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Before Hanson and LeAnn Rimes, there was Annabella Lwin. As the rebellious teen-ager who fronted Bow Wow Wow, she helped lead the world into the MTV era with hits such as "I Want Candy" and "Go Wild in the Country." The English quartet, assembled by Sex Pistols mastermind Malcolm McLaren, lasted three years and released four studio albums before disbanding in 1983. Recently, Lwin and bassist Leigh Gorman decided to reunite, enlisting Eshan Khadaroo to take the place of drummer Dave Barbarossa, and adding guitarist Dave Calhoun (original guitarist Michael Ashman died two years ago of complications from diabetes). Lwin called WW from a studio in London to discuss--in the kind of flamboyant tones usually associated with drag queens--Bow Wow Wow's return to the spotlight. WW: So, are you excited about this whole reunion thing? Annabella Lwin: Reunion? Is that what you are calling it? What are you calling it? We're calling it a fun tour, the Barking Mad Tour. How old are you now? Oh my God! Never ask a woman her age, do you not know that? Even if you are another woman. How did Malcolm McLaren find you? Malcolm McLaren did not find me. It was a friend of Malcolm's, and I was working in a dry cleaners. I was singing along to the radio, and he [McLaren's friend] kept coming in to buy dope off this guy, and one day he happened to look around and said, "My god! You're singing! This is really strange, because I know a band who is looking for a singer." I thought he was trying to pick me up, because you can never be too sure in this day and age--well, you couldn't then, anyway...maybe things are different. So I went down to the audition and the band basically chose me. I was still at school. It was kind of hard at the time. So you were going to school and doing the band? Yeah, I was doing rehearsals in between school, and it wasn't until we had our single out, "C-30, C-60, C-90 Go!," and I was in a history lesson and some girl said, "God, that sounds a lot like that band you auditioned with." When did you get your mohawk? We were on tour, and Matthew was the first one to get the mohawk--the guitar player, he's dead now. Bless his soul. But he's the one who gave me the mohawk. It was really weird, because once I had that done it was like I was a totally different person. What did your parents think of all this? My father lives in Burma, but my mother was horrified. She thought I had a brain tumor when she first saw me with a mohawk, and she was even more horrified when I posed nude--she went absolutely stir-crazy, and I left home shortly after that. As you can imagine. Has your relationship recovered? Yeah, because obviously that was a long time ago, and I've done a lot of stuff since Bow Wow Wow. Do you have any plans for new songs as Bow Wow Wow? We're going to see what happens--this tour is the fun tour, and we'll see how everyone behaves. Do you think you're going to be tired of singing "I Want Candy"by the end of this tour? Are you kidding me!?! We love candy! You know what they say about chocolate. Did you ever go on to college or anything? To college? No way. I went into music. I did my solo album with RCA, Fever. That was in 1987, and then I needed a few years off because I was very confused about what I wanted to do musically. I was working with a lot of really old producers--people who didn't really have a clue what I was doing and where I was coming from. So I went out and started working with musicians after RCA. I suppose I missed that kind of band thing--that band vibe we had with Bow Wow Wow. It was a unique band, and I was trying to find that same energy. I came up with like a semi-band situation called No Experience and we did a few gigs and a few recording sessions, and through rehearsals I got a deal with Sony as a solo artist. I released a couple of singles with Sony, as Annabella Lwin. Unfortunately we never got round to finishing an album, because, again, I had the problem with finding the right producer and people having different ideas. The main problem I was faced with was they tried to change me all the time--like fitting a square peg into a round hole. Then the "'80s Tour" came up, and I was askedo do it, and it sounded like good fun. It was with Human League, Berlin, Howard Jones--but unfortunately it didn't come to pass. I've been in touch with Leigh on and off over the years, and he mentioned that if we were going to do that '80s tour, why don't we just do a tour on our own? Do you feel like you've gone backward with your life by doing this? Me personally, no. I'm a practicing Buddhist, and I've been into spirituality--I've been chanting away to America, because I love America. I have very fond memories of playing there, and so does Leigh. What would you say to cynics who question reunions by '80s bands? I say, "Fun, fun and more fucking fun, honey!" That's what I would say to them. Well, they have to be cynical about something, otherwise there wouldn't be cynics, would there? |
