Adam Ant
I always felt a bit sorry for Adam Ant. He had been around at the beginning of the punk movement collaborating briefly with Jordan and Malcolm McClaren but he never seemed to quite fit the right mould. His music was hugely popular for a time with 11 singles hitting the charts over a 5 year period. Adam & The Ants videos were flamboyant fun and got massive amounts of air-time as music videos were comparatively new and MTV was just starting up but the pantomime pirate imagery had become more important than the music. The use of two drummers for live performances gave the band a powerful set up using the Burundi-style drum beat and he was a captivating live performer but as his audience became younger other music seemed to be overtaking him. New wave and New Romantic music scenes were coming along and suddenly Adam & the Ants were old hat and out of fashion. This photo was taken when they were at the peak of their commercial success ‘Stand & Deliver’ and ‘Prince Charming’ were released at this time which would both reach number one in the UK charts but within a year the band had split up.
More recently his career has had several ups and downs from having a successful autobiography published and acting in several films to being arrested on a number of occassions and having several prolonged stays in psychiatric wards. In 2009 he started perfoming live again with various line-ups and there are rumours that he has recently started to record again.
