Bow Wow Wow

Bow Wow Wow

Bow Wow Wow is an English new wave and punk group from London, active between 1980 and 1983. The band is formed around Malcolm McLaren’s project to create a new group after his work as manager of the Sex Pistols. He brings together guitarist Matthew Ashman, bassist Leigh Gorman and percussionist Dave Barbarossa, all formerly part of the original line-up of Adam and the Ants, and places them with singer Annabella Lwin as the front person.

Formation and style

McLaren discovers Lwin when she is fourteen and working in a dry cleaners. The group’s sound combines her high-pitched vocal style with Balinese chants, surf-instrumental elements, new romantic pop melodies and Barbarossa’s tom-tom patterns influenced by Burundi ritual music. Their music is also described as using an African-derived drum sound. At one stage McLaren considers Boy George as an additional lead singer, but he is judged too wild for the group. The band later moves towards a heavier metal-influenced sound.

Recordings and later activity

Bow Wow Wow releases three full-length albums before Lwin leaves in 1983 to pursue a solo career, or is removed from the group. After the original run, Ashman forms Chiefs of Relief. He dies in 1995 from complications related to diabetes. In 1998, Lwin and Gorman reunite and release Wild in the U.S.A., joined by guitarist Dave Calhoun and drummer Eshan Khadaroo.