Adam and the Ants were an English new wave band active during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The group, which lasted from 1977 to 1982, existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant. The first, founded in May 1977, achieved considerable cult popularity during the transition from the punk rock era to the post-punk and new wave era and were noted for their high camp and overtly sexualised stage performances and songs. The second incarnation of Adam and the Ants (from 1980 to 1982) featured guitarist Marco Pirroni and drummer-producer Chris Hughes and was noted for its use of Burundi drums. (More from Wikipedia)
It is not unprecedented for the front man of a rock band to adopt that name as his new surname. When the British new wave band Adam and the Ants was formed in 1977 (originally called simply the Ants), the chief songwriter and lead singer was known to the world as “Adam” – he was born Stuart Leslie Goddard. Although Goddard had apparently taken the name Adam Ant before forming the band, I don’t remember anyone calling him that until he started his solo career. Of course that left Adam Ant’s former bandmates in the Ants in the lurch; however, Malcolm McLaren – best known as the manager of the Sex Pistols – recruited them to back a barely pubescent Anglo-Burmese singer that he later discovered named Annabella Lwin (that's not her real name either as I recall, though I can’t seem to find the info online anymore). The resulting band Bow Wow Wow is one of my favorites from the early 1980’s.
(August 2013)
