocky guitar and singing by Daniel Stewart with Dave Barbe's burundi drums, the first time he has played that way since Bow Wow Wow in the 80s.
He makes a very thunderous noise live that fits perfectly with the howling blues played by Daniel.

Look out for them in the coming months all over London!

Next gig in April in London, watch this space for more news.

Pick One- I can't!!

2010-12-01T23:36:00.000Z

Pick one song/album, book, or movie that you think defines the overall work of a particular artist. More than just “What’s their best song/movie/book?”, this feature asks writers to take a stand and argue for a defining moment that speaks to entire career, potential controversy and all.

This is the task set on http://www.popmatters.com/, but applying it to Adam Ant, either with the Ants or solo, I can't do it. Each album is distinctive in it's own way, and for an Ant fan is equally as important and the others. Not one in my opinion defines the Ants sound or overall work.
Some might argue that Kings of the Wild Frontier is the one, but that is only part of the story and misses the darkness of Dirk Wears White Socks, the pop glamour of Prince Charming, the rockabilly/rock n roll/ of Friend or Foe, the pop sheen of Strip, the rock n roll/ TRextasy of Vive le Rock, even the dance moves of Manners and Physique and the AOR of Wonderful deserve a look in. And for me the B Sides on the B sides compilation B Side Babies are as essential as any album, and it's criminal they were left off of AntBox, which should have been a more encompassing Boc Set, not a best of with a few goodies added. But that's for another post!

The point is this: Not one of Adam's albums defines his overall work. Nor does one song. One song defines a particular era- Dog Eat Dog perhaps defines the Kings era, Prince Charming the next, etc etc....

I find that I want to get this Ant stuff out of my system, but I have a feeling it won't ever go away, even if I write the damn book I have inside me!

Bow Wow Wow Matthew Ashman Celebration 21st November 2010

2010-12-01T23:16:00.004Z

On a night that had been organised by Billy Idol’s guitarist Billy Morrison to celebrate Matthew Ashman, who died in 1995 from diabetes complications aged 35, Bow Wow Wow made their first London appearance in more than Twenty years. I have been a fan of all things Ant related since I was ten- Bow Wow Wow were of course Adam’s Ants before Malcolm Mcclaren instigated a mutiny. Fourteen year old Annabella Lwin was added on vocals and in 1980 they attempted to subvert the music industry by releasing a cassette only album and C30 C60 C90 Go!, a single that encouraged home taping off of the radio.

I wasn’t ever really aware that taping stuff off of the radio was wrong- I did it every Sunday, taping my favourites from the charts to listen to on what must have been one of the earliest Walkmans (It was HUGE I remember that much!). But back in 1980 the music industry was busy printing HOME TAPING KILLS onto album inner sleeves and worrying that consumers would stop buying records. Thirty years later they’re still worrying though this time it’s mp3s that worries them, cassettes having been long dumped in favour of CDs and MP3s. Whatever Home Taping was supposed to have killed, it’s still there.

I remember Bow Wow Wow’s chart hits Go Wild In The Country and I Want Candy, and later on after discovering the link to Adam and the Ants, bought up their 3 albums and various singles. So it was with quite a bit of excitement that I went along to the Scala in London to see them live, with original drummer Dave Barbe on drums no less. Bow Wow Wow have of course toured around America before this but with a different drummer, and this was a perfect opportunity for the three surviving members to play, with Billy Morrison and Will Crewsden on guitar.

I have to tell you, in these days of X Factor karaoke, it is such a breath of fresh air to not only know that there are still great bands out there, but that even ones from 30 years ago can kick up such a storm live! The band came on and played a short set, starting with the instrumental Orang Outang. Standing not too far from the stage, the power of the drums and bass playing that Burundi beat that was made into great pop songs by them and of couse Adam and the Ants, was astounding. Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow to a lesser degree are what made me as a drummer pick up sticks as a fourteen year old and learn to drum. I knew that Bow Wow Wow would be special on this night if no one else would (also on the bill were a one song Agent Provocateur, Chiefs of Relief led by Billy Morrison, and later Adam himself).

Leigh introduced the band and the 2 guitarists standing in for the departed Matthew, and then Annabella bounced on, looking and sounding fantastic! A storming Louis Quartoze followed, then Aphrodisiac, Go Wild In The Country, I Want Candy and the one that sounds like an Ants song speeded up, C30 C60 C90 Go! You wouldn’t know that these songs were written 30 years ago or that they were for the most part ignored at the time. Bow Wow Wow fizzled apart in 1983, and just like the young need to know what and why Punk happened, they need to hear the early 80s stuff like Bow Wow Wow. Post Punk made some of the most interesting and enduring music, pop or otherwise, and Bow Wow Wow showed 30 years later that it still sounds fresh and astounding now.

http://rapidshare.com/files/434284479/Bow_Wow_Wow_Scala_Matthew_Ashman_Celebration_21st_Nov_2010.zip

14th May 1978 Roundhouse London

2010-11-19T21:07:00.000Z

http://rapidshare.com/files/431892081/roundhouse.zip

Here is Johnny Bivouac and Jordan's last gig with the Ants, a stormer from 1978.
Enjoy!

Birmingham 25th May 1980

2010-11-17T18:12:00.000Z

By request.

http://rapidshare.com/files/431442484/birmingham_25-5-80.zip
This is from the Ants Invasion Tour, their best tour I think, they had no record contract yet and had the new sound, 2 brutal drummers, old punks in the audience, fights breaking out, ace!!

Swansea Zerox Tour July 30th 1979

2010-11-16T19:31:00.000Z

http://rapidshare.com/files/431252682/Zerox_Tour_1979_Swansea.zip

By request!

More to follow, and the others will get rapidshare links too, megaupload isn't working out for some folks.

Lewisham 29th November 1980.

2010-11-08T14:37:00.001Z

(Pic taken from http://www.boredteenagers.co.uk/punkposterpage1980.htm

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S8YGM3Q3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuLursil0r8

100 Club 1978

2010-11-08T00:33:00.000Z

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IT2TUZYT

This is a better quality one, not as good as The Marquee 1978 from January before, but still a good one.

Oh dear.

2010-11-07T01:12:00.005Z

I really did mean to do more with this blogsite but I got lost.
I shall remedy this situation.
I'll upload some gigs, 1977 onwards for anyone who wants them.

VORTEX CLUB, LONDON

11th JULY 1977

(supporting Siouxsie and the Banshees)

Lou
Puerto Rican
B-side Baby
Deutscher Girls
Dirk Wears White Socks
Fat Fun
Fall In

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CWA1UV7Y

Very bad quality, but if you're curious enough, you can make out the songs!

Website

2009-06-16T13:24:00.001+01:00

The website and some of the links are down for the time being, lack of financial funds.

I shall reinstate the ipod player too at a later date.

Marco on 'Wonderful'

2009-05-06T03:30:00.003+01:00

I asked Marco some questions about the 1995 single 'Wonderful' as part of my nearly finished series on the Ant singles. Here are his replies, in italics.

When was Wonderful written and what input did you have?
We did it about 6 months before the album sessions and I came up with the main D/Fsharpe Minor/C/Em sequence.

Who is Bonnie Hayes and what did she do?
To this day I have no idea who she is; she did the Middle 8 bit towards the end.

Were the extra songs on the 2 singles CDs written specifically for the single or were they album outtakes?
(Norman, If, Phoenix, Woman Love Run Through Me, Goes Around).
They were album outtakes.

How generally did the sessions for the album go?
Very smoothly, it was the first time for years that we recorded almost entirely live.

Adam has said that you wanted to write an album of songs that were written acoustically so they could be played easily..... was that how you approached writing the songs?
Yes absolutely, that was the intention all along before we ever even started.

What's your favourite song from that period/ album?
Alien.

I know you hate touring anyway but do you have any good memories of the 95 tour?
The only good thing about that tour was the Shepherds Bush gigs, I was pleased they went so well as I had already decided in my own mind that that would be the last time I would play all those classic Ant songs live.

You both got ill at the end didn't you?
It was about half way through, it took me about a year to really recover.

Here is the demo with Bonnie Hayes:

And here is the promo video:

Adam Ant Wonderful - Watch the top videos of the week here

Marco on Rough Stuff

2009-03-28T00:15:00.002Z

I asked Marco Pirroni a few questions about Rough Stuff.
This was a difficult one because Marco didn't write it with Adam, it was an Ant/ Cymone track, and Marco came in at the end and added some guitar.
But here goes anyway!

Marco is in italics.

Ok, Rough Stuff. What input did you have on this song, it's not an Ant Marco one so I presume you came in at the end and added guitar?
yeah I can't remember what it was I played, i think its only the solo in the middle was n't it?

This was Adam's danciest song to date, what was your reaction when you heard it?
I thought it was pretty good

There were a few remixes of it too, were you part of those or were they remixed later without anything from you?
I don't think I ever heard any of them.

I am guessing that because Can't Set Rules About Love didn't do much in the charts that is why it wasn't released in the uk, only in the US and Germany?
Do you have any info on that?
No idea, i was out of the loop on this one.

I admit I can't think of anything else to ask about this one!
I can't think of what to say about it.

Good video, the remixes are better than the album version.....

And that's about it for Rough Stuff. I've never liked the album version, always preferred the remix that accompanies the video.

Only a few singles left to go!

Here anyway are the videos to Can't Set Rules About Love and Rough Stuff.

Until next time!

Rough Stuff @ Yahoo! Video

Marco on Can't Set Rules About Love

2009-03-18T03:33:00.004Z

I asked Marco a few questions about this single in our nearly finished series on the Ant singles.
Marco is in italics.

Can't Set Rules About Love- How was this written and when?
Written at the Wall Studios in the same batch as the rock and roll Manners and Physique, Young Dumb And Full Of It, Anger Inc. and others.

What influenced the music?
It was sort influenced by the music from Mishima by Phillip Glass which has since been used in the Truman show, it wasn't ripped off as it isn't really like it but it was in the back of our minds.

You've said that you didn't think that the b sides (How To Steal The World and Brand New Torso) were good enough for the album- what did they lack in yours and Adam's eyes? What was wrong with them that they were left off?
Hard to say, just didn't grab us in same way, they weren't instant enough.

Would you have done a tour for Manners and Physique if Adam had have wanted to do one?
I was already on the road with Sinead (O'Connor) at the time, I certainly wouldn't have wanted to come off one tour and straight into another one.

You played Room at the Top and Young Dumb and Full of it in 1993, do you think they sounded better with a full band?
Not really, i prefer the recorded versions, I always do, I am not one of these "its better live' bores, as you well know.

Would the whole album have been played like that if you'd have toured it?
Probably not, we would have got a keyboard player to recreate the synth parts

As an album, how do you rate Manners now?
I do like some of the Ant/Marco songs, some of the production has dated but that's unavoidable with any album.

Do you think it gets the credit it deserves?
No probably not.

Was it the right time for Adam to 'go dance'?
There is never a right or wrong time to do things, depends on your mood and what it is you feel like doing.

Finally what's your favourite song from Manners and why?
Rules about love coz i like the melancholy feel of it.

Change in direction again?

2009-01-17T18:11:00.002Z

I'm thinking of changing direction with this blog again and making it a Marco Pirroni related one....

Am uploading a VERY rare unavailable anywhere Rema Rema track called International Scale.
Thanks to Gary Asquith who has been ripping old unreleased Rema Rema tracks from tapes to his PC. More to come hopefully!

Check out the Facebook Wolfmen Page I created for Wolfmen news and Dave's blog for Wolfmen exclusives!

New Wolfmen Blog imminent

2009-01-07T01:10:00.001Z

http://thewolfmen.blogspot.com/

Coming next monday (12th).

Run by "Dave", it promises "There'll be loads of exclusive news, early listens to new tunes, archive and unreleased rarities, insider information on what's happening in the world of The Wolfmen and a chance to interact directly with the band..."

Wolfmen Update

2008-12-06T21:43:00.001Z

The Wolfmen have been holed-up in Raezor Studios for the last three weeks. Here's the latest from their email news update:

First up, we've been collaborating with a Utrecht-based Tibetan opera singer called Namgyal Lhamo. A star performer from the Dalai Lama's Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, she's toured the world with the likes of Bjork and the Beastie Boys. The first fruits of our collaboration - Chang Yare (Paradise Lost) - are available to watch and listen to on our YouTube channel. Namgyal has also just received a Best World Music Act nomination. More details here.

We've also been working on a brand new single, which will be out in February 2009, and our second album - Married To The Eiffel Tower - which will follow in May.

Also in plan for the first half of 2009 are a string of live dates, at least two further singles, localised releases of the Modernity Killed Every Night album (starting with South America on Universal Records in March), and the long-awaited Daler Mehndi collab album, Thieves & Liars.

P.S. For Wolfmen collectors and shoppers - by popular demand we've added a new Everything Pack(TM!) at to www.thewolfmen.net/shop - a bumper 4xCD, 2xDVD, 2-T-shirt, 3xVinyl, £25-saving package! We should also confirm that the limited edition free hidden download on www.thewolfmen.net has been removed now. But we'll be back with another one soon.

Excellent news that they're working on another album so soon after this one!

Young Parisians Page added

2008-11-30T04:52:00.002Z

I will be doing one a month. Antmusic and Young Parisians are active right now, go here and click the Antmusic or Young Parisians cover to see the new pages!

An Ant at the Bloomsbury and Wolf-itunes

2008-11-30T03:12:00.007Z

Adam Ant CD.

The triple-folded digipack cased Live at The Bloomsbury CD is set to be released on 12th December 2008. You can order it here.

The track listing for the Adam Ant Live at The Bloomsbury CD release has been confirmed, and it will include passages of Adam reading from his autobiography on the stage at the gig, complete with unscripted ad-libbing between he, Dave Pash on guitar and the audience.
There are also, of course, eight performances of songs from the night.
The tracks on the forthcoming release (which has a total running time of 65 minutes) are:

1 A Girl Named Bill (spoken word)
2 Young Parisians
3 Never Trust A Man (with egg on his face)
4 Cleopatra
5 Boxing Clever (spoken word)
6 Catch a Falling Star
7 Cartrouble
8 Stand and Deliver
9 Early Mornings Gene Vincent (spoken word)
10 Goody Two Shoes
11 Never Trust A
Man (with egg on his face) Encore

Adam co-produced the album with Boz Boorer at the House of Boz studios in late September.

Wolfmen.

This week sees the return of Modernity Killed Every Night to iTunes, with a new digital edition including three exclusive bonus tracks:

Kama Sutra Remix / Nothing To Say To You (Alan Moulder Mix) / Nothing To Say To You (Chris Hughes Mix)
Their early EPs are now also finally available on iTunes - and all other digital platforms - as of this week:

Kama Sutra / TV's On John Wayne's Just Been Shot Again
more >>

Needle In The Camels Eye (Alan Moulder Mix) / Zip Gun / Mother of Mystery
more >>

Jackie Says (Original Version) / Needle In The Camels Eye (Original Version) / If You Talk Like That (Original Version) / Up All Nighter (Original Version)
more >>

Cecilie / Do The Ostrich / Look Like Tarzan, Sing Like Jane
more >>

Don't forget the new one - Better Days - as spun in the last week but Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music and Gary Crowley on BBC Radio London.

And in their online shop at www.thewolfmen.net/shop they have added some more limited edition promo goodies: Jackie Says DVDs, Kama Sutra T-shirts, and Cecilie DVDs. Get them while you can!

And don't forget you can download a free remix of Nothing To Say To You on the Wolfmen website for a limited time only!

Update

2008-11-01T20:15:00.005Z

I got a new job recently which isn't a 'sit down all day able to use the internet when i feel like it' job, so I haven't had the energy or time to post much, plus i share a pc at home, so again, time is limited!

However I did just get hold of a bunch of my Ants stuff from home, plus the three Slapdash Edens by Andi Vaughan, and the interviews in those deserve to be reprinted, so I am going to (with Andi's permission) reprint those soon on the website, and try and get some of the Ant stuff scanned.

I will post an update on what the ex Ants are up to as soon as I can soon.
The Wolfmen are releasing the new single Better Days and doing more gigs. Adam is releasing The Bloomsbury CD finally on Ant.net next year, and also won a Q Icon Award last month.
As for the others, I will endeavor to find out!

I had a bit of a break, but will post some more Ant related stuff very soon!
I will also change the music on the ipod player........

One thing I will say is that I recently got hold of the Adam and the Ants Dandy Highwaymen Double CD, and I have to say it's one of the best compilation cds I have ever seen for the price, along with a great write up by Pat Gilbert who also compiled the tracks and writes for Mojo.

Lots of news and stuff to read on The Family Of Noise website and Message board, so please head over there for news of the latest Convention and first FON evening the night before it, and plans for the next one (Which I will bloody be at!)

AM4SP!

Better Days Single and Video

2008-09-10T18:06:00.002+01:00

The latest news from the Wolfmen camp is that Better Days will be their new single. It's available from October 20 and has already been described by Uncut magazine as "an unholy mix of Slade's Gudbuy T'Jane and T.Rex's Telegram Sam..."

Mixed by Alan Moulder (The Killers, U2, Arctic Monkeys), it's a sumptuous blend of 00s psych/garage rock, complete with a technicolor video montaging classic 60s surf and way-out California living, and is the follow-up to May's MOJO Playlist #1 Needle In The Camel's Eye.

Better Days will be a download-only release and this time around you'll have a choice of B-side depending on where you like to shop for music:

Head to Napster where Better Days will be backed with Hippi Luv and a downloadable version of the Better Days video.

Or head to iTunes where Better Days will be backed with another non-album exclusive - Hymn to Beauty - as well as the Better Days video, too.

To help you make your choice they're now streaming all three tracks - and the video - on their MySpace. Head there now and leave them a comment about your favourite!

Both Hippi Luv and Hymn appeared on a demo's cd the band produced a couple of years ago to promote Jackie Says and film/ tv soundtrack music they had produced.
And both are great b sides, listen to them now on their myspace page!

Terry and Merrick on T4 Transmission

2008-09-07T06:33:00.001+01:00

Antmusic, performed by The Dirty Pretty Things, Tim Burgess, and the 2 ex Ants drummers Terry Lee Miall and Chris Merrick Hughes.

New Wolfmen Better Days Video

2008-09-04T22:38:00.001+01:00

New Single, out on October 20th, taken from Modernity Killed Every Night.

Wolfmen and Namgyal Lhamo: "Chang Yare"/"Paradise Lost"

2008-09-02T03:04:00.001+01:00

With three tracks of music written, performed and produced by The Wolfmen, this is the first video from Namgyal Lhamo's forthcoming album "Highland Supernova".

Family Of Noise News Reporter/ Reviewer

2008-09-02T02:42:00.006+01:00

I have joined the new Adam and the Ants website, the Family Of Noise, as a news reporter, and also contribute reviews.

Please join up if you haven't already, we have a myspace site and a facebook page to go along with the website and forum.
Contributions to the website are welcome, so if you have a review you want to write about any Adam and the Ants or related record, or a gig, or whatever, go for it!
Join the message board and meet like minded Ants fans.

