For most music fans, The Go-Go’s came out of nowhere in 1981 and left in a hurry—but they made an indelible impression. Alison Ellwood’s documentary The Go-Go’s reveals that the first all-female band that wrote their own songs, played their instruments and hit number one on the album charts had a history and left a legacy.
And despite their high-spirited effervescent presentation, cracks developed below the appealing surface. The girls looked like they were having fun (and they were) but having fun in public—in a profit-driven industry—is hard work and tough on friendships.
Ellwood’s film moves at a clip similar to the band’s hits and bounces between vintage video and contemporary interviews with members, management and other insiders. Clearly, The Go-Go’s couldn’t have happened if ‘70s punk rock had never happened. As occurred elsewhere, the LA punk scene attracted outsiders and misfits in a free-for-all that gave people without talent but with something to say—or an attitude to project—permission to perform and develop. Performers and fans were often interchangeable.
Relatively openminded, the scene also gave more space than previously for women to express themselves in rock. Early audio and video show the nascent Go-Go’s (circa 1978) as snarly and shrill and sonically crude, barely recognizable as the group behind Beauty and the Beat (1981).
The documentary chronicles how the women changed course. First came the arrival of drummer Gina Shock, whose insistence on regular rehearsals transformed amateurs into pros. Then they hooked up with a pair of British ska bands, Madness and The Specials, who brought them to the UK as their opening act. London’s Stiff Records released a single. By the time they returned home to LA, their (false) reputation as “big in England” preceded them. Melodies emerged from the urgent riffing and they discovered that they were writing pop songs. Bassist Margot Olivarria was appalled at the departure from punk purism and was replaced by Kathy Valentine. IRS took notice and their producer for Beauty and the Beat, Richard Gottecher, told The Go-Go’s to go one beat slower in the studio.
The album was a hit, and the band took the lead in the audience-friendly new wave that emerged in punk’s wake. The Go-Go’s early MTV videos were great fun and that Rolling Stone cover with the girls in underwear—well, they weren’t entirely happy with that but it helped sell even more records.
Soon enough, guitarist Charlotte Caffey’s heroin habit came to light; they ditched their tireless manager Ginger Canzoneri for corporate management and quarreled over the spoils of their success. They rose so fast onto a touring treadmill that they had little to offer, song-wise, for their sophomore album. They slumped and dissolved but by scaling the heights of the music industry, often in the face of chauvinistic dismissal, The Go-Go’s set the stage for Liz Phair and a generation of women in rock.
The Go-Go’s will be available February 5 on video on demand.
