What's Going On? I Wanna Know!

Someone let him out

Carty News - On October 20th 1978, the first ever single by Adam & The Ants was released on the Decca label. "Young Parisians" was backed with "Lady". The 30th anniversary of this momentous occassion will soon be upon us. So what exactly do we have to commemorate three decades of Ant music? Carty is alive and has a lot say, so read on!

Adam Ant finally agreed to a Carty interview after the superb Dave Pash one. It pains me to say that when Adam's emailed replies came back to me, I felt as though all the effort I had put into compiling the questions was wasted. It looked (to me) that he had put little effort into the answers. No emotion whatsoever, as if he was filling in a tax return form. But then again, the request for an interview in person was turned down, yet he was still appearing in the media. So shut up Carty and be grateful you got the chance. Sorry, but it was a disappointment for me, and judging from the feedback, for the fans too.

Has anything happened since? Official pages have popped up on social networking sites such as Bebo and Facebook, and although there appears to be some Adam input somewhere along the line, it does beg the question as to whether this is just another plan to appear in touch with the fans. So who is running these pages. Adam? His manager? His girlfriend? We're not being told. Sites such as these along with Mulitply and MySpace have never really appealed to me. Especially once their initial usefullness becomes clouded in blatant commercialism by the companies that own them. Even Ant Lib has moved completely to Facebook. This internet malarky will never catch on.

Active Ants

If you look at the news page of the Family of Noise website, it's plain to see that Marco, Merrick, Terry Lee, Gary Tibbs and other ex-Ants have been busy making music. That's where I think the focus should now change to. The active Ants.

Modernity Killed Every Night

The Wolfmen's long awaited debut album is out on Monday (Sept 1st) and "Modernity Killed Every Night" sounds just superb. Expect a track by track review soon. They also have their Daler Mehndi collaboration to come, along with the "chill-out" side of The Wolfmen with their brand new project with a Tibetan singer living just a short drive from me in Holland.

Chris Hughes, and Terry Lee Miall have recorded a version of 'Antmusic' for Channel 4's "Transmission" program due for broadcast in the UK in September.

The annual gathering of Ant fans is due to take place in late October, with both Ant Lib and the Family of Noise sites organising events for the weekend. Just watch out for my rip off of BBC TV's "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" on Friday October 24th, which I have renamed "Never Mind The Ant Box". More on that another day.

Live in London at the Family Reunion - 24th October 2008

The title "Never Mind The Ant Box" is a dig at the apparant non-showing of the Ant Singles Box Set which was expected to have been available to coincide with the 30th anniversay of the release of "Young Parisians" on October 20th. I hear the official word from Adam's management is to expect an announcement soon. Nothing would please me more than to eat the egg on my face once its release is confirmed. So here I go. It won't happen. If it does the tracks will be wrong as no-one has consulted anyone over the correct track selection (from what I am aware). Research is something that isn't in the vocabulary of SonyBMG's compilation compilers. Is it?

Just blag a copy of the regurgitated "Prince Charming" album free with a UK newspaper next month instead. It's not even the remastered version, so don't feel you have to get one. You probably have it already anyway. (I wonder if the CD's track listing is as screwed up as the Sony Rewind version from 1996?)

Don't get me started on Ant DVD's. Oh, alright then. "Digital Tenderness" will never see the light of day, nor will the video clips, yet to be officially seen, be released. DVD versions of the "Prince Charming Revue" and "Live In Tokyo" came close to a DVD release, I believe. What (or who) in Heaven's name is stopping these being remastered and released? Dust down your VHS players!

Young Man Rocking

The demos box set ("Young Man Rocking") is another project taken off the boil. CDs of the demos were requested, handed over to Adam and destroyed (really?). SonyBMG allegedly paid Ł8000 to have the demos digitally restored for a 4 or 5 disc release. Have you given up waiting for it to materialise? You should. Unless of course someone would like to prove me wrong? I happen to like egg, so I can feed myself all day.

"Adam Ant Art", the book - wait a minute. This was only marketed for interest online. Many fans I know expressed interest in multiple copies. And it still wasn't enough?? I'd love to see a comparison of Bloomsbury ticket sales against copies ordered and also what figure was in mind to give the green light.

Talking of the Bloomsbury gig, a number of fans had their noses put out of joint at the reaction from the Adam camp about the uploading of phone cam recordings of the performance on YouTube. I happen to have some sympathy with the artist here. It was made clear before the gig that recording and filming would not be allowed. Yet some ignorAnts thought it was clever to do it anyway and publish them almost immediately.

The event as listed in the Bloomsbury Theatre's Autumn/Winter Season brochure.

I would have blown a fuse too. Although the quality of the clips was pretty dire to be honest and of no real threat to Adam in my opinion. Nevertheless, the 'threats' to the fans seemed to work as the clips were removed.

I seem to recall being told before the gig it was being recorded for a possible future release. I never really understood how that was possible. Adam back on stage for the first time in almost 10 years? Not knowing if he could pull it off? A bit of a gamble saying that don't you think? A couple of the songs have their shaky moments and there's no way that I could see some of them ever appearing publicly. It was a live performance and not a recording session. I wouldn't say it was brilliant, but it certainly had me choking back the emotions a few times.

So, will a CD of the live recordings ever be released now the art book has been dumped? You really need my answer? I'll only believe it when it's really in my hand.

So what happens now? For me, I still have the music, and always have. That's enough for me now. I'm enjoying the old music as much as ever, and the new music from the active Ants even more. Even Marco Pirroni, who detests touring, is back on stage doing his thang. The three Wolfmen projects currently on the go are the freshest I have heard in many years.

And what about cartrouble.nl? Well I'm quite attached to it, but find it tough to feel if it's all worth it. I nearly closed it a few weeks back, but who really knows. All I can say is watch this space.

Ant music for Ant People,

Carty

What's Going On? I Wanna Know!

Active Ants

Young Man Rocking

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