Tickets now on sale: Adam Ant

THERE’S going to be a royal wedding, and wouldn’t you know it – just like 1981, Prince Charming is back.

Adam Ant has hit the wild frontier of gigging, he has shown off his new band and has announced his first tour for 15 years.

The original Dandy Highwayman - who threw a car alternator through a pub window at the height of his dandiness a few years ago - has a new seven-piece act, The Good, The Mad And The Lovely Posse, which will tour in May. Including Liverpool.

"I'm really looking forward to it,” says Prince Ant.

The line-up includes Georgina Baillie, grand-daughter of Andrew Sachs and the dancer and model who was at the centre of the Sachsgate scandal – a subject Mr Ant even wrote a song about.

Ant - real name is Stuart Goddard - had a number of chart-topping hits including Stand And Deliver and Prince Charming at the start of the 1980s when everyone got dressed up as new romantics, including Lady Di.

There have been mental health stumbling blocks on the road back to music, but he has been picked up by his rock and roll pals, appearing with several, such as Spizz, from Spizzenergi, on stage in London. We nearly said “road back to normality” then, but noticed that another of these friendly chum-sets was Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction.

Ant, now 56, has lined up a 15-date UK tour at which he promises to play his hits, covers "and a few surprises".

Asked why he was returning, he said: "I missed it - that's what I do. And the money."

He said these days he got more of a buzz out of performing "now I know what I'm doing".

Does anyone remember those huge Gary Glitter cult extravaganzas that toured universities in the 1980s - before it all went horribly wrong?

There is a niche for Adam Ant here – in a good way, like.

*Adam Ant and The Good, The Mad and the Lovely Posse, May 28. Liverpool 02 Academy. For tickets, go to www.ticketweb.co.uk where, presumably, they will request your money or your life.