No Ant Lib comeback would be complete without the return of the world’s largest, longest running Adam & the Ants fan poll. Over one hundred of our social media followers leapt into action by offering their thoughts on favourites, their life/attitudes as an antperson and on what Ant Lib should prioritise in terms of future activities. Here’s the results of the first two section topics, join us for updates on Ant Lib projects.

Section 1: Ant stuff!

« 1. Favourite All-Time Ant Track Ever? »

🥇 11%…Zerøx
🥈 8%….Ants Invasion / Beat My Guest

40 tracks chosen for the hardest question in the survey – 10 from Dirk era, 8 from Kings and 6 from Prince Charming as the top Ant music periods represented. Zerøx is the clear winner with Ants Invasion and Beat My Guest tied in second position. Closest up the rear is Kings of the Wild Frontier in 4th and Dog Eat Dog tied in 5th position with Never Trust a Man (With Egg on His Face), Stand & Deliver and Tabletalk.

🥇 21%…Stand & Deliver
🥈 19%…Zerøx
🥉 10%…Dog Eat Dog

« 2. Favourite Ant Single/45? »

A little easier to answer than the devilish All-Time Ant Track question, the results of the Favourite Ant Single didn’t come as too much of a surprise. Whatever way you look at it, Stand & Deliver is the perfect pop song.

Again Zerøx fairs well, so its great to see a new (?) found appreciation of this 1978 release. Adam Ant’s personal favourite Dog Eat Dog ambles behind in 3rd position but all three have endured the test of time.

Desperate But Not Serious came top of the solo singles however with just 5 votes, ranking 8th behind ‘Antmusic’, Deutscher Girls and Kings of the Wild Frontier in joint 4th, and Cartrouble in 7th position.

« 3. Favourite Ant B-Side/45? »

🥇 20%…Beat My Guest
🥈 14%…Physical (You’re So)
🥉 11%….Christian D’Or

With Stand & Deliver claiming just over a fifth of the votes for Favourite Ant Single, it comes of little surprise that its flipside should remain “unbeaten” as the highest ranked b-side baby.

First performed at the Antz public debut in 1977 and still played live in 2024, Beat My Guest has endured the test of time. Stand & Deliver b/w Beat My Guest is not only perfect pop, but also the perfect 45 release it would seem.

« 4. Favourite Ant Album Track? »

🥇 11%…Ants Invasion
🥈 6%….Digital Tenderness / Here Comes the Grump / Picasso Visita El Planeta De Los Simios

Favourite Ant Album Track (i.e. any song not released as a single or b-side) was a category less clear cut as we can see by the crowded runner-up position. Ants Invasion continues to do quite nicely in the survey, and is proudly sitting on top of the LP track pile.

The most represented Ant album? Dirk had all but one track (Family of Noise) nominated, whilst eight Kings tracks featuring in the full list of 42.

« 5. Favourite Ant Studio Album? »

🥇 36%…Kings of the Wild Frontier
🥈 30%…Dirk Wears White Sox
🥉 9%….Prince Charming

It’s the category of our survey Adam & Marco think is stupid! But hey, when CBS/Phony churns out more crapola compilation albums than they actually supported back in the ’80s, there’s a clear distinction to be drawn for the discerning Antperson.

Rant out of the way, it was really down to the wire which of the classic Adam & the Ants LPs would take pole position. Perhaps there’s bias towards the first Ant album most fans heard/bought, but of course multi-platinum Kings of the Wild Frontier came through in the end.

It may be N°3 in Annie’s chart (see clip) but its top of ours!

Interestingly, all LPs received at least one vote (including Decca and Persuasion b00tl3gs), and Prince Charming stumbles into 3rd position.

« 6. Favourite Ant Hits/Compilation Album? »

🥇 31%…Antbox
🥈 26%…Antmusic – The Very Best of
🥉 10%…B-Side Babies

« 7. Favourite Rare/Demo Ant Track? »

🥇 8%….Ligotage / [I] Nietzsche Baby
🥉 7%….Dirk Wears White Socks

So these two categories are the reason behind the previous category’s “Studio album” description/verbiage. Ant compilations are two-a-penny and, as for rarities, most of which exist only via even more plentiful (and varying quality) b00t|3gs (but we’ll keep that quiet…).

