FIFTEEN years, maybe more, since Adam Ant’s last full-scale British tour, the king of the wild frontier is undertaking 11 dates that conclude at the sold-out Duchess in York tomorrow night.
“I missed performing – that’s what I do – and the money,” he said, when launching the comeback gigs with a greatest hits set of Prince Charming, Antmusic, Stand And Deliver and Goody Two Shoes at the Under The Bridge club in Chelsea in late March.
Dressed in war paint way ahead of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow in the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, Adam Ant was the leader of the two-drummer New Wave/post-punk group Adam And The Ants before turning solo in 1982. Between 1980 and 1983, he scored ten Top Ten hits, including Dog Eat Dog, Kings Of The Wild Frontier, Young Parisians, Ant Rap, Friend Or Foe and Puss ‘N Boots.
His career went into decline, however, culminating in his struggles with mental health problems and his £500 fine after pleading guilty plea to a charge of affray at the Old Bailey in 2003. That year and again last year he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but 56-year-old Adam – real name Stuart Goddard – says he is now restored to full health after completing the medication that had prevented him from performing.
His May and June dates are billed as a greatest hits tour, but will additionally feature material from his forthcoming comeback album, Adam Ant Is The Blueblack Hussar In Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter.
Explaining his reinvention as the Blueblack Hussar, he has been quoted in the national press as saying: “I just got to thinking what would the character be like after 32 years. He’d be old, mad and maybe just a little bit bitter and so the Blueblack Hussar was born.
“People have offered me quite a bit of money to put the stripe across my nose, but I’m not doing that. I wanted to create a scenario, a persona to bring back.”
Reflecting on his rollercoaster ride of a music, stage and screen career, just as he did in his 2006 autobiography Stand And Deliver, Adam has said: “Whatever you do, if you realise your dreams you have to accept there’s a price to pay and I paid mine. But, you know, for all the medication I was on, it didn’t completely eradicate my brain cells. I can still write songs.”
And so, here comes Adam Ant, the Blueblack Hussar with his new band The Good, The Mad and The Lovely Posse, a posse that includes burlesque dancer Georgina Baillie. It’s time to stand and deliver once more.
• Did you know?
Adam Ant last performed in York in 1995 in an impromptu set with guitarist Marco Pirroni at Track Records, where he memorably jumped up on the counter at the High Ousegate shop to enable fans to see him better.
• Did you know too?
Adam Ant has appeared on the theatre stage in Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane and Steven Berkoff’s Greek.
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