Girlschool
Encyclopedia
Girlschool are a British heavy metal
band originating out of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal
scene in 1978 and frequently associated with contemporaries Motörhead. They are the longest running all-female rock band, still active after more than 30 years. Formed from a school band called Painted Lady, Girlschool enjoyed strong media exposure and commercial success in the UK in the early 1980s with three albums of 'punk
-tinged metal' and a few singles, but rapidly lost their momentum in the following years.
In the 1990s and 2000s, they concentrated their efforts on live shows and tours, reducing considerably the production of studio album
s. During their long career, Girlschool travelled all over the world, playing in many rock and metal festivals
and co-headlining with or supporting some of the most important hard rock
and heavy metal bands. They maintain a worldwide cult following and are considered an inspiration for many succeeding female rock musicians. Despite frequent changes of line-up, original members Kim McAuliffe, Enid Williams and Denise Dufort are still in the band to this day; the other original member, lead guitarist and singer Kelly Johnson
, died of cancer in 2007.
, South London
, Kim McAuliffe (rhythm guitar
, vocals
) and Dinah 'Enid' Williams (bass
, vocals) formed an all-girl rock cover band
called Painted Lady, together with Tina Gayle on drums
. Deirdre Cartwright
joined the new band on lead guitar
, Val Lloyd replaced Gayle on drums and they started playing the local pub scene. "The reason we were all girls was we couldn’t find any blokes who wanted to play with us! This was the natural thing to do", McAuliffe explained to Gary Graff
in 1997 about the all-female composition of the band.
Cartwright, who was older and more musically experienced than the other girls, left in 1977 to form the band Tour De Force and then followed different professional opportunities in the music business; she is now a renowned jazz guitarist
. Her place in the band was briefly taken by visiting American Kathy Valentine
, who approached the band through an advertisement in the British music newspaper Melody Maker
. When Valentine returned to the United States in 1978 to form the Textones and later join The Go-Go's
as bass player, Painted Lady broke up. However, McAuliffe and Williams were still willing to pursue a musical career to escape their day jobs in a bank and a bakery and reformed the band, recruiting lead guitarist Kelly Johnson
and drummer Denise Dufort in April 1978. The new line-up changed their name to Girlschool, taking it from the B-side of the hit single "Mull of Kyntyre
" by Paul McCartney& Wings
and immediately hit the road, touring small venues in France, Ireland and Great Britain.
City Records, owned by Phil Scott, a friend of the band. The single had some radio airplay and circulated in the underground scene, coming to the ear of Ian Kilmister, commonly known as Lemmy, leader of the British rock band Motörhead, who wanted to meet the band. Lemmy, together with Motörhead and Hawkwind
manager Doug Smith, went to see the band performing live and offered them a support slot on Motörhead’s Overkill
tour in the spring of 1979. This was the start of an enduring relationship between the two bands that lasts to this day. After the tour and a few other shows supporting Welsh band Budgie
, Doug Smith became the manager of Girschool and obtained an audition with the British label Bronze Records
, at the time home of Uriah Heep
, Motörhead and Juicy Lucy
. Bronze’s owner Gerry Bron
himself attended the audition and was impressed by Girlschool's stage presence and musicianship, offering them a contract with his label in December 1979.
The British rock movement known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal
(frequently abbreviated in NWOBHM), which started in the late 1970s and broke in the mainstream in the early 1980s, was just exploding in the United Kingdom and the band gained the support of a strong label at exactly the right time to exploit the moment and form a solid fan base.
The band entered the recording studio with experienced producer
Vic Maile
in April 1980. Vic Maile had been working as live sound engineer
for many important acts, like The Who
, Led Zeppelin
, The Kinks
and Jimi Hendrix
, producing also the first two seminal albums of Dr. Feelgood
and a few punk
bands in the late 70s. He captured the raw but powerful sound of Girlschool in ten short songs, with lead vocals shared by Williams, McAuliffe and Johnson. Girlschool released their debut album, Demolition
, in June 1980, alongside the singles "Emergency", "Nothing to Lose" and "Race with the Devil". Demolition reached No.28 in the UK Album Chart in July 1980.
In the same period, albums and singles from Judas Priest
, Saxon
, Def Leppard
, Iron Maiden
, Motörhead and other bands of the NWOBHM reached high positions in the UK charts, while the same bands did tours and concerts all over Europe. Girlschool participated in this frenzied touring activity, travelling all over Great Britain and visiting Europe both as headliner act and as support to label mates Uriah Heep and Motörhead. On 20 August, Girlschool and Motörhead were filmed performing live at the Nottingham Theatre Royal
for the Rockstage programme, broadcast by the ATV
station on 4 April 1981. In this period, the band was subjected to intense media coverage by music magazines, radio and TV, interested in the novelty of a successful British all-female metal band. The barrage of interviews and promotion did not stop the production of songs and the girls released the new single "Yeah Right" in November 1980.
In December 1980, Girlschool officially started recording the follow-up to Demolition, again with producer Vic Maile, who had meanwhile produced Motörhead’s classic album Ace of Spades
. During the sessions, Maile suggested a studio recording team-up with Motörhead, resulting in the release of the EP
St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The EP contains the cover of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates’ song "Please Don’t Touch
" and two self-covers, with Motörhead performing Girlschool's "Emergency", and Girlschool playing Motörhead's "Bomber". Dufort played drums on all songs, because Motörhead's drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor was recovering from a neck injury. She also played the drums during the BBC One
Top of the Pops
TV show of 19 February 1981, where the two bands performed "Please Don’t Touch" under the moniker Headgirl
. The EP reached No.5 in the UK Single Chart in February 1981 and was certified silver
in December 1981, the best sale performance for both bands at the time.
The album Hit and Run
was released in April 1981, soon followed by the eponymous single. Both releases were very successful in the UK, with the album reaching position No.5 and the single position No.33 in the respective charts. The album charted also in New Zealand and in Canada, where it went gold. Hit and Run was not released in the USA until 1982, with a different track listing including songs from Demolition. The success of their second album made Girlschool a rising attraction in the boiling British hard rock and heavy metal scene, ensuring headliner slots in medium sized arenas in their sold-out UK tour or guest slots in stadium size concerts of major attractions like Black Sabbath
and Rush
. No dates in the USA were arranged, but Girlschool visited Canada in July. Their 1981 tour culminated on 28 August, headlining the Friday night of the three-day Reading Festival
. The Friday Rock Show
on BBC Radio 1
would later broadcast the Reading set, but the recording has not received an official release.
At the beginning of 1982, Girlschool did a European tour and, at the last Danish date in Copenhagen
with supporting act Mercyful Fate
, McAuliffe received a severe electirc shock from her microphone and risked her life. She recovered fast enough to complete a Japanese tour, to do other European shows supporting Rainbow
on their Difficult to Cure
tour and to start working on new material for the next album. However, the gruelling schedule of recordings, promotional work and concerts had started to take its toll on the group, with bassist Enid Williams the first to give up, right after the release of Wildlife
in March 1982, an EP designed to launch the upcoming album. On the recommendation of Lemmy, Williams was replaced by Ghislaine 'Gil' Weston, former bassist of the punk band The Killjoys
.
