Leigh Gorman in conversation with David Eastaugh

Bow Wow Wow signed with EMI Records in July 1980. Their first single, "C·30 C·60 C·90 Go!", for which Gorman shared songwriting credit with McLaren, Ashman and Barbarossa, holds the distinction of being the world's first-ever cassette single. It reached No. 34 on the UK Singles Chart and stayed on the chart for seven weeks.

In November 1980, Bow Wow Wow released the cassette-only mini-album, Your Cassette Pet. Gorman again shared songwriting credit with McLaren, Ashman and Barbarossa on seven of its eight tracks.

Bow Wow Wow signed next with RCA Records and in October 1981 they released their first full-length album, See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy. It earned them their first UK top ten hit, "Go Wild in the Country". In May 1982, Bow Wow Wow released a four-track EP, The Last of the Mohicans, which contained a remake of the Strangeloves' 1965 hit, "I Want Candy". "I Want Candy" was Bow Wow Wow's biggest international hit, and has lived on as an eighties classic, thanks in part to an iconic music video in heavy rotation on MTV.