Adam and the Ants drive the "final nail in the coffin of punk"

Adam and the Ants : The Human Beings

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On November 3, 1980 Adam and the Ants released the UK#1 album Kings of the Wild Frontier. While the album wound up in American cut-out bins where I found a cassette copy in a Woolworth's, Kings of the Wild Frontier created a huge sensation in the U.K. and Europe where Adam Ant woke up one morning to discover he was the biggest pop star in all the land. How did they achieve such fame and sales?

"We stole what we could, like magpies," guitarist Marco Pirroni said. "We used ocarinas, echo chambers, textures from John Barry and Ennio Morricone soundtracks, rockabilly guitar riffs from Duane Eddy and Hank Marvin. We were even twanging rulers on desks and recording the results!"

Stan Keaton of Sounds gave the album a 5 star review, writing "if you're expecting a half dozen re-workings of the jungle drum beat of  (UK#4) "Dog Eat Dog" and "Kings" then forget it. A whole quilt of styles are played out here. It's the Ants' most accessible work to date, wholly satisfying and without doubt one of the year's most exuberant releases."

I played my Woolworth's cassette quite a bit, but it's not like I wore face paint out in public. Much.

As I wrote earlier the Ant Invasion was in full swing. You can't say you weren't warned. The band made their intentions known. On "Jolly Roger" they chant in unison "It's your money that we want/ And your money we shall have!" Ant called the album "the final nail in the coffin of punk".

 

"Dog Eat Dog" unleashes a new hit sound for Adam and the Ants

Adam and the Ants : Dog Eat Dog

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On October 16, 1980 Adam and the Ants performed their monumental single "Dog Eat Dog"on Top Of The Pops launching the single,  b/w "Physical (You're So)", to UK#4. The performance, featuring Adam Ant in his finest foppery and make-up leading bandmates in chants, captured the imaginations of UK fans everywhere even though the sound of two drummers bashing away Burundi style was already familiar. It was a big moment for Ant, who had teamed up with Malcolm McLaren only to have the latter steal his band and copy his sound with Bow Wow Wow.

"If I learnt anything from him," Ant would tell Smash Hits, "it's that if you've got an idea you've got to keep it to yourself. An idea shared is an idea halved."

 

The single and the forthcoming album King Of The Wild Frontier are the moment Ant says he learned the difference between rock'n'roll and showbiz :

 It took me a long time to discover they were two very different things and that one was more appealing to me than the other. I felt that rock'n' roll had lost all of its colour, all its flair. Show business has got more life to it. You have to be of a much higher calibre to survive it. 

I realised that the most important thing was not to compete with any other groups. Not to feel jealous of anybody else. Just to get on with your own career. Also to be vert\y colorful - and to push that to an extreme- and be very 'total' about what you do.

Adam And the Ants are the new kings of the Wild Frontier

Adam And The Ants : Kings of the Wild Frontier

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"A new royal family, a wild nobility We are the family"

On July 27 1980 the new Adam and the Ants single "Kings of the Wild Frontier" debuted at UK#53. The song would peak at UK#48 this time but return to the charts a year later, following the success of "Dog Eat Dog" and "Antmusic" to reach UK#2. 

"We stole what we could like magpies,"Ant's guitar playing co-writer, former Banshee Marco Pirroni recalls. "We used ocarinas, echo chambers, textures from John Barry and Ennio Morricone soundtracks, rockabilly guitar riffs from Duane Eddy and Hank Marvin. We were even twanging rulers on desks and recording the results!".

And then there were the Burundi drumbeats rattling all the way through. One of the year's most memorable singles, and a clear sign the musicians Malcolm McLaren stole for Bow Wow Wow would not be missed. 

From Smash Hits: