If Adam & the Ants guitarist Marco Pirroni had a nickel for every time the seminal New Wave band was supposed to reunite but didn't, he'd be a rich man. If Pirroni was then actually supplied with all those nickels -- plus many, many thousand-dollar bills -- it likely still wouldn't be enough lucre to make him do it. "The only way the Ants would ever do any sort of live performances or reformation is if they've got something new," Pirroni says. "There's no way I'm gonna go out and, even if it's just for one gig, and just play 'Antmusic' and 'Dog Eat Dog,' and all that."

Pirroni's ultimatum seemingly puts to rest more scuttlebutt regarding an Ant reunion for as early as this year. Adam without the Ants, however, has been involved in talks to play alongside other Eighties acts like Wang Chung, ABC and, believe it or not, a reunited Thompson Twins, on a U.S. tour this summer. According to Dave Harris, a promoter with Nashville-based Murdock Entertainment, the company putting the package together, Adam Ant would tour "if it were the right situation and there weren't a zillion dates, it would be heavily considered." That said, Adam has not recorded or toured without Pirroni since Adam & the Ants released their debut in 1979 or since Adam went solo in 1982. Though Ant and Pirroni have demoed at least an album's worth of material in a London studio for a potential new album, it's the prospect of touring that unnerves the guitarist. "I don't like performing," he says. "I find it tedious ... so I've kinda decided in the last couple years that I'm not gonna do any live performances." Ant, with Pirroni, last toured in support of Wonderful, which was released four years ago.

Without a record label in the U.K. or U.S., Ant and Pirroni continue working on Antbox, a three-disc box set that may finally get released this fall. The compilation was originally supposed to come out last year, but Pirroni "can't remember" why it didn't, other than the fact it hasn't been mastered yet. Set to include the obvious hits like "Strip," "Desperate But Not Serious" and "Goody Two Shoes," the retrospective will also feature live material, B-sides, and other material, such as an alternate version of "Friend or Foe" and demos of "Antmusic," Stand and Deliver" and "Prince Charming."

"It's going through all this stuff, all these old cassettes and stuff, that we'd abandoned and you always think, 'God, why'd we abandon that?'" Pirroni says. "But we thought it was crap at the time."

BLAIR R. FISCHER
(March 9, 1999)