It’s 1980. Malcolm McLaren’s making his first, difficult post-punk career change. Lots of fuss in the tabloids (and in the NME) about under-age singer Annabella Lwin. Brief Walkman frenzy (do you remember there was an effort to name them ‘stowaways’?) – lots of cassette-only releases. ‘Cassette culture’, which was a bit like podcasting, I suppose – DIY media plus cheap, accessible distribution. Bow Wow Wow‘s very knowing, very Pop Art concept – distinctly PoMo. Cool, pointless flip-top packaging. Funny to think that an audio cassette could be the very limit of cool 25 years ago. Wish I had a cassette player to play it on now…
In which I try, after 25 years of blogging, to drop my ironic stance a bit.
There’s a great chapter on Bow Wow Wow in Simon Reynolds new and mighty post
punk
history “Rip it Up and Start Again.”
As with the equally revisionist “The Filth and the Fury”, it undermines completely any visions of McClaren as some great svengali. It was Adam Ant (who McClaren sacked from Bow Wow Ant but said he could stay on as their hair stylist) who had all the hits. It was Paul Morley who really took McClaren on at his own game and sold millions. (of T shirts).
Nice pic. Ta.
Go wild in the country.
Yup, I had that tape.
And talking of tapes, check this site, you’ll love it. It will bring some kind of memories flooding back for anyone ‘of a certain age’.
http://www.polaralert.com/exhibition/top100/index.html