Viv Hardwick looks at the visit of Adam Ant to the region and the forthcoming Evolution Festival

ADAM Ant, born Stuart Leslie Goddard, aims to lay the ghost of near musical inactivity for seven years, between the late 1990s and early 2000s, with a UK tour taking in Middlesbrough in July, then the US before returning to this country and a visit to Newcastle in November.

It was back in October 1980, when the costumed and face-painted Adam Ant was seen in millions of living rooms across the UK, delivering a blazing performance of Dog Eat Dog on BBC’s Top of the Pops. The singer, best-known for the hit track Prince Charming, went on to dominate the charts thanks to the album Kings of the Wild Frontier, which spent 12 weeks at number one and won a Best New Artist, Brit Award.

Antmania swept Stand and Deliver to top single for five weeks, winning Adam an Ivor Novello award and, at one point, Adam had eight singles in the top 40 in one week. During the mid-1980s, he went into acting in a string of films including Nomads, Love Bites and Slam Dance as well as appearing in several US TV shows such as The Equalizer, Tales from the Crypt and Sledge Hammer.

In 1994, Adam set about recording Wonderful, his next album, in London’s Abbey Road studios, but tours of the UK and the US were followed by 12 years away from live performance until an acoustic show, in 2006, at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London.

On stage, he read extracts from his autobiography Stand & Deliver – a book which laid bare Adam’s childhood and his well-documented public mental health battles. Having returned to the world stage, Adam is due to appear at Silverstone and Bestival festivals this summer.

• Adam Ant & The Good The Mad and the Lovely Posse, Middlesbrough Empire, July 2..Tickets: gigbox.co.uk adam-ant.net adam-ant.com November 2, Newcastle O2 Academy

THE Evolution Festival returns to NewcastleGateshead Quayside on the Diamond Jubilee bank holiday weekend with a stellar line-up including the irrepressible Dizzee Rascal on Sunday.

Not the first dead rodent to be found in the area, but certainly the biggest, famed for his notorious live shows, the mighty Deadmau5 (real name Joel Thomas Zimmerman) brings the biggest production ever to Evolution with a jaw-dropping audio visual spectacular. This is his only North of England show this year.

Newcastle’s favourite sons Maximo Park will grace the stage as special guests in support of Dizzee.

Noah & The Whale delivered the commercially successful Last Night On Earth album last year and are undoubtedly one of the best live bands in the country as their recent sell-out UK tour demonstrated.

Rizzle Kicks have been the undisputed breakout act of the past six months and look destined for superstardom this year.

Miles Kane and Alex Turner used a love of the same musical influences, such as Nick Cave to create the band the Last Shadow Puppets.

Devlin, York’s Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Band Of Skulls, Spector and Jessie Ware are among other names booked for on the main stage.

FULL LINE UP

Sunday: Spillers Wharf, Dizzee Rascal plus very special guests Maximo Park, Miles Kane Devlin, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Dog Is Dead, Lulu James, Theme Park, The Lake Poets.

Ballast Hills, Turbulence & Metropolis present DJ sets from... DJ Fresh, Jack Beats, Shy FX, Friction, Toddla, T Dot, Rotten Citizen and Codename:Tyrone

Monday: Spillers Wharf, Deadmau5, Noah & The Whale, Rizzle Kicks, Band Of Skulls, Here We Go Magic, Spector, Jessie Ware, The Milk, Mausi Ballast Hills: SBTRKT, Totally Enormous Dinousaurs, Maya Jane Coles, Eats Everything, Jackmaster, People Get Real and Mick Jones

evolutionfestival.co.uk £25 day ticket, £35 weekend