Annabella Lwin's Bow Wow Wow
The evening may have been another tick-box filled. But the performance was not a classic.
From the depths of the dim and distant past, I still remember an instrumental track called 'Burundi Black'. It bruised the bottom reaches of the Top 40 back in 1971, and allegedly was still on the jukebox in Malcolm McLaren's Kings Road boutique ‘SEX’ in 1976, the same time that I arrived in London to study Pharmacy at Chelsea College. I mention this only because, just over five years later, that Burundi beat would resurface, combining with twangy guitars to create a distinctive feature of two bands managed by McLaren. One was Adam and The Ants, the other was Bow Wow Wow.
Four and a half decades later, and Bow Wow Wow’s former lead singer, Annabella Lwin, is touring the UK, recreating those classic songs with her three piece band, and performing using the old Bow Wow Wow name. The tour's scheduled Sunday stop at the Adrian Flux Waterfront had to be cancelled at the last minute (allegedly due to unexpected essential maintenance work at the venue), so here we are, on a Monday night, and a day later, at Voodoo Daddy's in London Street.
Openers Baby Seals delivered a blistering opening set – the three piece band from Cambridgeshire stepping up at short notice to replace advertised tour support Millie Manders & The Shut-Up. With Kerry Devine on lead vocals and guitar, Kate Shore on bass, and Amy Devine on drums, this riot-grrrl / garage-punk trio cheekily describe themselves as 'Spinal Tap with tits', yet deliver a fiery line in feminist sentiment and fine musicianship, coming across like a thrashy pop-punk version of the Go-Go's. but with added urgency and attitude. With song titles like 'My Labia Is Lop-Sided', 'Nipple Hair', and 'ID'd at Aldi', they deliver a powerful punch, and a strong message to the largely male audience here to see Annabella Lwin. It is hard to believe that their charismatic and forthright lead singer also hosts a folk music show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. I also remember her performing acoustically, seven years ago at a Sofar Sounds gig at The Birdcage, when she played alongside The Joy Formidable.
Good on you Baby Seals, you really rocked!
I believe that the last time Annabella Lwin performed in Norwich was at a Let's Rock! event in Earlham Park back in 2018. Prior to that, at the height of their fame, Bow Wow Wow appeared three times at the University of East Anglia's LCR. Judging by some of the excited comments being shouted from the audience, there are clearly a number in the audience who still remember those gigs.
2025 marks the 45th anniversary of Bow Wow Wow’s classic cassette-only debut release, and 'Sun, Sea and Piracy', 'Louis Quatorze' and 'Sexy Eifel Tower' make up the opening three songs of the set. Whilst Annabella's vocals remain distinctive, they have inevitably lost some of the youthful energy that came across on those early releases. However, drummer John Montgomery and lead guitarist Wild Bill Woodcock each manage to recapture the authentic sound of those early original recordings with unnerving precision.
The momentum is certainly maintained for the duration of the first half of the set, with the familiarity of songs like 'C30,C60,C90, Go!', 'W.O.R.K', and 'See Jungle' still sounding fresh. However, after instrumental track 'The Joy of Eating Raw Flesh', the hits begins to dwindle as the second half of the set explores the band's later output, and also Lwin's solo material, and a couple of fairly forgettable new songs. It takes the familiarity of the final three songs, 'Aphrodisiac', 'Do You Wanna Hold Me', and 'Go Wild In The Country' to raise the excitement and restore the audience’s euphoria.
Perhaps surprisingly, there is no encore, leaving a mildly bemused audience (each of whom have paid almost £30 for their ticket), wondering what happened to 'I Want Candy', possibly the band's biggest hit ever (albeit a cover of The Strangelove's 1965 hit), as well as two other classic tracks, 'Fools Rush In' and 'Chihuahua'?
For those who remember Bow Wow Wow as one of the final guitar-driven pop bands to grace the 1980's before the synthesisers and drum machines took over, and electro-pop arrived, the evening may have been another tick-box filled. But the performance was not a classic. Much more impressive were those feisty girls from Cambridge who gave the old men in the audience a night that they will not forget in a hurry. And, for me included, it was the night when those Baby Seals really rocked the boat.
