The Adicts are a British
punk rock band from
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
,
Suffolk,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
One of the most popular
punk rock bands in the 1980s, they were often in the
indie
Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Gaming
*Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies
*Indie game, any game (board ...
charts during that decade.
The Adicts originated as The Afterbirth in late 1975 but never had any music or played any shows. They later became The Pinz.
[
] They soon changed their name to the Adicts and became known for their distinctive ''
Clockwork Orange'' "droog" image.
"Droog" is a noun derived from the fictional
Nadsat
Nadsat is a fictional register or argot used by the teenage gang members in Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel ''A Clockwork Orange''. Burgess was a linguist and he used this background to depict his characters as speaking a form of Russian-infl ...
language, meaning "friend" (a combination of Russian and English). This image, along with their urgent, uptempo music and light-hearted lyrics, helped set them apart from other punk bands.
In the 1980s, they temporarily changed their name to Fun Adicts (for a children's TV appearance) and then ADX (after signing to a major label).
Their music has catchy melodies and lyrics, often featuring extra instruments and sound clips - such as carousel music in "How Sad", violin played by Derick Cook in "Joker in the Pack", as well as
gong
A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...
s and keyboard percussion by Anthony Boyd in "Chinese Takeaway".
The musicians wear all-white clothing with black boots and black
bowler hat
The bowler hat, also known as a billycock, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby (United States), is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn ...
s. The singer, Keith "Monkey" Warren, wears
joker makeup, wildly patterned suits (such as
checkerboard or
polka dot
Red polka dots on a yellow background
Girl wearing polka dot dress
Polish ceramics
German ceramics
Polka dot is a pattern consisting of an array of large filled circles of the same size.
Polka dots are commonly seen on children's clothing, ...
), flared trousers, colourful dress shirts, a bowler hat and gloves. The band's visual look is complemented by their stage shows, involving items such as streamers, confetti, playing cards, beach balls, joker hats, toy instruments, bubbles, and glitter.
History
The band debuted with the 1979 EP ''Lunch with the Adicts'', the first release on the Dining Out label.
In 1980, the band recorded the songs "Sympathy" and "Sheer Enjoyment" for an intended single, but they were not released until the 1984 compilation album ''This Is Your Life''. The band released their debut album, ''
Songs of Praise'', in 1981 on their own Dwed Wecords,
funded by the band's then-manager Geordie Davison. In 1982, the album was re-released on Fallout Records, who also issued their first single "
Viva la Revolution", which became one of the band's most iconic songs. That same year, the band began their relationship with Razor Records and released their second album, ''
Sound of Music
''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers'' ...
'', featuring the single "Chinese Takeaway".
In 1983, the band released "
Bad Boy", their highest-charting single. The success of that single led to the band signing with
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
offshoot
Sire Records
Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records.
History Beginnings
The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehre ...
. At this time, the band changed their name to ADX at the behest of Sire, as the name the Adicts was considered to have too much of a negative connotation. The relationship with Sire only lasted for two singles, "Tokyo" (produced by
Vapors frontman
David Fenton in 1984) and a cover of
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
's "
Falling in Love Again" in 1985. Their third album, ''
Smart Alex
The Adicts are a British punk rock band from Ipswich, Suffolk, England. One of the most popular punk rock bands in the 1980s, they were often in the indie charts during that decade.
The Adicts originated as The Afterbirth in late 1975 but ne ...
'', featuring previous singles "Bad Boy" and "Tokyo", was issued in 1985 on Razor Records. The band's third release of that year was the ''Bar Room Bop'' EP, for which they returned to Fallout. Their fourth album, 1986's ''
Fifth Overture'', was initially released only in Germany, and did not see release in their home country until the following year.
The band then entered a period of inactivity, only releasing the live albums ''
Live and Loud!!'', recorded in 1981 and released in 1987, and ''Rockers into Orbit'', recorded in 1986 and released in 1990. The band's next studio album finally appeared in 1992, when the US label
Cleopatra Records
Cleopatra Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1992 by Brian Perera. The record label has since grown into a family of labels, including Hypnotic Records, Purple Pyramid Records, D ...
released ''Twenty-Seven'', which was not released in the UK until a year later on Anagram Records. Cleopatra reissued the band's first three albums in 1993, giving those discs their first release in the US.
Another period of inactivity ensued, this time lasting until 2002. That year, the band's first album in a decade, ''Rise and Shine'' was released on
Captain Oi! Records
Captain Oi! Records is a punk rock and Oi! record label based in High Wycombe, England. The company has released over 300 albums by many notable punk and Oi! bands of the late 1970s and 1980s. The label was set up by Mark Brennan, former bas ...
, who also released expanded reissues of all of the band's previous albums with the exception of ''Songs of Praise''. Two years later, the ''Rollercoaster'' album was released on the US label
SOS Records
SOS Records is a California-based punk-rock record label. The label was founded by Rob Chaos of Total Chaos and Ezzat Soliman.
Bands
* 4 Past Midnight
*Abrasive Wheels
*The Adicts
*Adolescents
* The Agitators
*Antidote
*Bad Manners
* Bang Suga ...
; it has never been officially released in the UK. Over the next couple of years, SOS released their own expanded reissues of ''Sound of Music'', ''Smart Alex'', ''Twenty-Seven'' and ''Rise and Shine''. The Adicts' next album was a newly recorded version of their debut ''
Songs of Praise'', which was released in 2008 on the European label People Like You Records. A year later, the band released ''Life Goes On'' on the same label. In 2012, ''All the Young Droogs'' was released on
DC-Jam Records.
In 2017, the Adicts signed to
Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...
, and announced a fall 2017 release for the album ''And It Was So!''.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Compilation albums
EPs
Singles
Music videos
References
External links
*
*
*
The Adicts at lyrics.wikiaThe Adicts at last.fmThe Adicts at cxc.infoOfficial Record label of the AdictsInterview with Keith "Monkey" Warren2010 Interview with Pete "Dee" Davison on Outsight Radio Hours(audio)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adicts, The
English punk rock groups
English new wave musical groups
Musical groups established in 1975
Musical groups from Suffolk