Annabella Lwin (born Myant Myant Aye, , 31 October 1966) is an English-Burmese singer, songwriter and record producer best known as the lead vocalist of
Bow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow are an English New wave music, new wave band, created by manager Malcolm McLaren in 1980. McLaren recruited members of Adam and the Ants to form the band with then 13-year-old Annabella Lwin on lead vocals. They released their deb ...
.
Early life, family and education
Lwin was born on 31 October 1966 in
Rangoon
Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...
,
Burma
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were an English Rock music, rock band that formed in London in 1977. The band existed in two versions, both fronted by Adam Ant, between 1977 and 1982. The first phase began when the band were founded in May 1977 and were call ...
,
Matthew Ashman
Matthew James Ashman (3 November 1960 – 21 November 1995) – accessed June 2011 was an English guitarist with and
David Barbarossa
David Barbarossa (born 1961, also known as Dave Barbe) is an English musician and author. As the drummer in both Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, he was instrumental in creating the highly influential and innovative tribal drumming style that ...
plus new Ants bassist
Leigh Gorman
Leigh Gorman (born 11 December 1961) is an English rock musician, record producer, and composer, best known for his work as the bass player for Bow Wow Wow.
Early life
Leigh grew up in the East End of London. He started playing classical guitar ...
(who had replaced Andy Warren since the sessions) were persuaded by former
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...
manager
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English fashion designer and music manager. He was a promoter and a manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and ...
to leave
Adam Ant
Stuart Leslie Goddard (born 3 November 1954), known professionally as Adam Ant, is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK ...
to form a new band under his management.
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
session musician
A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...
, music director and talent scout Dave Fishel heard thirteen year old Lwin singing along to the radio in a
West Hampstead
West Hampstead is an area in the London Borough of Camden. Neighbouring areas includes Childs Hill to the north, Frognal to the east, Swiss Cottage to the south-east, South Hampstead to the south and Kilburn to the south-west.
The neighbourh ...
dry cleaners where she worked and convinced McLaren to audition her. Following her successful audition, he had her transfer from a mixed comprehensive school in London to the
Sylvia Young Theatre School
Sylvia Young Theatre School is an independent school in Marble Arch, London, England. It is a specialist performing arts school named after its founder and principal, Sylvia Young OBE.
Outline
The Sylvia Young Theatre School was founded in 19 ...
.
Bow Wow Wow signed a
recording contract
A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...
with
EMI Records
EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...
in July 1980, and released their first single, " C·30 C·60 C·90 Go!", shortly afterwards. Originally only released on cassette, it was the world's first-ever
cassette single
A cassette single (CS), also known by the trademark cassingle, or capitalised as the trademark Cassette Single, is a music single (music), single supplied in the form of a Compact Cassette. The cassette single was introduced in 1980 in music, 1 ...
. EMI did not promote the cassingle due to lyrics ("Off the radio I get constant flow/Hit it, pause it, record and play/Turn it, rewind and rub it away") that promoted
home taping
"Home Taping Is Killing Music" was the slogan of a 1980s anti-copyright infringement propaganda campaign by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a British music industry trade group. With the rise in cassette recorder popularity, the BPI fe ...
during an era when music piracy was a hot button issue and the use of cassette recorders to record music from the radio was still a controversial practice. The
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
, "Sun, Sea and Piracy", also promoted home taping, then lying on a beach and enjoying the fruits of this labour. Both tracks were on side 1 of the tape, making the second side blank, apparently so that the listener could follow Lwin's lead.
RCA Records
When Bow Wow Wow moved to
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...
's '' Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe'' (1863), with a then fourteen-year-old Lwin posing nude. Photographed by Andy Earl, the cover caused outrage that led to an investigation by
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
, instigated by Lwin's mother. Undeterred, the band used the same photo on the cover of their follow-up
extended play
An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
(EP) ''
The Last of the Mohicans
''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is an 1826 historical romance novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the second book of the '' Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinder'', ...