I will still be updating this blog and my websit e, and contributing to FON as well.
See ya there, don't be square!

New Wolfmen Interview Music OMH

2008-09-02T02:36:00.004+01:00

This is from Music OMH.

Slight error, she calls the Wolfmen/ Daler Mehndi single Wolf Eyes- it's Two Eyes.

The Wolfmen are Marco Pirroni and Chris Constantinou, formerly of Adam and the Ants, plus friends. Two years after getting back together, they've just released their debut album, Modernity Killed Every Night.

Jenni Cole caught up with them at Raezor Studios in West London to ask how they go here, and what's next for a band who've done everything?

"I was in a band called Jackie Onassid", says Chris Constantinou, explaining how the two former Ants ended up back together. 'It was my first venture out at singing and doing the frontman thing [he also plays bass]. I was always looking for a guitarist who played like Marco - I kept telling people to try and play like Marco'.

"People always call me up and say do you know anyone who plays like you?" adds Marco Pirroni. "They never call me up and ask me if I want to do something with them - they always say do you know anyone who plays like you?"

Constantinou hadn't been in touch with Pirroni for around ten years when he called him, but says he thought, "oh go on, I'll just ask him anyway. So I did and he said yeah, go on then". He says it soon became obvious that they wanted to do something from scratch, together. "Marco had this idea for the concept of The Wolfmen - a band and a name - and that's how it started. We had this idea that we were going to do electro punk."

"We started off with one thing and then we wanted to be something else and then it started to find its place. When we found other musicians and started playing live, that helped to form the later tracks on the album, songs like Better Days, Wak This Bass, Buzz Me Kate, If You Talk Like That, Je T'Aime Madame'."

The Wolfmen's first project was a soundtrack for the Bravo series I Predict A Riot in January 2006, followed by scores for previously silent 1900s fetish films that were shown as part of the ICA's Fashion In Film festival later that year. Shortly after came their debut EP and a single, Karma Sutra, that garnered support from Radio 2 and 6music.

This early success drew attention not only from the BBC but also from a rather unexpected source: Indian musical superstar Daler Mehndi, star of countless Bollywood musicals and a huge celebrity both in the subcontinent and with Asian communities across the globe.

"Achille Forler, Daler's publisher, contacted BMG with the idea of finding a rock band to collaborate with him', says Chris, "and they thought of us". He admits that he wasn't familiar with Daler Mehndi's work before but the collaboration proved to be a fruitful one. The single they made together, Wolf Eyes, became a huge hit on the BBC's Asian Network radio channel, spending several weeks at number one.

"Daler wrote the lyrics and the melody and we wrote the music around his vocal track, which was sent to us from India on a DVD. This is the way we work with all his songs [for the album Thieves And Liars, due out later this year]: we take the voice track and jam around it until we have a chord structure that we like. Then we arrange the song in a western rock style and lay on bass, drums and guitars, and finally the western percussion.

"We spend a lot of time fine-tuning the balance of Indian percussion and Western percussion. Then producer/mixer Steve Musters works on editing the track up into a mix which we send to Daler and Achille'. Finally, he explains, Daler comes over to London, re-sings the vocal track and puts his ideas in before they do a final mix.

They didn't set out intending to work on two albums simultaneously, but doing this alongside their own debut album, Modernity Killed Every Night, doesn't seem to have been a problem for them. After all, even that doesn't account for everything they've been up to.

Since the success on the Asian Network, they've kept busy with a number of projects. Their cover of the Brian Eno song Needle In The Camel's Eye was released as a single in April and will appear in a new film out later this year called Digging - a love story made by Vertigo Films, who did The Football Factory and It's All Gone Pete Tong. The Wolfmen even have a cameo in one scene. They've collaborated with Primal Scream on music for an Alexander McQueen catwalk show, and with Lou Reed on a b-side for their third single Cecile, released in November 2007.

This might make it seem as if they're a band who take things in their stride, but it's not always as easy as it sounds. Before The Wolfmen's debut gig at Islington Academy, also in November 2007, Pirroni hadn't performed live in 15 years.

"I dragged him out of retirement", says Constantinou. "Marco hates playing live. We have our own views on that so we compromise". Pirroni disagrees with this, explaining that he sees playing live as not so much a necessarily evil, "but as something I have to do".

"I love it", says Constantinou, "but I wouldn't do it to the point where it's to the detriment of the band. You can get to the point where it's having a negative effect and you're just wearing yourself out. You've got to have a strategy and a reason for doing it; it's got to be constructive, apart from enjoyment. You can go and play live as much as you like but inside a professional set up, for anyone doing what we're doing, there has to be a strategy".

"I love touring, but wouldn't do it to the point where it's to the detriment of the band."
- Chris Constantinou.

They say they'd like to tour Canada and America, where their popularity is growing and they're getting a lot of radio play. Also, as a challenge, they'd like to tour India. When they went there to play with Daler, they were surprised by how old-fashioned much of the studio equipment was, and also how difficult logistically a tour would be.

"There are no proper roads," explains Pirroni. "They don't have power generators. Touring India would need to be a very organised process for it to work, and there's all the backhanders - you'd have to consider how that would work. You pay backhanders anywhere, in the UK, the US, anywhere, but not like in India". Despite this, they seem determined to give it a go.

"We're talking to Daler about it as an option", Constantinou says. "We were thinking of going in September and that's still being discussed but it would be such a difficult place to tour. It comes down to practicalities. It would have to be just him and The Wolfmen - a five piece band with a percussionist. It couldn't be a 13-piece band".

And, of course, they need to take time off too, to recharge their batteries and to write new material.

"That's what we're doing now", says Constantinou. "We're just assimilating. We're going through everything now that we've done in the last three or four years and there's so much stuff. We're going through it with a guy who works here, Matthew, and we're trying to section it out - how many songs are for us, how many songs are for other projects we're working on, for films, for adverts. There's a hell of a lot to go through."

"We have to write some new music as well. We can't wait - it's been a while since we've been writing just for us. We've been a bit sidetracked by the business side of it and the other projects we've been doing, including a project with Tibetan music".

They also hint at a project with "an Irish musician", about which they don't want to give any more information yet. But all of this is in the future, and as for plans for a second album, "We've barely released the first one yet!" Pirroni points out. With such a varied and exciting output behind them so far, though, is it any surprise that we can't wait to hear it?

- Jenni Cole, 8/2008

...Merrick, Terry Lee, Gary Tibbs........

2008-08-29T16:44:00.003+01:00

Merrick, Terry and Gary all met up at Chris' garden in Bath last week, Merrick and Terry Lee are to feature in an upcoming episode of Transmission on Channel 4 in the Uk.

More details can be found here!

More pictures can be found here!

Wolfmen Modernity Killed Every Night Music For A Future Age Review

2008-08-26T19:14:00.006+01:00

The Wolfmen - Modernity Killed Every Night (DAMGOOD 308) Released September 1st 2008.

Track listing:

CD Album

1. Needle In The Camels Eye
2. Jackie Says
3. Cecilie
4. While London Sleeps
5. Love Is A Dog
6. Up All Nighter
7. Better Days
8. Wak This Bass
9. Buzz Me Kate
10. If You Talk Like That
11. Je T'aime Madame
12. Karma Sutra (Remix) (Download only from itunes and Damaged Goods)

It's finally arrived! The album Wolfmen fans have been waiting for.
If you've been paying attention then you've already got the Jackie Says EP, the Kama Sutra Single, the Cecilie Single, the Needle In The Camels Eye single, and even the download of Two Eyes with Daler Mehndi.
Daler isn't featured on this CD, that will come later this year.
But what IS on this CD is all essential for Wolfmen/ Marco fans.

It's a delight to see Marco making music again after a long period of semi silence, and Chris is an excellent singer/ songwriter and perfect partner for Marco to work with.
He has a great ear for pop songs and for what will work, and he has one of the world's best guitarists/ songwriters to work with. Marco of course helped Adam Ant to reach pop stardom, and also helped Sinead O'Connor in her early career.
Not for nothing do stars look to Marco for guitar work on their songs!

The album opens with guitar feedback from Mr Pirroni, and what better a start?
Ants fans should also know that opener Needle and Up All Nighter feature ex Ant Chris Hughes on drums and in the producer's chair. Needles, the Eno cover, is a stormer of a track.
Next is the remixed version of Jackie Says, which has a classic melody and perfect chorus- if you aren't singing the chorus and wondering where this band have been for 20 years then you should unplug you're CD player/ Ipod and do us all a favour! Listen out for Chris' excellent Harmonica throughout the track.
Cecilie is one of the best songs I have ever heard, no lie. I heard this over a year ago when they visited the US for some promotion on the radio, and was blown away.
While London Sleeps is next, another slow one that is similar to Cecilie in tempo, another love song, "Sweet dreams of paradise with you". Ah, London!!
Love is a Dog from hell Chris tells us next, in another mid tempo rocker with more stunning guitar work from Mr Pirroni.
Up All Nighter picks up the tempo next, leading to the first new one (if you've been paying attention and bought the EPs and singles), Better Days. This is possibly going to be the next single, and a great choice it would be. This is another great pop song, surely the UK charts are there for the taking?!
"Don't need your pills doctor all I need are better days", never a truer word sang!
Wak This Bass is the fastest song on the album, "Hey boss get off of my case cos you're making me feel like dirt". Who hasn't felt like that?
Buzz Me kate, "I'm in love with a photograph of you, I'll deep sea dive you all night long, Buzz me Kate I'll be your back door man". Chris is big on love and the desire to be up all night with you!
But be warned, 'If you talk like that you better step up and fight". Last one from the Jackie Says EP, given a brighter sheen by Alan Moulder here.
Lastly we have Je T'aime Madame, we meet a french girl on a sunday in London by St Paul's and stroll through the moonlit city and go back to her flat. In love again!

The album features all 4 of the songs from the first EP, but in a remixed form, and they are better for it, though I have to be honest in 2 respects: I prefer the original mix of Needle, it's heavier, and I wasn't sure at first about them having all 4 of the EP's tracks on the album. I think it would have been better to have just had 2, making the Jackie Says EP even more of a must have. But that said, this is an excellent introduction to a band you MUST hear. If you're an Adam and the Ants fan, you have no excuse. You don't HAVE to like them, but you'd be deaf if you didn't!

The album is full of Love, London, and great pop songs with a killer guitar player- what more could you want?

The Wolfmen have been playing a few select gigs in London, keep a watch on their Myspace site and catch them live where they have also been performing another Daler Mehndi collaboration, Thieves and Liars.

Link to buy the album and other releases: Damaged Goods

Ants 25th May 1981 Bologna

2008-07-28T19:41:00.003+01:00

This gig has been added to the ipod player, enjoy!!
This gig was bootlegged on the Antmusic Bootleg Lp.

Boz Boorer Interview

2008-07-28T02:23:00.003+01:00

Monk has done a great new interview with Boz Boorer, the guitarist who co-wrote some of Wonderful with Adam and Marco, for Adam-Ant.net, the website and message board he now owns.
Read it here.

Update

2008-07-23T19:22:00.002+01:00

There's not an awful lot going on lately.
The Wolfmen are playing live again tonight and promoting their latest single (a re-recorded version of Jackie Says b/w Nothing To Say To You, the album will follow later in August I believe.

I'm filling up the gaps in my Ants bootlegs collection thanks to a fan I finally managed to make contact with who has a bunch I don't.

'bout it for now.
I think enthusiasm for the Ant man is at a bit of a low lately, it is here too for now.

Keep watching this space though, if anything new happens, you'll read it here!

NEW CHRIS MERRICK HUGHES INTERVIEW!

2008-07-07T18:43:00.003+01:00

Chris (On the right, above, next to Terry) kindly agreed to answer some questions for me, and the finished article is published here!

Barry Watts Interview part 1

2008-06-22T19:34:00.002+01:00

Ant Fan Corky has done an excellent interview with Barry Watts, who drummed for Adam 1982-84. Part 1 is here on the Family Of Noise Website.

Carty New Video to Kings of Vienna Remix

2008-06-16T21:23:00.002+01:00

That Welsh Maestro Carty has done another video to accompany a mix, this time it's Ultravox Versus AATA, Kings of Vienna. I like this a lot!

And here are Kings of the Wild Frontier, the ALTERNATIVE Kings of the Wild Frontier, and Ultravox's Vienna!

Plastic Surgery

2008-06-11T19:24:00.002+01:00

This is an excellent video of Adam and the Ants doing Plastic Surgery, this is the version you see Adam watching on tv in Jubilee:

And this is the film version

Released in 1978, what an excellent Ant song! They used to open the gigs with this!

Youtube review of Dirk and Fan Stands and Delivers!

2008-06-09T22:48:00.002+01:00

I found this on Youtube. Interesting!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

And this is kinda funny, though full marks for the effort!!
Stand and Deliver Fan Video......

Maw Maw Maw!!

2008-06-07T22:41:00.003+01:00

The Family of Noise has posted an exclusive 2 part interview with James Maw, the writer of what has become known as the Ant Bible, the official Adam Ant Story.

The delightful Mariesha provided the questions, this is a great scoop and a great read!

Part 1
Part 2

Don't forget to browse the rest of the FON site, you might for instance stumble upon this review of the B Side Babies CD written by someone I know......... (*whistles*).....

Adam Ant in Tank Girl Comic

2008-06-07T17:01:00.003+01:00

Adam Ant net has reported that Adam is in the latest Tank Boy Comic.
The scan above was sent to Ant.net by Rufus of Tank Girl.

Tank Girl Site

Wolfmen Live Review

2008-06-04T17:04:00.001+01:00

Planet Mondo have reviewed the Wolfmen Live, here!

Watch this blog for a preview review of the album Modernity Killed Every Night, soon!

Monochrome Set Interview

2008-06-02T23:24:00.003+01:00

Monochrome Set members Andy Warren, Bid and Lester Square were interviewed on London radio station Resonance FM in May.
That interview is now track 1 on the Music For A Future Age ipod player.

They talk about their time in the B Sides and with the Ants, as well as current band Scarlett's Well.

From the top left to right Bid, Lester, Andy, Morris.

YouTube Round Up!

2008-06-02T19:11:00.003+01:00

There have been some cool new videos added to YouTube recently.

First off The Wolfmen have a couple:

Bobby Friction interviews the band in this one

Caroline Richards' Making of Cecilie video is in this 2 parter

And Marco plays guitar on this Primal Scream version of I Put A Spell On You

And finally Carty has put his recent new remix of Stand and Deliver to the video. This is the 3rd of Carty's Stand and Deliver mixes, and features on his 10th CD of Ant mixes.

Wolfmen Friday 30th May

2008-05-23T22:31:00.000+01:00

Go see them!

Adam Ant Art book cancelled

2008-05-20T19:23:00.002+01:00

Sadly there hasn't been enough interest in this so it has been cancelled.
Adam explains here.

Some say that it was marketed badly, and many fans are of course disappointed.
It's news to me that this was going to be personally financed and not by a publisher, this explains a lot.

New Website "The Family of Noise" Launches tomorrow!

2008-05-16T22:34:00.006+01:00

Tomorrow, 17th May, at 1pm GMT, 3pm Central US time, The Family Of Noise, a brand new fan built website and forum will be opening.
It features a discography, a bibliography, a still in progress filmology, details on each of the Ants, a well as much more to come!
It's been built slowly over the last few months by a team of people, all long time Ant fans, and has some contributions from me too.

Amy Hankins' art work has been exclusively used for the site, as can be seen in the very cool looking banner above.
(Interview with Amy here)

An exclusive interview with a well known author of one of THE Ant books is also being put together as I write this. (No not Adam!)

So have a look and join the forum and get posting!!

Wolfmen Interview

2008-05-12T18:24:00.000+01:00

This is a recent one, and a good read!

Here

Gordonfest!

2008-05-06T21:52:00.003+01:00

Live near or in Reading? Want an Ant night out? For Free?
With Ant Disco and Terry Lee Miall and AntFlavour?

Go to the Thatchers Pub This Saturday!

Lamé

2008-04-25T19:37:00.007+01:00

I asked Marco some questions about Lamé and the b side Inseminator.

Me: When did you and Adam write Lamé?
Marco: After "Wonderful", the same time we did Dandy in the Underworld.

How did the recording come about?
We had a few ideas and we decided to go into the studio with our
friend John Reynolds just to see what would happen.

It was used on a promo cassette for Drop Dead Rock along with the b
side Inseminator...
Was it? (Yes! See pic)

When was Inseminator recorded?
I did that in New york one night as a favour to the director of Drop
Dead Rock.

Who is on the recording?
I never knew the other guys on the session.

Why was it not released anywhere properly?
I don't know.

New Songs added to Ipod Player

2008-04-16T22:09:00.010+01:00

I have added:

Wide Boy Awake 8 songs
Ants July 14th 1979 and Ants live May 14th 1978.
May 14th 78 was Mark Bivouac's final gig with the Ants, and Jordan's too.

Set lists:

May 14th 1978, London Roundhouse: (This is all one file again. Listen out for the guitar on Puerto Rican!)

Plastic Surgery
Puerto Rican
B -Side Baby
Deutscher Girls
Physical
It Doesn’t Matter
Hampstead
Lou
Bathroom Function
Dirk Wears White Sox
Fall In
Red Scab
Jaunito The Bandito

14th July 1979, Birmigham Digbeth Civic Hall:

Cartrouble (pt. 1 & 2)
Animals & Men
Nine Plan Failed
Day I Met God
Family of Noise (cuts in)
Cleopatra
Never Trust A Man
Kick!
Digital Tenderness
Tabletalk
Catholic Day (cuts in)
The Idea
Zerox
Lady
Hampstead
Fall In
Press Darlings (cuts)

Also, this just in: A new blogpost by the Systems of Romance blog on Rema Rema's Wheel in the Rose Ep, and files to download.

Send A Letter To Jordan....

2008-04-16T21:02:00.003+01:00

Sex 430 Kings Road London

History

It first began when Malcolm McLaren opened at what was called Paradise Garage, which had a small shop behind it where Mclaren sold records and eventually Teddy Boy clothes: this evolved into his own store, which he ran with Vivienne Westwood, called Let it Rock, selling Teddy Boy clothes. They later moved further down the road to open a rubber and leather fetish wear store which they named SEX. Famously, the Sex Pistols auditioned Johnny Rotten in the shop.^[1]

SEX was by no means the only boutique of its kind on the King's Road and by the time British punk rock developed a larger following, there were competitors including; Boy, Granny Takes A Trip & Beaufort Market. SEX received many famous visitors, including Adam Ant, The Sex Pistols, Bromley Contingent; and had their own little following such as Helen Wellington Loyd, store workers like Chrissie Hynde, Jordan, Debbie Juvenile and others. This store became very famous in the punk rock scene and produced such famous clothes as the Cambridge Rapist T-shirts, the shirt featuring cowboys drawn by Tom of Finland, "Destroy" shirts, "venus" shirts, "tits" shirts, fetish wear and others.

From SEX the store then became Seditionaries which sold mainly the same clothes but with more of a music aspect and gradually drifted away from selling leather gear. Goods sold by the two stores are still on sale, many second-hand or reproductions.

