FIRST IMPRESSIONS can last a lifetime, especially in the 1980s when Top Of The Popsand new music videos demanded that image and uniqueness were mandatory. Before Morrissey's bequiffed Gladioli-waving or Boy George's sub-Geisha ensembles, there was Adam Ant. A Dick Turpin-esque popstar with cut-glass cheekbones, Ant – aka Stuart Goddard – became a generation's unforgettable pin-up.
For all the pop stylings and profile, his initiation into music was a legendary one: his band Bazooka Joe famously played a 1975 gig with The Sex Pistols (it was the Pistols’ first gig) supporting. Goddard is happy to talk about those days but stresses that he’s not a fan of nostalgia.
“It was a great time, and people forget that Adam and the Ants were an underground band for three or four years – we had played about 400 gigs before we got famous. It was a very exciting time, and quite dangerous because you’re aware that you’re the 1 per cent that are saying something different to everybody else. It’s musically anarchic, but it was simple and it was about not letting anybody stop you.”
Adam and the Ants released their debut album in 1979, followed by Kings of the Wild Frontierin 1980, which was a huge success. The move into mainstream brought massive attention, and by the time singles Prince Charmingand Stand and Deliverwere released in 1981, Adam and the Ants were pop A-list. The shift from underground anarchy to primetime TV called for recallibration – did he feel conflicted about it?
"Not really, all the big TV shows like TisWasand Swap Shopwere on first thing in the morning. I really liked the idea of going on TV to perform, because then people could make their own minds up. You didn't have to rely on the NMEto write about you and, in a way, Adam and the Ants were a product of Smash Hits. People didn't care about the interviews, they just ripped the pictures out and stuck them on their wall."
Fame snowballed and the band’s schedule became non-stop. At the height of the band’s fame, they were signed to Sony and expected to deliver an album, four videos for singles and a tour annually. Inevitably, the band burned out and their last album was released in 1983.
“It exahusted us and we split up,” says Goddard. “The guys couldn’t take it. I think I had something like 11 days off in seven years. The label instilled this ‘boxer’ mentality in me, which made you feel as though you were only one hit away from complete failure. My health problems began when I signed with Sony Records.”
In 2002 he was sectioned after an altercation at a pub [he confronted a man who he says had made sexual threats against his young daughter]. A year later, he threatened a neighbour with a shovel and was also found in a state of undress in a café. A judge again sectioned him and he spent time in a psychiatric hospital.
Today, he feels he’s in a much better place, largely because he has more control over his life. He now campaigns for changes to the “Victorian” laws governing mental health. “That was a low point for me, but I put my hands up because of the threats to my daughter. I should have just gone to the police, but I was in a state of hypermania. I behaved as a father, but I was charged for affray. I was sectioned last year for no reason. In this country it’s frighteningly easy to get someone sectioned so I really want to appeal it, but right now I just want to play music.”
After what he calls the "financial sodomy" of being signed to a major label, he has set up his own company, The Blue Black Hussar. A new album is the pipeline, which tells his side of the story and includes a song ( Gun in my Pocket) about the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross debacle. Georgina Baillie, granddaughter of Andrew Sachs, is a close friend of Goddard's and is signed to his label. After their infamous phonecall to the actor, Baillie and Sachs became estranged – until Ant mediated.
“As a result of that phonecall, Georgie didn’t see her grand-dad for three years and she was very upset. She’s very close to him, and he’s this Chaplin-esque wonderful comic genius. He’s also old-school and a gentleman so what happened really hurt the man. I just wrote to him and explained that she was not a groupie, but an intelligent girl, who’s a musician signed to my label, and now they’re speaking again.”
What comes across hugely in speaking to the singer is his intelligence and his sense of compassion. Working at his own pace suits him and music and family are his priorities now. “I’ve finally learned to say no and work at the rate I want to.
“My daughter [who is 13] also gave me a focal point and made me realise why I work so hard. Before, it was all about work, and all you had to worry about was the taxman and bills, but my songs are a legacy from her to benefit her. She used to watch my videos as a little girl and say she wanted to dress up like me. Now she plays alto sax and loves Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday. Whatever she wants to be in life, is fine by me.”
Apart from working with various bands on his label, and on a new solo album, Goddard says he’s writing the fourth Adam and the Ants album, the first for 28 years. He’s also become a huge advocate for mental health and is trying to start a national debate about the stigma attached to it.
For Goddard, the future is simple and forward-looking. “I’m not a nostalgic person, I don’t live in the past. I just walk my dogs and get out on stage. I don’t do gyms and I think it’s because I’m more relaxed on stage than anywhere else in the world.”
