Adam Ant at the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley
Adam Ant Acoustic and Personal
An Exclusive Screening of his Live In Japan 1981 and Live In Hyde Park 2011 with a Question and Answer session followed by an Acoustic Set by Adam.
8th August 2011, Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley
The run through of the evening was pretty simple and self-explanatory, introduced by none other than Georgie Girl and Twinkle Twinkle, first we would be treated to a screening of Adam Ant Live in Tokyo from 1981 with the original Ants, following directly onto the first screening of Adam Ant and The Good, The Mad and The Lovely Posse Live at Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park from earlier this year. These two films would then be followed (with a small 'comfort' break) by the man himself answering questions from the fans and playing some of his songs in a solo, acoustic act.
At the beginning of the night as the lights went down for the first film the cinema, which must seat around 300 people, was approximately half full and strangely to myself, who had been led to believe that most Ant fans dressed in the moniker of their idol for his performances, were unadorned with any excessive Ant make up or clothing. Perhaps this was because it was mainly a film screening or because it was a Monday night and most of the crowd looked as though they would have had to come straight from work.
During the course of the first film - Live In Tokyo - the cinema continued to fill to around two thirds capacity. This film was from the start, obviously a product of its time with minimal camera angles, glaringly contradictory coloured stage lighting and wonderfully eighties cuts, fades and screen changes. However for all its dated 'faults' or idiosyncracities the band played amazingly. The sound throughout was well balanced between all the instruments and vocals, perhaps with the guitars backing vocals slightly lowered a bit too much, but this had obviously been done with the intention of highlighting Adam.
The set started with all the 'hits' "Prince Charming", "Stand And Deliver", "Ant Music", etc. with Adam singing with a mocking gleam in his eye before starting in on the music he quite clearly preferred to play. The album tracks "Dog Eat Dog", "Car Trouble", "Kings Of The Wild Frontier", "Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)", etc. followed with the cinema crowd applauding and interacting with the film as the set progressed.
The focus throughout the film was on Adam with the only spotlight trained on him as he danced and gyrated around the stage in full 'Prince Charming' outfit, the Ants, were also dressed in the piratical theme of the "Prince Charming" album cover shoot. When we came to the encore of the performance, Adam made a great show of performing "Physical (You're So)" ripping off his shirt and gyrating around on the monitors in his tight leather trousers, thoroughly exuding sex appeal on a kin with Prince.
The first film faded out and the house lights came up briefly before being lowered and the second film - Live In Hyde Park - beginning, in this brief moment it was clear that the cinema had now filled to almost full capacity. This film had better stage lighting, multiple camera angles and unobtrusive film cuts and fades that is indicitive of the advance in technology over the past three decades, there were also more shots of the rest of the band, especially the drummer Yola.
This performance, however I didn't feel was one of the greatest of Adams, with a slight under-rehearsed impression left by some of the songs from the interaction between Adam and the guitars and backing singers, but the drums throughout were tight and held the set together wonderfully. The set was more mixed, perhaps to cater for the fact that the audience were a 'festival' audience and therefore not necessarily ardent Ant fans. Starting with "Physical (You're So)", Adam switched from 'hits' such as "Goody Two Shoes", "Prince Charming", "Stand And Deliver", etc. to fan favourite album tracks such as "Dog Eat Dog", "Kings Of The Wild Frontier", "Wonderful" and "Fall-In", etc. telling the crowd to get up and dance.
He also, dedicated his final performance of "Prince Charming" to Ari Up (The Slits), Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex) and Liz Tyler - a beautiful moment.
As the Hyde Park performance faded out the house lights came up for a slightly longer break while the stage was preped for Adam's appearance. Introduced by Georgie Girl and Twinkle Twinkle, Adam and the rest of his The Good, The Mad and The Lovely Posse came out from the back of the cinema and Adam continued on to the stage. First up were the fans question's for Adam to answer.
Q. Do you plan to act again?
Adam: If the right story line or script comes along; at the moment my book "Stand And Deliver" is being turned into a film but they're having trouble finding someone to play me - perhaps Johnny Depp should. He's scared of me, knows he's stolen my act.