"I wanted a major, major, major change. I thought we can't keep selling these old remnants and things, we've got to do something tougher and harder: it's all too sweet, and the store, for fuck's sake, is too goddamn popular. So it's got to close, no question about it. No more brothel creepers, no more drainpipes, no more of this rock 'n' roll clothing and get rid of that fucking jukebox (1)" ~Malcolm McLaren

External links

Only anarchists are pretty Photos and information.
Sex & Seditionaries Clothing designed by Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren circa 1975-1979.
Punk Pistol Seditionaries tribute site to clothing designed by Westwood & McLaren.
1 The sex behind the pistols . The Times (September 6, 2003). Retrieved on 2007-12-17. “‘The idea was we were the Pistols from the SEX shop,’ recalls Matlock. ‘In the Kings Road we were near to Granny Takes a Trip and Anthony Price’s shop. You would see the Faces and Bryan Ferry going there to get their clothes. Malcolm told us they were a bunch of w*****s and we agreed with him. Even though they were all loaded and we didn’t have a pot to p*** in it was a good attitude to have.’”

Located Here

it now looks like this

Ants Family Tree

2008-04-16T19:41:00.000+01:00

Click the picture for larger version.

Opinions

2008-04-16T05:54:00.002+01:00

I would really like to know what you're opinion of this blogsite is.
I have been thinking lately that I want to post and write about stuff other than The Ants, but at the same time stuff that is kind of related if not directly related.
Therefore I would post/ write about Punk 1977, pop in the 80's, and bands/ things that both Adam Marco and the other Punks were interested in and influenced by. Hence David Bowie, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, all of that would be included..........

Please email me your thoughts, do you like what you've seen so far? Do you have any suggestions? Any complaints? Any ideas? Any requests?
It's hard to know when you get no feedback whether anyone is reading (I know that you ARE because i get statistics that tell me a lot of people have been reading!) but I only get a couple of people ever post any comments at me, so it's a little like talking to yourself!

Anyway, email me at stevehorwood@yahoo.co.uk OR leave a comment if you want to remain anonymous!

Thanks

Steve

"I was there really early on, I'm cool, You're not"

2008-04-16T05:29:00.005+01:00

Marco is in the latest edition of The Word Magazine, and lucky you, thanks to AntRap Admin Monk, I have the scans for you to view here!

Post Punk blog Ant related posts

2008-04-12T20:32:00.003+01:00

Here this cool blogsite has a list of "On this day in the 80's" posts on Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow and Malcolm McClaren.

Included is this post on Dalek I Love You - Heartbeat:

On this date in 1981, Dalek I Love You released their fourth single, "Heartbeat". The B side was "Astronauts (Have Landed On The Moon)". Neither track appeared on an album. The band, at this time, was officially only Alan Gill (ex-The Teardrop Explodes) though he brought in musicians to help record this song. Merrick (future Adam and The Ants) played drums for these tracks. The Liverpool post punk/new wave band with a constantly changing lineup called it quits in 1990.

More on Dalek I Love You and music files here

1977 The Year Decency Died (PopMatters Article)

2008-04-12T07:25:00.005+01:00

Two really good articles about Punk from the PopMatters Website. I'm widening the scope of what I post on here from now on, Adam and the Ants 1977-82 are related to a cultural change (Punk) and changes in pop music in Britain and the US, so I am going to post items about all of that too. After all, it's Music For A Future Age, and music from 1977-84 is precisely that, music that with hindsight was a lot more innovative than today's pop music, and post-punk music that was full of a whole lot more ideas and experiments in sound than much of today's music.
See Simon Reynold's book Rip It Up And Start Again to read more about this and visit his excellent website.

Channel Crossings: 1977: The Year Decency Died - Part I

[9 April 2008]

"I loathe and detest everything they stand for and look like. They are obnoxious, obscene and disgusting."

by Raphaël Costambeys-Kempczynski

Instead of identifying a contemporary sociological problem, the headline of a March 2008 issue of Time, “Unhappy, Unloved and Out of Control”, could well have been the definition of the punk-led youth of England just over 30 years ago. The year 1977 began with the International Monetary Fund lending Britain £2.3 billion in order to stay the decli

ning value of sterling. The Labour Party’s popularity was falling in the polls. A dynamic Conservative opposition leader was putting James Callaghan, the Labour Prime Minister, in difficulty; only a pact with the Liberal party would postpone the eventual demise of his minority government.

Although Labour was suffering in Parliament during those first few months of 1977, media interest was turning its attention to the nostalgia-fuelled Queen’s silver jubilee scheduled for the weekend of 4th June. But not everyone was caught up in the bunting and flag waving. A shadow was being cast. Writing in his essay ‘The English People’, George Orwell suggests that “England is the only European country where internal politics are conducted in a more or less humane and decent manner”, the English people he claims “are not good haters”.

Ten years after the Summer of Love, 1977 had it s Summer of Hate. This is how Jon Savage summarises the jubilee celebrations in his seminal punk history, England’s Dreaming (1991):

Out of the morass of mid-1970s pluralism emerged the old spectres thinly disguised with a fresh lick of paint. Here was the blind superiority that had characterised the English world-view after the Second World War; here was a concentrated dose of all the unappealing traits—snobbery, insularity, xenophobia—that rendered England’s continued claim to be a world power meaningless.

England's Dreaming

(St. Martin's (Revised);

US: Jan 2002)

Amazon

Savage’s insistence on England rather than Great Britain suggests that the Silver Jubilee was an English moment—the United Kingdom had no Empire, Scottish devolution was a burning question, Welsh nationalism was high, and the IRA campaign had spread to the mainland. As if the Establishment needed reminding of England’s social frailties, at 7.30pm on 7th June a boat called the Queen Elizabeth sailed down the Thames with the Sex Pistols onboard. The Sex Pistols were banned from playing on land and so a water-bound performance of the song “God Save the Queen” must have seemed like a good idea.

Except that the self-congratulatory act of performing to a captive audience put John Lydon a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, the vocalist and lyricist of the Sex Pistols, ill-at-ease. Neither was Lydon quite comfortable with sharing the stage with Richard Branson his hippiesque record label boss. Lydon’s performance was spiked with added resentment and when the boat docked there was a stand-off between the audience and the police. As night fell tensions increased and the police lost patience.

John Varnom, an associate of Richard Branson’s at Virgin, recalls:

We reached a high point, from which short steps descended to the pavement. It was at precisely this point that Malcolm [McLaren] raised his fist and, in full view of about five or six police, screamed: “You f**king fascist bastards!” It was a direct invitation, and it was not declined.

The release of the single was itself fraught with difficulties. The original release date had been decided as 27th May so that the single would reach the top ten by Jubilee week. But workers at the CBS pressing plant protested against the single’s content, downing their tools on various occasions. Once released, the promotion of the single was equally difficult—the Independent Broadcasting Authority deemed the single to be in direct contravention of Section 4 (10) (A) of the IBA Act, i.e., “against good taste or decency, likely to encourage or incite crime, or lead to disorder.” The commercial television stations and radios were instructed not to broadcast the single and the BBC banned the record altogether. Regardless of these efforts, or perhaps because of them, the single sold 150,000 copies within five days of its release sending it to number 11.

You would think that three decades on, the antics of the Sex Pistols would be viewed favourably; John Lydon bestowed the doubtful status of being an ‘institution’. And yet the Silver Jubilee seems to remain a touchy subject. After 30 years the secret government files of 1977 were taken to the National Archives in Kew and released to the public. Of the six files covering the Silver Jubilee, however, only two have been opened. The others have been held back under Section 40 ‘Personal Information’ and Section 40 ‘Information Provided in Confidence’. As Martha Kearney put it in her BBC Radio 4 documentary, UK Confidential, we may never know how the Queen felt about being “gobbed at by Johnny Rotten”.

In English popular musical terms, 1977 began at 6.15pm on 1st Decem

ber 1976. This was the day of the infamous interview of the Sex Pistols by

Bill Grundy on the Thames Television Today programme.

Goaded by a drunken Grundy, within two minutes punk, as a liberal socially complex phenomenon, was reduced to a flurry of four-letter words. So it was that 1977 was set up as the year decency died. Punk would still prove to be violent and political, but it had already been subsumed by the Establishment as bad boy rock. What had been an underground musical development was transformed into a media circus typified by the front page of the Daily Mirror published the next day.

Councils began cancelling tour dates, the record company EMI was urged to take action. Neither the group’s manager, McLaren, nor EMI had condoned the behaviour of the Sex Pistols on the Today show. This was the media condemning a scandal of their own making.

Was this a reflection of the age-old fear of a rebelling younger generation? or perhaps the indication of yet another moral panic sweeping the country? This then appears as an example of what Jurgen Habermas says about Late Capitalism and its propensity for crisis tendencies where policy becomes the management of these crises, a management which contains in itself the possibility of further crises, rather than the resolution of the fundamentals (see Habermas 1975). The fundamental issue in 1976 and 1977 was not punk but that great negator of common public decency: unemployment. As the Clash sang on their début album: “Career opportunities are the ones that never knock / Every job they offer you is to keep out the dock.”

As the closing comments of Steve Jones during the interview with Grundy suggest, it is the journalist, the broadcasting institution, and his proposition directed at Siouxsie Sioux that were seen as being indecent. Writing in the fanzine Bondage shortly after the interview, the singer of the punk band the Nipple Erectors and future member of the Pogues, Shane MacGowan, immediately identifies the vagueness of the notion of decency and projects it as a heuristic fiction:

Since when did EMI or any of those old c**ts put “public duty” before their precious money or the security it gives them. What it really is is they feel that security is threatened just by what the Pistols represent. And how could anything that appears on ITV offend public decency. There isn’t any public decency—people only know what’s decent by being told by ITV and the rest of the media and EMI too. (Shane McGowan in Bondage, N°1, December 1976)

Though placing the Queen at the head of a fascist regime in a song is defendable as the right to free speech in a democratic country (although there is no constitutional guarantee of this in the United Kingdom), this may not have been useful to the Sex Pistols and their anti-establishment stance. The message may have been one of decency, but the medium had to consistently be indecent to ensure the vibrancy of that message. Even this, however, would prove difficult to sustain as Lydon later admitted when talking about Public Image Limited, or PiL, the band he would form after the demise of the Sex pistols:

I formed PiL because I got bored with the extremist point of view that I’d had with the Sex Pistols… I attempted to move toward a liberal point of view and see if that could slowly but surely change society into something more decent… (Lydon 1993)

The Sex Pistols as “the poison in the human machine”, to quote from “God Save the Queen”, ensured that they would enflame the stereotypes of middle England they were reacting against, all those that the song “Liar” claimed to be in “suspension”. One such candidate was Bernard Brooke-Partridge, chairman of the Arts Council who had banned the Sex Pistols from performing in London. Writing in Rolling Stone Charles M. Young recounts his exchange with Brooke-Partridge:

“I will do everything within the law to stop them from appearing here ever again,” he says. “I loathe and detest everything they stand for and look like. They are obnoxious, obscene and disgusting.”

“Doesn’t the question of who should decide what’s disgusting in a free society enter in here?”

“I am the person who decides,” he says. “The electoral put me here. My power is not in question. If the Sex Pistols want to change the system, they are free to stand for election from my district.”

“In the United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution says the government is not allowed to make such decisions.”

“We have our own way of doing things here. The Sex Pistols are scum trying to make a fast buck, which they are entitled to do under the law. I am entitled to try and stop them. We’ll see who wins.” (Rock Is Sick and Living in London, 20 October 1977)

The Sex Pistols with Bill Grundy - Today show excerpt

Image (partial) from Blair Air Brushing.com

Channel Crossings: 1977: The Year Decency Died - Part II

[10 April 2008]

by Raphaël Costambeys-Kempczynski

1977: The Year Decency Died - Part I “I loathe and detest everything they stand for and look like. They are obnoxious, obscene and disgusting.”

The year of the Sex Pistols was punctuated by the Grundy interview, the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and the troubled release of their album Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols. On 5th November 1977 WPC Julie Dawn Story informed the branch manager of Virgin Nottingham that the word ‘Bollocks’ on the record cover was in breach of the Indecent Advertising Act of 1899. Pivotal to the subsequent court case was the witness account of Reverend James Kingsley, professor of English at Nottingham University and former Anglican priest. In Kingsley’s account of the etymology of ‘bollock’ he argued:

The word has been used as a nickname for clergymen. Clergymen are known to talk a good deal of rubbish and so the word later developed the meaning of nonsense… They became known for talking a great deal of bollocks, just as old balls or baloney also come to mean testicles, so it has twin uses in the dictionary.

Calling upon a sense of pride in the English language’s Anglo-Saxon inheritance, this line of defence was enough for the magistrates to find in favour of the Sex Pistols although the senior magistrate stressed this was done “reluctantly”.

The battle ground between the Sex Pistol-led English punk movement and the Establishment was that of decency. The punk events of 1977 were driven by a need to re-appropriate decency as the domain of the subject, to inject responsibility back into a notion too long left in suspension. The claim of English punk music in 1977 was about empowering the social actor through responsibility with subjectivity.

There should be no mistake, however. Punk’s English dream of decency, to play on a line from the song “God Save the Queen”, was itself a construction. If the Sex Pistols were the unadulterated voice of the working class, or the unemployed class, this could only sit uncomfortably with their fame and money. The class issue would fuel the artist’s age-old struggle of how to remain authentic to the artistic endeavour and the message.

Margaret Thatcher Che Guevara Revolutionary T-Shirt© image (partial)
from Red Molotov.com - Revolutionary T-shirt Designs

The direct attack on the social realities of 1977 would lead to added attention, better record sales, increased wealth and greater distance from the class struggle within which the music knew its genesis. Critics have therefore argued that a popular musicians view of contemporary reality is fuzzy, distorted by the pull between the utopian message of production and the capital gain of consumption.

Ultimately what we need to bear in mind is that beyond the performance of punk bands of this period, whether on stage or in the media, many of the band members did not have working class backgrounds. Of the Clash, Joe Strummer’s father was a diplomat and Mick Jones went to art school. For the Sex Pistols with such figures as Situationist Malcolm McLaren and the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood pulling the strings from their Kings Road clothes shop, it is difficult not to peer at this working class subculture through the microscope of art school filtered postmodernism. Katrina Irving may argue that what differentiates US punk from English punk is that the Americans considered themselves artists, quoted Genet and played concerts in arts centres, but we must not forget that McLaren, if only briefly, had managed the New York Dolls.

Not only this, but, John Lydon, the mouthpiece of the dole queue, had never been unemployed for any particular length of time himself. Lydon had an ambivalent relationship towards class. He appears to have a nostalgic association to the English working-class community of his youth and yet his Sex Pistols persona, Johnny Rotten, an imagined alternative identity born out of his extensive cultural capital, a product of an intellectual construct, firmly rejects this wistful vision of the past.

To attack the generation of World War II, however, it would be necessary to demonstrate the suffering experienced at the hands of post-Empire inertia characterised by the Silver Jubilee. Perhaps the most violent aspect of “God Save the Queen” is not the attack on the “mad parade” itself (the song was written about a year before the jubilee celebrations) but the songs mantra that there is “no future / in England’s dreaming”.

With the seeming impossibility of prospect, all that was left was the immediacy of a present perceived as the apocalypse –- The Sex Pistols sang “I am an antichrist” in “Anarchy in the UK”, The Clash sang “London’s Burning”, X-Ray Specs sang “Oh! Bondage Up Yours”, The Stranglers sang “Something Better Change”.

Heavily defined by its class system, English society in 1977 had a voice for its alienated bored working class youth. With the Labour government hanging on to power by the skin of its teeth social order seemed in turmoil. The vicious sound of these English punk bands reflected the destruction around them: the dissonant snarling singing voice, the raw guitar wall of sound, every beat of every bar accented and the percussive high pitch of continuous crashing symbols makes listening uncomfortable.

Richard Middleton argues that teenage rebellion in the 1950s and 1960s, though set against the backdrop of growing liberal ideology, was articulated to safe musical patterns with little subversive content. Punk offered a more testing musical and message-driven assault at a time of more critical socio-economic unrest. One could argue, however, that the various moments of youth culture are self-regulating revolutions as the actors of one generation necessarily grow older and therefore normalise any sense of fracture. In the meantime the social realities of economic failure persist.

It would appear misleading then to suggest that punk helped shape the politics of the time, but these punk groups did project themselves as the voice of the English underclass, the Everyman voice of “Another Country / Another council tenancy” to quote from “Anarchy in the UK”. This is the little man against the big man mentality seen as a defining characteristic of Englishness -– as the sociologist Krishan Kumar puts it, the English have always “championed the good sense, resourcefulness and courage of the ordinary ‘little chap’”. Indeed, with such direct implications in movements like Rock against Racism, punk groups like the Clash, Buzzcocks, X-Ray Spex and Sham 69 did more than symbolic resistance.

Class differentiation was also identified along musical lines, notably in the polarisation of punk and progressive rock. Prog rock was the genre of popular music seen to be indulgently arty, intellectual, Romantic and middle class by punk. It lacked authenticity whereas punk was purer, had more street credibility.

Contrary to many of its predecessors, at the musical core of punk—from its conception to its performance—lies the action of protest. Instrumental solos, seen as superfluous to this and a sign of slickness, were to be condemned along with the banks of electronic keyboards so revelled in by the progressive rockers of the time. The lack of rhythmic variation made punk undanceable but added a sense of urgency. The simplicity of the riffs was the stance of individualism and allowed the anger of the voice to stand out.

Protest song in the form of folk or hippie music had been plaintive, punk, however, was declamatory. The Clash and the Sex Pistols confronted their audiences often provoking them into a violent reaction. The sense of confrontation is then worked on in the studio to reproduce this live feel. No sense of artificiality must come between the band and the audience, and though it may be difficult to make out the message because of the sneer, the snarl and the slur, the sincerity of that message must not be brought into question.

Often criticised for being out of tune one need only listen to a song “Pretty Vacant” to here how Rotten aggresses the listener with his political message sung out of key during the verse but then neatly falls into key for the rabble rousing chorus inviting us to sing along, to answer his call to arms. In this way punk positions itself against the music that had preceded itself—breaking away from rock ‘n ‘roll, from hippie music and prog rock, and expressing a real disdain for disco. And yet punk reworked rock ‘n’ roll in a pub rock guise, and inherited the rhythms of reggae. These articulations went some way to guarantee the bands’ commercial success, pointed at their mainstream bent.

Some writers, however, still see punk as fundamentally changing the nature of popular music. Ian Chambers for instance believed punk created a breach in the sequentiality of pop which would lead to “a proliferation of margins rather than a predictable return to a renewed ‘mainstream’ and subordinated ‘alternative’”. Today we can deplore the fact that sanitised Euro pop is still fed to us by such television programmes as the X-Factor where contestants churn out over-produced songs of the past, but television itself is becoming a marginal medium in the face of the Internet, which offers on demand access to an almost infinite possibility of marginal existences. Chambers is perhaps right, but is this down to punk or the digitalisation of the audio medium that would begin just five years later, in 1982?

