This May, Cherry Red is looking back to New Wave music of the early 1980s with a collection focused on the band Bow Wow Wow.   The 3-CD Your Box Set Pet: The Complete Recordings 1980-1984, due May 25, rounds up all of the group's recordings for EMI and RCA during their heyday.

After the breakup of The Sex Pistols, their manager, the controversial impresario Malcolm McLaren, was approached to manage Adam and the Ants.  He took the job, but soon convinced three of the band members, Matthew Ashman (guitar), David Barbarossa (drums) and Leigh Gorman (bass) to break off and form their own band.  The search was then on to find a lead singer, which was accomplished when they discovered thirteen-year old Myint Myint Aye working in a laundry.  She took the stage name of Annabella Lwin and the band, named Bow Wow Wow was off.

Their debut single, "C-30 C-60 C-90" was released on EMI in July, 1980.  It would hit No. 34 in the United Kingdom.  The group's sound mixed pop, new wave and African-inspired drumbeats.  A cassette only EP, My Cassette Pet, followed on EMI.  But EMI soon dropped Bow Wow Wow and they signed with RCA.

The first RCA album, See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! was released in October, 1981.  It was met with immediate controversy, however, with its cover photo recreating a Manet painting where the then-15-year-old Lwin was nude.  This prompted an investigation by Scotland Yard and the cover was not used in U.S. pressings of the album (although it was used on other countries' pressings and would serve as the cover of the U.S. EP The Last of the Mohicans).  The record itself made it to No. 26 in UK and garnered the band their first UK Top Ten hit with the No. 7 "Go Wild in the Country."  The band toured around this time opening for The Pretender and The Police.

Bow Wow Wow would enjoy their greatest US success in 1982 with a cover of The Strangeloves' 1965 pop confection "I Want Candy."  It was featured on the Last of The Mohicans EP and while it only went to No. 62 on the U.S. charts (No. 9 in the U.K.) its music video received heavy rotation on MTV.  It has since gone on to be considered a new wave classic.  The group would make one more album for RCA, 1983's When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going.  It was not met with much success and tensions were rising in the band.  Lwin was ousted and the rest of the group formed Chiefs of Relief with Ashman as the lead singer.  Ashman would pass away in 1995, but Lwin and Gorman reformed Bow Wow Wow in 1997 with a couple of new members.  They performed live and made a few recordings over the next nearly 15 years.  In 2012, Gorman went out on his own as Bow Wow Wow without Lwin's consent and the dispute continues through today.

Despite not recording for a large stretch of time, Bow Wow Wow had recordings spread out over many different formats including cassettes, LPs, EPs, singles, 12" singles and promotional items.  Cherry Red expanded the first RCA album in 2010 with a bonus disc but has now gone back to round up all of the band's recordings from 1980-1984.  The new 3-CD set includes the original EMI cassette EP, both RCA albums, material from their RCA EPs and all of the rest of the band's B-sides, rarities, singles and remixes.  In total, the set has 67 tracks, all of which have been remastered for this collection.  The set comes in a clamshell style case with CD wallet replicas of the band's albums recreating the original artwork.

If you would like to go back and relive the early 1980s with Bow Wow Wow, we've got the full tracklisting and preorder links for the set due on May 25!

Your Box Set Pet: The Complete Recordings 1980-1984 (Cherry Red (U.K.), 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD)

Disc 1: See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! and remixes

1. Jungle Boy
2. Chihuahua
3. Sinner! Sinner! Sinner! (Prince Of Darkness)
4. Mickey Put It Down
5. I Am a TV Savage
6. Elimination Dancing
7. Golly! Golly! Go Buddy
8. King Kong
9. Go Wild In The Country
10. I Am Not a Know It All
11. Why Are Babies So Wise
12. Orang-Outang
13. Hello, Hello Daddy (I'll Sacrifice You)
14. See Jungle (Jungle Boy) (7" Re-Mix)
15. Chihuahua (12" Version)
16. Prince Of Darkness (Single Version)
17. Go Wild In The Country (7" Version)
18. (I'm a) TV Savage (7" Re-Mix)
19. Elimination Dancing (New Version)
20. King Kong (New Version)
21. Prince Of Darkness (12" Version)
22. Go Wild In The Country (12" Version)
23. See Jungle (Jungle Boy) (12" Re-Mix)