Therefore, it probably comes as little surprise that 2000’s Antbox tops the compilation LP category when it contains a good helping of rarity action…so much so that it was produced in such limited quantities it has now become a relative rarity in itself. Arcade’s Antmusic was a close runner-up (with particular shout outs for the double live CD version), and US import B-Side Babies comes in at third place.

Of course the latter of which consists mainly of reworkings of early Ants tracks (reflected in the Decca era imagery used for the artwork), and the rarity category responses are dominated by pre-Dirk titles – there being many! Two tracks did however break away from the pack: Ligotage, which was released twice officially via the Peel/BBC Radio collections, and (I) Nietzsche Baby which frustratingly languishes on decaying (live) bootleg tapes.

One day…

« 8. Favourite Ant Promo Video? »

🥇 42%…Stand & Deliver
🥈 8%….Prince Charming
🥉 7%….Kings of the Wild Frontier

No surprises here for first place – although if you believed all those two-a-penny clip shows from the 2000s, you’d have possibly assumed Prince Charming would clinch the Favourite Ant Promo Video category. But they never ask the fans in these things. If its not clear enough from these results, Stand & Deliver is indeed the top favourite Adam & the Ants/Adam Ant video according to the fans. It has always been, and by a country (Terry Lee) mile.

So take note Stuart Maconie et al.

All the action in the responses was for the runner-up position and it was literally a single vote between 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th…you get the picture. What was interesting is the vast difference in aesthetic between the second and third gongs. On the one hand there’s the aforementioned Prince Charming in 2nd with its lavish production, stunt casting and OTT make-up, but literally snapping at its heels is the rough and ready low budget yet high energy Kings of the Wild Frontier – and hardly the thickness of a pound note to separate them.

Goes to show, money just can’t buy the raw power of five young(ish) hombres burning fire.

« 9. Favourite Ant Single Sleeve? »

🥇 17%…Stand & Deliver
🥈 16%…Kings of the Wild Frontier
🥉 12%…Young Parisians / Zerøx

« 10. Favourite Ant Album Sleeve? »

🥇 29%…Kings of the Wild Frontier
🥈 26%…Dirk Wears White Søx
🥉 17%…Prince Charming

Cor blimey this was close. It was a tough battle between 1st and runner-up positions in both categories and make no mistake, guvna. The odds on favourites won by a nose…and no we’re not sure we can keep up the cockney racing bants in this commentary but the white stripes shine through in both Favourite Ant Single and Album sleeve designs.

Open for discussion is whether Antpeeps were opting for the poster or standard Stand & Deliver sleeves (we didn’t offer the choice, sowwy), so we’ve included both in our visual representation here for you to enjoy (if you’re that way inclined, of course). Kings of the Wild Frontier single also has the two variations (white text for 1980 release, red for the 1981 reissue) but we think original is best, so pop that in your peace pipe and smoke it.

Album sleeve-wise? Well the Kings vs Dirk debate rumbles on and will continue long after we’ve all gone off to the happy hunting ground, no doubt. All we know is that the sleeve which inspired the Paisley Park Purple Poser’s post ’81 career is likely to forever be the wee wannabe Indian behind two big chiefs.

« 11. Favourite Ant Image? »

🥇 36%…Pirate/Warrior
🥈 25%…Pre-1980
🥉 23%…Dandy Highwayman

« 12. Favourite Ant Logo? »

🥇 62%…Ant Warrior
🥈 22%…Adam & the Antz
🥉 15%…Prince Charming

As some of you may remember from the noughties, we’ve been running these surveys for a very long time (bar our ten year hiatus, of course) and the Favourite Image question previously had an ‘open’ answer where we would receive literally dozens of different costume combinations (and variations on the respondents understanding of the term “image”) to number crunch.

This time it made sense to try consolidate some of these into eleven distinct Ant image phases for the choosing. Due to the nature of these previous responses, we – somewhat controversially – bundled all the pre-1980 ‘micro’ looks into one so that way the 1977-1979 era was given a good chance of a representation in the 2024 survey. It paid off, with the punk-era Adam & the Ants sandwiched between the pirate and dandy highwayman looks.

New for 2024 is the Favourite Logo category. As if there weren’t enough questions to answer in #AntSurvey24, our mate Carty Rubble thought another one up just as we were about to press the publish button.

