— Deanne Pearson
Between Deanne Pearson giving her thumbs up to "Kings of the Wild Frontier" in August, 1980 and Dave Rimmer making "Strip" his Single of the Fortnight right at the end of 1983, Adam Ant was on fire. He guided the Ants to seven Top 10 hits, including a pair of number ones, and then went solo and had three more big hits, with another chart topper added for good measure. Three number ones and ten Top 10 hits isn't exactly unprecedented but it's still very impressive and there weren't many people doing better. But both "Kings of the Wild Frontier" and "Strip" initially missed the Top 40; flops that bookend their imperial period.
Like virtually everyone of the time, Adam Ant came out of punk. He wasn't a punk in the conventional sense but that's probably for the best since orthodox punks tended to produce the least impressive music. Yet, his interest in fetish gear and S 'n' M lyrics had been a firm part of punk's early days being associated with Malcolm McLaren, Vivian Westwood and their famed London shop known as Sex. Siouxsie Sioux had managed to get away with looking like a dominatrix because that was what was expected of her; male punks were supposed to puke on stage, flash V signs and be ready for a scrap with the audience. Simon Price contends that The Ants were considered to be a "joke" in punk circles and at least part of this may simply be down to their desire to dress up like gimps and hardcore sex fiends.
'Dress up' is the optimal term here. Though they developed a loyal following, they weren't getting anywhere special in the late seventies and their record label Decca decided to drop them. They signed to an indie but not much changed. Then, McLaren swooped in and nicked the Ants away from Adam to form Bowwowwow. Deciding to go forward with a new line-up, Ant decided to change up their image and the Dandy Highwayman was born, albeit one that also incorporated Native American face paints into his image. Veteran 'Antpeople', as their fanbase had become known, reacted badly to this change because while dressing like Dick Turpin is clearly stupid, leather fetishwear is for real. Everybody knows that.
Boring old charges of selling out aside, his most loyal original followers must have known there was a fetching pop star hiding in there somewhere. Like Marc Bolan a decade earlier, you wonder what took him so long to figure this all out. Not especially handsome, he nonetheless had a face that a camera couldn't turn away from. Glam rockers were always able to cut a presence on stage and Ant is very much from this tradition.
The only thing lacking in this attractive package is quality music. I'm willing to acknowledge that Deanne Pearson isn't wrong about everything she has to say about "Kings of the Wild Frontier" only it sounds poorly recorded, the bass-heavy new wave sound has been done to death and Ant is a very workmanlike vocalist. (Did he ever need to be a good singer? Probably not but it still never helped his boring records) The single is one of his last with a real "punk" sound and, thus, could be a much more "authentic" document but, as I already suggested above, I tend to think it was all artificial.
So, what did people see in "Kings of the Wild Frontier" as a record free of Adam Ant's poses? Well, not much at first. Upon this release in August of 1980, it only peaked as high as 48 and wouldn't make it into the Top 10 for several months once the ball really got rolling. The foot stomping chorus that could've come straight out of a Slade song should've had instant appeal with kids in the UK of the time but it drifted away before the majority of them had the chance to give it a listen. With the likes of ABBA, Blondie and The Jam dominating the charts, there may not have been room for Ant even if he was trying to force his way in. Notably, it wasn't until that autumn that things began to change. "The Tide Is High" and "Super Trouper" were both dutifully taken to number one but without that same thrill of old. Paul Weller and his mates were done releasing singles from Sound Affects and were looking to go in another direction. The Police were on the rise by then but they were a bit older; Bucks Fizz had won Eurovision but they were appealing to a less discerning pop fan. Adam & The Ants suddenly had a void they were happy to fill.
As I've said before, you probably had to be there to fully appreciate Adam Ant's genius. I'm sure that seeing him strutting his stuff on Top of the Pops doing "Stand and Deliver" was a sight to behold that had the kids yammering away in awe the following morning on playgrounds all over Britain. I'm equally sure that critics — who otherwise may not have taken him seriously — appreciated having a media-friendly star who could sell magazines after years of punks giving flippant interviews. I'll even acknowledge his importance as a bridge from punk to the New Romantics and as the template of the pop star for the eighties (surely Boy George, the compelling figurehead in a band with three other members who were all much better looking, was paying attention). An important figure and a character that demanded attention; so much going for him. A pity I've never liked any of his actual music.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
David Bowie: "Ashes to Ashes"
Pearson infamously dismissed Dame David's latest single as a "strange choice for a single" and "not a hit". Imagine her surprise, then, when it shot to the top of the charts a little over two weeks after this issue of Smash Hits was published. It's tempting to belittle her lack of foresight but how was she to know? "Heroes" only got to 24 in the charts and it's a killer record, so how could she have predicted a number one from this one? And, hey, I lack taste as far as Adam Ant's discography is concerned so why shouldn't she fail to see what an astonishing single "Ashes to Ashes" is? Whatever, it ended up topping the charts for a fortnight and is still the Bowie record I'm most interesting in going back to. Impressionistic, sparse, immensely creative, sort of catchy but not quite the kind of thing you might sing along with, highly individual: all the elements that made him so special and very much missed. "Ashes to Ashes" is a monster and should easily have been this issue's Single of the Fortnight.
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