Girlschool’s third album Screaming Blue Murder
was recorded in February and March 1982 under the direction of Nigel Gray, the successful producer of The Police
and The Professionals
. The album had a worldwide release in June 1982 but, despite the strong promotion, it reached only No.27 in the UK Album Chart. Critics generally considered Screaming Blue Murder a weaker offering in comparison with the preceding two albums.
Girlschool remained anyway a strong live attraction and their 1982 world tour led the band for the first time in the USA to play in stadiums, supporting Iron Maiden and Scorpions
. NWOBHM acts like Judas Priest and Def Leppard started to be very popular in America and the girls and their record label had no intention to fall back in the conquest of that large market.
and Jim Lea
as producers persuaded the guitarist to carry on with Girlschool. Holder and Lea, who had returned in those years to great success and popularity in Great Britain with the 70s rock band Slade
, were hired to produce only a single, with the following album already scheduled to be recorded in Los Angeles with Quiet Riot
producer Spencer Proffer. However, the good chemistry found with the two Slade members led the band to decide to record not a single, but their whole fourth studio album in North London with Lea and Holder, giving up the trip to the USA. This time the group changed sensibly both their appearance and their musical style in order to appeal to a large American audience, which Bronze considered more oriented toward AOR
and glam rock
than to the 'biker metal' Girlschool had produced before. Play Dirty
, released in October 1983, is an album with a very polished sound, filled with keyboards, choruses and melodies, but it lacks much of the aggression and power of the preceding works. The album contains covers of the Slade songs "High & Dry" and "Burning in the Heat" and of T.Rex
’s "20th Century Boy
", which was also released as a single. Play Dirty failed to enter the top 50 chart in the UK and had a lukewarm reception by fans and critics at home. A struggle between Bronze and PolyGram
for the worldwide contract of the band resulted also in poor promotion for the album in the USA. Moreover, a disastrous performance at Wembley Arena
supporting ZZ Top
did not help Girlschool's already degraded image in Great Britain.
Girlschool embarked in a long US tour to promote the album, sometimes as support to Quiet Riot and Blue Öyster Cult
, but more often as headliner in small venues after uncomfortable travels. Johnson, unable to tolerate the unhealthy life on the road, quit the band before completing the US tour, hurting the promotion of the album in America. She went to live in Los Angeles with Vicki Blue, former bassist of The Runaways
. With the departure of Kelly Johnson, who was often considered the visual and musical focal point of the band, the almost bankrupt Bronze Records failed to extend the band's recording contract for a follow-up album.
At the beginning of 1984, Girlschool were in need of a new lead guitar player and singer, of a new recording contract and chart success but, despite the difficult situation, the band did not give up. The search for new members ended with the arrival of guitarist Cris Bonacci
and singer and keyboard player Jackie Bodimead, both from the all-female hard rock band She. She were playing in London clubs at the time, trying to get a record contract and attract the attention of the British music press.
The new Girschool, now a five-piece group, signed with the PolyGram American subsidiary Mercury Records
, once home of the American all-girls rock band The Runaways. The label saw in the band an opportunity to produce a rival for chart-winning female-fronted bands like Heart
and Lita Ford
and pushed the music of the band even more towards FM
friendly American hard rock. The band was paired with producer Nick Tauber
, who had produced the first albums of Thin Lizzy
and the most successful albums of Toyah
and Marillion
, contributing also to the launch of the British glam metal
act Girl
. The resulting album Running Wild
, sported ten keyboard-laden tracks much different from Girlschool’s most successful music. The record label decided to publish the album only in the USA in February 1985, but actually gave little support to its marketing. The review of the magazine Kerrang!
reflects the opinions of Dufort and McAuliffe, which described years later the album as rubbish or even worse. Running Wild had insignificant sales on the US market, not representing the breakthrough the band and the label had hoped for. A live performance of Girlschool as a quintet at Camden Palace
in London was taped for the VHS Play Dirty Live
, which was released in 1985 and reissued on DVD with the title Live from London
in 2005.
The band did some shows supporting the glam rock band Hanoi Rocks
in Great Britain, before embarking in the Deep Purple
comeback world tour, where Girschool played in a supporting role all over the USA. A tour of India and the Far East
completed their live activities for 1985. Vocal duties were shared on stage between McAuliffe and Bodimead, who also played keyboards. At the end of the tour, Jackie Bodimead left the band to pursue a solo career.
, which also included in their roster Motörhead. The girls immediately started working on a new album with their old producer Vic Maile
at Jackson’s Studio in Rickmansworth
. The first output of their new work was a team-up with British glam rock singer Gary Glitter
for the cover of his 1973 hit "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)", which was released as single in April 1986. The album Nightmare at Maple Cross
, released in July of the same year, marked for the band the return to the sound of Hit and Run and to the their trademark abrasive lyrics. The album received fairly good reviews, but it did not enter the British charts and was released in North America only a year later. The following European tour saw the girls supporting the Scottish
hard rock band Nazareth
.
In January 1987, after five years with the group, bassist Gil Weston-Jones left Girlschool to spend more time with her American husband. Her place was quickly taken by Tracey Lamb, who had been the bass player of the all-female NWOBHM band Rock Goddess
and a band mate of Cris Bonacci in She. Girlschool spent the rest of the year promoting the album with a US tour and appearances in various TV shows across Europe, followed by a long European tour supporting usual label mates Motörhead.
At the beginning of 1988, the band started rehearsing material for a new album with producer André Jacquemin, who had worked on all the Monty Python
’s records. The album Take a Bite
was published by GWR in October 1988 and follows in the steps of Nightmare at Maple Cross, presenting powerful and melodic metal songs, tinged with the humour typical of the band. To promote the album, Girlschool did a UK tour with Gary Glitter, followed by a North American tour. In 1989, they travelled across Europe with Dio
and to the Soviet Union
with Black Sabbath
, till the end of the year. After their return from Russia, GWR did not renovate their contract and the band practically broke up. Musical tastes were changing worldwide in favour of grunge
and more extreme metal
genres, compelling most acts originated from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to disband or to reduce their activities and the same thing happened to Girlschool.
, for the promotion of the album Ophelia's Shadow
. A brief tour of Spain was Girlschool’s only activity of 1990, but in December, McAuliffe, Bonacci, Dufort and returning bass player Enid Williams, teamed up with Toyah Willcox under the name She-Devils for the first edition of the Women in Music festival at Shaw Theatre
in London, performing both Girlschool and Toyah
’s songs. A few months later, the same musicians reunited again under the new name Strange Girls, with Lydie Gallais replacing Dufort on drums. Strange Girls toured clubs in Great Britain in 1991 and 1992 and supported The Beach Boys
in their German dates in the summer of 1991. The band wrote a few songs and produced a demo, but the only published track from this period is the song "Lust for Love", which can be found on Toyah’s album Take the Leap!
.
, their first self-produced album, which was distributed worldwide by the British indie label
Communiqué Records. The lower visibility of the album distributed by an indie label marked the definitive transition to cult status for the band, renouncing to many expectations of big sales. Girlschool were now the managers of themselves, relying on their solid live show and on their reputation with promoters and other artists to get gigs and work. As stated in an interview to the British TV show Raw Power
, Girlschool would "play in every single toilet that we can find!"
