The first gig I saw, outside of Ireland, was Adam & the Ants at the London Lyceum on Sunday, 5th August, 1979. This was the Irish August Bank holiday weekend and two of us traveled to London from Dundalk via ferry & bus. We couldn’t get into the B52s sold out gig in Camden on the Saturday but picked up 2 tickets for the Ants gig the following night.
I had heard little of the Ants music. They only had 1 or 2 singles released by then and knew about them mainly through their poor reviews from a hostile music press & their association with the mighty Siouxsie and the Banshees.
As we awaited the arrival of the Ants, Gary Glitter’s “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again” boomed through the PA as the Ants came on stage & delivered a brilliant show. The venue, audience (many dressed in their “Ant music for sex people” gear) & performance was so impressive and streets ahead of anything I’d seen before – and I had been to both the Clash & Buzzcocks gigs in Dublin. Adam was driven, had brilliant presence and star quality.
I try to only scan material for this blog that doesn’t already exist on the web. Unfortunately, I don’t have any material from this gig or from 1979 but have scanned in some Record Mirror reviews from 1980 and an interview from I-D mag issue 5.
See other post: Malcolm makes Adam Ant a mix Tape, 1979
Great interview here with Ants drummer Dave Barbe adamandtheants.org
And recent podcast on 2nd Aug 2011 Adam interview with Richard Bacon on BBC R5
Nice blog story here from an Ant fan who was too young & missed the excellent “Dirk Wears White Sox”album first time around.
