The biggest thing not to forget alison ellwood’s new documentary The Go-Go about the popular 80s band is: why did they in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? In retrospect, the story of how Go-Gos have become one of the most beloved and a success in the dawn of the MTV era is overwhelmed. Formed in the 1970s during the Los Angeles punk scene, the Go-Go was founded through five young women who at the time could not touch their tools and seemed more like a novelty number. Gradually, thanks to the adjustments of the workers’ corps and fierce determination, the Go-Go established a developing visitor base in L.A. and then signed with I.R.S. Records. Their 1981 debut album, Beauty and the Beat, went to number one on billboard – the first time an all-female band that wrote their own songs and played tools received such a distinction.
Over the next four years, Go-Go’s – singer Belinda Carlisle, guitarist/keyboardist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist/singer Jane Wiedlin, bassist Kathy Valentine and drummer Gina Schock – took a rollercoaster ride of fame and fortune as lovers of American music. Array In its peak of popularity, Go-Go’s were celebrated with hit singles such as “Our Lips Are Sealed”, “We Got the Beat”, “Vacation” and “Head Over Heels”; sold-out shows; and maximum media exposure, adding the remarkable rolling stone cover. But it wasn’t all fun: the band fought either against the male-dominated music industry and against itself in an aggregate of vice and non-public and artistic tensions that eventually led to their breakup in 1985.
Overall, this frank and captivating film through Ellwood (History of the Eagles, Laurel Canyon) does justice to the band’s turbulent and triumphant history. As the new documentary shows (to be broadcast this Friday on Showtime), go-go were a band that did it their way without the recommendation of a dominant male figure. In addition to interviews with members of classical programming and archival footage dating back to its first punk incarnation, The Go-Go also features testimonials from I.R.S. Records co-founder Miles Copeland; Stewart Copeland of the police; former band agent Ginger Canzoneri; and Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, among others. Coinciding with the film, Go-Go recorded a new song, the anthem rocker “Club Zero” – their first in 20 years. (The band’s 40th anniversary tour was postponed from this year to 2021 due to the pandemic.)
Prior to The Go-Go, I interviewed Caffey, Schock and Ellwood about the film and the facets of the band’s history. The following was changed for the sake of length and clarity.
Can you communicate about your paintings in the film?
Alison Ellwood: I was thrilled because I was a Go-Go fan. They had played with the concept of making a movie. They were very shy because of the vh1 party. They didn’t like it. So we started talking, probably about three years ago, and there were a lot of conversations. Then, after all, we met on users and discussed more. They, after all, agreed to do so. I said, “I’m going to make a movie that’s a fair movie, but I have to take it as true with you to be fair to me.” I don’t need to do a piece of down. They promised and I promised. I think everyone’s happy.
What do you think of the documentary?
Charlotte Caffey: Honestly, we were so nervous at first. We had this terrible party with Behind the Music, where they just left everything obscene. It’s not about the band, it’s a soap opera. If you’ve been with a wife or wife for 40 years, you’ll have arguments. But if you’re with four other people, you’ll have to exponentially have a lot more things happen. We were very transparent with Alison that we didn’t need all this nonsense. We’ve been running a lot between us, and we’re here now. We need to celebrate the group. That’s what I think he did. I love you so much. I’m so excited that other people will see this.
Gina Schock: I’m really pleased with how you got here. Alison is a very intelligent storyteller. You just had to take it for granted with him. We’re so afraid to do something like this, we don’t need another VH1 story. She promised us she’d do the right thing. And she did.
What’s it like looking at you on the screen?
Caffey: It was a very healing thing for all of us. There was something that generated a lot of wonderful emotions and I didn’t expect it to take a stand at all. And in the end, I was full of warmth and love for all the girls. That was nice. We keep coming in combination and we do these things, like the musical [Head Over Heels] that took position several years ago. They keep coming to us, it’s nothing we’re hunting for. So there’s an explanation for why we keep coming in combination. And when we do, we have a wonderful time. We’re just the most twisted, in poor health and other hilarious people I know. It’s wonderful to be in a smart position with everyone.
Schock: Girls are a component of my life. When times are tough, we kind of pull ourselves in combination like a circle of relatives – not loving each other, but in fact we love each other at the end of the day.
When you entered the project, did you have any way to provide the group’s history?