Tracks 1-13 released as RCA Victor RCALP 3000 (U.K.)/AFL1-4147 (U.S.), 1981
Tracks 14 and 18 from RCA single RCA220/PB 5491 (U.K.), 1982
Track 15 from RCA 12" single RCAT144/PC 5417 (U.K.), 1981
Track 16 from RCA single RCA100/PB 5383 (U.K.), 1981
Track 17 from RCA single RCA175/PB 5450 (U.K.), 1982
Tracks 19-20 from Flexipop single 018 (U.K.), 1982
Track 21 from RCA 12" single RCAT100/PC 5383 (U.K.), 1981
Track 22 from RCA 12" single RCAT175/PC 5450 (U.K.), 1982
Track 23 from RCA 12" single RCAT220/PC 5491 (U.K.), 1982

Disc 2: When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going and bonus tracks

1. Aphrodisiac
2. Do You Wanna Hold Me?
3. Roustabout
4. Lonesome Tonight
5. Love Me
6. What's The Time (Hey Buddy)
7. Mario (Your Own Way To Paradise)
8. Quiver (Arrows In My)
9. The Man Mountain
10. Rikki Dee
11. Tommy Tucker
12. Love, Peace and Harmony
13. Aphrodisiac (7" Re-Mix)
14. Do You Wanna Hold Me (USA 12" Version)
15. Biological Phenomenon
16. Love, Peace and Harmony (USA Re-Mix)
17. I Want Candy (USA 12" Re-Mix)
18. Aphrodisiac (12" Version)
19. Love, Peace and Harmony (USA 12" Re-Mix)
20. Where's My Snake

Tracks 1-12 released as RCA Victor RCALP 6068/PL 25458 (U.K.)/AFL1-4570 (U.S.), 1983
Track 13 from RCA single 345 (U.K.), 1983
Track 14 from RCA 12" promo single JD-13535 (U.S.), 1983
Track 15 from "Do You Wanna Hold Me" RCA 12" single - RCAT314/PC 68047 (U.K.), 1983
Track 16 from RCA 12" promo single JD-13595 (U.S.), 1983
Tracks 17 and 19 released as RCA 12" single PD-13595 (U.S.), 1983
Track 18 from Aphrodisiac: Best Of - Camden 74321 41967-2 (U.K.), 1996
Track 20 from The Best of Bow Wow Wow - RCA 07863 66943-2 , 1996

Disc 3: EMI recordings and bonus tracks

1. C30 C60 C90 Go
2. Sun Sea and Piracy
3. Louis Quatorze
4. Gold He Said
5. Uomo-Sex-Al Apache
6. I Want My Baby On Mars
7. Sexy Eiffel Towers
8. Giant Sized Baby Thing
9. Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Tread)
10. Radio G String
11. W.O.R.K. (N.N. Nah No! No! My Daddy Don't)
12. C-30, C-60, C-90 Anda!
13. I Want Candy (Single Version)
14. El Boss Dicho
15. Baby, Oh No (Single Version)
16. Mile High Club (Original)
17. Louis Quatorze (Re-Record)
18. Teenage Queen
19. Joy of Eating Raw Flesh
20. Cowboy
21. Baby, Oh No (12" Remix)
22. Sex (Instrumental)
23. W.O.R.K. (N.N. Nah No! No! My Daddy Don't) (Special Remixed Disco Version)
24. Mile High Club (Re-Record)

Tracks 1-2 released as EMI single 5088 (U.K.), 1980
Tracks 3-10 released as Your Cassette Pet - EMI WOW 1 (U.K.), 1980
Tracks 11-12 released as EMI single 5153 (U.K.), 1981
Track 13 from RCA single RCA 238/PB 5503 (U.K.), 1982
Track 14 from "Go Wild In The Country" - RCA single RCA 175/PB 5450 (U.K.), 1982
Tracks 15 and 20 released as RCA Victor single PB-13291 (U.S.), 1982
Track 16 from EMI single 5304 (U.K.), 1982
Tracks 17 and 24 from I Want Candy - RCA Victor PL 14375 (U.K.)/AFL1-4375 (U.S.), 1982
Track 18 from RCA single RPS-73 (Japan), 1982
Track 19 from "Chihuahua" - RCA 12" single RCAT144/PC 5417 (U.K.), 1981
Track 21 from RCA 12" single PD-13306 (U.S.), 1982
Track 22 from "Fools Rush In" - EMI single 5344 (U.K.), 1982
Track 23 from EMI 12" single 12 EMI 5153 (U.K.), 1981