| Walk Alone', spent four months in the Indies, peaking at No. 7, whilst the album managed no. 2, only being kept from the coveted top spot by Toyah's 'Warrior Rock'. It even dented the Top 100 of the National Charts, no mean feat right before Christmas! More chart success followed when the anthemic 'Bad Boy' single was released in May 1983, so it was hardly surprising when the major labels started sniffing around the band, and that summer The Adicts signed to the Warner Bros. offshoot, Sire... It was the start of troubled times for the band, as both they and their label struggled to find a commercial compromise somewhere between easy listening radio hits and deviously daring punk rock. Incredibly, they appeared on the kids' TV show, 'Cheggers Plays Pop', albeit as The Fun Adicts, so as not to blatantly offend any parents who were tuning in. Less than a year later they were known as ADX, for the disappointing 'Tokyo' single, produced by ex-Vapors frontman, Dave Fenton. By their own admission, it is the band's least favourite of their own releases ("It was a much better song than the production made it out to be," quips Monkey). Thankfully it was backed by (as well as the rather bizarre - but quite fun - 'ADX Medley') 'The Odd Couple', a speedy track that reassured their diehard punk fans that the band still had some fire in their bellies. | Kid plays down the reasons for the name changes as, "because we couldn't spell! And one was for TV - they thought The Adicts sounded too naughty, haha! But the ADX was just because we couldn't spell!" Monkey: "That was bit of a dodgy period for us. There was some perception that 'Adicts' had negative connotations for radio and TV. We had signed to Sire who where going to make us big, and we were taken in by it. They did nothing for us and we were left to pick up the pieces..." "We were controlled at this time by record labels and we were too slow to pick up on it," sighs Pete. "And we were so out of our heads back then it's all such a blur. I remember some dictator from Sire records wanted us to sack Monkey 'cos he couldn't sing... but of course we instead gave them shit for being a bunch of c*nts. We kept the Monkey at the cost of fame and fortune!" The Adicts bounced back spectacularly well with the excellent 'Smart Alex' album. As well as their hit single, 'Bad Boy', and a remixed (but still rubbish) version of 'Tokyo', the album features a whole host of styles and themes, all indelibly stamped with The Adicts' own quirky identity. From the sultry singalong of 'California', via the stomping, almost-rockabilly 'Crazy', to the lilting, Fifties-ish 'Runaway', no one could ever accuse | 'Smart Alex' of being generic, and it remains one of their most endearing and adventurous albums. The punters were obviously pleased to see the band back on form, too, as it sold well and spent over a month in the Indie charts, peaking at a very respectable number seven. But yet more turmoil was just around the corner. Parting ways with Razor, The Adicts expanded to a five piece, with the addition of 2 different keyboardists who were both shite & neither lasted very long. They released the 'Bar Room Bop' 12" on their own Dwed Records (again through Fallout), and then in 1986, they ended up recording their next album in Germany, a country where they had - and still have - great success touring. 'Fifth Overture', was initially released by German label, Gama, before being picked up for the UK by Fallout a year later, albeit with a different sleeve, but it was a poorly promoted, relatively weak effort from the band, that indulged in far too much New Wave pomposity for its own good, and it sank virtually without trace. "Even then, we always regarded ourselves as a punk band," insists Monkey. "I had big arguments with Geordie, our manager at the time, when he put 'New Wave' on the posters. I also had a big argument about selling out when the price to get in went up from 35p to 45p! I don't think we have ever had conscious aspirations or agendas. We get |