Ellwood: When we started the interviews, I already had a concept of what the tale would be. When I started doing research, I didn’t know about all their punk past. So it was revealing to me. When I looked at it and started listening to the past song, and even listening to past versions of the songs that became his pop hits, they had a very punk sound, much faster, much rawer. So it was a laugh to know that there would be this evolution in music. At the time we did the interviews, I knew it was a great component of the tale.
Go-Go completed a lot in a short time, from reading punk displays in L.A. to recording a #1 album on Beauty and the Beat.
Caffey: A few years ago we held exhibitions in Los Angeles, and when we were in England, we used to call Rodney at the ROQ exhibition, Rodney Bigenheimer [Los Angeles radio], and we totally mentioned, “We’re so noticed here. (laughs) We were doing left and right. We got back here and the lines were wrapped around starwood. We played our “Welcome back home” exhibition. Not long before New Year’s Eve, when Kathy was playing.
Maybe we can’t get a registration contract, no one would signal us, no one. We went to all the record companies and Miles [Copeland of I.RS. Records] was the only one. But what made me continue were the songs we were writing, it was amazing. Like that first album [Beauty and the Beat], it was so amazing and our live performances were very punk. The first record sounds good because our manufacturer Richard Gottehrer really tried to show the composition of songs, and it wasn’t like our shows, which were still very hard and punk because we played that way and played.
Schock: I always thought, “Oh my God, let’s be famous, we’re going to be huge.” We were 21, 22 years old. You think everything is imaginable and then you’ll succeed, thank God, because I actually imagine we were going to be huge.
The first album is special for top bands or for top performers in general. The first record is your total life, and then you have a few months to write things and get it for the next album. It’s also a whimsical and fortunate thing that the first album came out as it turned out. But there was a lot of strategic stuff making plans on behalf of Miles Copeland. He said, “We’re shooting at a van all over the country,” then said, “What do you think of the opening for the police” because the police were playing in arenas. So we started doing that, and then sales started to increase. Before you knew it, other people came to the shows to see the organization of the opening and the headliner. We were walking on the level and the position full.
As the documentary shows, from 1981 to 1985, the Go-Gos are so excited about the career of beating singles on consistent tours.
Caffey: There was a lot stuck, and what comes with it is quite reprehensible. As much as I liked other people to love those songs I wrote or co-wrote or came to our shows, it was very provocative and very invasive and like, “Whoa”. And of course, I was an open ebook about my upload. So putting those two things in combination was like a powder keg to me. But I had a great time. We all had a great time. It was a whirlwind and there was no impediment, and we didn’t stop it. That’s probably why we ended up because you can’t pass on like that, especially when you upload all the parties.
Schock: I’d like all of us to slow down and enjoy the moment, enjoy what was happening, and then enjoy it. Whatever the record told us to do, we’d do it. We were constantly on tour, so MTV came here and took things for everyone. All of a sudden, everybody was making videos. So a lot of things were going on back then in the music industry. It was a lot of stuff packed in those many years. But that’s all we knew. Whatever they told us to do, we’d do it. I wish we had more time to really enjoy it. But it happened the way it was supposed to happen, I think.
Did you know what has an effect on what go-go had when breaking down the door to female rock musicians, or were you too stuck at the time?
Caffey: We were definitely in the moment, because there were all those vital things that we had to do in front of us every day. They arrived: the Bangles came next, then there’s Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill. But if you think about it, there’s rarely just one ocean of them. And we were surprised.
Being in an organization, whether it’s a woman or a man, is difficult. We were dedicated. We put the organization above all else, adding relationships, because we had to do it. It’s like the kind of thing you still can’t help – like you have to do it, there’s nothing else you can do, that’s all. I felt so much about what we were doing and I believed it so much. I didn’t even think in terms of fame and fortune – I think in terms of, “Oh my God, we’re so good.”
Schock: I never thought about it. I don’t think any of us did that. We were too busy doing our homework and having a great time being rock stars. (laughs) We had a smart time doing this, until it stopped being fun. In fact, I didn’t realize the effect this had on us all those years later, very busy in rhythm.
Ellwood: To this day, they are the only female band to have a number one album, play their own tools and write their own music. 42 years later, I talked to everyone about it. Belinda says in the film “We wouldn’t have called ourselves feminists at the time, but we were.” I think, like other people, they don’t identify things, and I think because their songs are so catchy, I think they were classified as the kind of woman next door and it wasn’t really that. (laughs) They were quite wild, but at the time there were also many other people. It was the ’80s.
One of the film’s most painful moments was the band’s split in 1985 under tumultuous circumstances.