After a few European dates, returning bassist Tracey Lamb replaced Carrera before a new tour in the United States. But more line-up changes were in store for the band because, at the end of 1992, Cris Bonacci left the band to become a touring musician and then a producer. In 1993, her place as lead guitarist was taken back by Kelly Johnson, who returned after nine years to England from LA, where she had played in a band with Kathy Valentine and written and produced her own music. The plethora of compilations
of old Girlschool material that had started to be published from 1989 kept the band alive on the CD market and guaranteed enough visibility to get a good number of gigs every year in every part of the world, often supporting other NWOBHM acts like Motörhead or Saxon. In this period, the girls were also present at rock festival
s all over Europe, both as Girlschool or separately in other outfits. In 1995, Communiqué Records released Girlschool Live
, a live album
documenting the intense live shows of the band in that period and which included the new tracks "Knife" and "Little Green Men". Girlschool continued their live activity in the 1990s, culminating with a participation to the Wacken Open Air
festival on Friday, 6 August 1999.
In all this time the band had been writing new songs and, in September 1998, they began to record a new album, but touring commitments and new line-up changes prevented Girlschool to complete it. In fact, Johnson quit amicably Girlschool in 1999, followed by Lamb in 2000. They were replaced by new lead guitarist Jackie 'Jax' Chambers and by Enid Williams, who finally rejoined the group after eighteen years. Johnson, who had been diagnosed with cancer, and Lamb remained anyway strictly associated with the other band members.
21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent
was finally released at the beginning of 2002 and co-produced by Girlschool and Tim Hamill. The album contains tracks recorded three years earlier by the previous line-up, with the addition of the songs "Coming Your Way" and "Innocent" recorded by the current one. The influence of the American years spent by Johnson in Los Angeles is clearly audible in the music and in the vocal tracks of the album, which features Girlschool’s first semi-acoustic ballad
"A Love Too Far".
, a split album conceived by the label Communiqué, comprising five songs each for Oliver/Dawson Saxon
, Tygers of Pan Tang
and Girlschool. A tour of the three aforementioned bands could not be organized and, in October 2004, Girlschool toured supporting the album with Tygers of Pan Tang and Paul DiAnno.
Preceded by the publication of the re-mastered editions of their first four albums, Girlschool released the studio album Believe
in July 2004. The wish to explore new territories is obvious in some tracks of the album, which is the first one entirely composed by the new line-up at Chambers’ home studio. The changed line-up brought a new balance in the band, with Chambers involved in the composition of all songs. Moreover, the chance to use again two lead singers led to improvements in the vocal and choral parts. Unfortunately, the album was poorly distributed and remained unknown to large parts of its potential audience. In 2005, the band re-released Believe in a new package with a DVD containing footage taken from concerts of the 2000s and sold it through their official website. A US and European tour followed Believe first release, but the project for releasing in 2004 a live DVD tentatively titled Girlschool Live at the Garage never materialized. In June 2005, Girlschool did a UK tour with Vixen
and another one in November–December with old pals Motörhead, celebrating Lemmy's band 30th anniversary. During the same year, they were also on stage at summer festivals in Holland and England and opened for Alice Cooper
in Spain.
Rock and metal festivals have become a constant for the band, that performed both in large open air meetings in Germany (Headbangers Open Air
2006, Bang Your Head!!! 2007, Wacken Open Air
2008 and Wacken Rocks 2009), France (Hellfest Summer Open Air
2009), England (Hard Rock Hell
2007 and 2009, Bloodstock Open Air
2009) and the USA (Power Box Festival 2007) and in smaller settings, like the Rock of Ages Fest in England in 2007 and the Metal Female Voices Fest
in Belgium in 2008. Girlschool were opening act for Heaven & Hell in 2007, for Dio in 2008 and for Hawkwind and Motörhead in 2009.
On 15 July 2007, Kelly Johnson died of spinal cancer, after six years of painful therapy and treatment of her illness. At Kelly’s memorial, Tracey Lamb read the eulogy she had written for her. The band performed a tribute gig on 20 August 2007 at the Soho Revue Bar
in London, with many of Johnson’s friends and former Girlschool’s members and a concert for Cancer Research UK
at Rock of Ages Fest in Tamworth
on 8 September 2007.
The new album Legacy
, released in October 2008, celebrates both the departed guitarist and the 30th anniversary of Girlschool, making them the so far longest running female rock band in the world. The recording was auto-produced with the assistance of Tim Hamill and the compositions are more individual, revealing a large array of influences, going from NWOBHM, to punk, to West Coast alternative rock
. To emphasize the celebrative mood, the album features many guest musicians, with members of Heaven & Hell, Twisted Sister
and Motörhead supplying vocals and guitars in many tracks. Kelly Johnson’s 'ghost' presence permeates the album and the song "Legend" is especially dedicated to her. The album received excellent reviews and the German label SPV/Steamhammer
guaranteed the worldwide distribution. Girlschool performed a special show celebrating their 30th anniversary on 16 December at the Astoria 2
in London.
Girlschool are among the many female singers performing in veteran German hard rock singer Doro Pesch
’s single "Celebrate
", published in 2008. Jackie Chambers and Enid Williams were also present on stage at Doro’s 25th anniversary celebrative concert on 13 December 2008 in Düsseldorf
.
At the beginning of 2010, Girlschool contributed to the release of the cover of their single "Emergency" by Cornish
youth music charity Livewire, in order to raise funds for the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake
.
Girlschool are still active and toured Europe with the Canadian metal band Anvil
in 2010.
The band spent time in studio re-recording their classic 1981 album Hit and Run, during 2011. The new version of the LP, titled Hit and Run – Revisited
, was released on 26 September 2011 to celebrate the original album's 30th anniversary.
magazine editor Christopher Scapelliti aptly described Girlschool's music as a "punk-metal mix tough, but poppy enough for radio". The influences of classic hard rock
and heavy metal are present in the musical background of all the original band members and they are particularly evident in the clean and sometimes bluesy solo guitar work of Kelly Johnson. On the other end, punk rock had a direct influence in the birth of New Wave
and New Wave of British Heavy Metal and that music was still very popular when the band was born. Moreover, both Denise Dufort and Gil Weston had played in punk bands before joining Girlschool. "We're both too heavy to be New Wave and too punk to be a heavy metal band", McAuliffe explained to Robbi Millar of Sounds
in 1980. The raw and almost live recording sound of their first two Vic Maile produced albums represents perfectly the core music of the band in the years from 1979 to 1982, which were the most successful for Girlschool. The combination of metal and punk was a large part of the sound which also propelled Motörhead to notoriety and chart success in the early 80s in the United Kingdom. This sound, the tours and recordings made together with Lemmy’s band, the girls’ denim and leather look
, as much as their rowdy and alcohol driven off-stage behaviour soon gained Girlschool the moniker of 'sisters of Motörhead', which they are often still identified with today. Their close association with Motörhead at the beginning of Girlschool's career was anyway a useful springboard for their early success.
