Bow Wow Wow were a quartet organized by U.K. manager Malcolm McLaren (best known as the mastermind behind the Sex Pistols) at the start of the '80s. McLaren matched the trio of musicians who had constituted Adam Ant's Ants -- Matthew Ashman (b. 1962, d. 1995) on guitar, Leigh Gorman (b. 1961) on bass, and David Barbarossa (b. 1961) on drums -- with teenage singer Annabella Lwin (b. Oct. 31, 1965), retaining the earlier group's African-derived drum sound. In 1983, Lwin quit the group for a solo career, and the remaining three changed their name to the Chiefs of Relief. Both Lwin and the Chiefs issued their own albums. In 1995, Ashman passed away due to diabetes. Headed by Lwin and Gorman, a re-formed Bow Wow Wow resurfaced in 1998 with Wild in the U.S.A., which featured both remixes and concert performances from the reunion tour; guitarist Dave Calhoun and drummer Eshan Khadaroo filled the other slots. Another tour was announced in 2004, with No Doubt drummer Adrian Young and Common Sense guitarist Phil Gough joining Lwin and Gorman; the group toured through 2006, although by September 2005 Devin Beaman had replaced Young. In January of 2007 the first new Bow Wow Wow recording in over two decades -- a cover of the Smiths' "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" recorded the previous year -- was made available via digital download as the b-side to an "I Want Candy" (1982) maxi-single.

William Ruhlmann
AllMusic.com