Adam & The Ants - Madam Stan (1978)

Prior to Adam and the Ants, Adam Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard) played bass in pub rock group Bazooka Joe, now primarily known as the band that headlined when the Sex Pistols played their first concert on 6 November 1975 at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. After witnessing this, Ant quit the band with the intention of forming his own, tentatively called The B-Sides, and they practiced regularly over the following months but, lacking a drummer, never managed to play a gig. Meanwhile, Ant had befriended some influential figures in the burgeoning London punk scene, most notably Jordan, who worked in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's SEX boutique. He eventually put a band together in early 1977 with a line-up of Lester Square (guitar), Andy Warren (bass guitar) and Paul Flannagan (drums) and himself on vocals, but Square left to finish his course at art school just days after The Ants played their first gig in May 1977. Square didn't return after his course, going on to form The Monochrome Set, so Mark Ryan replaced him on guitar, and in early June Flannagan was replaced by Dave Barbarossa (also known as Dave Barbe). This line-up recorded 'Plastic Surgery' (along with seven other unreleased demos later dubbed the 'Jubilee Demos' by bootleggers), and featured in the film 'Jubilee' as the band of Ant's character Kid. Ryan was replaced by Johnny Bivouac in October 1977, and the band finally adopted the name of Adam And The Ants. The band made their radio debut on the John Peel show with a session recorded on 23 January 1978, and the following day they re-recorded 'Deutscher Girls' (and overdubbed a guitar solo onto the above-mentioned version of 'Plastic Surgery') for inclusion on the 'Jubilee' soundtrack album, this being the group's vinyl debut. 
Although popular with the fans, the band tended to be dismissed by the punk cognoscenti as something of a joke, and much of the music press went along with this, disliking their fetishistic lyrics and imagery. Despite this the band managed to build up a strong cult following (the early 'Antpeople'), but struggled to find overground success or even a record deal. They carried on touring, often supporting Siouxsie And The Banshees, and finally landed a record deal with Decca, although by this time they had been through several line-up changes before eventually settling on the stable line-up of Adam Ant (vocals and guitar), Matthew Ashman (guitar), Andy Warren (bass guitar) and Dave Barbe (drums). It would be this line-up that recorded and released their first single 'Young Parisians' to confused reviews and little success, as well as recording both sides of a planned second single 'Zerox'/'Kick' at RAK Studios, and a total of 19 demo recordings at Decca's own studio in West Hampstead. Apparently unable to satisfactorily market the band, Decca let them go in early 1979, and the group signed with independent label Do It Records, releasing a re-recorded version of 'Zerox' for the label, before recording their debut album 'Dirk Wears White Sox'. Many of the 1978 demos eventually surfaced as bootleg recordings, and the most famous of these is the 'Madam Stan' album, which includes 12 of the Decca demos, and shows what their debut album could have sounded like if Decca hadn't got cold feet and dumped them. 

Track listing 

01 Physical
02 Friends
03 Xerox
04 Boil In The Bag Man
05 Christian Dior
06 Song For Ruth Ellis
07 It Doesn't Matter
08 Cleopatra
09 B-Side Baby
10 Bathroom Function
11 Rubber People
12 Red Scab