Books like Stand and Deliver: The Autobiography

Published in 2006 when the author was 52 or thereabouts and his persona, Adam Ant, 30.I've wanted to read this for a long time. In my salad days I used to follow wee Adam around those (generally small) seedy London music venues. That was in his first guise - the leather clad minimalist punk, usually with dominatrix-like Jordan in attendance, whip in hand (or was that my imagination?) Similar casting in Derek Jarman's film Jubilee, looking vulnerable, a pretty victim with “Fuck” carved into his back with Jordan's razor blade. Like many at those early gigs his subsequent developments and change of style and costume – Indian King of the Wild Frontier, Dandy Highwayman, Prince Charming was puzzling, to say the least. It culminated in 2 Royal Variety performances – before HRH Princess Margaret who secured his autographs for her kids and then HM. Q. The latter obviously shared my puzzlement when she asked him whether he minded playing to old fuddy duddies like her? In the book he deals with those questions honestly – any publicity, particularly when it was beamed into millions of homes via TV, whether Royal Variety performances or appearances on kids' TV shows, was good, it sold records.His story is a very interesting one, poor working class kid who made it, physically tough and driven. Mentally it was a different story. Bi Polar helped make and almost break him. His punishing schedules, balancing month long music tours of USA /UK and elsewhere with acting dates – theatre and movie - had me feeling knackeringly jet lagged on his behalf. He was of course punished hard -mentally.His hit song, “Goody Two Shoes”, is more than a little autobiographical – no alcohol, smokes or other drugs but loads of sex, but that of course would have spoilt the song. Worth reading. But keep taking plenty of deep breaths. It's quite an exhausting read.