Stand & Deliver
by Adam Ant

Punk, panto and self-pity

Adam Ant’s life would appear to revolve round two pursuits: sex and stardom. Read how the former Stuart Goddard knobbed his way across two continents while fashioning ever more ludicrous pop fluff, pausing only to make a string of micro-budget movies so poor that they’re an embarrassment even to the straight-to-video market. Arguably, one of this book’s biggest selling points will be the voyeuristic curiosity towards Ant’s mental health difficulties. But, though he’s often candid about his problems, they’re addressed long after the reader will have tired of the author’s self-worship, his rattle-out-of-pram sulkiness over ever-diminishing chart placings, and his inability to restrict his pecker to just one woman. He’s so wrapped up in his own world that factual inaccuracies concerning others come thick and fast (no, Adam, the Pistols didn’t sign with EMI after being dropped by A&M, and Tom Hulce never won an Oscar for Amadeus). This is Adam’s story, and perhaps the only one he has to tell. It’s just a shame that it portrays him as an unlikeable bore.

ISBN 1846094801

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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