Adam Ant, 80s rock icon with New Romantic/post-Punk band Adam & The Ants and known for his hits Stand and Deliver and Prince Charming, performed with a five-piece backing band at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney, on Friday 13 October. Support came from northern NSW folk-rock singer Diana Anaid.

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Adam Ant

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The concert celebrated the 35^th anniversary of the release of Adam & The Ants’ second album, Kings Of The Wild Frontier, which was played in its entirety.

Opening artist Diana Anaid has a powerful, emotive voice that she used to full effect, accompanied by just an acoustic guitar. She had an unusual upbringing as the youngest of three siblings to a single parent, her itinerant, hippie father, and that nomadic semi-feral upbringing influences her feminist anthems.

She’s recorded five albums and is best known for her 1997 debut single, I Go Off. The story behind its title is derived from the year before its release, when the father of her then-boyfriend criticized her performance at Bluesfest Byron Bay, saying she’d never make a success if she didn’t ‘go off’ – i.e., be more expressive – on stage.

As the opener for Adam Ant, with her up-tempo folk-rock anthems, she certainly ‘went off’, commanding the respect of the crowd. Her fifth album, My Queen, is due for release soon.

As a jaunty fashion icon, Adam Ant has always been very image-conscious, and at Enmore, he didn’t disappoint his legion of predominantly female admirers, many of who wore pirate outfits and painted their nose with his signature horizontal white stripe.

Beneath streaming red lights he swanned onto the stage in a pirate’s costume, all-black apart from gold braid on his jacket, a red and white sash around his waist, and red and white feathers in his Napoleonic bicorne seafarer’s hat.

The band launched into the instantly recognizable Burundi drumming introduction of Dog Eat Dog – recreated with two drummers, both striking their floor toms, the characteristic sound of the Ants.

One of the drummers, Jola, with her resplendent silver mane of hair piled high and a mask over her eyes resembled Marie Antoinette attending a Parisian banquet.

Illuminated by the Enmore Theatre’s amazing stage lighting, the band continued with tracks from the aforementioned Kings Of The Wild Frontier album, performed in the order of the album itself. This included highlights Feed Me To The Lions, Killer In The Home, the title track and the ever-popular Antmusic (‘That music’s lost its taste so try another flavour!’).

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After the album was reprised, Adam’s voice by now a little hoarse having performed in Brisbane the night before; Ant introduced himself and then launched into Beat My Guest.

Commonly performed in his live repertoire, it is one of his earliest songs from a primal incarnation of Adam & The Ants.

Beat My Guest, and a significant proportion of the songs that followed at the Enmore Theatre, like Red Scab and Physical (You’re So), were written before Ant’s songwriting partner, guitarist Marco Pirroni, introduced the chart-topping melodies like Prince Charming and Kings Of The Wild Frontier that made the band an international sensation for a mere two years from 1980-2.

The earlier, pre-Pirroni version of the band, which released debut album Dirk Wears White Socks in October 1979, were soon afterwards poached by Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren. Mclaren jettisoned Ant and paired the musicians with a teenage girl singer, Annabella Lwin, before renaming them Bow Wow Wow, achieving moderate chart success.

Despite the coup, Ant remained on good terms with McLaren, even dedicating a song to him after his 2010 death, and credited McLaren with advice for his transformation from a rubber bondage-gear wearing arty punk rocker to the glamorous, make-up clad dandy that brought him fame and fortune.

After Ant disbanded the second Adam & The Ants lineup in March 1982, he enjoyed considerable success for the next two decades as a solo artist, followed by frequent film and television appearances. His music career flourished primarily through the clever maintenance of his songwriting collaboration with guitarist Marco Pirroni.

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Adam Ant

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Pirroni is a melody maestro who’s also composed songs for Sinead O’Connor and Siouxsie & The Banshees. During his musical partnership with Ant, they penned two UK number ones, four top ten hits, and nine that reached the top 20, as well as finding chart success in the USA and Australia.

Adam Ant performed a selection of these solo-era hits at Enmore, including, Desperate But Not Serious, Puss ‘n’ Boots, Friend Or Foe, Vive Le Rock, Strip, and Australian chart-topper Goody Two Shoes.

Although Ant’s older, pre-Pirroni songs, such as Zerox, Cartrouble pt2 and Lady, were well-received at Enmore Theatre, it was notable that their lack of catchy hooks tended to halt audience dancing.

Unfortunately, the audience didn’t get to hear tracks from Ant’s most recent album, 2013’s charming but decidedly ramshackle, Adam Ant Is The Blue-Black Hussar In Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter, a somewhat long-winded title in the tradition of Victorian novels.

His first solo album in 18 years, which included a few re-worked demos he’d recorded with Marco Pirroni when they last collaborated years earlier, Ant toured this comeback album in 2012, including dates in Australia, with his then-band, The Good, The Mad and The Lovely Posse. The ‘mad’ is probably self-referential, given that Ant has battled bipolar disorder for most of his life, including periods of institutionalization for recovery.

Ant has a wickedly dark and often smutty sense of humour and songs on BlueBlack Hussar, such as Bullshit, Punky Young Girl and Hardmentoughblokes sit comfortably alongside darkly witty songs he wrote in the mid 70s that appeared on debut album Dirk Wears White Sox, such as Day I Met God, Catholic Day and the delightfully sinister Never Trust A Man With Egg On His Face.

Ant, now 62, looks in good physical shape and certainly matches the stamina of his younger band members over the two-hour live show – all very physical and clearly enjoying themselves – as well as playing the guitar for several numbers.

Prior to the three-song encore, the audience was treated to the anticipated and much-loved Stand And Deliver (also the title of Ant’s biography). The crowd favourite features the catchy chorus, “Stand and deliver, your money or your life!” – a phrase used by highway robbers in 18^th century Britain during armed hold-ups of stagecoaches full of travellers.

Adam led the audience in an extended singalong of the chorus, while all five band members beat out a Burundi tattoo on separate drums, a highlight of the evening.

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Adam Ant

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Adam Ant Setlist 13 Oct 2017

(All songs marked with an asterisk * are Adam And The Ants’ originals)

Dog Eat Dog*

Antmusic*

Feed Me To The Lions*

Los Rancheros*

Ants Invasion*

Killer In The Home*

Kings Of The Wild Frontier*

Magnificent Five*

Don’t Be Square (Be There)*

Jolly Roger*

Making History*

The Human Beings*

Beat My Guest*

Vive Le Rock

Friend Or Foe

Desperate But Not Serious

Prince Charming*

Cartrouble (Part 2)*

Strip

Apollo 9

Puss ‘n’ Boots

Zerox*

Stand And Deliver*

Goody Two Shoes

Lady / Fall In

Red Scab

Physical (You’re So)*

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