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Leigh Gorman is the co-founder and bass player for the group
Bow Wow Wow.
Did you get to hand pick the songs featured on the We Are
The 80s compilation CD that comes out this month?
Leigh Gorman-I
wouldn't say hand pick. We had a say. They were pretty gracious
and gave us a little bit of a say. Our catalogue is huge so
and we have two record labels so they have to kind of work it
out between the labels. To answer your question, yes we had
a say in it.
Are you surprised that Bow Wow Wow has such a huge cult following
since the group wasn't a group that long in the early 80s?
Leigh Gorman-Yeah.
I'm pleasantly surprised and then again I'm not. I always knew
we were good and whenever we got back together and did a few
shows they were always good. We always knew we were good and
anyone that came out to see us they would get it and would want
to come back. Recording back in the 80s there wasn't anyone
doing what we were doing technically. Our songs, they kind of
came out right. Those two things, the strength of our live shows
and a strong leader singer with Anna Bella, a great performer,
and the material set us a part from everyone else and it made
us sound unique then and makes us sound unique now. I'm not
totally surprised, but pleasantly surprised.
What's the Bow Wow Wow live show like now compared to then?
Leigh Gorman-I
think we think about the set. The way we construct our songs,
what we are going to do in the middle. We do a couple of songs
we didn't do back in the day. We do a song called "A Thousand
Tears," which we wrote, me and Annabella wrote after Bow Wow
Wow, with the drummer. It was actually for a different project
but Annabella and I brought it to the show. It's kind of laid
back so it kind of comes down and it brings the middle down.
Back in the day we used to be full throttle, full speed ahead.
We always tried to play short sets. Whereas these days agents
and promoters seem to want an hour so we have to pace ourselves
and have a curve to it.
I know after you left Adam and the Ants you went to Bow Wow
Wow and Bow Wow Wow ended in the early 80s, what did you do
initially after leaving two high profile groups?
Leigh Gorman-I
know you went on to do a lot of awesome things but what did
you do immediately after Bow Wow Wow ended? Immediately after,
me and the three guys formed a band called Chiefs of Relief.
I was really sick and Mathew was sick as well. I didn't have
anything serious but Mathew had diabetes and he had been in
the hospital for a few months and I had a really bad case of
mono.
We were both a couple of young guys who were sick and Mathew
decided he didn't want to do Bow Wow Wow anymore, and our equipment
disappeared, it was the worse time. I figured, I will stick
with these guys. But Chiefs of Relief was a bit of a disappointment
for me. I was actually still recovering and Mathew got well
really quick and I was still hobbling around not having much
strength. It kind of became Mathews band. He is a very talented
person. Suddenly I was in a normal band. I always argued against
the whole splitting up thing. My excuse is that I was weak physically
and I kind of went along with it. I felt well we will do something
great again but it was kind of mediocre. Me and Dave left after
a few months we tried to do our own thing, and we looked for
a singer and we actually worked with Anna Bella again. We wrote
some songs, me and Dave were hired out as session musicians.
Basically we stayed in music doing all kinds of things. Me and
Dave had a band for awhile but it was just too hard. We had
a family to feed so we just started doing session work. I got
a loan from the bank, bought a 24 track studio, worked out a
payment plan and started making records and it worked quite
well.
How natural was the transition to producer for you? I kind of
just fell into it. I had just got a family as well. My son had
just been born and you know what it's like. You see that child
and its like "Oh my God I cannot mess around anymore. I have
to pay bills." You just really concentrate the mind. I made
a business plan, took out a loan and thought "I'm just going
to go for it."
Leigh went on to discuss how he just fell into producing. He
detailed how his studio was robbed and he described it as a
blessing in disguise because he was able to get a better studio.
He also detailed how a phone call from Malcolm McLaren led the
two to work together again on several projects in the 90's.
"Hippychick" was a huge song for Soho. Is that a song that
you consider a high point in your career?
Leigh Gorman-It
was and that was very unexpected. The studio I had at the time
was small I used to work standing up and we had one chair. The
chair at the mixing desk was kinda too high to sit at so you had
to stand up it was a total work environment. It was a street studio.
We had a sampler, a mixer, we got loops together the old style
just one loop at a time, you know for me we actually finished
early that time. We finished at 7 oclock. The bass line sounded
kinda weird when we mellowed it but when I put it in the track
it sounded okay. And then I thought "I can't do anymore." It was
just another days work. Then over the next couple of days the
record company for Soho said we are getting an enormous reaction
from that mix you did of "Hippychick." I was like "Wow." A girl
at the record company, an American girl sent 20 copies of 12 inch
vinyl to college radio and those twenty copies spread like wildfire.
Before we knew it, it was number 1. It was the #1 12 inch and
the #1 dance record in the U.S. That was just from one girl in
the office sending out 20 copies. It just totally blew up. It
was a high point. The people in the band were really cool. I wasn't
an official producer at the time. And the band had my name put
on the record "Blessed by the golden ears of Leigh Gorman." And
then I got to produce their next record. They just walked in to
do a recording and then it blew up. We did a tour of America,
we had a lot of fun, it was a great time.
Do you have fond memories of your time with Adam and the Ants?
Leigh Gorman-I
do have fond memories of my time with Adam and the Ants. It wasn't
very long. I was in the Ants from November 79 to about February-March.