'' (1982), and the sleeve of the " Go Wild in the Country" single. This picture is now part of the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to:
* National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra
* National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred
*National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C.
*National Portrait Gallery, London
...
collection.
Another nude photo of Lwin was used for the cover of '' I Want Candy'' less than a year later. The title track, a cover of the Strangeloves' 1965 hit originally on ''The Last of the Mohicans''. The single reached No. 9 in the UK Singles Charts in June 1982.
At the behest of Ashman, Lwin began writing for Bow Wow Wow's follow up, ''
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going
"''When the going gets tough, the tough get going''" is a popular phrase of witticism in American English.
The phrase is an example of an antimetabole.
The origin of the phrase has been attributed to various sources. It appeared to come from A ...
''. ''When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going'' contained the hit "Do You Wanna Hold Me?", which received heavy rotation on
MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
.
During a hiatus following an intense US tour, Lwin was suddenly fired from the band in September 1983. She found out about her firing by reading it in ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
''.
Reunion to the present
Lwin and former Bow Wow Wow bassist Leigh Gorman reunited in 1997 for a US tour. The reunion included appearances by a range of musicians from the young up and coming, such as Eshan Khadaroo of Beat Kitchen, (
Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in New York City in 1987. It is known for its stage productions that incorporate many kinds of music and art, both popular and obscure. Its performers, known as Blue Men, have their ...
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band formed in Anaheim, California in 1986. For most of its career, the band has consisted of vocalist and founding member Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal and drummer Adrian Young. Keyboar ...
, both playing drums in place of original member David Barbarossa. The original guitarist of Bow Wow Wow, Matthew Ashman, had died of complications from diabetes in 1995, and various guitarists filled in. The tour began in December 1997, and ended in March 1998. Two shows, the 10 January 1998 show at the Bluebird Theater in
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, Colorado, and the 7 March 1998 show at the Drama Club in
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...
Cleopatra Records
Cleopatra Records is a Los Angeles-based independent record label that has the sub-labels Hypnotic Records, Goldenlane, Stardust, Purple Pyramid, Deadline and X-Ray Records.
History
Founded in January 1992 by Brian Perera, it specializes in go ...
.
In 1998, Bow Wow Wow collaborated with DJ Swedish Egil on the track "Eastern Promise", released as part of Egil's ''Groove Radio Presents: Alternative Mix'' CD on
Priority Records
Priority Records is an American distribution company and record label known for artists including N.W.A, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Eazy-E, Master P, Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Silkk the Shocker, Jay-Z, Paris, Mack 10, 504 Boyz, Brotha Lynch Hung, ...
. They contributed the song "A Thousand Tears" to the 1999 film '' Desperate but Not Serious'' (retitled ''Reckless + Wild'' in the US), starring
Christine Taylor
Christine Joan Taylor Stiller (born July 30, 1971) is an American actress. She has played Marcia Brady in '' The Brady Bunch Movie'' and '' A Very Brady Sequel'' and appeared in '' The Craft'', '' The Wedding Singer'', '' Zoolander'', and '' Do ...
and
Claudia Schiffer
Claudia Maria Schiffer, Lady Vaughn (; born 25 August 1970) is a German model and actress. She rose to fame in the 1990s as one of the world's most successful models, attaining supermodel status.
Born in Rheinberg, Germany, she initially asp ...
, and appeared in the film.
In 2006, Bow Wow Wow recorded a cover version of
the Smiths
The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...
Lakeshore Records
Lakeshore Village Entertainment, LLC was an American independent film production, finance, and former international sales and distribution company founded in 1994 by Tom Rosenberg and Ted Tannebaum. Lakeshore Entertainment is headquartered in Bev ...
).
On 21 November 2010, the 15th anniversary of Ashman's death, Barbarossa joined Lwin and Gorman at the Scala in London in a tribute concert for Ashman. The show was headlined by
Adam Ant
Stuart Leslie Goddard (born 3 November 1954), known professionally as Adam Ant, is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK ...
, and also featured Ashman's other bands, Chiefs of Relief and Agent Provocateur.