101 responses were received for this category, and nearly two thirds of you chose the perennial merch favourite created by the ridiculously talented Sir Daniel of Kleinman as again the Warrior-era wins over the simplistic pre-1980 aesthetic, with the intricate Prince Charming logo coming up third. Only one other logo received a vote (Friend or Foe), with no love shown this time around for our other short listers Strip and Apollo 9.

« 13. Favourite Ant Tour? »

🥇 17%…Wonderful (1995)
🥈 14%…Frontier (1980)
🥉 13%…Prince Charming Revue (1981-2)

« 15. Favourite Ant-related Book? »

🥇 61%…Stand & Deliver: The Autobiography – Adam Ant
🥈 12%…The Official Adam Ant Story – James Maw
🥉 7%….Blood, Sweat, Leather & Tears – Johna Johnson

Our survey particip-Ants are based far and wide across the globe and this is reflected in one of the closest of category calls. Responses for the Favourite Ant Tour were broad and varied, many calling out individual gigs as their stand out live Ant performance. With the more recent album-themed tours, some such as Kings and Friend or Foe were undefined from their original early-80s counterparts therefore some detective work was required.

However, with all that in mind we have three contenders for the photo finish of this category, with 1995’s big live “comeback” for Wonderful the stand-out tour (particularly the Shepherd’s Bush gigs) and the two most memorable early-80s UK tours in 2nd and 3rd place.

Favourite Ant-related Book was – on the other hand – a much easier category to number-crunch despite having one of the lowest responses across the survey. Very different results from previous years, the clear forerunner being Adam Ant’s very own autobiography ‘Stand & Deliver’ (perhaps because most if not all Ant fans will own a copy), as previous perennial favourite The Official Adam Ant Story (sometimes fondly known as the ‘Ant Bible’) is knocked down to 2nd position with just 12% of the vote.

New entry is our mate Johna J’s Antfan memoir ‘Blood, Sweat, Leather & Tears’ which recounts his time pogo-ing across the northern provinces during the late 1970s. There’s a follow-up book too, so if you’ve not got your copy yet, get over to Paul Hallam’s www.olddogbooks.net.

« 16. Favourite Adam Ant Acting Role? »

🥇 41%…The Kid/Jubilee
🥈 26%…Zachary Simms/Love Bites
🥉 11%…DeGraumont/The Equalizer

« 17. Favourite Ant Cover Version? »

🥇 48%…Physical – Nine Inch Nails
🥈 8%….Stand & Deliver – No Doubt
🥉 6%….Zerox – Client

Love it or loathe ’em, we had to include Adam’s prolific cough acting roles *cough* in our survey as per previous years (it’s a tradition, an old charter or something) and 88 of you generous lot gave this category a bash, gawd loves ya. 41% of recipients played it safe and opted for the Kid in Jubilee (well, it was barely acting really…) and a quarter went for Love Bites and the loveable-yet-bitey actual bona fide role of Zachary Simms. The latter of which needs a DVD/Blu-ray release. Like, now please.

Some surprises nominated for the Favourite Ant Cover category but this one – no matter how we describe/word it – always seems to cause issues. No we don’t mean Ant covers of other people’s songs (come on..?!) or magazine covers (what the..?!!) but we had to discount both (again) so only 65 valid responses were received for this category – the lowest across the survey. However, Trent Reznor’s NIN win with nearly half the vote as that sneaky secret Physical at the end of the Broken EP is the very clear winner.

No Doubt and Client just edge it on a broad range of stragglers and honorable (umm) mentions go to Ant-Trouble for their brave live attempt at Ant Rap, and XXVBD who may or may not have nominated their own material available now from their online shop (it’s OK boys we won’t tell anyone…uhh…oops!).

Section 2: Antperson!

« 1. How long have you been an Ant fan? »

🥇 80%…Over 41 years (since 1982 or earlier)
🥈 85%…26-40 years
🥉 4%….1-5 years

« 2. How did you get into Adam/The Ants? »

🥇 38%…Television
🥈 24%…Radio
🥉 21%…Word of Mouth

In an attempt to pour oil over (Car)troubled waters, we (controversially?) grouped “original” punks with the “teeny” fans in the response/options for the first time in nearly 25 years of conducting the survey. This is something we’d never have done in days of yore when we all had functioning temporal lobes, but fighting over 47 years vs 44 years is – in the great scheme of things – getting a bit ridiculous now as the majority of fans aren’t far off qualifying for their old age pension.

