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Kings
of the Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants (CBS/ 1980)
I don't really know Kings of the Wild Frontier that well. In
fact, I only bought it about three years ago. I think I spotted it in
a charity shop for a pound and decided to give it a whirl. Yet, though
I'd played it two or three times, I really hadn't ever sat down and listened
to it properly. But then, that's partly what this project is all about.
Having said that, I know the three singles from the album very well. In
fact, I remember being so blown away by the powerful dual drum assault
of "Dog Eat Dog" when I saw the Ants performing it on Top
of the Pops, I went and bought the single from Woolies the following
Saturday. Then I got "Ant Music" as a stocking-filler present
that Christmas of 1980.
I also remember earlier that year, being in a musical instrument shop
in Chester with my post-pubescent punker-posse, as we ogled an expensive
drum kit and debated just how you played the Burundi drum riff from the
"Kings of the Wild Frontier" track. At the time, I actually
had my own drum kit which I'd got for Christmas the previous year: a battered
old Premier Olympic kit which cost all of £65. Sadly, I couldn't
play the drums well enough to provide my mates with the definitive answer
they required.
"Ant Music" was eventually to peak at number two in the charts
and effectively kick-start the "AntMania" phenomenon, which
was to see Adam and The Ants score two No 1 singles during 1981, and perform
before the queen at a Royal Variety Performance. Significantly, my girlfriend
at the time seemed to think that Adam himself was a bit of alright, which
happily meant that we shared, for a time, a smidgeon of musical common
ground.
This was an incredibly rare thing in a town where between the sexes there
existed a seemingly insurmountable musical demarcation which decreed that
boys chose between punk and metal, whilst girls tended to gravitate towards
Northern Soul and what we dismissively called 'disco shit' (much of which
I secretly liked in spite of myself).
Incidentally, that was the girlfriend I nearly lost my virginity to in
a de-trousering incident on the rug in front of the fire on boxing day
night of that year. All I can say is that it was a wholly unexpected turn
of events, and one which I wasn't mentally prepared for! Subsequently,
the relationship (which was my first) didn't last very long into January
and it then took me two very long and frustrating years before I finally
lost my cherry.
But anyway, back to the music... For many boys like myself who had been
with the revamped, Adam and the Ants (Mk II) from the off, the single
"Stand and Deliver" may have been just about passable but "Prince
Charming" was quite simply beyond the pale (though I rather like
it now). And worse was to come, in the form of "Ant Rap". As
a result, the Ants were soon dropped by the die-hards. Indeed, Andrew
M, a schoolfriend of mine, had spent much of the latter part of 1980 turning
up to the local Wednesday night under-18s disco with a white "Ant
stripe" painted across his face (clearly taking up the Ant mantra
that ridicule was nothing to be scared of), but by the summer of '81 that
was all dropped in favour of Dexys' docker chic.
Likewise, I got rid of my Ants singles, though I still regret getting
shot of "Dog Eat Dog" because it had a slow-burning, power-charged
version of "Whip in My Valise" on the B-side. As it happened,
this ode to kinky sex was picked up by the tabloids at the height of Antmania
in a feeble attempt to stir up a 'must we fling this filth at our pop
kids'-style moral panic.
But what about the album? Well, having just listened to it twice in succession
while writing this, I can only conclude that Kings of the Wild Frontier
is an ofttimes silly but largely likeable piece of pop buffoonery. Sure,
the Burundi drums and spaghetti-western guitars sound quite dated now,
but with "Dog Eat Dog" followed by "Ant Music" and
the excellent "Feed Me to the Lions", the album gets off to
a storming start.
Unfortunately the momentum isn't sustained, and the album truly loses
its way halfway through side two, with "The Magnificent Five"
and "Don't Be Square (Be There)", before rallying with the rousing
closer, "The Human Beings". The dire slap bass proto-funk of
"Don't Be Square (Be There)" in particular, points towards horrors
to come in the form of the the aforementioned "Ant Rap". Altogether
now, 'Marco, Merrick, Dairy Lee…'
(Copyright: Poke-in-the-Eye Publishing 2005)