With a new guitarist (Jimmy Magoon) and drummer (Dylan Thomas), Bow Wow Wow played shows in California, US and toured the UK during 2011–2012. In December 2012, Gorman began performing under the name "Bow Wow Wow" with Chloe Demetria of the band Vigilant on lead vocals, and launched a new Bow Wow Wow
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
page, all of which was done without Lwin's consent. Lwin has continued to perform billed as "Annabella Lwin of the original Bow Wow Wow".
Bow Wow Wow songs "Aphrodisiac", "I Want Candy" and " Fools Rush In" (the latter two remixed by
Kevin Shields
Kevin Patrick Shields (born 21 May 1963) is an Irish musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, who achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine (band), My Bloody Valenti ...
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola ( , ; born May 14, 1971) is an American filmmaker and former actress. She has List of awards and nominations received by Sofia Coppola, won an Academy Awards, Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Golden Lion, and a Can ...
film ''
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
'' (2006). Lwin was also the inspiration for how Coppola had lead actress
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst (; born April 30, 1982) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the anthology film ''New York Stories'' (1989) and has since starred in several film and television productions. She has received several awar ...
portray the title character. The band performed on 2 November 2006 at the Maritime Hotel's Hiro Lounge in New York City to promote the film.
Solo and other ventures
Lwin has recorded original material as a solo artist, and is a featured vocalist on numerous transatlantic dance tracks with producers/DJs, such as Tony B of Groove Radio, Jason Nevins, and the
Utah Saints
Utah Saints are an English electronic music duo consisting of members Jez Willis and Tim Garbutt. The band had three top-ten and another five top-40 singles on the UK Singles Chart in the 1990s, as well as number-one dance tracks in the UK an ...
. Lwin's songwriting also brought her into partnerships with producers such as
Guy Chambers
Guy Antony Chambers (born 12 January 1963) is an English songwriter, musician and record producer, best known for his work with Robbie Williams.
Education
Chambers attended Quarry Bank Comprehensive School sixth form in Liverpool. From 18, ...
and Michael Lattanzi.
Simply calling herself "Annabella", she remained with RCA Records. Her first solo release was the 1985 single "Don't Dance with Strangers", produced by the System. She followed that up with the studio album ''Fever'' in 1986. The title track, a cover version of the
Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...
classic, was produced by and recorded with multi-instrumentalist Jim Lea of
Slade
Slade are a rock band formed in Wolverhampton, England in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The '' British Hit Singl ...
. Another single from the album, "War Boys", produced by
John Robie
John Robie is an American musician, producer and songwriter. He has produced and/or written for such artists as: Chaka Khan, New Order, UB40, Cabaret Voltaire, Soulsonic Force, Boy George, Planet Patrol, Laura Branigan, and Freeez, among o ...
, spent six weeks on the US ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
''
Hot Dance Music/Club Play
The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...
chart, peaking at No. 28. "Don't Dance with Strangers" and "Fever" were included on ''The Best of Bow Wow Wow'', released on 29 October 1996 by BMI.
She formed a new band, Naked Experience, and collaborated across the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
with seasoned musicians and songwriters such as
Billy Steinberg
William Endfield Steinberg (born February 26, 1950) is an American songwriter. He achieved his greatest success in the 1980s with songwriting partner Tom Kelly (musician), Tom Kelly; together they wrote or co-wrote the No. 1 hits "Like a Virgin ...
and Ellen Shipley. In 1994, Sony Soho Square released two singles, "Car Sex" and "Do What You Do", for which, she was billed as "Annabella Lwin". "Car Sex" made the Top 10 in the
UK Dance Chart
The Dance Singles Chart and the Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the electronic dance music, dance music genre (e.g. house music, house, trance music, trance, ...
, while the re-mixed dance follow-up "Do What You Do" (1995), produced by Steve Lironi, spent one week at No.61 in the UK Singles Chart. In 1999, Cleopatra released ''Virgin Voices: A Tribute to
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
, Volume One''. It contained a cover version of " Like a Virgin" credited to "Annabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow".