❤️ Plus we love you all equally and life is too short. However, if you ‘got into’ Adam/The Ants via TV, we can hazard a guess you probably weren’t getting gobbed on at the Vortex.

« 3. What aspect of Adam Ant appeals to you MOST? »

🥇 73%…Music
🥈 10%…Lyrics
🥉 7%….Live performance

« 4. What aspect of Adam Ant appeals to you LEAST? »

🥇 47%…Sex appeal
🥈 24%…Personality/beliefs
🥉 7%….Videos

These were two new questions and ideally they would have been posed as a sliding scale of the ‘Ant package’ (ooh-er) but Googly forms made it all far too complicated and so we were stuck with a check box instead. Not exactly what we were looking for but we can work out what elements appeal the most and less so, with ‘style/fashion’ being the aspect of Adam Ant that the vast majority of fans are most ambivalent about.

« 5. Do you think there will ever be a (full line-up) Adam & the Ants reunion? »

🥇 88%…No
🥈 9%….Yes
🥉 3%….Who cares?

« 6. How would you feel about an Adam & the Ants reunion? »

🥇 78%…Positive
🥈 16%…Indifferent
🥉 7%….Negative

Back to three questions from our old surveys (last conducted in 2006 – blimey!). Predicting and attitude towards an Adam & the Ants reunion is indicative of the relevancy of the band that launched Adam Ant’s career all those years ago. Whilst attitude remains overwhelmingly positive, indifference has increased and we’re probably a little more realistic in our old age! 😉

« 8. How would you describe yourself as a collector? »

🥇 33%…In the middle
🥈 28%…Slightly more completist
🥉 17%…Less so
Average: Between mid and slightly more completist.

Ant fans are so modest – or maybe you are keeping tight-lipped on how much swag you’re storing away from the significant other these days. But in saying that, there’s a titchy bias towards the completist in ya’ll with the average coming up as 2.7 on the scale of 1-5, 1 being the absolute flippin’ nutter zone (only joking x).

« 9. How much have you spent on your Ant collection in the past year? »

🥇 23%…Nothing
🥈 21%…£51-£100 (US $66-$130)
🥉 19%…Less than £25
Average Ant expenditure: £69 (US $90).

OK, OK we get it – it’s all or nothing with us lot. “I’m not going to buy that bootleg with the dogsh*t sleeve…oh hang on Bazza from Bermondsey just bought it, so *I’m* gonna haveta”. No comment but grifters gonna grift, and with an average spend per Antperson of £69 (!!), sexpeople gonna flash the cash when needs must.

« 10. Who got the majority of your cash in 2023-24? »

🥇 42%…Online marketplaces (eBay, Amazon etc)
🥈 31%…Record dealers
🥉 18%…Other (inc. Tour merch, indie shops etc)

All those eBay dealers cranking out their tat sure do catch the eye of many an-Antperson. Sadly, even the stuff we’ve produced for free or at cost at Ant Lib HQ over the years has found its own way on there as “ULTRA RARE!” “VINTAGE!” etc., so it is no surprise “EvilBay™” is another rip-off zone to be wary of.

We probably should’ve also included the official shop/stalls in the survey options, hence the ‘Other’ represented in the top 3 here. Of course, there was zero touring 15-25 years ago, so our bad – we should’ve got with the times 😉

« 11. Have you ever felt ‘ripped off’/cheated? »

🥇 27%…Yes
🥈 74%…No
(*1% rounding error but nobody should be snuffling too deeply at this data, so we should get away with it if nobody’s looking. What’s that?…oops)

Apparently this was a controversial question when we first started these surveys in 1999, as those who were brown nosing shoddy ‘official’ services accused us of being defamatory by merely daring to ask it. Well, its easy to understand why when you read the responses, because the majority of those who feel cheated cite (other than marketplace grifters) various fanclubs, quality of tour merch (or even the LACK of new merch/releases to buy) among the reasons for disgruntlement.

But (sadly) Planet Ant has never listened to the fans in 25 years of raising concerns, so why should anyone start now?

Fact is, if you’re in a group of four friends going to an Antshow next year, it’s likely one of those friends will have been “ripped off” over the years. Let’s work together to keep that number down by flagging up activities (both non-official or otherwise) that are not in the best interests of Antpeople ❤️

SPANKZ to everyone who took part in the 2024 Ant Survey – join us today for more of this sort of nonsense…it’s free and you even get the chance to win stuff!