The Voices From Outer Space

Adam and the Ants : Never Trust A Man With Egg On His Face

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On November 30, 1979, before the face paint and incessant drum sounds, Adam and the Ants released Dirk Wears White Socks, the band's debut album. It would be the first number one album on the UK Independent Albums Chart when the chart debuted in Record Week in 1980.

The album has the honor of making Rolling Stone's list of 20 Terrible Debut Albums by Great Artists. Adam Ant refers to it as "the album that got the shit kicked out of it by journalists at the time" and Rolling Stone writer Reed Fischer calls it an "all-pretentious, oft-laborious...sloppy attempt to capture the prickly subversive sounds of Wire, Television or Talking Heads."

Almost every Ant who played on this album left the band before the 1981 follow-up Kings of the Wild Frontier.

I'll Steal Your Chords

Adam and the Antz : Zerox

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On July 6, 1979 Adam and the Ants released their second single, "Zerox", inspired by a David Bowie confession that when it came to finding inspiration for new songs, he was a "human Xerox machine". The song was a number one hit on the UK Indie Chart, but failed to chart on the UK Singles Chart upon its initial release. Following the success of their second album, Kings of the Wild Frontier, it reached number 45 in January 1981 upon re-release.

Here's Adam Ant miming the song all by himself: