‘We met Princess Margaret and she was paralytic!’ My wild life onboard the Adam and the Ants Antmania rollercoaster
Marco Pirroni, guitarist and co-songwriter of Adam and the Ants, reflects on the band's meteoric rise in a new interview tied to his memoir, "Your Money or Your Life: From Punk to Prince Charming." He joined Adam Ant in early 1980 after the original Ants defected to Malcolm McLaren's new project Bow Wow Wow, and together the pair reinvented the band with a distinctive sound and image that fused punk sensibilities with theatrical showmanship, quickly propelling them to global stardom.
Pirroni, now 67, came up through London's punk scene in the mid-to-late 1970s, having been friends with Sid Vicious and a temporary Siouxsie and the Banshees guitarist, drawing influence from Roxy Music and Ennio Morricone. Written largely in Pirroni's Harrow bedroom, the Ants' 1980 album "Kings of the Wild Frontier" combined twin-drummer Burundi beats, Native American-inspired imagery (suggested by McLaren) and Adam Ant's swashbuckling persona, topping the album charts for 12 weeks and helping shape the visual style that fed into MTV's launch in 1981.
- Marco Pirroni recalls Adam and the Ants' meteoric 1980s rise in new memoir
- "Kings of the Wild Frontier" topped charts for 12 weeks in 1980
- Band's visual style helped shape early MTV aesthetics in 1981
New here? Start with this
Marco Pirroni is best known as the guitarist behind Adam and the Ants, the band that became one of Britain's biggest pop acts in the early 1980s. He joined in 1980, when Adam Ant's original backing musicians left to form a different group, and the pair rebuilt the band together, blending punk roots with flamboyant costumes and theatrical performance. Pirroni has now written a memoir about that period, and a new interview draws out his memories of the band's rapid rise to fame.
Before Adam and the Ants, Pirroni was part of London's punk scene in the late 1970s, with connections to figures such as Sid Vicious and Siouxsie and the Banshees. This background fed into the sound he and Adam Ant created, most notably on the 1980 album "Kings of the Wild Frontier," which mixed unusual drum rhythms with a striking visual style and went on to top the charts for several weeks.
The band's success made them one of the defining acts of the era, and their bold visual image is often credited with helping shape the early look of music television. The interview reflects on what that sudden fame was like from the inside, including brushes with celebrity figures of the day.