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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1998)
Bow Wow Wow reunion tour comes to town By Bret Schulte Senior Reporter Born in a British dry cleaning shop, nur tured in an era of yogurt and killed by drugs and exploitation, Bow Wow Wow is an old dog in the unforgiving music industry. But old dogs can learn new tricks. Bow Wow Wow lives again, this time without the backing of a label or producer, a situation which singer Annabella Lwin blames for the initial breakup of the group. Sunday, Lwin and Leigh Gorman, the band’s original bassist, bring the rebuilt Bow //_ Wow Wow’s top People have been very supportive. The American people are very special Annabella Lwin lead singer charting hits and ’80s pop-punk atti tudes to Knickerbocker’s, 901 O St. Lwin said the success of the American tour, now in its ninth week, has exceeded her expec tations. “The tour has been amazing,” Lwin said. “People have been very sup portive. The American people are very special. Known for its native-drum-beat cover of The Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy,” and the sweetly subversive “C30, C60, C90, Go!” - encouraging teens to illegally dub albums onto tapes - Bow Wow Wow is perhaps most famous not for its music, but for its looks. The group helped to define music of the ’80s, blending mohawks with cheeky lyrics, and sex with naivete. In her early teens at the time, Lwin typically performed in trendy lace and vinyl outfits while singing songs charged with sexuality and innuendo. Now 32, Lwin said she felt disgusted about the exploitation involved in rocketing her from a clerk at a dry cleaning shop to a sex-kitten rock star at the age of 14. Managed by Malcolm McLaren, the engi neer behind the punk machine forged by the Sex Pistols, Lwin said she was forced to make a choice between “living a normal life” and music. “I chose music,” she said. “(McLaren) wanted me to prove I was dedicated, and I left school and my'family ... and he said we’ll get a tutor in. Of course it didn’t hap pen. He was only interested in making money.” Which is exactly what happened. The group, comprised of a teen diva and three former members of Adam Ant’s band, immediately hit the charts in Europe and then toured the United States, where the group received a wild reception. “We became more appreciated and accepted over here than in England,” Lwin said. “In England they hated it because they wondered why we wanted to go to America. There was a lot of cynicism.” Her positive experience in America is what brought the group back together this year, she said. Although she was kicked out of the band without receiving any explanation, Lwin kept in touch with bassist Gorman, the only member of the group she still trusted. Fourteen years after the breakup, Gorman proposed doing another American tour with Lwin, which she agreed to do after some deliberation. Now a Buddhist, and having completed solo projects, Lwin is glad to be back on the road again and playing the songs that changed her life and helped define an era. “Come and catch a piece of history,” she said. Sunday’s 19-and-over show begins at 8:30 p.m. Pablo’s Triangle and Swerve will serve as opening acts, and tickets are $10. I ■