The mounting pressure to appeal to a mainstream audience, the quick change of tastes in British rock fans with the decline of the NWOBHM phenomenon and the chance to have a breakthrough in the US market prompted Girlschool to change their music, starting with the album Screaming Blue Murder in 1982. Their sound, following the success of Def Leppard's album Pyromania
, became more polished with the introduction of keyboards on Play Dirty and veered toward hard rock and glam metal, losing the raw edge of their early works. "We were signed to an American label (...) there was a certain amount of pressure exerted on us to sound more American" was McAuliffe explanation, speaking about the tame sound of the album Running Wild. The band appearance also changed to a more feminine and sophisticated style, imitating the successful American glam metal bands of the time and generally following the direction of the market. However, the failed attempt to create a niche for Girlschool in the USA and the rapidly changing record market behaviour made the band change their mind and go back to their original sound, which they retain to this day. Girlschool's members themselves described their music in different ways, from "slapstick rock" to "raucous (...) heavy metal rock 'n' roll", and, even acknowledging the common origin of their music in the NWOBHM, they sometimes found it difficult to associate their songs to a single genre or sub-genre of rock music.
Just like most punk songs, Girlschool’s lyrics usually have short and direct texts, often reflecting the wild rock 'n' roll lifestyle and treating sex and romance as seen from a feminine point of view, with the use of reverse sexism and tongue-in-cheek
sense of humour. Some of their songs deal also with more serious matters, such as exploitation and abuse
of women, murder
, addiction
, the destruction of the environment, social and political issues.
In 1980, Girlschool's fondest fans formed a club called 'The Barmy Army', which followed and supported the band during every tour in Great Britain and Europe. The fan club
did not survive the decline of the band and almost ceased its activities by the end of 1982.
British specialized press took notice of the band and especially weekly magazines like Sounds
and later Kerrang! dedicated covers to Girlschool and had frequent articles for either their stage performances or for their off-stage drinking bouts and 'no-nonsense attitude', during their period of maximum media exposition and chart success. In 1980, Sounds voted the band second 'Best Newcomer' and Kelly Johnson third 'Best Female Vocalist'. Two years later, Kerrang! still voted Kelly Johnson second 'Best Female Vocalist' and best 'Female Pin-up'. In that period, British radio stations gladly broadcast Girlschool's singles and the band was also guest of music TV shows, culminating in a performance at Top of the Pops on April 1981 to promote the single "Hit and Run".
On the contrary, Girlschool's change of musical style in 1984 and their sudden predilection for the US market were not well received by the British press and by their fans at home. The change of attitude and image, exemplified by the music video
for "Running Wild" on rotation on MTV
, which showed the girls playing with heavy make-up, combed hair and fancy costumes, imitating a trendy American glam
outfit, alienated the love of British fans, whose perception of the band was still that of roughneck companions to Motörhead, instead of competitors of Mötley Crüe
and Ratt
. In the time span of two years, Girlschool passed from headliner act to having serious difficulty to find a gig in the UK: "Nobody seems to want us in Britain anymore", confessed McAuliffe to journalist Malcom Dome in 1984. The return of Girlschool to the sound of their beginnings came too late to win back the large fan base of their heyday and the band fell to cult status already in the late 1980s.
". However, even if Enid Williams' showed interest in feminism
, the band never openly expressed opinions about female discrimination, happy of being appreciated simply as musicians instead of 'female musicians'. Nonetheless, the simple fact of being a successful all-female group in the macho
heavy metal scene was a statement of sexual equality, as many reviewers remarked, arriving as far as to associate Girlschool with the American feminist Riot Grrrl
movement.
Reviewers and critics have also often associated the production of recent all-female metal acts to the sound and music of Girlschool, identifying them as a band that, just like The Runaways before them, helped in paving the way to the presence of women in rock music. However, Williams remembered in 2004 how, in her experience, Girlschool were more inspirational for young male musicians than for female ones in starting rock bands. Moreover, important female metal bands of the 2000s, such as Crucified Barbara
and Drain STH
, denied even of knowing the music of Girlschool. Only the American all-female rock band The Donnas
publicly acknowledged the influence of Girlschool on their music.
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band originating out of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal
New Wave of British Heavy Metal
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was a heavy metal movement that started in the late 1970s, in Britain, and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. The movement developed as a reaction in part to the decline of early heavy metal bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black...
scene in 1978 and frequently associated with contemporaries Motörhead. They are the longest running all-female rock band, still active after more than 30 years. Formed from a school band called Painted Lady, Girlschool enjoyed strong media exposure and commercial success in the UK in the early 1980s with three albums of 'punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
-tinged metal' and a few singles, but rapidly lost their momentum in the following years.
In the 1990s and 2000s, they concentrated their efforts on live shows and tours, reducing considerably the production of studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
s. During their long career, Girlschool travelled all over the world, playing in many rock and metal festivals
Rock festival
A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale rock music concert, featuring multiple acts.The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.Today, they are often...
and co-headlining with or supporting some of the most important hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
and heavy metal bands. They maintain a worldwide cult following and are considered an inspiration for many succeeding female rock musicians. Despite frequent changes of line-up, original members Kim McAuliffe, Enid Williams and Denise Dufort are still in the band to this day; the other original member, lead guitarist and singer Kelly Johnson
Kelly Johnson (guitarist)
Bernadette Jean "Kelly" Johnson was an English guitarist, widely known in the UK in the early 1980s as the lead guitarist of the all-female British heavy metal band Girlschool.-Biography:...
, died of cancer in 2007.
1975 - 1978: Painted Lady
In 1975, school friends and neighbours from TootingTooting
Tooting is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
, South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
, Kim McAuliffe (rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, vocals
Lead vocalist
The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
) and Dinah 'Enid' Williams (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals) formed an all-girl rock cover band
Cover band
A cover band , is a band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs. New or unknown bands often find the cover band format marketable for smaller gigs, and these bands may be known as a wedding band, party band and function band. A band whose covers consist mainly of songs that were chart hits is...
called Painted Lady, together with Tina Gayle on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
. Deirdre Cartwright
Deirdre Cartwright
Deirdre Cartwright is a guitarist and composer, and became well known as the guitar presenter of the groundbreaking BBC Television series Rockschool...
joined the new band on lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, Val Lloyd replaced Gayle on drums and they started playing the local pub scene. "The reason we were all girls was we couldn’t find any blokes who wanted to play with us! This was the natural thing to do", McAuliffe explained to Gary Graff
Gary Graff
Gary Graff is an American music journalist and author.-Biography:Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Graff attended Taylor Allderdice High School where he wrote for school newspaper The Taylor Allderdice Foreword. He received his Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri...
in 1997 about the all-female composition of the band.
Cartwright, who was older and more musically experienced than the other girls, left in 1977 to form the band Tour De Force and then followed different professional opportunities in the music business; she is now a renowned jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music on the guitar using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied...
. Her place in the band was briefly taken by visiting American Kathy Valentine
Kathy Valentine
Kathy Valentine is the American bass guitarist for the all-girl rock band, The Go-Go's....
, who approached the band through an advertisement in the British music newspaper Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
. When Valentine returned to the United States in 1978 to form the Textones and later join The Go-Go's
The Go-Go's
The Go-Go’s are an all-female American rock band formed in 1978. They made history as the first all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the Billboard album charts....
as bass player, Painted Lady broke up. However, McAuliffe and Williams were still willing to pursue a musical career to escape their day jobs in a bank and a bakery and reformed the band, recruiting lead guitarist Kelly Johnson
Kelly Johnson (guitarist)
Bernadette Jean "Kelly" Johnson was an English guitarist, widely known in the UK in the early 1980s as the lead guitarist of the all-female British heavy metal band Girlschool.-Biography:...
and drummer Denise Dufort in April 1978. The new line-up changed their name to Girlschool, taking it from the B-side of the hit single "Mull of Kyntyre
Mull of Kintyre (song)
"Mull of Kintyre" is a song written by Paul McCartney and Denny Laine and performed by Wings. The song was written in tribute to the picturesque Kintyre peninsula in Scotland, where McCartney has owned High Park Farm since 1966, and its headland or Mull of Kintyre.The song was Wings' biggest hit...
