So vinyl is popular again. So what? More importantly, did you notice the revival of the cassette? If you want to be hipper than the hipster you buy your music on cassette - the format that determined your personality in the 80s when, if you didn’t own a Sony Walkman, you were an outcast of society. Introduced by Philips, the cassette reached its zenith of popularity in that merry decade. Easy to play and carry around featuring a sound quality that equaled vinyl, the cassette was embraced by a complete generation. You could even record your own music and release it yourself or record a mix tape for a loved one. Ex Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren certainly saw the potential of the cassette. In 1980 he found himself without a band taking Adam Ant’s offer, who paid McLaren one thousand pound for a month’s management. McLaren loved Adam And The Ants, but disliked Adam and in a revolutionary coup threw Adam out of his own band, replacing him with fourteen year old singer Annabella Lwin. Smart move? Who cares! Malcolm renamed the band Bow Wow Wow and released their debut single C30 C60 C90 Go!, glorifying the joys of home-taping, on cassette. The first Bow Wow Wow album was Your Cassette Pet, not a vinyl release but a fun coloured flip pack packed cassette. Its joyous high speed romp through eight fantastic songs featured David Barbarossa’s tribal drumming, Leigh Gorman’s high speed bass, Matthew Ashman’s spaghetti-Western guitar and of course Annabella’s breathy eh, singing. For a fourteen year old it certainly sounded like she meant business. My copy still plays perfectly, proving the rightful resurrection of a format long thought gone. It also proves the Wowsers and McLaren were right all the way!