After Violent Femmes’ wild comings, we go into a British band’s unfettered expression of wilder nakedness in 1982, spearheaded by the then 16-year-old, Burmese-British Annabella Lwin, whose screams and half-singing style gave this new wave band a punk edge. This was no coincidence, as the band was put together by Sex Pistols mogul Malcolm McLaren who persuaded Adam and the Ants guitarist Matthew Ashman, drummer David Barbarossa (also known as Dave Barbe) and bassist Leigh Gorman to leave Adam Ant and form Bow Wow Wow. The sound remains fresh even today, and has an African influence. Lwin was discovered by a friend of McLaren’s when she was working part-time in a launderette aged 13. After three albums, the band stopped and started over the years, and still reforms and performs, though with a variable lineup.
The band’s work often courted controversy with its sexual content, including of course the cover of their second album, See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!, with Lwin posing in the nude, which prompted a Scotland Yard investigation over Lwin's age when it was shot. The sleeve was a parody of Manet’s painting Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, shown here for comparison.
Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the lawn)
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