Dirk Wears White Sox

Recorded at Sound Development Studios between 12 and 24 August 1979 and mixed in the following days, the debut had its instruments and guide vocals done in the first three days, leaving the rest of the sessions for lead and backing vocals. The band, Ant, Matthew Ashman, Andy Warren and Dave Barbe, had played the songs on stage so often that they went down quickly. Ant produced. The title nods to Dirk Bogarde. Ant told Classic Pop in 2014 that he had been trying to make a Donna Summer record and that the proof was in Barbe's drumming.

The music press of the day was hostile. Paul Morley reviewed it in the NME alongside Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats under a headline that called the band Berks, and Ant was still aggrieved about it in a 2010 interview. Later writers were kinder. Stylus called it a marvellous record of jagged jitters, and Uncut said it sounds as though it was made last week. It was the first number one on the UK Independent Albums Chart when that chart began in 1980.

Ashman, Barbe and bassist Leigh Gorman left at the end of January 1980 to form Bow Wow Wow. Ant, Barbe and Gorman reunited to play it in full at the Hammersmith Apollo on 19 April 2014, and the show was released on DVD as Dirk Live at the Apollo.