Perhaps the public uproar over punk reflected a real threat to public order, but cultural theory teaches us well. Although much of the media attention focused on the public displays of violence that characterised punk—the imagery of bondage, the aggressive musical snarl, the lyrics of desolation and oppression, the public goading—there was also a commodification of this violence. After the Grundy incident, small retailers began to take notice of punk’s apparent individualist ethos and started setting up independent record labels. Added to this were the ‘one stops’—firms that bought bulk records from the major labels and then sold them on to independent record shops but without the small order surcharge imposed by the major record labels—in effect decentralising the chain of distribution.

This was the Do-It-Yourself drive of punk, though one should eschew all temptation to call this democratisation of the English record industry. If anything this was the transformation of the punk from consumer to producer, from the unengaged to the socially responsible subjective agent. Moreover, you no longer had to feel frustrated by lack of talent as this image from the fanzine Sniffin’ Glue demonstrates.

The Sex Pistols and the Clash had both originally signed to major record labels, increased exposure promising larger audiences and the wider communication of their message. But commercial pressures would call into question the authenticity of punk. Technical pressures of trying to reproduce the emotions of a live concert would also eat at the heart of the authentic punk experience.

And then there was the gimmick. Soon it was difficult to escape the coloured 12-inch or the limited edition. Post-punk would come to embrace the commodification of authenticity and leading the way would be John Lydon post-Sex Pistols with his new band, Public Image Limited, the name of which conjures up the notion of privately-owned limited liability companies.

As with many English bands since, the straw that finally broke the anarchist camel’s back was the Sex Pistols’ attempt to break America. The positivistic attitude of Americans did not appear to be a comfortable bedfellow for nihilistic apocalypse. And so often nihilistic apocalypse did not turn up, as Savage puts it “There was no murder, no vomiting, no mutilation: just four 20- to 21-year-olds”.

Reflecting the attitude of their manager back at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee when McLaren had aggravated the situation with the police, on 7th January 1978 John Lydon at a concert at Randy’s Rodeo in San Antonia decided that this was his moment of hubris and shouted: “You cowboys are all a bunch of f**king faggots”. Needless to say, the concert had to be interrupted for several minutes. Just ten days later the Sex Pistols were no more.

It would be all too easy to conclude with an image of the stereotypical Sex Pistols, leaving us with an ironic sense of the commodification of authenticity. But punk was the voice challenging the original generation of teenagers as they were turning into parents. The Sex Pistols were also the enemy within, willing to expose the record industry to show their authenticity as they sung on the track “E.M.I.”: “and you thought that we were faking / that we were all just money making / you do not believe we’re for real”.

If punk’s message was ‘destroy’, then inevitably wrapped up in its own scream of existence was its dying breath. No sooner was 1977 declared the year of punk than the death of punk was in the cards. The release of “God Save the Queen” and the publicity stunt on the Thames were accompanied by the Sex Pistols’ sighs of regret and the prerequisite boredom. Within the space of a year the proliferation of generic punk bands with the formulaic snarl had turned punk into a conservative mode of musical expression. Ironically one could see the symbolic death of punk as the election of Margaret Thatcher in May 1979.

The wave of post-punk bands would push the Clash to sing in June 1978 “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais”: “The new groups are not concerned / With what there is to be learned / They got Burton suits, ha you think it’s funny / Turning rebellion into money.” Indeed, 1977 was the year decency died. Social decency suffered from the political upheaval of that year, public decency could no longer be stabilised by its hypocrisy, and musical decency in the form of punk was commodified by post-punk before even the first punk album had been released.

Perhaps the most indecent thing of 1977 was that an ex-Beatle, backed by the music of bagpipes, topped the charts singing “Mull of Kintyre”.

Paul McCartney - Mull of Kintyre

Wolfmen one-hour radio session coming soon...

2008-04-11T19:26:00.002+01:00

Listen out for a Wolfmen special on Red Bull Music Academy Radio coming soon, featuring brand new songs, classic singles that have inspired the band, and a new interview with Chris Constantinou, who put together the tracklist:

Marc Bolan & T-Rex - Ride A White Swan 2:12
Jimmy Hendrix - Cross town traffic 2:14
The Wolfmen Jackie Says 5:00
The Wolfmen Cecilie 3:31
The Wolfmen Needle In A Camel's Eye 2:56
The Wolfmen Up All Nighter 3:08
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues 2:17
Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting for the Man 4:48
Johnny Cash - I've Been Everywhere 3:17
Warren Zevon- Werewolf In London 3:40
The Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso 4:22
Dahler Mendhi featuring The Wolfmen 2 Eyes 3:38
Dahler Mendhi featuring The Wolfmen - Thieves and Liars (radio edit) 5:16
Leonard Cohen - Bird on the Wire 3:27
X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents 3:11

Since the launch of Red Bull Music Academy Radio in Nov 2005, RBMA Radio has been streaming 24/7 – with over 120 new hours of music per month. Red Bull Music Academy Radio is now available on demand, offering daily updates and unlimited access to its holy archives. Along with hundreds of exclusive guest mixes and special shows it also boasts 20 regular shows, bringing you the latest tracks on CDR as well as those undiscovered vinyl treasures. Like all the people invited to take part in the Red Bull Music Academy, hosts like the Soul Jazz Soundsystem, Morgan Geist, Maurice Fulton, Marco Passarani, Wax Poetics founder Andrew Mason, Kirk Degiorgio or Bugz In The Attic's Daz-I-Kue believe in sharing their knowledge as well as sharing a serious passion for an eclectic range of music: all the while challenging people to look even deeper. Each host is given free creative reign: resulting in very unique monthly shows encapsulating the kind of vibes that our favourite radio shows were always about.

Ipod Player

2008-04-11T17:18:00.002+01:00

Thanks to an anonymous commenter, the ipod player has now been fixed, the gigs will play again now, I have no idea what happened there.
I will add 2 gig2 from 1979 (Digbeth and Electric Ballroom New Years Eve) later!
And a few other songs.... watch this space!

Needles Video, Word Magazine and Chris Online Interview

2008-04-10T19:25:00.003+01:00

First off Chris is interviewed here.

Marco is in the May issue of the Word Magazine, as previewed below

Don't forget that the Wolfmen are playing Live again on 17th April- details in the flyer below

And finally the video for Needle in the Camel's Eye is below!
Enjoy!

PopMatters article on Gene Vincent

2008-04-07T05:05:00.000+01:00

Subversive Rock Humor: Gene Vincent: A Caricature Portrait of the Artist as Rebel Rocker

[28 March 2008]

Nostalgic craving for the iconic Gene gene still burns bright, as look-alikes (young and old) exaggeratedly hiccup their way through “Be-Bop-a-Lula”.

by Iain Ellis

“White face, black shirt, white socks, black shoes,
Black hair, white strat, bled white, died black.” “Sweet Gene Vincent”, Ian Dury.

“[Vincent’s] a myth, a dream, an idea, a concept, a fantasy.” Race with the Devil: Gene Vincent’s Life in the Fast Lane , Susan VanHecke.

Caricatures are commonly known to us as the grotesque portraits produced by newspaper and magazine sketch artists; they aim to capture the perceived essences of their subjects—usually the rich, famous, and powerful within our popular culture—through deliberate exaggerations, by making mountains out of their molehills. Though the pictorial image itself calls attention to physical peculiarities, the most perceptive caricatures simultaneously equate visual idiosyncrasies with equally recognizable personality traits.

These comedic representations rely wholly upon generally agreed-upon criteria and our shared cultural understandings of the subject at hand. Caricatures are not ends or conclusions in themselves, but are signals for us to take a ride to an ultimate destination we have all once visited or envisioned.

So what does any of this have to do with the concept of the rebel rocker or with our principle case study, Gene Vincent? The answer is that by 1956, the image of the former had become clearly codified into a series of caricature features, while the latter stepped up—in timely fashion—to the rock ‘n’ roll stage as its most illustrative embodiment. With its predilections for the outlandish, the imitative, and the extreme, rock has long courted its caricatures and vice versa.

Its spectacular subcultures—rockabillys, teddy boys, rockers, mods, hippies, punks, Goths—are all essentially caricatures, distorted sartorial and attitudinal signposts reconfigured into striking cultural mélanges. Within their associated musical genres, too, central caricature characters arise and reside as archetypes of form, as overstated personifications of essence.

One thinks of metal’s dark master, Ozzy, his eyes piercing and teeth glistening with satanic glee; or punk provocateur, Iggy, his middle finger in salute, slashing his naked torso with a broken beer bottle. Whether acting or acted upon, these are the exaggerated, uninhibited icons of primitive rock savagery, the comic grotesques that mark rock rebellion. In their extreme public spectacles they embody the “loaded portraits” (in so many ways) of caricature art.

If a sketch artist was commissioned to draw a caricature of the classic 1950s white rebel rocker, (s)he would likely produce something resembling Gene Vincent. From his sweat-soaked, bad boy stage persona to his exaggerated “hiccup” vocal style to the primal, echo-fueled sound of his gang-band, The Blue Caps, Vincent emerged from the mid-’50s as the quintessential rockabilly rebel, becoming the poster child for subsequent admirers and would-be copyists both on and off the stage.

It was Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps that the Stray Cats and others most emulated during the early ‘80s rockabilly revival, and when Ian Dury sang “There’s one in every town” in his 1979 tribute, “Sweet Gene Vincent”, he was alluding to Vincent’s enduring influence as an emblematic subcultural role model for rockabilly singers and fans around the globe. Though a second-tier rock ‘n’ roll figure during his heyday in the US, Sweet Gene’s fundamental caricature features served him well in translation and transference, as Britain and other nations elevated his finely crafted myth into an archetype, such that today our distorted memory of him survives as one of the principal images of the ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll bad-boy rebel.

As image and idol, Vincent was always as much illusion as reality, a Warhol-ian replica of the Elvis mold. Indeed, in 1956, when major record labels realized that Presley was in the process of revolutionizing the popular music industry (or, from their perspective, selling a lot of records), many went shopping for their own Elvis clone. For Capitol Records, Vincent, from Norfolk, Virginia, appeared to have the requisite résumé.

The 20-year-old Navy veteran suffered chronic leg pain by virtue of a motorcycle accident, but this played well to the James Dean dare-devil image; his sharp looks, slick hair, and leather attire cast him as a model juvenile delinquent of the Marlon Brando/Wild One type; yet, he also had all the Southern charm and good manners—as well as the smoldering sexuality in sound and look—that made Elvis so amenable and attractive. Indeed, Vincent’s debut release, “Be-Bop-a-Lula” (1956), was initially heard as so imitative of Elvis’ then-patented vocal and musical style that Presley’s band were reportedly perturbed that their leader had not told them that he had recorded the song without them.

Disturbed as well by the ensuing flurry of confusion, Vincent even apologized to The King himself, explaining that he had neither intended to be a copycat nor a caricature when recording the song. Later, while inducting Vincent posthumou(r)sly into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, inductor John Fogerty offered a final nail in the coffin on this association when he stated that “Be-Bop-a-Lula was Elvis’s greatest record.”

Elvis comparisons would plague and irritate Vincent for much of his career, but without them he would likely not have survived the boom and bust of the mid-‘50s rebel feeding frenzy. Always seen as more dangerous than The King and just as manic as The Killer, Vincent was able to exploit durable fascinations with the rebel rocker while establishing himself as the form’s most extreme and threatening representative.

Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps

Thus, when the rough edges of the first rock ‘n’ roll uprising were smoothed by late ‘50s corporate controllers—the primal rockers replaced with well-manicured pop innocents—Vincent stood (almost) alone as the last troubadour, the enduring rebel proclaiming “no surrender” as all around the tidal waves of sterility subsumed all. Although Vincent ultimately had to relocate to England to find a rowdy port in this sanitized calm, his career and legacy as the Elvis that Elvis once was served him well entering the ‘60s and has since established him as the pre-eminent caricature emblem of bad boy rebellion.

Initial recordings certainly revealed Vincent to have been well cast as an Elvis duplicate, though he separated himself from his peer’s model by pushing vocal parody to new caricature levels. Whereas Elvis’s dynamic vocal swoops and dramatic pauses were always cut with gentle fun, Vincent pushed the humor of these techniques into uncharted territory in songs like “Be-Bop-a-Lula”. The slow rockabilly bounce of this song sets up perfectly the angst-riddled tension and melodramatic excesses of Vincent’s measured delivery. In essence, a quaintly simple song of desire to the “queen of all the teens”, Vincent belabors the alliteration and nursery rhyme quality of the words, regressing into child-like innocence, pleading in his Southern drawl for his “baby doll”.

The desperation and slow urgency of the delivery do not so much express desire as parody it. Drummer Dickie Harrell adds periodic screams to the soundscape, creating an overall atmosphere that comically signifies the uncontainable hormones of the frustrated sexualized male. This parody of the primitive, inarticulate, and guttural was the same means by which Elvis, Jerry Lee, and Little Richard were expressing youthful sexual awakening; as with them, the protective mask of the inherent humor enabled the censors to be kept at bay and other observers to be fully en"gross"ed.

Loading parody (and perhaps patronage) upon parody, Steve Allen lampooned “Be-Bop-a-Lula” by giving it a dramatic recitation on his TV talk show, while Paul Simon was both wry and perceptive when he once answered a journalist’s question, “What’s the smartest thing ever said in a rock song?” with the curt response, “Be-bop-a-Lula / She’s my baby.”

The onomatopoeic noises, alliterative nonsense, and slang terms of the new youth rock ‘n’ rollers all provided what Peter Guralnick has called “a secret language for the young seeking to break away.” This youth-specific coded style was exaggerated into a manifesto of separation and defiance via the lyrics and delivery of Vincent.

“Blue Jean Bop” (1956) and “Bop Street” (1956) drew subcultural caricatures of the “cat” culture, providing principles of dance rituals and hang-out conduct. In “Cat Man” (1957) Vincent literally spells out the requisite rebel traits for the self-discerning rockabilly: “C is for the crazy hairdo that he wears around…/ M is for the mean things that this mean man does.”

Subsequent songs like “B-I-Bickey-Bi Bo-Bo-Go” (1957) and “La Den Da Den Da Da” (1964) further played to the “Be-Bop-a-Lula” youth-slang-as-non(-)sense formula (as well as underscoring the old adage that “a caricature is worth a thousand words”), while a glance across Vincent’s back catalogue finds such youth-speak markers as “cat”, “bop”, “street”, “wild”, “baby”, and “blue” arising with repetitive ubiquity in the titles. Gene and the band would perpetuate these blueprint lyrical images with a series of single and album cover shots that presented the gang as ready for any action.

These faux-rebel poses were precisely choreographed, and the style finely detailed from the quaffed hair to the upturned collars to the blue suede shoes. Some, hilariously, even cast a scowling Gene wielding a bashed-up acoustic guitar (no doubt giving ideas to the pre-teen Pete Townsend and Jimi Hendrix).

As much as the dumbed-down, slang-infested lyrics and stuttering, melodramatic vocals played to caricature stereotypes of the primitive street tough, it was Vincent’s performance and visual charms that made him the cardboard cut-out rebel rocker of our imaginations. And despite his general aversion to involving himself in the movies, it is in this arena where some of Vincent’s most enduring imagery has been cast in celluloid (and on posters) for the ages.

Riding the wave of juvenile delinquency films that had horrified parents and magnetized restless youths throughout the first half of the ‘50s [The Wild One (1954), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Blackboard Jungle (1955)], Vincent arrived in ’56 as a naturally typecast rebel when this filmic trend continued unabated into the decade’s later years. Surrounded by a gang of gum-chewing Blue Caps, Vincent cut through the screen with a trembling, clench-fisted performance in The Girl Can’t Help It (1956), and despite the band’s segment lasting only a minute in length, this filmic breakthrough explosively captured the wild, untamed side of the rockabilly phenomenon for all to see.

In the later Hot Rod Gang (1958), Vincent added further brush strokes to his caricature portrait of the rebel incarnate when he garbled his way through the following stylized slang dialogue: “You know, we’ve got the shaggy mane and the shivering spine and the rubbery legs. Why not dress him up in a cool set of shrubbery and some real class threads, you know, like one of those Greenwich Village cats who’s on cloud nine?” Young wanna-be’s flocked to these movies, embracing Vincent as they once had Presley, and his poster-ized image emerged with caricatured permanence, serving as a vicarious fantasy portal into romantic adventures, respite from boredom, and rebellion visually sanctioned.

Particularly enamored with style, look, and image in their most extreme manifestations, British fans placed Vincent high on their rock hierarchy pecking order. Hence, when Vincent’s career fell into a slump in the late ‘50s, Britain rolled out the welcome mat. Arriving in England in 1959, his new handlers spruced-up his bad boy biker image to even more elevated levels of caricature, in the process jump-starting his career into the early ‘60s.

Though he would never re-ignite the hysteria of his mid-‘50s glory years, Vincent sparked an enduring love affair with a new generation of British fans and bands. The Beatles were so infatuated with the Vincent caricature that they copied wholesale his leather-clad, greasy-haired biker look throughout their early Hamburg years, at the same time that they were learning their own songwriting craft by covering a number of their hero’s numbers.

Subsequent British rockers have, likewise, expressed and lived out their dream-adulation of Vincent, Jeff Beck recording the tribute album Crazy Legs in 1993, Adam Ant creating the stage-play Be-Bop-a-Lula (1992) about Gene’s friendship with Eddie Cochran, and, most recently, Carl Barât, the ex-Libertine, playing him in the up-coming Nick Moran film, Telstar. At fan-level, too, the Vincent caricature lingers on in all its excesses. A visit to any 1950s rock revival club in the UK today will reveal that nostalgic craving for the iconic Gene gene still burns bright, as look-alikes (young and old) exaggeratedly hiccup their way through “Be-Bop-a-Lula” as though 1956 to ‘58—the core years of the white boy rock rebel—had been forever frozen in time.

The above essay is an outtake from a forthcoming book about subversive rock humorists to be published by PopMatters and Soft Skull Press (Counterpoint).

Gene Vincent - Be-Bop-A-Lula

Mr Pressman, with your Pen Knife!

2008-03-31T22:21:00.005+01:00

I am not always on top of the news, and sometimes there isn't any point in posting news that has already been posted excellently already somewhere else.
To that end, I fully recommend that you subscribe to Carty's Excellent News page here.
(Click the rss feed button to the left).

Latest news is that Needle in the Camel's Eye is number one in the Mojo Top 10 list, and Dog Eat Dog is to.........well, go read the site and you'll see!

First 2 Antz Live gigs added to the ipod player.

