Born on November 3rd: Adam Ant, inventor of tribal punk rock

He was born in the Marylebone district of London and his legal name is still Stuart Leslie Goddard. It's certainly less evocative than Adam Ant!

I haven't found confirmation of this anywhere, but it's highly likely he borrowed his stage name from the British adventure TV series Adam Damant Lives, a sort of "The Hibernators," broadcast between 1966 and 1967 on the BBC. Since he was around twelve years old at the time, he was part of the target audience! Moreover, his flair for stage costumes in the early days of Adam & The Ants in late 1979 and his cheap Native American makeup clearly betrayed an attraction to pseudo-adventurer disguises.

Before his irrevocable falling out with them and their departure to form Bow Wow Wow under Malcolm McLaren's leadership, Adam laid the foundations of tribal punk rock with drummer Dave Barbarossa and guitarist Matthew Ashman. Considered, dare we say, somewhat pathetic clowns by other emerging new wave bands because of their unconventional style, Adam & The Ants nevertheless managed around ten hits, including three UK number ones. "Antmusic," "Prince Charming," "Kings Of The Wild Frontier," and "Stand And Deliver" were like comets that streaked across the British music scene between 1980 and mid-1981. A brief flash in the pan, and then they were gone!

Although his band had left, Adam Ant didn't let it get him down. Initially relying on rhythms reminiscent of his fleeting fame, he later broadened his musical palette with five studio albums which, it must be said, met with only moderate success. His most recent album, "Wonderful," was released in 1995.

Today, like many artists of his generation, he regularly talks about new recordings in the works, but with the exception of the strange yet interesting self-produced "Adam Ant Is The Blue Black Hussard," he simply dusts off his aging pirate persona by playing the nostalgia card. There's nothing wrong with that, of course!

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Adam Ant, at the height of his fame, on stage at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels (Belgium) on May 16, 1981