" by Paul McCartney& Wings
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
and immediately hit the road, touring small venues in France, Ireland and Great Britain.
1978 - 1982: N.W.O.B.H.M.
In December 1978, Girlschool released their first single, "Take It All Away", on the independent record labelIndependent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
City Records, owned by Phil Scott, a friend of the band. The single had some radio airplay and circulated in the underground scene, coming to the ear of Ian Kilmister, commonly known as Lemmy, leader of the British rock band Motörhead, who wanted to meet the band. Lemmy, together with Motörhead and Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....
manager Doug Smith, went to see the band performing live and offered them a support slot on Motörhead’s Overkill
Overkill (album)
Overkill is the second album released by Motörhead, in 1979, and their first for Bronze Records. It peaked at number 24 on the UK charts.It had a big impact in the British punk culture of that time, paving the way for UK82. Kerrang! magazine listed the album at No...
tour in the spring of 1979. This was the start of an enduring relationship between the two bands that lasts to this day. After the tour and a few other shows supporting Welsh band Budgie
Budgie (band)
Budgie is a Welsh Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band from Cardiff. They are widely considered as one of the first heavy metal bands and a seminal influence to many acts of that scene, with fast, heavy rock being played as early as 1971. The band has been noted as "among the heaviest metal of its day"...
, Doug Smith became the manager of Girschool and obtained an audition with the British label Bronze Records
Bronze Records
Bronze Records is an independent English record label set up in 1971 by record producer Gerry Bron, and based in Chalk Farm, London.Bron had been producing Uriah Heep for Vertigo Records, and he set up this new label for future Uriah Heep releases, along with Juicy Lucy, Richard Barnes and Colosseum...
, at the time home of Uriah Heep
Uriah Heep (band)
Uriah Heep are an English rock band formed in London in 1969 and regarded as a seminal classic hard rock act of the 1970s. Uriah Heep's progressive/art rock/heavy metal fusion's distinctive features have always been massive keyboards sound, strong vocal harmonies and David Byron's operatic vocals...
, Motörhead and Juicy Lucy
Juicy Lucy (band)
Juicy Lucy is a blues-rock band formed on April 1, 1969. After the demise of The Misunderstood, vocalist Ray Owen, steel guitarist Glenn Ross Campbell, and saxophone player Chris Mercer formed Juicy Lucy...
. Bronze’s owner Gerry Bron
Gerry Bron
Gerald L. Bron is an English record producer and band manager. In his early days, he managed the Bonzo Dog Band.Bron is the brother of actress Eleanor Bron. His family is Jewish. He is also of Eastern European origin...
himself attended the audition and was impressed by Girlschool's stage presence and musicianship, offering them a contract with his label in December 1979.
The British rock movement known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal
New Wave of British Heavy Metal
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was a heavy metal movement that started in the late 1970s, in Britain, and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. The movement developed as a reaction in part to the decline of early heavy metal bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black...
(frequently abbreviated in NWOBHM), which started in the late 1970s and broke in the mainstream in the early 1980s, was just exploding in the United Kingdom and the band gained the support of a strong label at exactly the right time to exploit the moment and form a solid fan base.
The band entered the recording studio with experienced producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Vic Maile
Vic Maile
Vic Maile was a British record producer. After starting his career as sound engineer with Pye mobile studios for The Animals on their song, "We Gotta Get out of This Place", Maile worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry, such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, The...
in April 1980. Vic Maile had been working as live sound engineer
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
for many important acts, like The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
and Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, producing also the first two seminal albums of Dr. Feelgood
Dr. Feelgood
Dr. Feelgood may refer to:In music:*Dr. Feelgood , an album by American band Mötley Crüe**"Dr. Feelgood" , a single and the title track from that album*"Dr. Feel Good", a song by Travie McCoy on the album Lazarus...
and a few punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
bands in the late 70s. He captured the raw but powerful sound of Girlschool in ten short songs, with lead vocals shared by Williams, McAuliffe and Johnson. Girlschool released their debut album, Demolition
Demolition (Girlschool album)
Demolition is the first studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool.It was released in Europe on Bronze Records in 1980, with the catalogue number Bronze BRON 534...
, in June 1980, alongside the singles "Emergency", "Nothing to Lose" and "Race with the Devil". Demolition reached No.28 in the UK Album Chart in July 1980.
In the same period, albums and singles from Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
, Saxon
Saxon (band)
Saxon are an English heavy metal band, formed in 1976 in Barnsley, Yorkshire. As front-runners of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, they had 8 UK Top 40 albums in the 1980s including 4 UK Top 10 albums. Saxon also had numerous singles in the Top 20 singles chart...
, Def Leppard
Def Leppard
Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...
, Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
, Motörhead and other bands of the NWOBHM reached high positions in the UK charts, while the same bands did tours and concerts all over Europe. Girlschool participated in this frenzied touring activity, travelling all over Great Britain and visiting Europe both as headliner act and as support to label mates Uriah Heep and Motörhead. On 20 August, Girlschool and Motörhead were filmed performing live at the Nottingham Theatre Royal
Theatre Royal, Nottingham
The Theatre Royal, Nottingham in Nottingham, England, is part of the city's Royal Centre, which also incorporates the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall. The theatre is in the heart of Nottingham City Centre and is owned by Nottingham City Council...
for the Rockstage programme, broadcast by the ATV
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
station on 4 April 1981. In this period, the band was subjected to intense media coverage by music magazines, radio and TV, interested in the novelty of a successful British all-female metal band. The barrage of interviews and promotion did not stop the production of songs and the girls released the new single "Yeah Right" in November 1980.
In December 1980, Girlschool officially started recording the follow-up to Demolition, again with producer Vic Maile, who had meanwhile produced Motörhead’s classic album Ace of Spades
Ace of Spades (album)
Ace of Spades is the fourth album by the British band Motörhead. Released on 8 November 1980, it peaked at #4 on the UK album charts and reached Gold status by March 1981...
. During the sessions, Maile suggested a studio recording team-up with Motörhead, resulting in the release of the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The EP contains the cover of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates’ song "Please Don’t Touch
Please Don't Touch (song)
Please Don't Touch is the debut single by English rock and roll group Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, released in 1959 reaching number 25 on the UK singles charts.-Personnel:*Johnny Kidd – vocals*Mike West, Tom Brown – backing vocals*Alan Caddy – lead guitar...
" and two self-covers, with Motörhead performing Girlschool's "Emergency", and Girlschool playing Motörhead's "Bomber". Dufort played drums on all songs, because Motörhead's drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor was recovering from a neck injury. She also played the drums during the BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
TV show of 19 February 1981, where the two bands performed "Please Don’t Touch" under the moniker Headgirl
Headgirl
Headgirl was a collaboration between Motörhead and Girlschool in 1980, the result being the St. Valentine's Day Massacre EP, though the groups were credited as MotörheadGirlschool on the EP....