Only a few months, but Adam was very kind to me. It was the other
guys in the band when I first met them they were kind of wary
of me. I was the guy who had a kind of funk background. I came
from a bad part of town, the East End, and I was this white guy
playing punk music in a punk band. Adam figured out, it's going
to be the 80s' pretty soon and punk rock is pretty over let's
just go over the bass line with this guy. I have fond memories.
I was the new guy on the block, the other two guys weren't even
speaking to me. The last group I had been in were with the guys
who went on to become Wang Chung, and we just kind of partied
for a year we got along great. I'd come from the projects and
here I was in a punk rock band where most of these guys were middle
class. They were kind of giving me a hard time and I didn't understand
it. I think they were just very wary of me. But after a couple
of weeks, because I was chosen by Adam he brought me in, after
a couple of weeks when we started to get on musically it was all
cool.
Annabella Lwin is the lead singer for groundbreaking
80's punk/pop/ska group Bow Wow Wow.
What has been your highpoint being a part of Bow
Wow Wow?
Annabella-Well we've
had a few of them. But I don't think that's an easy question
to answer because we're still doing stuff. We're still
doing shows here and there. You never know what's going
to happen. How old are you by the way?
31.
Annabella-Well I don't
know if you are familiar with the sound of Bow Wow Wow
but we were around, we started about twenty five years
ago and we had people like Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders,
I think was one of the things that stands out in my mind.
When I was performing in Japan and everyone had to sit
down and their was this one solitary figure who was dancing
in the aisle and it turned out to be Chrissie Hynde. And
everyone was clapping but they couldn't get up because
in Japan they are very strict in certain auditorium's
and we were supporting The Pretenders at the time on their
tour and it was one of the situation where the man just
came out to say "Hey sit down," and she said, "Get the
fuck off me I'm Chrissie Hynde." So that was an interesting
little thing that happen. A lot of other little things
I certainly couldn't get into during an interview.
What are some of your favorite songs to perform during
your live show?
Annabella-I like all
of them. I think the one's I still have a warmth for are
"C-30," which is the song I auditioned on and "Do You
Wanna Hold Me?" which is one of the first songs I wrote.
For the last album I did with Bow Wow Wow, "When The Going
Get Tough, The Tough Get Going," was the name of the album
and the lead guitar player who is no longer alive today
unfortunately, he and I were put together and wrote on
the last album which was great.
What did you do immediately after the group ended in the
early 80's?
Annabella-I was already
signed to a record label named RCA and the three guys
in the band went off to form another band called Chiefs
of Relief. I believe they were trying to be instrumental
dash kinda-hip-hop kind of a band. But I actually just
continued writing. I did a solo album called Fever which
I spent working on with the record label and various song
writers, people from all sorts of eras. Unfortunately,
I was a little bit confused about what I wanted to do
at the time because I was in a band and I didn't have
any plans for being kicked out of the band so I kind of
was left trying to find the best thing to do. I love singing
and I love performing and it just seemed a good idea to
me at the time to take some time out. When I joined the
band I was 14 and it was kind of like a helter-skelter
ride. It was very crazy.
You started in the band really young I was reading. How
did your parents feel about your joining a band at such
a young age? Were they worried about school or anything
like that?
Annabella-My mother…
I had to leave home you see. I had a situation regarding
an album cover I posed nude for. Which was one of our
early albums, I don't know if you are familiar with The
Last of the Mohicans. It was based on a very famous painting
named Picnic In The Grass and it was not easy to live
at home after I did that and my mother was very upset
with me so I left home and I continued working with the
band but it was like a choice I had to make at the time.
I had to go off and focus on the music.
Outside of Bow Wow Wow what have been your interests
the past few years?
Annabella-Well I'm a
Buddhist which means I practice and pray everyday. I have
other projects I'm working on as a singer/songwriter. I'm
working on my own material. I'm also working with other
situations with different people. I worked with Camp Freddie
last year. I don't know if you've heard of Camp Freddie
they are a group that gets together with Dave Navarro and
Billie Morrison they get together and I sung some songs
with them a couple of shows to help raise money. I like
to get involved with anything that is tentative and help
with humanity basically.
Are you ever surprised that I Want Candy has become
this song that is etched in pop culture I mean you hear
it in commercials and everything when you were singing
this song all those years ago did you think the song would
be as huge as it is?
Annabella-No, I didn't
actually. When I first heard the song it was the first
time I heard myself actually singing which made a nice
change because a lot of the early stuff in Bow Wow Wow
was all screaming and shouting. I don't know if you're
familiar with the punk rock movement, Sex Pistols, I was
9 when I was hearing those songs and I was like "What
the hell is this?" No, I didn't know that "Candy" would
be received so well. It's a beautiful song and it was
so well produced by Kenny Laguna who was the producer
for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts "I Love Rock & Roll,"
so it was kind of on par and when I actually heard it,
it was kind of amazing I was like "Who's that singing?"
Are you looking forward to the upcoming tour dates?
Annabella-Yeah Sept/October
time. We are playing the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.
It's always been a dream of mine to perform there. It's
going to be really interesting to see how that goes.
We Love The 80s Bow Wow Wow arrives in stores July 18th!
For more Bow Wow Wow visit http://www.bowwowwow.org/
 Interview
copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2005
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be
My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned
Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She is the
founder of Thabiz.com and
Imissthe80s.com and
writes for the Rap,
Teen, and 1980s
section at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a writer
and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising
inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights, paying
entertainment jobs, or general comments.
Visit Dorrie on the web at www.sparkledoll.com
or e-mail her at webmaster@thabiz.com.
May not be reprinted, copied or distributed.
Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, imissthe80s.com
2006
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