Saturday, April 24, 2010

Adam Ant hits the comeback trail. Comeback trail hits back, harder.

There is little to add to this email from Scary Boots than the sound of scrabbling around on the floor attempting to find my dropped jaw:

Last night I was at Stay Beautiful, a glittery rock and roll club night thing at the purple turtle where they usually have bands like 'An experiment on a bird in the air pump'. Last night they had a godawful tranny-riot girl act. But that is not the point. The point is Adam Ant was supporting. And it was awful.

To start with, it was OK. He's faintly ludicrous in the same way as all older guys who refuse to accept that people are not as interested in their chests as once they were. (Moobs. At least an A-cup, if I'm any judge). It hit a low when he started rubbing strongbow all over himself. The poor girl's Dita, perhaps. But it ended.

And then, after 'Lady Noise' - fantastic outfits, shame about the music and the lyrics - he came back on again. And announced he was going to perform a song he'd been working on for a while. 'It was originally by Bruce Springsteen', he said, 'But I've changed it and made it my own.'

The change? He sang 'Born in the Uuuuuu K' instead of the USA. That was it. And interjected occasionally with 'This is for Sophie Lancaster. Beaten to death for being a punk rocker.' 'Every time I click my fingers a punk rocker dies.' 'Next time it could be you!' Click. Click. "Born in the Uuuuuu K!" Insightful social commentary (although where does he find punk rockers these days?).

It's bad enough being beaten to death by thugs without having hideous songs caterwauled in dedication to you.

I'm not sure my description fully encapsulates how fucking awful it was. With any luck, someone was filming.

Anyway. Thought you might care. All my friends who were there were overwhelmed by seeing 'the real adam ant!!!'. And did not know the original Springsteen.

It's awful and heartbreaking in equal measures - the murder of Sophie Lancaster was a terrible thing, but you'd think Adam could at least get the subculture she belonged to right. Or might have thought a little better of clumsily adapting a song about Vietnam veterans as a misguided tribute.

There is some video footage available - not the Springsteen, unfortunately, but... well, here's a idea of what we missed:


7 comments:

Simon said...

No mention that Stay Beautiful is Simon Price's club night?

Dirkandhiswhitesox said...

I think its wise to remember Adam is most like ill at the moment and please try not to be judgemental of him at this time.
He has bipolar disorder well documented in the madness of prince charimng doumentary which you can find on you tube.
It is a very cruel illness and it can appear the sufferer is talking and acting in a sane manner or even singing but eventually he is going to need help.
As an Antfan I can only ask you to try and understand. Thanks.

sushi said...

i agree with the above comment well made by dirkandhiswhitesox the article below explains it also:

http://www.holymoly.com/celebrity-news/adam-ants-comeback-all-delusion45650

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

I think the end of the Holy Moly piece probably says it best - assuming their story is correct:

Our mole told us they fear things will not end well if people keep encouraging Adam Ant to perform in his current state.

I don't think anyone can say at a distance whether the show was done by someone suffering an episode or a man who just wasn't (by the sound of it) very inspired. Either way, it might have been kinder if the booking had quietly been canceled.

Awful and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Eddie C said...

I didn't think it was that bad from the video. I've seen plenty worse bands ...

Scary said...

I'm sorry Adam is mentally ill; I didn't know this, I'm not a fan. But it does make sense in context.

However, I stand by my assessment that it was cringemakingly embarrassing and friends shouldn't let friends gig while nuts.

Yeah, I've seen worse musically, but when it comes to deluded frontmen this was in the top ten, even before you add in that I expected better.

duckie said...

Maybe he'd sing a bit better if he took the stupid chewing gum out of his mouth.

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