Q. In the lyrics 'I watched Picasso, Pablo Picasso, visit The Planet Of The Apes' Why did you choose Picasso?
Adam: Because Picasso was a genius. He's my favourite artist. I believe that each generation has one genius and for his time Picasso was the one, nowadays we have the guy in the wheelchair (Stephen Hawkings) who thinks on another plain - genuis. In fact Jack Bond, who is sitting at the back, got to work with one of Picasso's contempories when he directed the 1965 Dali in New York, he's now compiling a documentary of the making of the BlueBlack Hussar character. For the new album which will be out in January 2012 on vinyl, cassette or CD but no downloads as I don't get any money from them.
Q. What are you most proud of?
Adam: My daughter. Without a doubt. I was half of what created her, probably only 30 seconds work and then the women has all the hard work. If it was up to men to have to go through that to populate the planet then we'd have died out long ago.
Q. How did you manage to break through and get a number 1?
Adam: Simple, I went on Top of the Pops, played for three minutes and was number 1. Finally after all those gruelling months gigging around seedy little pubs with no crowd we got somewhere, suddenly my mum was like 'there might be something in this'. Haha.
Q. Do you enjoy touring in the North of England?
Adam: I have a problem going North of the Watford Gap. Take the Gallaghers for example, its like Darwin said we have evolved from apes and then the further North you go, the more you regress back to that ape state.
Q. How do you feel about Malcolm McLaren?
Adam: Malcolm was a genius, again one of a rare few. He was so intelligent and he realised this so he played it down to be able to interact with others. He coached me, sent me to singing lessons, discussed my music and lyrical content and told me to go for it. He took a lot of stick, he was tougher than people think, on the Thames boat during the Queen's Jubilee celebration, all the police went straight for Malcolm and beat him, he was very tough.
Q. What is happening with Persuasion?
Adam: I own it now so it will come out, after "Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter" on vinyl. The making of that, they wasted three years of me life and now I can finally reclaim them.
Q. What were your musical influences growing up?
Adam: Rory Gallagher, Hendrix, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Argent, Free, T-Rex, Malcolm used to say you need three things: Sex, Chaos and Style I add Humour to that, I love novelty records.
Adam then, looking at his watch, declared that it was time to play some songs and called up onto the stage with him, his guitarist Tom Edwards. They played: "Car Trouble", "Shakin' All Over", "Goody Two Shoes", "Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)", "Cleopatra", "Stand And Deliver", "Peggy Sue"→"No Fun"→"Peggy Sue", "Get It On", "20th Century Boy" and "Physical (You're So)".
Adam, dressed in a pale blue silk suit, red velvet wasitcoat, flat peak cap and adorned with silver jewellery rings, bracelets, necklaces, watch and painted nails in a variety of colours joked and laughed with the crowd and Tom as he played through the set. All the songs were perfectly performed, with Adam appearing a little inebriated at times but Tom holding it together so that Adam could be the showman he was born to be.
His voice is still perfect, strong and able to reach the full range of his songs and he seemed very happy with the evening, the performance and his guitarist. His performance still retains those 'flamboyant' aspects even if he doesn't dance all over the place like he used to in the 70's and 80's and during "Stand And Deliver" the audience joined in with the backing vocals. Adam was on top form and abviously enjoying life, when he launched into the T-Rex classic "Get It On" he began to dance and really get into the music. This was an absoultely fantastic performance and a spectacular ending to such as wonderful night.
Adam: Come and join me and Tom on stage Yola, Matt, Georgie Girl and Twinkle Twinkle. The Good, The Mad and The Lovely Posse - this is the best band I have played with. Check out the new record in January 2012.
Review by Claire Sanders
Upcoming Tour Dates:
27th August - West Dean Festival - Chicester
28th August - Voewood Festival - Kelling - Norfolk (Adam Solo)
10th September - Bedford - Corn Exchange
8th October - The Venue - Clacton on Sea - Essex
9th October - Brighton - Expo (Adam Solo)
11th November - Bristol - O2 Academy
12th November - Leamington Spa - Assembly
13th November - Bournemouth - Pavillion
18th November - Southampton - Concorde
20th November - London - Troxy
2nd December - Tunbridge Wells - Assumbly Theatre
3rd December - Portsmouth - Pyramids
4th December - Cambridge - Corn Exchange
6th December - Guildford - Civic Hall
8th December - Nottingham - Rock City
9th December - Wolverhampton - Wulfrun Hall
10th December - Leeds - O2 Academy
11th December - Edinburgh - The Picture House
13th December - Newcastle - O2 Academy
More To Be Announced - Check out http://www.adam-ant.net/ for more details
