406) Adam and The Ants - Kings Of The Wild Frontier

It’s 1980 and Top of the Pops is on we had a lot of John Lennon videos after his terrible murder, ABBA still dominating and luckily for us all St Winifred’s School Choir had given us the joy of There’s No One Quite Like Grandma so a man dressed as a pirate with a white band of make-up painted across his nose made me sit up. 

My dad had died that year, and we spent a lot of time at my grandparents, and my grandad was not impressed by a man in make-up I seem to remember. I just thought “wow a pirate.”

To be clear it didn’t matter what my grandad or I thought as this was his moment as this record was a number one and spawned three top ten hits and for a brief period Adam was Britain’s biggest pop star and made it all look a doddle. However, fair play to him as after his debut record, Dirk Wears White Sox, Malcom McLaren had persuaded half of the Ants to join Bow Wow Wow and the bassist had jumped ship to The Monochrome Set so Adam had to start from scratch again but crucially he had met guitarist Marco Pirroni who co-wrote all of the songs on this record.

Even if not a huge fan if you were around at this time you will know the singles, all tribal drums (a regular feature) riffs in the right places and Adam leading the way with the band stepping in to shout at the right time, Kings of the Wild Frontier, Dog Eat Dog and Antmusic are all great singles and with a chorus of “so unplug the jukebox, and do us all a favour, that music’s lost its taste so try another flavour, antmusic,” he had an anthem. There’s a confidence here that you have to admire.

Feed Me to the Lions has a great chorus and Los Rancheros riff could be from an episode of Bonanza (I’m going for the younger audience with that reference).

Killer in the Home is one of the simplest songs here but one of my favourites over simple beat the guitar is strummed by Marco and a slowed down song ensues, it’s a good contrast to what has come so far and for me has a charm a trick they repeat later with Making History.

Don’t Be Square has a funk start with “Ant Music for sex people” meaning nothing but makes me laugh for some reason and the band are putting in all the stops behind Adam and he even mentions his debut.

With this look it would have been disappointing if he hadn’t done a song called Jolly Roger, whistling and shout backs, not essential but fits with the record.

Not all huge pop stars made wonderful albums, Adam & the Ants did.

7.5/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Antmusic