2008-03-21T02:59:00.001Z

12th January 1978 – London Marquee (As on the In Bondage CD)

Set list

(Image from Simon Daw's Antmusic site)

Plastic Surgery
Puerto Rican
Deutscher Girls
B-Side Baby
Dirk Wears White Sox
Fat Fun
It Doesn’t Matter
Lou
Fall In
Hampstead
Whip in My Valise
Beat My Guest
Letter to Jordan
Red Scab
Juanito the Bandito
Fall In

And
30th January 1978 – London 100 Club

Setlist

Plastic Surgery
Puerto Rican
Deutscher Girls
B-Side Baby
Dirk Wears White Sox
Fat Fun
Lou
Fall In
Whip in my Valise
It Doesn’t Matter
Hampstead
Beat My Guest
Send a Letter to Jordan
Red Scab
Juanito the Bandito
Fall In
(The whole gig is in one long mp3, and I am too lazy to have separated it into separate tracks. I will do at some future point!)

ENJOY VINTAGE ANTZ!

Wolfmen Live Again!

2008-03-21T02:40:00.001Z

The Wolfmen are appearing live again in London, the 3rd gig so far, in support of new single Needle in the Camel's Eye.
Click the pic for details!

Ants live 1977 and 1978

2008-03-07T04:50:00.003Z

Coming soon I will start those gig pages i mentioned below, and throughout the coming months will be featured the following 1977 and 1978 gigs. (These are all the ones that are known to exist on audio at present, and to the right you can see a list of ALL of the 77/78 ant gigs; please contact me if you have any of the ones in RED).

[VORTEX 11/7/77]
[100 CLUB 30/1/78]
[THE MARQUEE 12/1/78]
[ROUNDHOUSE 14/5/78]
[EALING COLLEGE 10/6/78]
[MARQUEE 13/7/78]
[SOUTHBANK POLY / ELEPHANT & CASTLE 17/6/78
[MOONLIGHT CLUB 31/7/78]
[ROCK GARDEN COVENT GARDEN 10/8/78
[SALISBURY TECH 22/9/78]
[CINEMA X MILAN 16/10/78]
[CINEMA X MILAN 17/10/78]
[ROME TITAN CLUB 20/10/78]
[MARQUEE 28/11/78]
[MOONLIGHT CLUB 18/12/78]

A History of Bow Wow Wow

2008-03-04T20:20:00.013Z

A HISTORY OF BOW WOW WOW (1980-2003)

Bow Wow Wow’s history may be short but it’s complex. Over their four album life span, Bow Wow Wow’s music ranges from simple, goofy, non-sensical tunes to complex, crisp pop masterpieces. Bow Wow Wow’s music has been described as a pastiche of Latin and African beats, 50’s rock-n-roll, and Spaghetti Western soundtracks. The band packaged all of this together with an incredible sense of humor and vigor.

With thundering African/Latin percussion and twangy, Duane Eddy guitars, Bow Wow Wow struggled to maintain a consistent image and sound through a host of record producers in their short life span. But despite the numerous people who shaped their sound from 1980-1983, a strong Bow Wow Wow identity remained intact. That unique style created a wonderful antithesis to the gloom of the London and U.S. music scene in the early 80’s. Unemployment and inflation were at record highs in both countries. As Annabella Lwin (lead singer) said in 1981: “I hate London. It’s just really horrible. I just really hate it. It’s depressing, you know. At the moment anyway, it’s depressing.”

LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING…

The year is 1980 and the place is London. Adam and the Ants were moving away from their “Dirk Wears White Sox” punk days, adopting the driving rhythms of the central African Burundi tribe, the war paint of Native Americans, pirate costumes and swashbuckling antics. This change came about through the mechanisms of the ex-manager/image consultant of the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren. According to legend, after charging £1,000.00 for his advice and consultation, the Ants (Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman and Leigh Gorman) fell prey to McLaren’s charm and left Adam to find other Ants. As Matthew put it: “I was an Ant. It was a horrendous experience. I’m really glad I’m out the band. McLaren came along to be our manager in the Ants and he told us to kick Adam out. So we did. Adam was writing all of the songs before McLaren came along…and Adam wasn’t very good really. Didn’t really like him really. He wasn’t very good at dancing and I thought he was a bit old. He was 25…so, we kicked him out.”

McLaren knew the group needed a lead singer. Legend has it that he discovered the 14-year-old Myant Myant Aye (Burmese for“cool, cool, high”) singing in a north London (Kilburn) dry cleaners. Actually, according to Annabella, one of McLaren’s people came in to the dry cleaners where she was working part-time after school and asked her if she wanted to audition for the band. She showed up at the audition and got the part. McLaren changed her name to Annabella Lwin (pronounced Lu-win) for English-speaking palates (Annabella was born in Rangoon, the capitol of Burma, and had migrated to England).

With Annabella’s voice, smarts and charm, she fit McLaren’s vision of a musical experience that would be part high camp and high concept, with a huge dose of adolescent sex and innocence. Bow Wow Wow was now ready to record. With Annabella Lwin (vocals), Matthew Ashman (guitar), Leigh Gorman (bass) and Dave Barbarossa (drums), the group christened themselves Bow Wow Wow. According to most accounts the name means nothing. It was rumored that they came up with their bizarre name as a homage to the trademark of the RCA label-the dog listening to the phonograph. However, Bow Wow Wow were not on RCA when they named themselves. Their first contract was with EMI. So that theory doesn’t work. When asked about the group’s name Leigh Gorman said, “a dog came up and said it to me one day.” I’ll leave that for you to interpret.

Bow Wow Wow’s first release came in the form of the world’s first-ever cassette single. In July 1980, EMI released “C30, C60, C90, Go” only on cassette in the U.K. with “Sun, Sea, and Piracy” to accompany it. The single was followed by another cassette-only, U.K.–only release, “Your Cassette Pet,” an extended cassette EP featuring eight snappy tracks. One featured vinyl single came from this EP, “W.O.R.K. (N.O. Nah No No My Daddy Don’t), which was released in March of 1981 with “C30, C60, C90, Anda” to accompany it. Though McLaren’s weak production on the EP and singles make the band sound a little cheap and undeveloped, the band’s energy and potential make up for the lack of quality recording.

Lieutenant Lush arrived on the scene. A camp follower of the group. Lush began co-fronting the group with Lwin and was booed off the stage at the Rainbow Theatre gig in 1981 and was dropped from the line-up. Lieutenant Lush changed his name to Boy George, and created Culture Club.

SEE JUNGLE! – BOW WOW WOW’S FIRST ALBUM

In 1981, McLaren, unhappy with the band’s limited success on EMI, took the gang (now sporting Mohawk hair cuts) over to RCA. The band's first full album was released on RCA with possibly one of the most bizarre titles ever to grace any album cover: “See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah! City All Over, Go Ape Crazy.”

According to Matthew Ashman, the original title of the album was “Ronnie Reagan, Sue Ellen, Cassanova, Botticelli, in a time, never, never, Queen Diana, Rockefeller” (a line from T.V. Savage which includes Sue Ellen, who was the wife of J.R. on TV’s Dallas, a big hit in the U.K. and U.S. at the time of the album’s release). But, Ashman said, “That’s what we wanted the album to be called. But people at RCA just, I don’t know, they didn’t like the idea of Ronnie Reagan being on the album cover. Just his name. We weren’t slaggin’ the bloke, I don’t mind Ronnie. He’s alright.”

The album cover art caused quite a stir. For the cover of “See Jungle!,” the group decided to photograph a living recreation of the 1863 Manet painting, “Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe” (Lunch on the Grass). The photo featured Annabella in the nude, tastefully turned away from the camera. Since she was only 15 at the time. Annabella’s mother tried to stop the release of the cover. McLaren won and the cover was issued amidst controversy of child pornography. The U.S. version of the album would not feature this photo but still presented Annabella only slightly covered in a see-through white dress. The “Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe” cover would not see U.S. presses until the “Last of the Mohicans” EP in 1982.

The album spawned Bow Wow Wow’s first U.K. top 10 hit, “Go Wild in the Country.” McLaren stepped down from the producer's post for this album and hired a host of other producers. The band was slowly developing a unique style. The album received great critical reviews and was a success in the U.K.

This album was finally put onto compact disc in the early 90’s by a small British company called Great Expectations and contains a wonderful set of mixes. The U.S. version of the album was finally put onto CD by One Way Records in the summer of 1997 but lacks the extra mixes on the U.K. version.

I WANT CANDY – BOW WOW WOW’S SECOND ALBUM

Bow Wow Wow’s first (and only) U.S. hit would have to wait for the release of the EP, “Last of the Mohicans” in 1982. That same year, McLaren terminated his involvement with the band and went on to record his own albums. Producer Kenny Laguna, who had worked with Joan Jett, was brought in to record “I Want Candy” and to re-record and fix “Louis Quatorze” (which McLaren had originally produced using a weak mix).

The single from the EP, “I Want Candy,” was a Top 10 hit in the U.K., and made it into the Top 40 on the American charts. The song remains one of the icons of 80’s pop and still receives airplay today on radio, MTV, VH1 and in soundtracks. It also appears on numerous 80’s compilation CD’s. Somehow, looking back, that song seems to define something essential about the early 80’s. One, it marked a return to the 3 (actually 2:44) minute pop song. Two, the look of the band was just right for MTV and the “beach party” video received much-needed airplay. Three, it offered a wonderful, much-needed optimism for pop and “new wave” fans.

With the success of the single, the band needed to release a full-length album. The compilation LP “I Want Candy” was released immediately in two different forms (the U.S. and U.K. version). The U.S. version included all of the music from the “Last of the Mohicans” EP, some remixed songs from “See Jungle!” and new songs like “Baby, Oh No” and “El Boss Dicho.” This album featured a total of four producers: Kenny Laguna, Brian Tench (who later remixed Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” album), Colin Thurston (who worked with Talk Talk and Duran Duran at about the same time), and Ritchie Cordell (Joan Jett). With a mix of producers, the album itself had mixed results. This album was digitally remastered in 1993 and released in its entirety on CD by RCA (BMG).

12 ORIGINAL RECORDINGS – BOW WOW WOW’S THIRD ALBUM

Also in 1982, EMI wanted to cash in on the U.S. success of RCA’s “I Want Candy.” So, Harvest/Moulin Rouge/EMI released the compilation album called “12 Original Recordings.” This compilation would take the original 8 tracks from “Your Cassette Pet” and the 2 tracks from the “C30, C60, C90 Go” cassette single and add the tracks “Mile High Club” (different version w/longer spoken intro) and the extended (disco) version of W.O.R.K.” “12 Original Recordings” features songs that were produced mainly by McLaren but with others involved. This album essentially is the British “I Want Candy” LP minus several tracks.

This LP would eventually go to CD on EMI’s 1993 release, “Girl Bites Dog: Your Compact Disc pet.” Six other tracks were added to the lineup, including “Bow Wow Wow,” “Sex,” “W.O.R.K.” (single version), “Theme A,” “Cast Iron Arm,” and “C30, C60, C90, Anda” (the Spanish version of C30…”).

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH THE TOUGH GET GOING –
BOW WOW WOW’S FOURTH AND FINAL (?) ALBUM

For their final album in 1983, the band brought in the wonderfully talented producer Mike Chapman, who had been having great success with bands like Blondie (who had just split up). The result was the band’s first album to have a clean, unified sound. However, Bow Wow Wow fans did not like this new, more mature, polished pop sound and left in droves. The album was a miserable failure. This album was finally put onto compact disc in the early 90’s by Great Expectations. The U.S. version of the album was finally put onto CD by One Way Records in the summer of 1997.

In 1983, tensions in the group were rising. Suffering from illness and exhaustion after intense US touring, they went there separate ways.

WILD IN THE U.S.A. – BOW WOW WOW’S FIFTH ALBUM

For the first time in over a decade, Annabella and Leigh reunited in December of 1997 for a 4-month tour of America. They recruited new guitar player Dave Calhoun (Vapours), as a replacement for original guitarist Matthew Ashman, who had died of complications from diabetes in 1995. They also brought along drummer Eshan K. who replaced original drummer Dave Barbarossa. Dave had prior touring commitments with the band Republica and could not join the Bow Wow Wow reunion. Dave did, however, have enough time to train Eshan with his unique style of drumming before the band left England for their American tour.

The “Barking Mad” tour played to packed houses thru April of 1998 which eventually led to the band signing a record deal with indie giant Cleopatra Records. The live CD titled Wild in The U.S.A. was captured from performances on the 97-98 “Barking Mad” tour.

INLAND INVASION – 2003-2005

After a 5-year hiatus Bow Wow Wow reformed once more to help KROQ celebrate their 25th Anniversary. The band performed alongside such luminaries as Duran Duran, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Soft Cell's Marc Almond and Interpol, to name but at few, at the third installment of KROQ's prestigious Inland Invasion concert series, held at the Glen Helen Hyundai Pavilion on Sept. 20th 2003. The 45,000+ sell-out event was KROQ's fasted selling concert ever.

Original members Leigh Gorman and Annabella Lwin were joined onstage by special guest Adrian Young from No Doubt, who took Dave Barbe's seat behind the drums (Dave had prior commitments in the UK with dance band Cicane).

After having a blast on stage in front of 30,000 + people, Bow Wow Wow decided to continue doing what they do best…playing killer live shows. Over the past 18 months the band have also made numerous radio and TV appearances (including Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Orlando Jones Show, and FUSE TV’s Daily Download), most recently recording segments for third series of VH1’s popular I Love The ‘80’s show.

Annabella Lwin

After splitting with Bow Wow Wow in 1983, Annabella continued as a solo artist on RCA records. Annabella teamed up with various songwriters and producers such as; John Robey and the team that made up "The System." In May of 1986 RCA released Annabella’s debut solo effort called “Fever.” During the next four years she spent time collaborating with other musicians which led to her forming a band called “Naked Experience.” In 1992 legendary A&R man and MD of S2 Records (part of Sony Records), Muff Winwood, signed the band on the spot after seeing just one rehearsal. Unfortunately, during this period, the band situation was not working out but S2 kept Annabella as a solo artist. She then worked with songwriters Tom Kelly, Billy Steinberg (Madonna, Divynls) and Ellen Shipley (Belinda Carlisle) in England and again in the U.S. Annabella’s first single release was “Carsex” in 1993 followed by “Do What You Do” in 1994. “Do What You Do” did well in the U.K. national charts and reached the top 10 on the Dance charts.

During the late nineties Annabella worked on a Nike commercial, recorded two singles in Germany, and, of course, reunited with Leigh Gorman for the Bow Wow Wow reunion tour in 1997. Some of her material was featured in the indie film “Desperate but not Serious,” which starred Supermodel Claudia Schiffer, Christine Taylor (Brady Bunch & The Wedding Singer movies) and Henry Rollins among others. Annabella is currently writing new material.

Leigh Roy Gorman Co-Founder / Bass

World-class bass player, genre-busting composer and producer, and multi-million selling artist Leigh Gorman started out playing classical guitar at the age of 12. Graduating to the bass guitar two years later, he developed a unique, classically-rooted, extremely fast and funky style. Encouraged early on by Marc Bolan's road manager, who lived nearby in London's East End and gave him free-range to use all of Marc's spare equipment, Leigh was able to play virtually anything he picked up, but quickly found an affinity with stringed instruments. Aside from mastering classical, flamenco, rock and bass guitar, Leigh taught himself to play the sitar, bouzouki, mandolin, and keyboards

Leigh started doing session work at 16 and went on to join a band called 57 Men, the first incarnation of which featured Glen Gregory (who went on to form Heaven 17) on vocals. The band later became Wang Chung. While gigging around town, Leigh was spotted by Knox of The Vibrators and asked to audition for Adam and The Ants. He joined the band in November of 1979. At the instigation of their manager Malcolm McLaren, Leigh and fellow Ants Matthew Ashman and Dave Barbarrosa parted from Adam to form their own band, Bow Wow Wow. Six months later they recruited vocalist Annabella Lwin.

Bow Wow Wow's innovative Burundi/Latin/punk fusion soon made them press darlings (as did their notorious rock n' roll antics). In July 1990, Bow Wow Wow's much-documented pioneering spirit lead them to release the first ever cassette single, a ditty appropriately entitled "C30, C60, C90, Go." Its release caused a furor in the unprepared music industry and the BPI subsequently banished the single from the UK charts. In 1982, however, the group scored two UK Top Ten hits with the singles "Go Wild In The Country" and "I Want Candy." The latter also made waves on the charts stateside. The band recorded a total of three albums and toured the world extensively, headlining with Madness in Japan and trekking across America several times. But life on the road took its toll and in 1983 the exhausted band broke up.

Having mixed much of Bow Wow Wow's early material, production seemed like a natural progression for Leigh. After setting up his own studio, Leigh produced records for the likes of Voice Of The Beehive, Modern English, Fuzzbox, Funk Deluxe, Adam Ant, Silver Bullet and Soho. In a twelve-month period, Leigh notched up three #1 singles on the UK dance charts with Silver Bullet, Funk Deluxe, and Soho. In 1989, Leigh's production of Silver Bullet's "Twenty Seconds To Comply" also rose to #11 in the UK singles chart during the extremely competitive Christmas season. Leigh's run of chart success continued the following year when Soho's single "Hippychick," which Leigh produced, went Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic. The single also bagged the #1 slot on both the US and UK dance charts. Leigh received a Gold Record for his work on the track, and his studio was rated as one of the Top Ten in the world by Studio Week Magazine. Leigh subsequently joined Soho and toured the US, appearing on The Arsenio Hall Show.

In the early-90s, Leigh hooked up with Malcolm McLaren again, for whom he co-wrote and produced the Paris album, featuring the voice of Catherine Deneuve. This sophisticated jazz-influenced album sold well throughout Europe, resulting in an album of Leigh's ambient dance mixes being released. The duo proceeded to collaborate on several high-profile TV commercials and two film scores. Leigh's 1992 score for the comedy Carry On Columbus broke new ground, being the first soundtrack to feature the then underground hardcore Electronica sound, and his stylish score for Catwalk escaped Oscar nomination by a hair's breadth. Meanwhile, Leigh also wrote and produced micro-operettas, soundscapes, and hip-hop & soul jams for the small screen for such prestigious clients as Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nike, Renault, and MCI. Through this film and commercial work, Leigh gained a new freedom to show his unique style, one that best illustrated his trademark talent for fusing genres.

In 1995, Leigh spent seven months producing Gary Kemp's solo album Little Bruises. It was recorded at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios in London and Windmill Studios in Dublin, and mixed at A&M in Los Angeles. The album featured a slew of world-renowned guest musicians including Sly & Robbie and Pino Palladino. After completing Kemp's Celtic influenced project, which featured elaborate orchestration, Leigh decided it was time for a change. Demonstrating his versatility, Leigh next set up a cutting-edge dance label called Bang To Rights. For the next year he worked alongside top London DJs such as Danny Rampling, Pete Heller, Malcolm Duffy and Steve Lee - all mainstays of the city's thriving club scene. During this time Leigh also did remixes for the likes of Paula Cole and Mr. President (in the summer of 1997, his remix of Mr. President's "I Give You My Heart" went Top 10 in the UK dance charts for 3 weeks).

