Adam Ant is readying his first album in 15 years, and plans to include a song in tribute to the late Malcolm McLaren.
The new wave icon is back with a record titled as flamboyantly as any of his old outfits – Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar In Marrying The Gunner's Daughter.
He told NME.com that the album is a "live record that lends itself well to performance" and while featuring "a kind of concept" is also "a very old-fashioned, old-school step-by step album".
Ant – born Stuart Leslie Goddard – has been working with Morrissey acolyte Boz Boorer, 3 Colours Red guitarist Chris McCormack, and on one track, an as-yet-unnamed member of Oasis.
Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar In Marrying The Gunner's Daughter (we cannot repeat that title enough) will also feature a song written in tribute to the late Malcolm McLaren. Entitled Who's A Goofy Bunny Then? On account of the Sex Pistol's manager's "quite prominent teeth", the song was written by Ant as a demo in the early 80s and has been revisited following McLaren's death.
Paying tribute, Ant said "Malcolm was a sort of mentor in my life – as close as you can get to a surrogate father."
Indeed, the new project may lead the singer to revisit more old material: "There are literally about 100 songs done on a four-track and I use them wherever I can. There was a whole album before (1979's) Dirk Wears White Sox that never really came out, but I've still got the masters. It's a labour of love, this catalogue."
He added with a flourish: "To get rid of it would be like giving away something John Lennon and Paul McCartney banged out in a night in a pub in Liverpool. I think it's your duty to catalogue your work."