. The EP reached No.5 in the UK Single Chart in February 1981 and was certified silver
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
in December 1981, the best sale performance for both bands at the time.
The album Hit and Run
Hit and Run (album)
Hit and Run is the second studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool.It was originally released on Bronze Records in 1981, UK catalogue number BRON 534, having been recorded at Jackson's Studios, England, in December 1980 and January 1981. There was a limited pressing in red vinyl...
was released in April 1981, soon followed by the eponymous single. Both releases were very successful in the UK, with the album reaching position No.5 and the single position No.33 in the respective charts. The album charted also in New Zealand and in Canada, where it went gold. Hit and Run was not released in the USA until 1982, with a different track listing including songs from Demolition. The success of their second album made Girlschool a rising attraction in the boiling British hard rock and heavy metal scene, ensuring headliner slots in medium sized arenas in their sold-out UK tour or guest slots in stadium size concerts of major attractions like Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
and Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
. No dates in the USA were arranged, but Girlschool visited Canada in July. Their 1981 tour culminated on 28 August, headlining the Friday night of the three-day Reading Festival
Reading and Leeds Festivals
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm...
. The Friday Rock Show
Friday Rock Show
The Friday Rock Show was a radio show in the United Kingdom that was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 from 10pm to midnight on Friday nights from 1978 to 1993. Throughout most of its run it was hosted by Tommy Vance. Ostensibly for the genre of rock in general, it was most closely associated with heavy metal...
on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
would later broadcast the Reading set, but the recording has not received an official release.
At the beginning of 1982, Girlschool did a European tour and, at the last Danish date in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
with supporting act Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate was a Danish heavy metal band from Copenhagen. Initially active from 1981 to 1985, they reunited in 1992. The band went on hiatus again in 2000, when frontman King Diamond decided to continue his solo career...
, McAuliffe received a severe electirc shock from her microphone and risked her life. She recovered fast enough to complete a Japanese tour, to do other European shows supporting Rainbow
Rainbow (band)
Rainbow were an English rock band, controlled by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore from 1975 to 1984 and 1994 to 1997. It was originally established with American rock band Elf's members, though over the years Rainbow went through many line-up changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up...
on their Difficult to Cure
Difficult to Cure
Difficult to Cure is the fifth studio album by the British rock band, Rainbow, and was released in 1981. The album marked the further commercialization of the band's sound with Blackmore once describing at the time liking for the rock band, Foreigner....
tour and to start working on new material for the next album. However, the gruelling schedule of recordings, promotional work and concerts had started to take its toll on the group, with bassist Enid Williams the first to give up, right after the release of Wildlife
Wildlife (Girlschool EP)
Wildlife is an EP produced by British heavy metal band, Girlschool and published only in Europe. It was released in 1982 by Bronze Records as a launch for the album Screaming Blue Murder. During the recording sessions for the album, bassist and singer Enid Williams left the band and this EP is the...
in March 1982, an EP designed to launch the upcoming album. On the recommendation of Lemmy, Williams was replaced by Ghislaine 'Gil' Weston, former bassist of the punk band The Killjoys
The Killjoys (UK band)
The Killjoys were a punk rock/new wave band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1976, with members including Kevin Rowland and Kevin "Al" Archer, who would later form Dexys Midnight Runners, and Ghislaine 'Gil' Weston who would later join Girlschool...
.
Girlschool’s third album Screaming Blue Murder
Screaming Blue Murder (Girlschool album)
Screaming Blue Murder is the third studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool. It was released on Bronze Records in 1982, and featured one line-up change in bassist Ghislaine 'Gil' Weston, formerly of The Killjoys, replacing the recently departed founding member Enid Williams...
was recorded in February and March 1982 under the direction of Nigel Gray, the successful producer of The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
and The Professionals
The Professionals (band)
The Professionals were an English punk rock band in the late 1970s and early 1980s formed by ex-Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and drummer and Paul Cook after that band's demise.-Career:...
. The album had a worldwide release in June 1982 but, despite the strong promotion, it reached only No.27 in the UK Album Chart. Critics generally considered Screaming Blue Murder a weaker offering in comparison with the preceding two albums.
Girlschool remained anyway a strong live attraction and their 1982 world tour led the band for the first time in the USA to play in stadiums, supporting Iron Maiden and Scorpions
Scorpions (band)
Scorpions are a heavy metal/hard rock band from Hannover, Germany, formed in 1965 by guitarist Rudolf Schenker, who is the band's only constant member. They are known for their 1980s rock anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and many singles, such as "No One Like You", "Send Me an Angel", "Still...
. NWOBHM acts like Judas Priest and Def Leppard started to be very popular in America and the girls and their record label had no intention to fall back in the conquest of that large market.
1983 - 1985: American sirens
Back in England, the continuous succession of recording sessions, gigs and promotional work started again, but the strain of this routine was wearing out Kelly Johnson, who was also tired of the music the band had been playing for four years without a break. The other members struggled to convince her to stay and the chance to record with British celebrities Noddy HolderNoddy Holder
Neville John "Noddy" Holder MBE is an English musician and actor. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist with the rock band Slade....
and Jim Lea
Jim Lea
Jim Lea , is an English musician, most notable for playing bass guitar, keyboards, violin, guitar, and singing backing vocals in Slade.-Career:...
as producers persuaded the guitarist to carry on with Girlschool. Holder and Lea, who had returned in those years to great success and popularity in Great Britain with the 70s rock band Slade
Slade
Slade are an English rock band from Wolverhampton, who rose to prominence during the glam rock era of the early 1970s. With 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones, the British Hit Singles & Albums names them as the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles...
, were hired to produce only a single, with the following album already scheduled to be recorded in Los Angeles with Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
producer Spencer Proffer. However, the good chemistry found with the two Slade members led the band to decide to record not a single, but their whole fourth studio album in North London with Lea and Holder, giving up the trip to the USA. This time the group changed sensibly both their appearance and their musical style in order to appeal to a large American audience, which Bronze considered more oriented toward AOR
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists.-Music played:Most radio formats are based on a select, tight rotation of hit singles...
and glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
than to the 'biker metal' Girlschool had produced before. Play Dirty
Play Dirty (album)
Play Dirty is the fourth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Bronze Records in 1983 and produced by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea from the hard rock band Slade....
, released in October 1983, is an album with a very polished sound, filled with keyboards, choruses and melodies, but it lacks much of the aggression and power of the preceding works. The album contains covers of the Slade songs "High & Dry" and "Burning in the Heat" and of T.Rex
T. Rex (band)
T. Rex were a British rock band, formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band formed as Tyrannosaurus Rex, releasing four folk albums under the name...
’s "20th Century Boy
20th Century Boy
"20th Century Boy" is a song by T. Rex, written by Marc Bolan. It was released as a single in 1973 and reached #3 in the UK Singles Chart. The song did not feature on an original studio album but was included as a bonus track on a reissue of 1973 album Tanx.It later returned to the UK Top 20 in...
", which was also released as a single. Play Dirty failed to enter the top 50 chart in the UK and had a lukewarm reception by fans and critics at home. A struggle between Bronze and PolyGram
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
for the worldwide contract of the band resulted also in poor promotion for the album in the USA. Moreover, a disastrous performance at Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium.-History:...
supporting ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
did not help Girlschool's already degraded image in Great Britain.