In 1998, Leigh reformed Bow Wow Wow with Annabella and two new members. They toured America, playing 70 dates in 101 days, and released a live album called Wild In The USA. Leigh and Annabella subsequently made a guest appearance in Bill Fishman's (whose previous credits include Tapeheads, featuring the comedic talents of Tim Robbins and John Cusack) film Desperate But Not Serious. The film starred Claudia Schiffer, John Corbett, and Henry Rollins. Leigh and Annabella also recorded a new song for the movie entitled "A Thousand Tears." The tour sparked off a spate of label interest. This demand also prompted Leigh to move to America.

Missing the dance world and playing in the live arena, in March 2000, Leigh joined the popular SoCal organic/electronic rave band Electric Skychurch for some live dates. The band achieved notoriety playing sunrise sets at the infamous Full Moon Gatherings deep in the Mojave Desert, and subsequently gained a following worthy of the Grateful Dead (a band they have been compared to many times). In June 2000, Leigh and the rest of the band lugged their equipment and a generator up to a dry lakebed near Death Valley for an unforgettable moonlit live performance at Moontribe's Seven-Year Anniversary Full Moon Gathering.

After a 5-year hiatus Bow Wow Wow reformed once more to help KROQ celebrate their 25th Anniversary. The band performed alongside such luminaries as Duran Duran, The Cure, Hot Hot Heat and Interpol, to name but at few, at the third installment of KROQ's prestigious Inland Invasion concert series. Held at the Glen Helen Hyundai Pavilion on Sept. 20th 2003, it proved to be the station’s fastest selling event ever. After having a blast on stage in front of 30,000 + people, Bow Wow Wow decided to continue doing what they do best…playing killer live shows. Over the past 18 months the band have also made numerous radio and TV appearances (including Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Orlando Jones Show, and FUSE TV’s Daily Download), most recently recording segments for third series of VH1’s popular I Love The ‘80’s show.

When he’s not on the road with Bow Wow Wow, Leigh lives and works in Los Angeles producing bands (most recently Morrissey and Calahan), doing remixes (including the alternative radio remix of the Meredith Brooks/Queen Latifah duet "Lay Down") and composing music for TV and film (Wimbledon and The Tenants).

Dave Barbe Co-Founder / Drums

Dave Barbe was born in London in 1961 and grew up in the East End borough of Hackney, the eldest of six children. At fifteen he left school and worked as a messenger boy in the West End of London for two years. He bought a drum kit but soon afterwards was made redundant, remaining unemployed for two years. Then, in 1977, his life changed forever when he was approached to join a London punk rock group, Adam and the Ants. He toured Britain and Europe with the band at the height of the punk rock era and their first album, “Dirk Wears White Sox,” was a critical success. In 1980, the Ants were enticed away from Adam by Malcolm McLaren, and together with new singer Annabella Lwin and some brand new Mohican hair cuts formed Bow Wow Wow.

Goodbye David Barbe, hello Dave Barbarossa, Bow Wow Wow were an instant hit with their first record, “C30, C60, C90, Go,” scoring a series of Top Ten hits two years later with “Chihuahua,” “Go Wild In The Country” and “I Want Candy.” But four years of heavy touring, mainly in the US, took its toll. Matthew Ashman and Lee Gorman became seriously ill and Dave became disillusioned with life on the road, The final straw came when the band heard they had been ripped off to the tune of a million dollars by their New York management company. Bow Wow Wow split up.

After a few abortive efforts Dave realized he no longer had the enthusiasm to carry on in the music business. By now married with two sons, his money had run out, so he worked on and off as a laborer and cab driver. In 1990, he was divorced and moved in with Alison. At the same time he started playing drums again. He was invited by ex-Housemartin Norman Cook to join his new band Beats International, the first record going straight to number one. Dave then started to work with Matthew Ashman again, and their friendship was rekindled despite very different lifestyles, A few years later, Dave met up with Adam Ant, resulting in a reunion tour of the US. On his return to London, Dave heard of the death of Matthew Ashman. This was to have a profound effect on Dave.

In 1997, Dave joined Republica and found himself on the same old circuit; Endless hotels and airports were harder to shrug off, and life on the road became unbearable. After a particularly tough trip Dave came home to meet his second daughter who had been born while he was on stage in Stuttgart. By now he was married to Alison; they talked long and hard about the future, and Dave Barbe, author, started to write his first novel, “We Were Looking Up.” A new life led to new acquaintances and Dave found himself back on the road – this time as a writer, Along with authors Jeff Noon, Irving Welsh, Courttia Newland and others, Dave read from his work on the Arthrob/Arts Council “Defining A Nation” UK tour. He is now turning the novel into a screenplay for One World Films and is also working on two original scripts for television.

In 2002 the music industry came calling again, and Dave joined the dance band Chicane, touring the UK and Europe to support the album “Behind The Sun” which featured the chart-topping single “Don’t Give Up” which boasted (un-credited) vocals from everyone’s favorite Canadian Bryan Adams.

Dave is currently recording and playing live with the London-based 'Faith' music collective, and also plays with the brilliant, classic Brit song-based band Amber Gate. He also works with a UK ad agency, doing music for commercials, which he describes as “great fun.”

When he’s not making music, or at a football match (he’s a massive Spurs supporter, and can be seen in the stands most Saturdays with his 12-year old daughter, Anjelica, swearing his “effin’ head off”), Alison can usually find Dave in his garden shed, something no self-respecting English man can be without these days. As a leading exponent of British “shed culture,” Dave has finally found peace in the zen-ness of shed life.

Adrian Young / Drums

Adrian Young is best known as the drummer for the band No Doubt whose most recent albums have also showcased their love of new wave music. With the band, Adrian has sold 20 million records, toured the globe and earned a Grammy award. He began drumming as a teenager listening to new wave, punk and ska in the Orange County, CA music scene. In the process, he discovered Bow Wow Wow as an avid KROQ (LA) listener. His admiration grew from there and now is about to play drums with them at a show in Los Angeles. In Adrian's words "It is a dream come true to play with a band I grew up idolizing. I feel like a kid back in the sand box."

Adrian is also one of Playgirl's Sexiest Men In Music 2003.

Guardian Jubilee Article 20th July 2007

2008-03-04T20:04:00.001Z

A right royal knees-up

A right royal knees-up In 1977, Derek Jarman enlisted a bunch of unknowns for his dystopian satire, Jubilee. Stuart Jeffries tells the story of the film that captured the nihilism of punk like nothing else

Friday July 20, 2007
The Guardian

Nihilistic swagger... Derek Jarman's Jubilee

When Adam Ant met Derek Jarman on the King's Road, the blood still hadn't congealed. Only a few minutes before, the future self-styled dandy highwayman had been lying face down in a woman's bedroom while she carved the word "fuck" into his back with a razor blade. "I had been looking at a lot of tribal books when the idea came to me - particularly People of Kau by Leni Riefenstahl," recalls Ant in his autobiography Stand and Deliver. "This was a rite of passage for the warrior and I had decided that I wanted to be one." Apparently, it didn't hurt much.

The woman who slashed Ant's back was Jordan - not the one who made Peter Andre her ankle bracelet, but the other one, a punk style-icon who was a fixture at early Sex Pistols gigs. After she cut his back, Jordan put the kettle on and made him a cup of tea. Then he went out for a walk with a leather jacket slung over his shoulder and the fresh air stinging his wound. He had been thinking of calling his new band Fuck, but in the end plumped for the tamer Adam and the Ants. It was the spring of 1977.

"A few hundred yards down the road a very bubbly character ran up to me. He had short-cropped black hair, piercing eyes and a cut-glass upper-class accent. He said he was a director and would I like to be in his film Jubilee, all the while beaming a cheeky smile at me. This became bigger when I told him I had a band and that he should talk to Jordan too. He told me he had already cast her in the leading role."

Indeed, Britain's first punk film was inspired by a gay man's obsession with this provocatively dressed woman. Derek Jarman had first seen Jordan at Victoria station and described her in his diary. "White patent boots clattering down the platform, transparent plastic miniskirt revealing a hazy pudenda. Venus T-shirt. Smudged black eye-paint, covered with a flaming blonde beehive ... the face that launched a thousand tabloids ... art history as makeup." Jordan (real name Pamela Rooke) worked in the King's Road boutique run by clothes designer Vivienne Westwood and the impresario Malcolm McLaren, who managed the Sex Pistols.

Originally, Jarman wanted to make a Super 8 film of Jordan, but in the spring of 1977, he decided to do something more ambitious. He decided to make a film about punk, and he started rounding up likely actors from west London's punk scene, including Ant (real name Stuart Goddard), who then was - as his appearance in Jubilee discloses - an exceptionally beautiful boy.

Jarman was not a punk: he was too old (36), too posh and his CV was unpromising. He was best known as the stage designer responsible for the look of Frederick Ashton's ballet Jazz Calendar and Ken Russell's film The Devils. But while Malcolm McLaren was in Hollywood trying to raise money for a Sex Pistols film, Jarman shot Jubilee in six weeks on location in London with a tiny budget of £200,000. "The way it was made was very punkish," says Jarman's biographer, Tony Peake. "The producers Howard Malin and James Whaley raised bits of money from all over the place, but it meant filming stopped and started. The whole thing was very perilous."

The film's framing device has Queen Elizabeth I consulting her court astrologer Dr John Dee (played by Rocky Horror Show creator Richard O'Brien). Dee shows his queen a vision of her realm 400 years hence. It is over-run by roving gangs of girl punks and thuggish police. Dorset has become a fascist state within a state where the rich luxuriate behind barbed wire. The old Queen Elizabeth (played by Jenny Runacre) is horrified.

It's likely that Elizabeth II, whose silver jubilee celebrations are mocked in the film's ironic title, wouldn't have cared for Jarman's vision of her kingdom either. She especially wouldn't have liked Jordan dressed as a punk Britannia, miming to a souped-up reggae version of Rule Britannia and lifting her skirt to show her bum.

In a sense, Jarman was expressing similar nihilistic views to those of Johnny Rotten in God Save the Queen. Neither believed in the English disease that the political philosopher of Britain's decline Tom Nairn described as "the glamour of backwardness". Jarman told the Guardian's Nicholas de Jongh in February 1978: "We have now seen all established authority, all political systems, fail to provide any solution - they no longer ring true."

Jubilee teems with scenes that switch queasily between juvenile theatrics and droolingly imagined savagery. The girl punk gang go on a killing spree, suffocating lovers in plastic sheets and murdering entertainers. Time Out magazine, in an otherwise positive review, charged that the film's "determined sexual inversion (whereby most women become freakish 'characters', and men loose-limbed sex objects) comes to look disconcertingly like a misogynist binge". For punk historian Jon Savage, the misogyny was the point: "Those scenes are about that kind of cruelty which was so evident at the time. It doesn't endorse it. In fact it doesn't endorse anything very much."

Thirty years on, many of the film's leading participants are dead (Jarman in 1994, actor Ian Charleson, the future star of Chariots of Fire, who played one of those loose-limbed sex objects, in 1990). Some are uncontactable (Jordan was last heard of living in Seaford, Sussex), and others are making porn (Jubilee's stills photographer Jean-Marc Prouveur's last film was Fuck Fever). One, Toyah Willcox, is cherished by a pre-verbal demographic for recording voiceovers for Teletubbies.

"For me, working on Jubilee was an extraordinary rite of passage," says Willcox. "I was introduced to Derek through Ian Charleson when we were both working at the National Theatre, and I was asked to go round to Derek's flat. I was a 19-year-old public schoolgirl from Birmingham and I knew nothing about homosexuality or politics. But when I got to his flat, Derek's lover, a beautiful French boy called Yves, was wandering around naked. Derek was completely sexually liberated. He asked me if I wanted tea. There was a script and the film may have been called The Royal Family. I asked, 'What part do you want me to play?' He said: 'You'll be Mad, the pyromaniac.'

"A few weeks later he got in touch and said: 'I'm afraid I've had to write you out of the script because we can't afford to have your character.' Then he got some more money and it was back on again. It was all hand to mouth, stop-start. Anyway, I did appear in the film, thanks to Derek: I think he had given up his own fee to ensure I survived." The stars of the film were hardly well remunerated. Adam Ant reckons he got paid £40 for his performance as the Kid, a Candide-like pop star lured into Borgia Gins' cynical pop world.

"A lot of it was filmed in his studio on the Thames," recalls Willcox. It was very open, naked people wandering around. What I became really taken with was Derek's kindness to everyone. I don't think I've ever before come across unconditional love and how powerful that can be. All of us would have done anything for him in the film. I found myself making a film which was a bit like being in a party."

Most of the exterior scenes were shot at Butler's Wharf and Shad Thames, then ungentrified quarters of London. A quarter of a century later, Shad Thames would be used during the filming of the first Bridget Jones film, in which Colin Firth and Hugh Grant have genteel fisticuffs outside a yuppie restaurant. When Jarman filmed there, though, those then-derelict wharf buildings were perfect settings for his desolate vision of England.

Jubilee wasn't all let-it-all-hang-out nudery, however. The actors suffered. Ant recalls how Jarman hired a theatre for an afternoon to film him and his band performing their single, Plastic Surgery: "I threw myself about with the usual abandon - and dislocated my knee. It really hurt but no one seemed to notice." Ant retired home hurt but a couple of days later received a letter from the production company , telling him to get back to work. "'Fuck off' was my reply to that letter."

But his suffering for Jarman wasn't over. In a party scene filmed in the director's Butler's Wharf warehouse flat, Jarman demanded that Donny Dunham, an actor playing a cop, beat up Adam. In Stand and Deliver, Adam Ant recalls how Jarman motivated his actors: "'I don't care if you break his leg,' Jarman told Donny before we started, 'It's got to go on celluloid.' Jarman decided not to tell me about it, though, so Donny took a swing at my head and I ducked what was a hard right hook. I grabbed him, caught him off balance and knocked him over. Jarman loved it and screamed: 'Again! do it again!' Donny jumped up and lunged at me, trying to break my jaw. If you look at my face you can tell how pissed off I am."

Ant wanted to leave the film at this point, but in the end he stayed for Jubilee's last scene. The 104-minute picture was supposed to end with Ant being raped in a photo booth by two policemen as the camera snapped still photographs. Ant demurred. "No way was I going to be stuck in a small space with a possibly pissed Don Dunham 'pretending' to beat me up, so I refused," he recalls. Instead, the officers beat Ant to death behind a rubbish bin.

Jubilee was released in February 1978. Ant took his mum and nan to the premiere. "I was embarrassed by the film to be honest; it seemed like a complete mess on first viewing. Today I think it's an amazing achievement and testament to Derek Jarman's persistence and ingenuity ... After the screening I cringed when mum and nan started calling me a star, because I knew I wasn't. Not yet, at least." By that time, some of the punks associated with the film, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, had dissociated themselves from Jarman. The band later denounced Jubilee, according to Ant, as "hippy trash".

While some reviews were positive (Variety called Jubilee "one of the most original, bold and exciting films to come out of Britain this decade"), much of the music press, including the powerful NME, hated the film. Vivienne Westwood described it as "the most boring and therefore disgusting film" she had ever seen. She produced a T-shirt, silk-screened with her rant against the film, calling Jarman "a gay boy jerk[ing] off through the titillation of his masochistic tremblings".

"She saw him as this public schoolboy who missed the point of punk," says Tony Peake. But Jarman didn't seek Westwood or anyone else's praise. "I don't particularly want people to like the film or what it depicts," he told one journalist. "I simply hope that it makes them feel that something is going on."

One of the things that Jarman tried to depict in Jubilee was how everybody gets corrupted - even punks posturing as iconoclasts who would never sell out. He wanted to show too that there was no future in England's dreaming. Later, he believed events proved him right. In the second volume of his memoirs, Dancing Ledge, published in 1993, a year before his death, Jarman wrote: "Afterwards, the film turned prophetic. Dr Dee's vision came true - the streets burned in Brixton and Toxteth, Adam was on Top of the Pops and signed up with Margaret Thatcher to sing at the Falklands Ball. They all sign up in one way or another." "It's aged amazingly well," says Jon Savage. "It's the best film about punk, for all its failings."

Adam Ant now describes Jarman as a gay terrorist film-maker. "The making of Jubilee in the summer of 1977 was as chaotic as the finished film looks. Derek Jarman was making it up as he went along." How appropriate: in the summer of 1977, when punk's nihilistic swagger was the most thrilling thing in England, everybody was.

Peel Sessions

2008-03-04T19:57:00.002Z

Taken from In Session Tonight The A-Z of Peel Sessions

Adam And The Ants

June 17, 2007 at 11:35 am · Filed under 1978, On The Podcast, Session Available, 1979

Three sessions - Two in 1978, One in 1979

First session (recorded at Maida Vale 4, produced by Tony Wilson and engineered by Dave Dade on 23/01/1978 - first broadcast 30/01/1978)

1. Deutscher Girls
2. Puerto-Rican
3. It Doesn’t Matter
4. Lou

Second session (recorded at Maida Vale 4, produced by Tony Wilson and engineered by Dave Dade on 10/07/1978 - first broadcast 17/07/1978)

1. You’re So Physical
2. Cleopatra
3. Friends
4. Zerox

Third session (recorded at Maida Vale 4, produced by Tony Wilson and engineered by Bill Aitken and Martyn Parker on 26/03/1979 - first broadcast 02/04/1979)

1. Tabletalk
2. Liggotage
3. Animals And Men
4. Never Trust A Man With Egg On His Face

Band members: Adam Ant (lead vocals, guitar on first session and stylophone on second session), Johnny Bivouac (guitar on first session), Matthew Ashman (guitar on second and third session), Kurt Van Den Bogarde (bass), Dave Barbe (drums) and Jordan (vocals on Lou).

Adam And The Ants formed in early 1977 from the embers of the B-Sides (who had featured Adam and Andy Warren, aka Kurt Van Den Bogarde, as well as Bid and Lester Square, later to record three Peel sessions as members of The Monochrome Set).

They quickly established a reputation for a stage show based on S&M and fetish gear, which helped to establish a cult following, but also seems to have had the effect of leaving them as critically derided, labelled as bandwagoneers. Gary Bushell writing in Sounds said “I don’t know how to say this but everyone hates Adam And The Ants….but I saw them on Tuesday and quite enjoyed it. He reminded me of a hammier version of Siouxsie, coming on all drama school, shoulder hugging cracked actor, face coated in thick white makeup, eyes staring, body jerking and all that. He takes himself seriously but he’s quite fun in a campy caricature of Bowie’s darkest moments sort of way”. The band had also attracted criticism for for lyrics that at best can be considered provocative, the first Peel session includes Deutscher Girls (”…so why did you have to be so Nazi?”) and Puerto-Rican (”A chick like you is oh so rare, You get off on his greasy hair, You’ve got a smart apartment, You’ve got central heating, Why go and waste it on a Puerto-Rican?”). Adam explained Puerto-Rican’s contentious lyrics as being “about a white woman who has reduced a human being to dog status - because I thought that was a damn sight more powerful in a lyric than saying look at those poor Puerto Ricans. I’ve sung that song to Puerto Ricans from New York, and they loved it man. Because it was singing about Puerto Ricans, and they just don’t get sung about”, however the song was never recorded again after that first session.

