''Friend or Foe'' is the debut solo album by English singer and musician
Adam Ant
Stuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant (born 3 November 1954), is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten ...
, released in October 1982 by
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America
Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...
in the United States and
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
elsewhere. The album peaked at number 5 in the UK, Adam Ant's highest charting solo album.
Release
Following the disbandment of the successful
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. The group existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant, over the period 1977 to 1982. The first, founded in May 1977 and known simply as The Ants until November of t ...
earlier in 1982, Adam Ant began a solo career with fellow "Ant" guitarist and songwriter
Marco Pirroni
Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni (born 27 April 1959, London, England) frequently credited simply as Marco, is a British guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He has worked with Adam Ant, Sinéad O'Connor, Siouxsie and the Banshees and man ...
.
Like their previous band, which achieved 7 top-10 hits (2 at No. 1) in the UK Singles chart and the best-selling album of 1980 (''
Kings of the Wild Frontier
''Kings of the Wild Frontier'' is the second album by English new wave band Adam and the Ants. It was released on 7 November 1980 by CBS Records in the UK and Epic records internationally. The album was the UK number 1 selling album in 1981 (a ...
''), Ant's debut single "
Goody Two-Shoes" was a smash hit. The single reached No. 1 in the UK and Australia in June 1982 and No. 12 in the US - Ant's first US hit single. The single "
Friend or Foe" was released one month prior to the album in September 1982 and charted as high as No. 9 in the UK.
The album ''Friend or Foe'', was released in October 1982 and reached No. 5 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
and No. 16 on the
US Billboard Album Chart, becoming Adam Ant's most successful solo album, and was certified Gold by the
BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.
BPI online database
In addition to "Goody Two-Shoes" & "Friend or Foe", the album included another hit single: and "Desperate But Not Serious" (UK No. 33 / US No. 66).
A remastered version of the album was released in 2005, featuring twelve additional tracks.
Ant performed the album live on tour in the UK in late 2019. A United States tour planned for 2020 was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
and is currently scheduled for April 2021.
Track listing
Personnel
* Adam Ant
Stuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant (born 3 November 1954), is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten ...
– vocals, bass guitar, production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
* Marco Pirroni
Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni (born 27 April 1959, London, England) frequently credited simply as Marco, is a British guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He has worked with Adam Ant, Sinéad O'Connor, Siouxsie and the Banshees and man ...
– guitar, production, vocals on "Man Called Marco"
* Bogdan Wiczling – drums, percussion
* Martin Drover – trumpet, flugelhorn
* Jeff Daly – saxophone
* Jude Kelly - vocals on "Desperate But Not Serious"
* Sam Brown, Sonia Jones, Vicki Brown - backing vocals on "Hello, I Love You"
;Technical
*Alan Douglas - engineer
*Allan Ballard - front cover photography
Chart positions
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Adam Ant albums
1982 debut albums
CBS Records albums
Columbia Records albums