Girlschool embarked in a long US tour to promote the album, sometimes as support to Quiet Riot and Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
, but more often as headliner in small venues after uncomfortable travels. Johnson, unable to tolerate the unhealthy life on the road, quit the band before completing the US tour, hurting the promotion of the album in America. She went to live in Los Angeles with Vicki Blue, former bassist of The Runaways
The Runaways
The Runaways were an American all-girl rock band that recorded and performed in the second half of the 1970s. The band released four studio albums and one live set during its run. Among its best known songs: "Cherry Bomb", "Queens of Noise", "Neon Angels On the Road to Ruin", "California Paradise"...
. With the departure of Kelly Johnson, who was often considered the visual and musical focal point of the band, the almost bankrupt Bronze Records failed to extend the band's recording contract for a follow-up album.
At the beginning of 1984, Girlschool were in need of a new lead guitar player and singer, of a new recording contract and chart success but, despite the difficult situation, the band did not give up. The search for new members ended with the arrival of guitarist Cris Bonacci
Cris Bonacci
Cristina "Cris" Bonacci is an Australian-born producer, songwriter and musician. She is best known for her stint as lead guitarist in the British heavy metal band Girlschool and for her session guitar work.-Career:...
and singer and keyboard player Jackie Bodimead, both from the all-female hard rock band She. She were playing in London clubs at the time, trying to get a record contract and attract the attention of the British music press.
The new Girschool, now a five-piece group, signed with the PolyGram American subsidiary Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
, once home of the American all-girls rock band The Runaways. The label saw in the band an opportunity to produce a rival for chart-winning female-fronted bands like Heart
Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
and Lita Ford
Lita Ford
Lita Ford is a British-born, American rock musician and singer who was the lead guitarist for The Runaways and achieved popularity for her solo career between the 1980s and late 2000s.-Early life:...
and pushed the music of the band even more towards FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
friendly American hard rock. The band was paired with producer Nick Tauber
Nick Tauber
Nick Tauber is a British record producer best known for his work with Thin Lizzy, Toyah and Marillion in the 1970s and 1980s.Nick Tauber continues to manage, produce, and consult with acts/artists/and producers. In the late 1990s, Tauber was involved with British pop/punk act Kowloon, guiding them...
, who had produced the first albums of Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...
and the most successful albums of Toyah
Toyah (band)
Toyah is the name of the band fronted by Toyah Willcox between 1977 and 1983. The only other consistent band member throughout this period was Joel Bogen, Willcox's principal co-writer and guitarist.-Background :...
and Marillion
Marillion
Marillion are a British rock band, formed in Aylesbury, England in 1979. Their recorded studio output comprises sixteen albums generally regarded in two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988, and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve...
, contributing also to the launch of the British glam metal
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...
act Girl
Girl (band)
Girl were an English glam metal band formed in 1979, who split up in 1982 with band members going on to join Def Leppard and L.A. Guns among others.-History:The band's lead vocalist was Phil Lewis...
. The resulting album Running Wild
Running Wild (album)
Running Wild is the fifth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Mercury Records in 1985.It is the only studio work released as a five-piece group by Girlschool, after singer and lead guitarist Kelly Johnson had left the band...
, sported ten keyboard-laden tracks much different from Girlschool’s most successful music. The record label decided to publish the album only in the USA in February 1985, but actually gave little support to its marketing. The review of the magazine Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
reflects the opinions of Dufort and McAuliffe, which described years later the album as rubbish or even worse. Running Wild had insignificant sales on the US market, not representing the breakthrough the band and the label had hoped for. A live performance of Girlschool as a quintet at Camden Palace
Camden Palace
KOKO is a nightclub in a former theatre in Camden Town, London, England, at the bottom of Camden High Street close to Mornington Crescent tube station. Until 2004 it was called the Camden Palace. The building is considered to have some architectural significance and is a Grade II listed...
in London was taped for the VHS Play Dirty Live
Play Dirty Live
Play Dirty Live is the first video album released by the British heavy metal band Girlschool in 1985. The American release of the VHS was done by Polygram, the label that had Girlschool under contract at the time. The release of the video was part of the marketing strategy to launch the studio...
, which was released in 1985 and reissued on DVD with the title Live from London
Play Dirty Live
Play Dirty Live is the first video album released by the British heavy metal band Girlschool in 1985. The American release of the VHS was done by Polygram, the label that had Girlschool under contract at the time. The release of the video was part of the marketing strategy to launch the studio...
in 2005.
The band did some shows supporting the glam rock band Hanoi Rocks
Hanoi Rocks
Hanoi Rocks was a Finnish rock band formed in 1979, whose most successful period came in the early 1980s. The band broke up in 1985 after the death of their drummer, Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley...
in Great Britain, before embarking in the Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
comeback world tour, where Girschool played in a supporting role all over the USA. A tour of India and the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
completed their live activities for 1985. Vocal duties were shared on stage between McAuliffe and Bodimead, who also played keyboards. At the end of the tour, Jackie Bodimead left the band to pursue a solo career.
1986 - 1990: 'back to square one'
After the bad commercial results of Running Wild, Mercury broke the contract with Girlschool, leaving the band without financial backup and with a career in dire straits. "Back to square one again", McAuliffe said at the time. The band decided to go back to their roots, remaining a quartet with only McAuliffe on vocals and going on a UK tour in November – December 1985 supporting Blue Öyster Cult; their immediate goal was to play as much as they could and regain some of their fan base. In early 1986, thanks again to Lemmy’s suggestion, they eventually signed for Doug Smith’s new label GWR RecordsGWR Records
GWR Records was a record label active in the UK from 1986 through to 1991.By 1984, Gerry Bron's Bronze Records were in financial difficulty leading to a hiatus in recording activity for Motörhead...
, which also included in their roster Motörhead. The girls immediately started working on a new album with their old producer Vic Maile
Vic Maile
Vic Maile was a British record producer. After starting his career as sound engineer with Pye mobile studios for The Animals on their song, "We Gotta Get out of This Place", Maile worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry, such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, The...
at Jackson’s Studio in Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth is a town in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England, 4¼ miles west of Watford.The town has a population of around 15,000 people and lies on the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne, at the northern end of the Colne Valley regional park.Rickmansworth is a small town in...
. The first output of their new work was a team-up with British glam rock singer Gary Glitter
Gary Glitter
Gary Glitter is an English former glam rock singer-songwriter and musician.Glitter first came to prominence in the glam rock era of the early 1970s...
for the cover of his 1973 hit "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)", which was released as single in April 1986. The album Nightmare at Maple Cross
Nightmare at Maple Cross
Nightmare at Maple Cross is the sixth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on GWR Records in 1986. Under the direction of producer Vic Maile, this album marks the return of the band to the sound of their earlier works and to a four-piece formation. All tracks were composed...
, released in July of the same year, marked for the band the return to the sound of Hit and Run and to the their trademark abrasive lyrics. The album received fairly good reviews, but it did not enter the British charts and was released in North America only a year later. The following European tour saw the girls supporting the Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
hard rock band Nazareth
Nazareth (band)
Nazareth is a Scottish hard rock band, founded in 1968, that had several hits in the UK in the early 1970s, and established an international audience with their 1975 album Hair of the Dog. Perhaps their best-known hit single was a cover of the ballad "Love Hurts", in 1975...