Adam had worked hard to get the band taken under the wing of Jordan, a punk icon working in Malcolm McLaren & Vivianne Westwood’s SEX boutique, and about to take a leading role in Derek Jarman’s film, Jubilee - in which the Ants also featured playing two songs). She describes her first impressions of the band as them being “overwhelmingly dreadful except for the fact that Adam was oozing charisma”, and it was this star quality that led her to agree to manage them. In December 1977, it was Jordan’s presence that secured The Ants their first Peel session. John Walters had gone to see the band play at the Royal College of Art, and was largely underwhelmed, dismissing Adam as “a bit art-school for my taste”. However, Jordan’s appearance to sing Lou was much more exciting for Walters and the offer of the first session was conditional on it including that song.

Their debut single Young Parisians was released in 1978 on Decca to little success, and they were dropped soon after. The band though continued to attract a substantial live following, selling out the Lyceum in April 1979. Their debut LP Dirk Wears White Sox, was released on Do It Records in December 1979, and immediately made #1 on the indie LP chart. Around the same time Adam paid Malcolm McLaren £1,000 to makeover the band. This he did by combining a hybrid pseudo-American Indian-pirate look and appropriating African rhythms from a 1971 track called Burundi Black. The original source of this being a field recording of 25 drummers, made in a village in the east African nation of Burundi by a team of French anthropologists, subsequently parts of this field recording had an arrangement for guitars and keyboards grafted on to become Burundi Black.

The third element in the re-shaping was rather more dramatic for Adam, as it involved persuading the Ants (by now consisting of Matthew Ashman, Leigh Gorman and Dave Barbe) to ditch their singer and become Bow Wow Wow (who would record one Peel session in 1980). It appeared to be the end of the road for Adam.

Adam finding himself short of a grand and a band, recruited new Ants including Marco Pirroni and Terry Lee Miall (aka Terry Day), who had previosuly recorded a Peel session as members of The Models in 1977. Taking some of McLaren’s ideas on board the new Ants has a sound based on hyper-kinetic double drums, and a flamboyant new image. The first release by the new Ants, Kings Of The Wild Frontier, fell just short of the top 40 on original release in July 1980, but the follow-up, Dog Eat Dog was a substantial hit, reaching #4 in September. Both made the 1980 Festive Fifty (that year a Feative Sixty-Five) reaching #30 and #53 respectively. November 1980 saw the release of the Kings Of The Wild Frontier LP, which made #1 on the LP chart proper. In January 1981, another Peel session veteran, Garry Tibbs (ex-Vibrators) joined.

Britain was gripped by Antfever, and there was a string of massive hit singles throughout 1981 and 1982, and whilst the pace of this initial success couldn’t be maintained, Adam had hits on a semi-regualar basis into the 90’s.

Lou is will be on the 2nd podcast, and a video for Tabletalk is in the vodpod.

All the sessions have had a commercial release, most recently as The Complete Radio One Recordings, which is currently out-of-print, although a couple of session tracks are available on Antbox.

download the first session (1978-01-30 - adam and the ants)

NEW Web Pages coming soon!

2008-03-04T05:45:00.003Z

I am in the process of creating web pages that will be for each live date the Ants played that have audio recordings available (and that *I* have a copy of!), starting with

12th January 1978 – London Marquee (As on the In Bondage CD)

Set list

(Image from Simon Daw's Antmusic site)

And
30th January 1978 – London 100 Club

Setlist

Plastic Surgery
Puerto Rican
Deutscher Girls
B-Side Baby
Dirk Wears White Sox
Fat Fun
Lou
Fall In
Whip in my Valise
It Doesn’t Matter
Hampstead
Beat My Guest
Send a Letter to Jordan
Red Scab
Juanito the Bandito
Fall In

Each page will have the line up details for the gig and audio on the pod player.
(Please don't ask me for copies of the gigs, I don't have the time or resources for that, and it's also illegal and I really don't need anyone causing me grief about copying illegal stuff!)

Coming soon!

Live Wolfmen Pics by Rob Golding

2008-03-03T17:50:00.004Z

Amateur Photographer and long time Ant Fan Rob Golding has posted some of the photos he took at the Wolfmen Embassy Gig here.
(This is his myspace site so you will need to join to myspace if you aren't already a member to see them. Click on "pics")

Planet Mondo Marco interview pt 2

2008-03-03T16:21:00.003Z

Is up!
Click the picture..............

Carty's review of the Wolfmen Gig

2008-03-02T19:10:00.002Z

Click the car!

Take a peek into the proposed Ant Book.....

2008-02-28T18:05:00.002Z

The images posted here give a first look at a few of the pages inside the proposed Adam Ant Art book. It’s a luxuriously produced large format book with plenty of room to show off Adam’s fascinating artwork. These sketches and jottings – almost all of them never seen before - give a unique and very personal insight into Adam’s work and inspiration.

The images here show the opening pages from the ‘Sketches & Ideas’ chapter and three spreads from inside the chapter. These are:

* Cover ideas for Adam’s 1983 hit Puss ‘n Boots
* Set and costume designs for an appearance on the BBC’s Top of the Pops television show in 1983, sketched over a diary page
* Another diary page with jottings for the styling of the video to Strip, the follow-up single to Puss ‘n Boots. The subsequent video was famously banned by the BBC

Wolfmen Thieve and Liars from Last Night's Embassy Gig

2008-02-27T20:02:00.001Z

Jackie Says Video from Embassy Gig last night

2008-02-27T19:53:00.000Z

Adam Ant Art Book News Update

2008-02-26T20:01:00.000Z

As posted on Adam-Ant.net and the Ant Book Blogsite, Adam has agreed to add a CD to the book of some of the songs he performed at the Bloomsbury Theatre Show in Sept 2007.
The CD will only come with the book, so register your interest NOW!

Bi Polar Story

2008-02-26T04:57:00.001Z

This caught my eye as I was doing a rare google search for Adam Ant news.

I am re-printing the whole thing because I think it's worth reading again.

Bipolar Disorder Is A Serious Illness, Not a Celebrity Fad

By Robert Westhead, The Independent UK
Posted on February 19, 2008, Printed on February 25, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/77341/

Gail Porter has it. Stephen Fry made a documentary about it. Sophie Anderton, Adam Ant, Russell Brand, Richard Dreyfuss, Kerry Katona and Tony Slattery are all sufferers. And now Britney, too, has bipolar disorder, at least according to the media, in whose unforgiving glare she has undergone her very public meltdown.

At times, it seems as though bipolar illness is the latest celebrity fad -- like wheat intolerance, perhaps. But the apparent spike in celebrity sufferers points to something else: that awareness amongst both clinicians and the public is growing and some of the stigma attached to admitting to mental health problems has begun to diminish.

It is impossible for me to say definitively whether Britney has bipolar. However, there can be tell-tale signs of symptomatic behaviour. Bizarre behaviour such as stripping off in a clothes shop in full view of staff and customers and shaving your hair off are the sort of "crazy" things people do when they are in the grip of mania. But people do "crazy" things for other reasons or if they are having a difficult time -- this is what makes bipolar disorder so hard to diagnose correctly.

I used to do some extremely odd things during my manic episodes, when you feel euphoric, disinhibited, full of energy and talk non-stop. Once I went charging back to my school, two years after leaving it. I went bursting into classrooms, interrupting lessons and generally causing havoc. I barged my way into a physics lesson and started pontificating to the class, as my old physics teacher looked on in horror. I did the same thing at a management consultancy I worked at briefly, storming in there and talking excitedly to everyone, a crowd gathering around me.

But the thing about my manic episodes I always found hardest to deal with were the religious delusions. Although I wasn't remotely religious, when at my most ill I thought I was on some kind of mission from God and was going to usher in the Second Coming. I remember seeing God's face in anything and everything. I have since learnt that scientists believe the religious preoccupations associated with mania stem from a part of the brain's temporal lobes that lights up like a Christmas tree with electrical activity, because of the massive over-production of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

It has been suggested that having a celebrity's ultra-outgoing personality might dispose someone to bipolar illness. At least one in 100 people has bipolar disorder. The majority of these are ordinary, everyday people. I find this at the self-help groups run by MDF The BiPolar Organisation (formerly the Manic Depression Fellowship) which I attend. However, there is a huge amount of research suggesting a link between creativity and bipolar disorder. And there have been plenty of people to bear this out, from Beethoven, Byron and Vincent van Gogh to Kurt Cobain. There are two ways of looking at it. If you're mildly manic you bubble over with energy and creative ideas. If you're creative already, the ideas and imagination will overflow. I remember spouting poetry when wandering around the Edinburgh Festival while manic. If I had a gift for poetry, it might have been an incredibly productive phase for me. If you look at Robert Schumann's works, there are years of enormous productivity when he churned out symphonies 10 to the dozen -- no doubt when manic. Then when he was depressed, there's nothing.

The celebrity lifestyle, however, might offer other explanations. Chaotic, rollercoaster fortunes, when you might go from "hero to zero", may trigger illness in those who are vulnerable. Drug abuse is a known trigger. Also, cynics might say claiming that you have what seems to be a "celebrity plague" may be a defence, excusing bad behaviour.

I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 19, but I think the symptoms started when I was much younger. I had a normal childhood and upbringing and came from a relatively privileged background, growing up in a middle-class family in the home counties. I went to a grammar school in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, and was a high achiever academically, as well as being very sporty and popular.

But I was a real worrier -- and always have been. In my early teens I remember on occasion if I got upset about something it would go on for several days. I still have that now -- if something upsets me it feels like the end of the world.

I became more prone to occasional mood swings, which I think were the early signs of illness. I remember becoming tearful for no obvious reason and starting to withdraw when I was in the sixth form. Before university I went travelling for a year, which is when I became seriously ill. Suddenly I started having regular and increasingly severe mood swings.

The scariest thing was that I had no idea what was happening. At the age of 19 most people have never even heard of bipolar disorder -- I certainly hadn't. When I was up I'd be enjoying the delicious euphoria, then when I crashed I would rack my brains trying to understand why I was so unhappy. I kept thinking I must have had some terrible childhood experience to make me so miserable, but could never come up with anything. I had no clue that I had a psychiatric illness.

Eventually, in one of the down phases, I gathered the wherewithal to get myself home. By the time I boarded the flight home from Bangkok I was very high. I arrived at Heathrow airport to be collected by my parents. I was talking 10 to the dozen and telling them I didn't need any sleep -- when you're really high you really can go without sleep. In a manic week I'd only sleep for an hour or so a night. My family just didn't know what to make of me.

The illness got more and more extreme. The highs were getting worse and I was losing all sense of reality. Instead of just seeming lively and chatty I was talking constantly, my speech became so fast I ceased to make any sense at all. I also did really odd things such as taking photos of people in the pub, or stealing a pint of milk from behind the bar and drinking it.

Eventually, my parents were at the end of their tether. And when you're in the depressed phase, you do realise something's wrong. I went to see my GP and was referred to a psychiatrist. I was seen as an outpatient but it wasn't enough. One day my mum called the GP, who recognised that I was so ill I needed to be treated in hospital. When I was high the GP persuaded me to go to hospital with her -- once I was there, I was trapped. They could see I was severely ill and detained me under section.

That was very traumatic. It dawned on me, even though I had nearly entirely lost touch with reality, that I was going to be held there. I was desperate to leave and felt very betrayed by my family. I got into a stand-off with a bevy of burly psychiatric nurses, who surrounded me and had no intention of letting me make a break for the exit.

In the end I was shut in a room while they held the door shut. Eventually they stormed in, pinned me down and forcibly sedated me. The next few days were a blur of heavy tranquillisers that only took the edge off my mania. I still stalked the ward thinking I was either Jesus Christ or the Dalai Lama, and painted the "evil eye" in a manic delirium during art therapy. Because of the unusual nature of my cycling -- I was up for a week, then down for a week, where most people have cycles lasting months -- after a week I appeared better and was sent home. Of course, I wasn't well, but at least they put me on lithium and another drug, which stopped the cycling after several months. The drugs left me in a severely depressed state, though. I was stuck at home, having lost my place at university and being lumbered with a psychiatric diagnosis. I was struggling to deal with the horror of it all and felt constantly suicidal. After a year I was well enough to attend university, although still very depressed. It took two more years to get my medication right and for me finally to feel OK again. I then did a postgraduate degree in journalism at Cardiff University -- which is where I met my wife, Suzanne -- and was pretty happy.

But after my course I imperceptibly slid back into depression after cutting back my medication. The next six years of my life were blighted by this low mood. But I didn't even realise I was ill at the time -- I thought it was just me. The drugs stopped the cycling but left my mood depressed. I worked as a journalist in various news agencies and, although outwardly I seemed normal, I was crippled by severe anxiety and depression. I then got a job in a Government press office, which I hated, and I just felt so miserable that life didn't seem to be worth living.

Suzanne wanted to get married and have kids. I suddenly realised that if I was going to kill myself it was now or never. I didn't want to leave a bereft widow and fatherless children, so I resolved to take my life. Just after Christmas four years ago I drove into the woods near my parents' house and took an overdose of lithium.

I remember crawling under a tree like a wounded animal to die. As I was lying there I felt God was with me and didn't want me to die. I also realised I just couldn't visit such horror on my parents -- it would have ruined their lives, as well as Suzanne's. So I had a change of heart, called an ambulance and was taken to hospital, where they pumped all the stuff out of me.

Ironically, after 11 years with bipolar disorder, that suicide attempt finally enabled me to get proper treatment. For years my doctors failed to see that I was depressed. I was angry with my psychiatrist for not being proactive enough about my treatment -- he could have saved me from all those wasted years. But since then they have experimented with my medication. I'm now on the antipsychotic quetiapine, the antiepileptic sodium valproate and an antidepressant, which together seem to work really well.

I still have occasional mood swings, but they're nothing like as severe. I now work for Shift, the Government's campaign against stigmatising mental illness, and recently became trustee of the user-led charity Stand to Reason, which also challenges prejudice towards people with mental illnesses. Recovering has made me want to improve the lot of people like me. I'm happily married to Suzanne, an amazing, long-suffering woman who stuck by me throughout my illness. And we are blessed with two wonderful children, Thomas, three, and Sam, four months.

My heart goes out to anyone in the public eye who does have bipolar. It is an unforgiving illness that makes you behave, both when manic and depressed, in ways that can leave you deeply ashamed when you're in a fit state to reflect on your behaviour.

It is human nature to be intrigued by the peculiarities of our fellow man. But imagine Britney was your sister or someone you loved. How would you feel to see others mocking her? Having a mental illness is no laughing matter, any more than having cancer is. One in seven people with undiagnosed bipolar dies from suicide. Let's give Britney a break.

As told to Dan Roberts

Bipolar disorder: the facts

Also known as manic depression, bipolar disorder is a mental illness which causes periods of intense depression or mania, interspersed by periods of relative calm. Sufferers experience "cycling", where their mood swings from up to down in a regular recurring pattern.
The cause is unknown, but it's believed to be an interaction between genes and environmental factors, such as trauma or stress.
Symptoms of depression include low mood, sleep disturbance, loss of appetite and sex drive, a sense of pessimism and recurrent thoughts of death and suicide.
During a manic episode, people often experience elevated moods or euphoria, increased activity, speeded-up speech, self-important ideas or grandiose delusions, hallucinations, reduced need for sleep and increased appetite for food and sex.
About 1 per cent of the population develop bipolar disorder in their lifetime. The risk is much higher if someone has relatives with the disorder, although -- about 12 per cent of people with a sibling with bipolar disorder develop the condition.
There's no cure, but many sufferers benefit from understanding what triggers their episodes and "mood monitoring", which can spot the early signs of a relapse and so avoid it. The main treatment are medications such as lithium, which stabilises mood swings.

Planet Mondo Marco Interview Part 1

2008-02-25T18:28:00.002Z

Planet Mondo Marco Interview Part 1

Part 2 coming next week!

Marco Geek interview

2008-02-22T03:20:00.002Z

This is from december, somehow no-one informed anyone about it.
It's very entertaining as Marco and the interviewer talk about Superheroes and Star Trek!

New Chris Interview

2008-02-20T21:16:00.001Z

Here.

New Marco Interview Coming Soon!

2008-02-19T22:18:00.002Z

Here , next week!

Adam Ant Book blogsite

2008-02-18T23:07:00.001Z

Click the above link to go to the new Adam Ant Book blog!

Room At The Top - Marco's Comments

2008-02-12T03:31:00.001Z

Continuing with the series of asking
Marco Pirroni questions about each of the singles,
I now bring you Room At The Top.

Me in normal, Marco in italics.

Who wrote what for Room at the Top?

I came up with the main intro which was nicked from Laibach's version
of 1 after 909 ,Andre and I worked with the whole groove of the  song,
Adam came in an hour or so later with the lyrics, we then
constructed a verse and a chorus, I think i jammed around the mid 8 and
 guitar solo and then all of us honed it down into a track.

This was quite a radical change for Adam and you,
dance music.
How did you feel about it?

I was excited about it, it wasn't anything
i had ever done before so it was a
challenge.

How was Andre Cymone to work with?

Really great, I love Andre, I wish I could see him more often.


It had been 5 years between this and Vive le Rock- (1985-1990)- what
did you do in that time?
We had been working non-stop for 5 or 6 years before and i wanted to
take stock and see where i was in my life and what i wanted to do next.

Did you play on the b side Bruce Lee?
I think I did i just replaced some of Andre's parts with an edgier
sound and attitude.

Where was Manners and Physique recorded?

Sunset Sound L.A

You didn't appear in any videos from this point on- why was that?

Well it had to be focused on Adam and i really didn't feel I needed
to be in everything.
I was also tired of performing,
it doesn't come natural to me.

Manners has less of you on than any of the previous albums,
so I am guessing that this album was less of a
collaboration than the previous albums?

This was mostly Andre and Adam's album,
i had to work part time on it
as Sinead (O'Connor) was shaping up to be the biggest artist
Worldwide that year and she was taking up the bulk of my time,
I would fly in on weekends off, do my bits and fly off again.




There was also no tour for this album- was one planned at all?
Not that i know of, I was unavailable for the forthcoming year due to
touring commitment with Sinead, I made this clear so no touring was
 ever discussed with me.

New single and Live News!

2008-02-11T20:56:00.000Z

News from

The Wolfmen are back. This time with an e-flyer for our gig at Embassy London in two weeks time. All details as below. 26 February promises to be intimate, up-close-and-personal session, with special guests, DJs, and CDs, promos, T-shirts and much Wolfmen merchandise exclusively available at the venue.

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW FROM www.wegottickets.com/event/26452!

Also, take a look at the beautiful retro four-track cassette-era artwork for new single, Needle In The Camel's Eye. It's out on 10 March on Damaged Goods, is mixed by Alan Moulder, is a cover of Brian Eno, and is backed with two brand new songs, Zip Gun and Mother of Mystery.

We'll let you know in the next mailshot how to order the single - which will come in 7" vinyl and download flavours - online. Also keep checking our MySpace for updates and images -- thewolfmen.net website is down right now, for an early spring clean.

