London, UK · new wave · post-punk

Bow Wow Wow

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Malcolm McLaren's Burundi-beat pop project, all tribal drums and teenage swagger — 'I Want Candy' and a sound nobody has quite replicated since.

Bow Wow Wow came together in London in 1980, when Malcolm McLaren pulled guitarist Matthew Ashman, bassist Leigh Gorman and drummer Dave Barbarossa out of Adam and the Ants. The search for a singer took six months, until scout Dave Fishel heard thirteen-year-old Annabella Lwin singing along to the radio at a West Hampstead dry cleaner and persuaded McLaren to audition her.

Shortly after Lwin joined, McLaren added a second singer, George Alan O'Dowd, billed as Lieutenant Lush. His time in the band was brief: he soon left to form Culture Club and found fame under the name Boy George.

The group's sound combined Burundi-influenced drumming from Barbarossa, surf-inflected guitar and pop hooks, with Lwin's suggestive, chanted vocals sitting over the top. Their records were surrounded by McLaren's deliberate provocations, aimed at courting controversy as much as radio play.

Bow Wow Wow signed to EMI in 1980 and issued 'C·30 C·60 C·90 Go!,' the first-ever cassette single, its lyrics openly promoting home taping. EMI declined to promote it, yet it still reached number 34. The cassette-only mini-album Your Cassette Pet followed later that year, its content controversial enough that EMI dropped the band after their next single failed to chart.

They are best remembered for their version of 'I Want Candy' and for 'Go Wild in the Country,' which gave them their first UK top-ten hit in 1982. Versions of the band have continued to perform since the original line-up split.

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new wavepost-punk