Caffey: It was terrible. For me, at this point in my life, because I was sober for three months, I had to make a choice. I had to decide about my life in relation to this group. I didn’t think I could sober up in the band because there was a lot of animosity and a lot that had fallen. And yet Jane had left the band. Paula [Jean Brown, her replacement] helped me in rehab and I will be grateful. It wasn’t a popular resolution at the time. But that’s how it was, and I celebrated 35 years of sobriety a few months ago, not the Hollywood genre. I haven’t had drugs or booze since February 1, 1985. So it’s like, “It’s just me” is what I have to do for my life. I’m like, “What was I thinking?
We try to be honest. There’s no hidden position in this group, I love Jane talking about her depression and all that. It’s smart for other people to hear that, to see other people evolve in things, and that’s important.
But years later, the Go-Gos came here together.
Schock: We were all busy with our solo careers. In 1990, Belinda’s control gained a call from other people from Jane Fonda saying, “Could we get in touch with all the girls? We have something we’d like to be offering them and we hope you’re interested. [Jane Fonda] was busy looking for a green initiative in public opinion research in L.A., and she looked for us to be a component of it. We all said that, of course. So we started having dinner and talking. We went to her space three or four times with her, which was cool. She’s great. We did an exhibition at Universal as a component of the Jane Fonda thing, and later that year we were back on tour. (laughs) Everything was put back in place. We’re like a circle of relativesArray… we can’t get away from everyone else.
For the documentary, Go-Go recorded “Club Zero”, their first new song in just 20 years. How was that experience?
Caffey: When we made the decision to write a generic year-end song, maybe it would be nice to have something new all of a sudden. I had just written this song with Anna Waronker and I’ve been running with her for years. That’s what we tried to write: “Let’s do anything top and anthem, punky and cool.” So here’s this song and all of a sudden I put the lyrics in and I thought, “Oh my God, this is fucking work.” So I showed everyone, everyone liked it. Then we go on and Kathy, Jane and I finish the lyrics. It’s pretty cool and just for now. We didn’t even know what was going to happen when we wrote it a year ago and a part ago. We think it’s much better for the documentary and for this moment right now.
Schock: We all worked on it, we were given together, we came here to record it. We knocked him down in two days, which surprised me because we haven’t recorded it in 20 years. We went to the studio and two days, we finished, the choirs and everything, boom! Just! I was like kicking myself in the ass, “You know what? We’re professionals. I was surprised, without any challenge, and we went there and they kicked us in the ass. The voice of everyone in this organization is very important. Without the five of us, it’s not Go-Go.
Ellwood: I had no idea they would finish writing a new song. I secretly hoped they’d do it. So once I knew they were doing it seriously, I said, “Please let us film you playing with this, it would be such a beautiful finish to the movie.” That’s what we shot at Whiskey [in Los Angeles]. It’s a laugh for them to move back to where it all started, since they were big enough.
What do you expect from the film for the audience?
Caffey: I hope they come out with the top, number one. It’s the story of a women’s organization that was given in combination and started anything that fell in love with us, and we continued. We’ve had so many obstacles. We had a lot of sexism and misogyny, there are many things that opposed us. But we just move on and show everyone. And we show ourselves, “Hey, we’re something.” I say this with pride because I love this organization, and we’ve been through a lot.
Ellwood: A whole understanding of who they were and are like women and the band, and that their contribution to music was substantial. I think they tend to be written with a little too much ease, other people understand them as a little cute. But if you pay attention to their words, there are many subterfuges going on. The lyrics are much darker than the music. Just a thorough appreciation of who they are as musicians and as women who have contributed to anything worthy of this world.
What explains the longevity of Go-Go after years?
Schock: For us, it’s the longest courtship we’ve ever had at the age of five. After that time, it’s like a circle of relatives. It’s the old cliché: you probably wouldn’t love your circle of relatives all the time, but you love them. I think that’s the most important thing for us. We’re like a youth organization when we get together.
I’ve been writing about popular music since I bought my first copy of Rolling Stone magazine about 30 years ago when I was a teenager. Since then, I’ve been covered
I’ve been writing about popular music since I bought my first copy of Rolling Stone magazine about 30 years ago when I was a teenager. Since then, I have covered popular music for Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, Time Out New York, Paste, The Quietus and many other outlets. In fact, I like to talk to artists and find the stories of their music and their craft. I was born and raised in New York, and that’s where you can locate me watching an exhibition any night.