In 2005, Lwin was a featured vocalist, with Camp Freddy members
Dave Navarro
David Michael Navarro (born June 7, 1967) is an American guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock band Jane's Addiction, with whom he has recorded four studio albums. Between 1993 and 1998, Navarro was the guitarist of Red Hot Chili ...
and
Billy Morrison
Billy Morrison (born 9 February 1969) is a British guitarist and singer-songwriter, who plays guitar with Billy Idol, performs with the Los Angeles–based cover band Royal Machines, and fronts the hard rock act Circus Diablo. He was previo ...
, during a fund raising concert for victims of the
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
caused by the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the sci ...
. Lwin co-wrote and co-produced a solo song with record producer Carey Beare, which was donated exclusively to the Hands and Hearts Organization for Tsunami Relief in spring 2006.
Amongst a couple of her own shows in 2010, Lwin appeared on stage with
Kathy Valentine
Kathryn Valentine (born January 7, 1959) is an American musician who is the bassist for the rock band the Go-Go's. She has maintained a career in music through songwriting, recording, performing and touring as well as additional academic and cre ...
the Go-Go's
The Go-Go's are an American all-female Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar ...
),
Billy Corgan
William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, singer, and only constant member of alter ...
(
the Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins (also simply known as Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band formed in Chicago in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The ...
), and other prominent artists for a
MusiCares
MusiCares Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 1989 and incorporated in 1993 by the The Recording Academy, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Meant for musicians to have a place to turn in times of financial, pers ...
Musicians Assistance Program (MAP) Benefit concert called 'Women in Recovery', as well as participating in animal charity related concerts.
On 10 July 2012, Lwin released ''Super Boom'' on Secret Records. It was a fourteen-track collection of unreleased demo and studio recordings from 1984 through to 1987. In 2016, she released a new EP, entitled ''Willow Tree'', on which she wrote all four tracks. Later in the year, she contributed a cover version of "Cheer Up" to ''One Heart: A Tribute to
Bob Marley & the Wailers
Bob Marley and the Wailers (previously known as the Wailers and prior to that the Wailing Rudeboys, the Wailing Wailers and the Teenagers) were a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae band. The founding members, in 1963, were Bob Marley (Robert ...
'', a benefit for teens and young adults with cancer or who are living in difficult circumstances.
Personal life
Lwin is a practising
Soka Gakkai International
Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is an international Nichiren Buddhist organization founded in 1975 by Daisaku Ikeda, as an umbrella organization of Soka Gakkai.
It is run by two vice-presidents, including Hiromasa Ikeda, son of the founder. It c ...
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
.Annabella Lewin – About , Annabellalwin.com. Retrieved 27 June 2019: "working behind the scenes for global charities like UNICEF and Save the Children Fund, through Buddhist organization SGI" and "Her ongoing Buddhist practice continues to enhance and inform her artistic sensibilities" She resides in Los Angeles, California.
The Last of the Mohicans
''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is an 1826 historical romance novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the second book of the '' Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinder'', ...
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going
"''When the going gets tough, the tough get going''" is a popular phrase of witticism in American English.
The phrase is an example of an antimetabole.
The origin of the phrase has been attributed to various sources. It appeared to come from A ...
'' (1983)
* ''The Best of Bow Wow Wow'' (Receiver Records Limited) (1989)
* '' Girl Bites Dog: Your Compact Disc Pet'' (1993)
* ''Go Wild, The Best of'' (1993)
* ''Aphrodisiac... Best of'' (1996)
* ''The Best of Bow Wow Wow'' (
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
) (1996)
* ''Live in Japan'' (1997)
* '' Wild in the U.S.A.'' (1998)
* ''I Want Candy – Anthology'' (2003)
* ''We Are the '80s'' (2006)
* ''I Want Candy'' (EP) (2007)
* ''Love, Peace & Harmony – The Best of Bow Wow Wow'' (2008)
* ''Mile High Club Live'' (2009)
* ''
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...