|
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.
We Love The 80s Bow Wow Wow arrives in stores July 18th!
For more Bow Wow Wow visit http://www.bowwowwow.org/
Bow Wow Wow interview copyright Dorrie
Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2006
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler 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 add her as a friend at MYSPACE.
Bow Wow Wow interview
may not be reprinted, copied or distribute without permission.
You may link to this interview.Interview copyright Dorrie
Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com July 2006.
|
