Adam and The Ants – in session for John Peel – March 26, 1979 – BBC Radio 1 –
Adam and The Ants – Before they jumped ship and adopted the quasi-New Romantic/Pirate look, Adam and The Ants were a well regarded and very popular Punk Band, who became a bit much for their initial record label, Decca, and at the time of this BBC Session for John Peel were without label, but it didn’t seem to bother them that much.
Sounding considerably different in their initial incarnation than the one which became a huge audience hit via MTV, Adam and The Ants were loud, experimental and pretty raw. And thoroughly enjoyable.
When they landed a new label and went through their transformation, the band lost something in the translation. But then, by the time Adam dropped The Ants and just became Adam Ant, the landscape of music changed. By the early 1980s it was Post-Punk, New Wave and indications were coming in of a new genre, New Romantic, which Adam adopted to great commercial and worldwide success.
But this session, from 1979 is from that earlier incarnation – when the band were just getting their act together, and blazing a trail of experimentation. They were also, by this time, heading away from the rawness of Punk into the more well-defined and polished arena of New Wave. They had come a ways from their first single Young Parisians, but the first incarnation wouldn’t last much longer, and by 1980 a whole new Adam and The Ants would emerge. A new audience would be had, but it was at the cost of the old one. Sometimes, it just happens that way.
In any event, here is that second session for John Peel at BBC Radio 1, from March 26, 1979.
