1 review for Blood, Sweat, Leather & Tears – The Original Adam & The Ants story 1977-80 (Part One)

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   BLOOD, SWEAT, LEATHER & TEARS part 1
   The Original Adam & The Ants Story
   Johna Johnson
   Old Dog Books

   If passion is in fashion…

   Then Johna is wholly en vogue.

   It’s clear, a life-defining passion courses through Johna’s fabulous book, Blood, Sweat, Leather and Tears. At the outset the book recounts the quest of a Bradford youngster infatuated with the burgeoning Punk movement; both its music and outlandish stylings. The book’s early paragraphs detail Johna’s quest to visit London’s Kings Rd to experience the full flush of the latest youth craze, and the lad brilliantly conveys the excitement of meeting like-minded souls and the blossoming fraternity amongst the teenaged thrill seekers. Here Johna giddily describes his first sighting of punks on Kings Rd viewed from the top deck of a Routemaster bus:

   ‘I see more and more punks, then further down the road, even more punks. They are everywhere now. Bugger it; I’m getting off the bus. What was great about London buses was there were no doors; you could jump on and off wherever you liked. I run down the stairs and jump off the bus to meet my new punk friends’.

   At this remove, here in 2022, it may be difficult for some readers to comprehend the significance of what Johna is conveying there. This is it, the key life-changing journey – this is the moment when the author find himself on the road of discovering a wider family; and the telling of the tale is brilliantly breathless in all its excitement. Sure, you could spot solitary punks in provincial towns and cities, such as Bradford in 1977, but they were relatively rare beasts at that time – Johna copping sight of so many punks on this foray in London must have been a wonderful experience. Crucially, this early journey into London and down Kings Rd is perhaps defined by an event Johna actually, through no fault of his own, missed; that is, the Ants debut gig proper in support of X Ray Spex at the Man in the Moon – for here is the moment when the band that would feature so heavily in his life over the coming years first hits the lad’s well-tuned radar. The text is of course interlaced with charming peripheral observations, such as his first taste of a kebab, or the seemingly unfathomable public transport network in the great metropolis – along with more startling encounters with the punks’ self-appointed rivals, the Teddy boys – indeed it’s Johna’s near miss with a bunch of the be-quiffed Edwardian enthusiasts that effectively scuppers his opportunity to witness the Ants at the Man in the Moon. Drat, and double drat!!

   For this reader, Blood, Sweat, Leather and Tears really hits its stride with Johna’s descriptions of those early Adam and the Ants gigs. Naturally, Johna and his protagonists experience some hair-raising incidents, and encounter some memorable characters on their fraught journeys south to the Ants gigs – and Johna’s recounting of those tales is bloody hilarious. But it’s the gigs themselves that are the highlight of the book for this reader. It’s likely that all music fans hark back to an earlier epoch and lament that their birthdate precluded them from seeing particular bands when those bands were at their peak. That’s true here – this reader would have dearly loved to have experienced Adam and the Ants prior to the advent of the Dandy Highwayman. Johna’s book undoubtedly excels at conveying the ugliness and beauty; the division and fraternity, and the apparent mayhem and magic of those gigs – so much so that Blood, Sweat, Leather and Tears offers the reader a vibrant and vicarious insight into that era – go ahead, bang on an Ants bootleg and read:

   ‘The audience look like they’re having a mental breakdown; there’s people pulling on their jaws in anguish, there’s people rolling about on the floor, people ramming into each other like they’re fighting…Everyone seems to be in some kind of demonic trance. The energy is unbelievable. It feels like a train about to crash. How can so many people put so much energy into a gig’?

   ‘How can so many people put so much energy into a gig’? We know full well that Johna knows the answer to that question: Passion – it’s passion that compels people to these near worshipful behaviours in the presence of fantastic bands – that passion is borne of the excitement experienced upon hearing the frantic energy of truly inspirational songs, and that knack of composing great songs is a craft at which Adam and the Ants most certainly excelled – – listening to Ants live bootlegs confirms that not only did the Ants write brilliant songs, but also performed them with fabulous aplomb. It’s no wonder that those folk fortunate enough to attend those gigs were so overcome with the brilliance of that which they were witnessing – and again, Johna’s descriptions place the reader at the centre of that divine maelstrom.

   Finally, aggro abounds in Blood, Sweat, Leather and Tears. Why? Because aggro was everywhere at punk gigs in the late ‘70s, and on into the ‘80s. Johna’s straightforward telling of the aggro is quite startling in parts; some of those gigs must have been bloody terrifying, and in fact, just plain bloody. Though it needs emphasising, the aggro-seekers gate-crashed the gigs for the purpose of rucking – – and from the descriptions therein, the aggro-merchants perhaps got more aggro than they may have bargained upon. It’s to Johna’s credit that he is entirely up front about that less edifying aspect of the UK gig scene in the ‘70s/80s. Again, it is the un-flinching retelling of such incidents, along with the manifold revelations in Blood, Sweat, Leather and Tears that make for such a bold and honest book.

   All told, Johna has delivered a remarkable thing here – it’s been a long time coming – but more than worth the wait. Part 2 is in the pipeline and this reader can’t wait to get his filthy mitts on it.

   Nogsy