MARCO PIRRONI Songwriter, guitarist, producer
A lynchpin of the UK punk scene, Marco Pirroni’s first crucial appearance on stage was with Siouxsie And The Banshees. It was their debut gig and at 1976’s 100 Club punk festival and the Banshees – with Marco on guitar and Sid Vicious on drums – gave a 20 minute rendition of The Lord’s Prayer.
He then went on to join The Models (Freeze, 1977) and then Rema-Rema, whose Wheel in The Roses EP appeared on Beggars Banquet the following year. Marco teamed up with a little-known punk outfit – Adam and the Ants – in 1979 and within a year the band was on the brink of worldwide acclaim.
An integral part of the band, Marco acted as lead guitarist and co-songwriter, penning five number one singles and a further four top tens, with Adam. The two albums he co-wrote for Adam and the Ants – Kings of The Wild Frontier and Prince Charming – both went to number one.
When the Ants disbanded in 1983, Marco remained as Adam’s co-writer and musical director, starting straight off with a number one single (Goody Two Shoes) and album (Friend or Foe), followed by nine more top 20 hits. Goody Two Shoes gave Marco his third Ivor Novello award, having picked up two already for Stand and Deliver.
Marco’s work with Adam left an indelible commercial and creative stamp across the eighties and pop music in general. They sold more than six million records worldwide, scoring number ones in Australia, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Israel, Japan and the UK. Their partnership wasn’t just confined to the 80s, with Adam Ant solo hits going top 10 in the US in 1990 and a further top 40 hit in the UK in 1995.
The 90s also saw Marco begin to work with other artists as a co-writer and guitarist, most notably Sinead O’Connor – scoring a number one album with I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got and a string of worldwide hit singles.
The 00s has seen Marco increasingly cited as an authority on the punk movement – both on record and in print. Having consulted on two major compilations Punk and Dread Meets The Punk Rockers Uptown, he released the acclaimed SEX: Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die and Biba: Champagne and Novocaine on his own label, Only Lover Left Alive.
He has also acted as contributing editor to some of the key books about the punk scene, including Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, Vacant, Vivienne Westwood: An Unfashionable Life, Punk and John Savage’s England’s Dreaming, which The Times deemed “a monumental survey… the definitive work on the subject.”
Marco formed The Wolfmen with another ex-Ant, Chris Constantinou, in 2005 and blended a new sound, described by Mojo magazine as “exuberant filth… Chris and Marco do growing old disgracefully with style.” A separate biography on the band is available, which covers their two critically acclaimed and sold out singles, soundtracks for TV, movies and commercials, special commissions for the Museum of the Moving Image (New York), a feature film cameo, a reality TV special and projects in the pipeline for 2007 and 2008…