Be seeing you.
The Wolfmen -

Marco Pirroni and
Chris Constantinou

Ian Peel at the Wolfmen office: ian@ianpeel.com

Official website: http://www.thewolfmen.net

Official MySpace http://www.myspace.com/thewolfmen

Adam Ant Art Book Planned!

2008-02-06T19:52:00.001Z

Adam is considering putting together a new deluxe, illustrated book, provisionally titled Adam Ant Art. The book will include some of his original artworks, storyboards for videos, sketches, collages and original hand-written lyrics and lyrical ideas. It will also celebrate Adam’s artistic influences and inspirations, both musical and visual, and include words and pictures on his musical and artistic heroes.

Please goto the following page to register your interest in this fantastic piece of memorabilia.

http://www.adamantart.essentialworks.co.uk/

You can register your interest in pre-ordering the book by entering your e-mail address in the box on this page. This is not a binding commitment and you will not be asked to part with any money at this stage. By registering your interest now you will help ensure the book goes ahead, you will be the first to know when the ordering process begins and, if you choose to purchase, you will be able to guarantee yourself a copy from the limited run.

Wolfmen Live again!

2008-02-03T01:04:00.001Z

The Wolfmen are playing again in a few weeks at the Embassy in London on February 26th - Tuesday evening.

You can order tickets (£10 each) here.

Embassy London contact details:
29 Old Burlington Street
Mayfair
London
W1S 3AN

T: 020 7851 0956
F: 020 7734 3224
E: embassy@embassylondon.com

Antcomics new blog site

2008-01-31T22:21:00.001Z

http://antcomics.blogspot.com/

Antcomics creator Amy has started a new blogsite where she says she'll post exclusive stuff not on her myspace site or anywhere else- check it out!

Website updates

2008-01-11T05:02:00.000Z

Just a small one for now.
I'm going to change the way the website is linked and make THIS the first page (after the Title page) that you arrive at.
Where there is just a small piece of news or small picture to post, I will just put it on here, but where there is a larger new addition or scans, I will put them onto the website and link them from here which will be the News page.

This is how The Sex Pistols site works. You see the first picture, then you click that and go to a blog-like site that is the News section and Index/ contents page.
This looks much better than having two separate places.

I shall be getting on with that in a moment, hopefully successfully changing the index file.

Also, later next week I am going to do a small piece on the Uk based Ant tribute bands, linking to their myspace sites and songs.

Chris and Marco have said they will send me some old Wolfmen Demos to put onto the Jukebox, so look out for those soon.
Speaking of, they tell me that they plan to have 2 new singles out next year and then the album, along with the album they have been working on with Daler Mehndi, and that they will be playing again in February.
I will be back in the UK for a few months in February, so I will catch up with them and see them live and hopefully film them too.
My friend Rob has been asked to take some photographs of them at a gig too, so hopefully I can get some of those too and host them here.

All good stuff!

Keep up with Adam-Ant.Net for the up to date news on Adam- I will of course keep up with that too but not as much.
Justin (the admin over there) has said he will tidy up and send me the old Fetish for Ants pages that they used to host but no longer have online, so I will also sometime this year post that all up too.

Stay tuned!!

Finally, if you like Ant comics then check out this myspace site.
The owner (Amy) says: This is the official MySpace for ANTCOMICS!, a comic strip drawn by me (Amy) about the 80s supergroup, Adam & the Ants. This was started for my own entertainment. Then I put some on my DeviantArt page, and other Adam & the Ants fans were entertained. So I started a website to share them with the world.

Jukebox

2008-01-08T21:34:00.000Z

I have added a jukebox (to the right there).
I will be adding live songs soon. This i think is better than making them available as downloads, what with people getting all irate and threatening legal crap at me as happened a while ago with EMI.
Persuasion is on there at the moment, enjoy!

Next up will be Some Ants and some Wolfmen.

Wolfmen now mostly all loaded.

Am adding Wide Boy Awake, Rema Rema and I will also add the live songs that go with the various Marco comments about each song that I had up before into the player.

And some early pre-Dirk Ants I think!

More from Mojo and Antmuzak on DVD

2008-01-03T21:23:00.000Z

AntMuzak is being released on dvd.

The dvd will contain ‘Ant Muzak’, together with it’s 2 companion pieces BLAKE’S JUNCTION 7 and WORLD OF WRESTLING; all written by Tim Plester and directed by Ben Gregor.
the dvd also contains some 55 minutes of “bonus material”, which includes a never before seen ‘Ant Muzak’ trailer
and an exclusive 8-minute “behind-the-scenes” ‘Ant Muzak’ featurette, which contains footage of gary tibbs dancing the prince charming down a supermarket aisle.

The dvd (region 2) is released on January 21st and is available for
pre-order at amazon.co.uk

Meanwhile Mojo Magazine has now posted a series of videos from youtube on it's website here

Mojo January edition

2008-01-01T21:22:00.000Z

Adam, Marco, Kevin, Chris Hughes and a Muff Winwood were interviewed for the latest edition of Mojo magazine.
There's not an awful lot of interview type stuff in the article, but they do a good history of the Ants, and some cool pictures.

Click the pics below to view....

2008 changes.......

2007-12-30T04:22:00.001Z

I've been thinking about this for a while and I think I am going to slightly change this blog, to be primarily a Wolfmen blog and perhaps Ant related, not so much emphasis on Adam anymore. Carty does an excellent Ant website, keeping the news updated, as does Adam-Ant.net now, so I think another Ant related one isn't needed, and anyway to be honest I prefer The Wolfmen these days than anything else........ so I think i will make a few tweaks and edits to this blogsite later in january when I am finished celebrating the new year.

Stay tuned!!

Here's the 2 Wolfmen videos again to go with that.

Wolfmen News update

2007-12-22T18:06:00.000Z

Live and direct from The Wolf's Lair... Enjoy the

madness of our debut gig and Islington's Carling
Academy from a couple of weeks ago in the comfort of
your own Lair, courtesy of a brilliant documentary film
by Stephen Pook.

If you missed the gig, or want to relive some of the
highlights and check some backstage action, you can
find it on YouTube 





The set list for Islington ran: Needle
In The Camel's Eye , Love Is A Dog, Jackie
Says , Up All
Nighter , Do The
Ostrich , Kama
Sutra .  Our support act - Bishi
(pictured below)

 - came back onstage for
Cecilie, Needles, and Thieves & Liars.  Look out for
her album Nights At The Circus, out now online and in
shops.

The first half of next year for The Wolfmen will be really
busy.  We'll be recording Daler Mehndi's
album Theives & Liars, which will spawn at least one
single. And we'll be finishing the debut Wolfmen
album too, and will have another ingle out in March.
We'll be on stage again quite soon, as we're putting
together a residency at the Embassy Rooms
which starts in February...

...and P.S.  Happy Christmas!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Wolfmen -
Marco Pirroni and
Chris Constantinou

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ian Peel at the Wolfmen office: ian@thewolfmen.net
Official website: http://www.thewolfmen.net
Official MySpace http://www.myspace.com/thewolfmen

Wolfmen Steven Pook Live Teaser

2007-12-14T22:37:00.000Z

More Wolfmen Live Pics

2007-11-24T19:51:00.002Z

Here!

I hear they both enjoyed the gig and that there will be more early next year, once the album is completed, which they are working on now.

More Wolfmen Live Pics

2007-11-24T19:51:00.001Z

Here!

I hear they both enjoyed the gig and that there will be more early next year, once the album is completed, which they are working on now.

Wolfmen LIVE reviews and pics!

2007-11-21T02:51:00.000Z

Thanks to Msdayglo who moderates the Punk77 forum, I have a picture and hopefully some more later to post here.

The Wolfmen played

Needle in the Camel's Eye
Love is a Dog
Jackie Says
Up All Niter
Cecilie
Do the Ostrich
Kama Sutra
Cecilie
Thieves & Liars

Two GREAT reviews:

www.musicomh.com/gigs/wolfmen_1107.htm

The Wolfmen
@ Islington Academy, London, 15 November 2007
When you've been part of the rock'n'roll furniture since before most of your contemporaries were born, you're allowed the chutzpah of doing things differently.
This is certainly the case with the debut gig by The Wolfmen, a band that describes itself tonight as 'British folk music from Brick Lane' and on its website as 'where The Velvet Underground, T-Rex, Adam & the Ants and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas are plundered to make retro rock for the 23rd century'.

Tonight is, for example, the first time in 15 years that lead guitarist Marco Pirroni has performed in front of a live audience even though The Wolfmen have already scored a number one single - Two Eyes, with Daler Mehndi - on the BBC Asian Network. And while The Wolfmen themselves may not be Asian, the radio station has certainly taken them to its heart, lending them DJ Bobby Friction to introduce tonight's performance, arranged to showcase the launch of their new single Cecile.

This might not be the road usually trod by wannabe musicians on their way to the top, but that's because lead guitarist Marco Pirroni, as well as bass guitarist and lead vocalist Chris Constantinou, have been there and done that already. With seminal '80s punk-popsters Adam & The Ants on their CVs, along with, between them, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Drill, Guy Chambers and Sinead O'Connor, not to mention three Ivor Novello songwriting awards, they don't actually have to hawk their wares before the grubby public at all. They're doing it just because they want to.

And grateful we should be for it, too. The first half of the show lays before us the simple truth that Pirroni always has been, and clearly still is, a hugely talented songwriter, capable of effortlessly blending new wave energy with the power of punk but without its anger, producing instead something playful, danceable and memorable.

If it sometimes sounds a little dated, a flashback to the '80s devoid of the influence of The Strokes or The Libertines, that's only because the music he created first time round has endured so well. Jackie Says, All Niter, Do The Ostrich and Kama are all perfect examples of this.

Using two drummers on the other hand, is something The Wolfmen can claim as more unique to their own sound, pushing percussion boundaries within the usual rock'n'roll set up in a way that has marked Pirroni out all through his career.

It's when they return to the stage for their three-song encore, however, that The Wolfmen really come into their own. Joined now by Bishi looking, at half the age of anyone else on the stage, like a sitar-wielding Asian Lily Allen, they launch into a more Banghra-influenced sound, starting with new single Cecile and ending on the tour de force Two Eyes. Genuinely different, genuinely fusing Bengali and Brixton, the crossover style they've hit on may well be as deep a treasure trove as anything Pirroni has mined in the past.

That they achieve all this amid technical difficulties and less than perfect sound engineering bodes well for future performances. Plagued at times by feedback, at others by a sitar too low in the mix, it was difficult to shake the impression that they're just too big for this venue. Little matter. The second gig is bound to be much, much bigger.

- Jenni Cole

And this from Planet Mondo...

http://planetmondo.blogspot.com/

“Aaaaaooooowwww” that's me last Wednesday after being left bitten and buzzing by The Wolfmen.

Formed by Marco Pirroni (guitarist and co-writer in Adam's Ants ) and Chris Constantinou (bass playing ex Ant) I caught them strutting like roosters, and stomping like champs live and unleashed at the Islington Academy last week. Opening with a thundering cover of Eno's 'Needle in The Camel's Eye' The Wolfmen tore the place up with a snarling, snapping set of their own two fisted tunes and GlamGaragePunk all fired out with the vibe of vintage Roxy Music, and spirit of Johnny Thunders and Marc Bolan jamming down at Devil Gate Drive.

The Wolfmen's songs Cecile, Jackie Says, While London Sleeps are all hugely infectious (spin them up below) and highlight why Adam Ant went from being the King of Indie clang with 'Dirk' to King of The Wild Frontier and the Prince Charming of Pop after hooking up with Marco as a songwriter. But there’s more to this Wolf pack than tattooed knuckled sugar Pop Punk , Two Eyes is all space age breakbeats and Bhangra anthems wrapped in screaming guitars, flutes and sitars with a lead vocal from Daler Mehndi (Daler was unable to make the gig unfortunately, having being detained for something dodgy) but the celebrity credit rating was still high with endorsement from gig attendees Pete Shelley,Simone Stenfors, and Radio One's Bobby Friction all going wild for the Wolfmen.

If you like Rock that sparkles and Pop that wallops watch out for The Wolfmen in case they're prowling and preening near you soon.

STILL the endless Adam and the Ants mentions, but hopefully someday they will be able to be reviewed without that and appreciated for what they are.

Wolfmen Debut Gig!!

2007-11-08T15:09:00.000Z

Ok if you're in London Next Wednesday then you have NO EXCUSE, go see this fantastic band!
I would too but I unfortunately won't be in the UK on Wednesday. I will hopefully however be seeing the band rehearse on sunday before I leave.
Please feel free to email me with reviews of the gig if you go and I will put them up here.

Marco Question and Answers Vive le Rock single and Out of Bounds.

2007-09-18T20:46:00.000+01:00

I asked Marco a few questions about both of these, we've fallen a bit behind with updates here, but I aim to be back on track and finish the singles off at least.

So here are Marco Pirroni's thoughts on Vive le Rock, Out of Bounds and one about A.N.T.S!

Vive Le Rock: Who wrote the music for this one?
We both did

Are there any songs on Vive Le Rock that you wrote all the music for,
like you did with some on Friend Or Foe? Or were they all written
together?
All written together

Why did you not play any of the b sides live except for Physical and
Press Darlings?
I dunno...no reason, it just never occurred to us at the time.

What are the main influences for Vive Le Rock (Song and album)?
Malcolms t-shirt

How long did it take to record the album?
About 6 weeks

What was Tony Visconti like to work with?
Alright

What happened to the bass on Vive Le Rock (It's quite buried in the
mix most of the time)?
Ask Tony he mixed it!

Were you aware at the time that you were so different from every other
band around?
If I had have thought about it then I would have noticed...but i didn't care anyway

Do you still have the big white Gresch that Adam is holding on the
front cover?
Yes...er...I think so

You rejoined the Vive Tour as guitarist full time, what changed your
mind?
People going on and on and on at me to do it

Were you involved with Out of Bounds?
No, nobody ever asked me to involved and for that I was quite grateful

What did you think of it?
Never heard it

How did Out of Bounds come about- were Adam and Stewart Copeland
friends?
No idea but we were managed by Stewarts brother Miles at the time so that had something to do with it, I don't think Adam and Stewart were friends at all and they certainly weren't afterwards, but Stewart is a bit hard to take over a long period.but nice enough if its just hello and goodbye!

A.N.T.S- When did you record that and why?
We needed a track for a flexidisc and as we were going to ditch it anyway (we felt the joke had worn thin) ,so we thought we would do a quick recording of it, it took about 3 hours and was just Adam, Hughes and myself and we had a good laugh doing it.

Do you/ did you think Vive le Rock was rocky enough?
Never been happy with the mix,we wanted the poppiness of TREX and the rawness of the pistols, dunno if we really nailed it tho.

Would you use Tony Visconti to record it again if you had the choice?
Absolutely, he loves guitar players and said I had an authentic Bolan tone! He gave me one of Marc's ring modulator pedals and i gave it to Boz for his birthday, we were never sure what it was supposed to do and it just sounds a bit fuzzy but it was Marc's so it is a holy relic!

Did you know he says in his book that Vive is his favorite record that
he has ever produced?
No i didn't know that, i never read his book, how many chapters are devoted to me?

(None, just a couple of pages!)

From Tony's website:

Q: I've followed your records for over 20 years of my life and they still sound vital and fresh in the late '90's. One album that was very overlooked here in America was Adam Ant's, "Vive Le Rock'. I thought it sounded very joyous and live. What was it like to work with Adam?

A: What a creative ball of energy! He was great to work with. He's very opinionated and knows what he wants. We didn't quite agree during the mixes, he kind of wanted everything very trebly and I'm a bassey kind of producer.

Tony Visconti Myspace
Tony Visconti website

Images taken from Carty's website cos I am lazy.

Wolfmen Widget

2007-08-12T11:26:00.000+01:00

Cecilie Coming Soon

2007-06-07T14:09:00.000+01:00

In the weeks since we last got in touch Marco and Chris have been hard at work putting the finishing touches to the latest Wolfmen single release - CECILIE. This one's going to be bigger and better than ever before...

Following 2006's now extremely sought-after vinyl-only limited editions, Cecilie will be a full single release, with a DVD/CD single, a 7" vinyl limited edition, and a special download package. Each format will offer exclusive tracks, there will be a brand new video - shot by feature film director Paul Hills - and the 'making of' the Cecilie video will air on UK TV in August, and in the US in October. This release will be available from all the normal outlets, but we're directing everyone to one retailer - Townsend Records - because their sales affect chart positions... and they're also BIG Wolfmen fans! Exclusive tracks are in the works for those that pre- order and buy through Townsend, as well as competitions to win various artefacts from Chris and Marco's attics. So to stay up-to-date with the Wolfmen team at Townsend, please click this email link:
wolfmen@townsend-records.co.uk

Wolfmen update

2007-02-10T17:43:00.000Z

Shooting has just wrapped on Dogging: A Love Story, the latest Wolfmen film project. The darkened corners of Newcastle’s car parks provide an unlikely setting for a skewed romance about a young man’s introduction to the al fresco swinging scene, described as “A love story about sex, monogamy (or not), the search for love and the joy of dogging.”

It’s the latest from Vertigo Films (The Football Factory, The Business, It’s All Gone Pete Tong) and is directed by up-coming British talent Simon Ellis. This is the first feature from this award-winning director whose seventeen short films have enjoyed four hundred screenings on the international film festival circuit, various television broadcasts and MTV rotations.

"Simon is one of the most visually interesting directors out there,” One For The Road director Chris Cooke told the BBC DNA recently. “There's something quirky, leftfield and completely original about his approach to filmmaking. He can tell the most sensitive story (10 Again) or the most violent (What About The Bodies), and it's like you recognise his handwriting on it.”

The film stars Luke Treadaway, Kate Heppell, Sammy Dobson (pictured) and - in their own particular way - The Wolfmen. Marco and Chris make a cameo in one scene, perform some new material in another and are working on a contribution for the soundtrack. Music superviser on the movie is Lol Hammond who was previously music superviser on films such as Football Factory, It's All Gone Pete Tong, Dirty Sanchez, Pusher 2 and the recently released, award-winning London to Brighton. Currently in the editing stage, Dogging's theatrical release will be later this year – more news when we have it.

More U.S.Airplay
Some of these new tracks are continuing to rip up US alternative radio: in the last two weeks The Wolfmen have remained Top 10 on the FMQB Album/EP Chart and Top 20 on the FMQB and Mediaguide Singles Charts. New plays have come from KZON Phoenix, AZ, WAXQ New York, NY & KIWR Omaha, NE with interviews and on-air CD giveaways at KUPD Phoenix and WPGU Champaign, IL.

Free CDs?
If you want to own one of these strictly limited edition, promo-only Wolfmen US radio CDs then help us spread the word. Just send names and email addresses of five friends that would be interested in receiving these updates to info@thewolfmen.net, and include your name and postal address. We’ll pick 20 people at the end of Feb. and send their CDs straight out.

More news coming soon. Stay tuned...
The Wolfmen -

Marco Pirroni and
Chris Constantinou

email: ian@thewolfmen.net

web: http://www.thewolfmen.net