.
In January 1987, after five years with the group, bassist Gil Weston-Jones left Girlschool to spend more time with her American husband. Her place was quickly taken by Tracey Lamb, who had been the bass player of the all-female NWOBHM band Rock Goddess
Rock Goddess
Rock Goddess was an all-female heavy metal band from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal era that briefly enjoyed cult status in the early 1980s in Great Britain.-History:...
and a band mate of Cris Bonacci in She. Girlschool spent the rest of the year promoting the album with a US tour and appearances in various TV shows across Europe, followed by a long European tour supporting usual label mates Motörhead.
At the beginning of 1988, the band started rehearsing material for a new album with producer André Jacquemin, who had worked on all the Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
’s records. The album Take a Bite
Take a Bite
Take a Bite is the seventh studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released by GWR Records in 1988. It is the first album to feature Tracey Lamb on bass, replacing Gil Weston-Jones.-Overview:...
was published by GWR in October 1988 and follows in the steps of Nightmare at Maple Cross, presenting powerful and melodic metal songs, tinged with the humour typical of the band. To promote the album, Girlschool did a UK tour with Gary Glitter, followed by a North American tour. In 1989, they travelled across Europe with Dio
Dio (band)
Dio was an American heavy metal band from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Formed in 1982 and led by vocalist Ronnie James Dio, after he left Black Sabbath with intentions to form a new band with fellow former Black Sabbath member, drummer Vinny Appice. Naming the band Dio made sense from a commercial...
and to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
with Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
, till the end of the year. After their return from Russia, GWR did not renovate their contract and the band practically broke up. Musical tastes were changing worldwide in favour of grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
and more extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
genres, compelling most acts originated from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to disband or to reduce their activities and the same thing happened to Girlschool.
1990 - 1991: She-Devils and Strange Girls
Even if not officially disbanded, Girlschool had become "not a full-time thing anymore" for the members of the group. In this period, Cris Bonacci joined British singer Toyah WillcoxToyah Willcox
Toyah Ann Willcox is an English actress and singer. In a career spanning more than thirty years Toyah has had 13 top 40 singles, released 22 studio albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays and ten feature films, as well as voicing and presenting numerous television shows...
, for the promotion of the album Ophelia's Shadow
Ophelia's Shadow
Ophelia's Shadow was the fourth solo album by Toyah Willcox, and showcases a new direction in her work. Moving on from the experimental Prostitute, it showcases a more progressive style of music....
. A brief tour of Spain was Girlschool’s only activity of 1990, but in December, McAuliffe, Bonacci, Dufort and returning bass player Enid Williams, teamed up with Toyah Willcox under the name She-Devils for the first edition of the Women in Music festival at Shaw Theatre
Shaw Theatre
The Shaw Theatre is a theatre in Somers Town, in the London Borough of Camden. It is located near the Euston Road, beside the British Library and St Pancras Chambers , equidistant from King's Cross station and Euston station....
in London, performing both Girlschool and Toyah
Toyah (band)
Toyah is the name of the band fronted by Toyah Willcox between 1977 and 1983. The only other consistent band member throughout this period was Joel Bogen, Willcox's principal co-writer and guitarist.-Background :...
’s songs. A few months later, the same musicians reunited again under the new name Strange Girls, with Lydie Gallais replacing Dufort on drums. Strange Girls toured clubs in Great Britain in 1991 and 1992 and supported The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
in their German dates in the summer of 1991. The band wrote a few songs and produced a demo, but the only published track from this period is the song "Lust for Love", which can be found on Toyah’s album Take the Leap!
Take The Leap!
Leap! and Take the Leap! are the names for Toyah Willcox's project subsequent to Ophelia's Shadow. It consists of six new tracks, either previously unrecorded or written for the new album, and eight older tracks re-recorded with her new band....
.
1992 - 2002: living on tour
Girlschool went back in action in 1992, recruiting Jackie Carrera on bass and recording GirlschoolGirlschool (album)
Girlschool is the eighth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Communiqué Records and Progressive International in 1992. It is the fourth and last studio album recorded with lead guitarist Cris Bonacci and the only one with bassist Jackie Carrera...
, their first self-produced album, which was distributed worldwide by the British indie label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Communiqué Records. The lower visibility of the album distributed by an indie label marked the definitive transition to cult status for the band, renouncing to many expectations of big sales. Girlschool were now the managers of themselves, relying on their solid live show and on their reputation with promoters and other artists to get gigs and work. As stated in an interview to the British TV show Raw Power
Raw Power (television show)
Raw Power is a weekly Heavy Metal/Rock Music television programme, with connections to Raw magazine, and produced by Music Box Ltd, which aired in Britain on ITV from 1990 until 1993. The name was eventually changed to Noisy Mothers which aired Nationwide in 1994 and 1995 and the format of the show...
, Girlschool would "play in every single toilet that we can find!"
After a few European dates, returning bassist Tracey Lamb replaced Carrera before a new tour in the United States. But more line-up changes were in store for the band because, at the end of 1992, Cris Bonacci left the band to become a touring musician and then a producer. In 1993, her place as lead guitarist was taken back by Kelly Johnson, who returned after nine years to England from LA, where she had played in a band with Kathy Valentine and written and produced her own music. The plethora of compilations
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
of old Girlschool material that had started to be published from 1989 kept the band alive on the CD market and guaranteed enough visibility to get a good number of gigs every year in every part of the world, often supporting other NWOBHM acts like Motörhead or Saxon. In this period, the girls were also present at rock festival
Rock festival
A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale rock music concert, featuring multiple acts.The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.Today, they are often...
s all over Europe, both as Girlschool or separately in other outfits. In 1995, Communiqué Records released Girlschool Live
Girlschool Live
Girlschool Live was the first official live album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Communiqué Records in 1995. It features again Kelly Johnson on lead guitar.-Track listing:#"Screaming Blue Murder" - 3:29#"Hit & Run" - 2:56...
, a live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
documenting the intense live shows of the band in that period and which included the new tracks "Knife" and "Little Green Men". Girlschool continued their live activity in the 1990s, culminating with a participation to the Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air is a summer open air heavy metal music festival. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany...
festival on Friday, 6 August 1999.
In all this time the band had been writing new songs and, in September 1998, they began to record a new album, but touring commitments and new line-up changes prevented Girlschool to complete it. In fact, Johnson quit amicably Girlschool in 1999, followed by Lamb in 2000. They were replaced by new lead guitarist Jackie 'Jax' Chambers and by Enid Williams, who finally rejoined the group after eighteen years. Johnson, who had been diagnosed with cancer, and Lamb remained anyway strictly associated with the other band members.
21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent
21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent
21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent is the ninth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Communiqué Records in 2002. The production of the album lasted for a prolonged time and it was finally released when lead guitarist Kelly Johnson and bassist Tracey Lamb had already...
was finally released at the beginning of 2002 and co-produced by Girlschool and Tim Hamill. The album contains tracks recorded three years earlier by the previous line-up, with the addition of the songs "Coming Your Way" and "Innocent" recorded by the current one. The influence of the American years spent by Johnson in Los Angeles is clearly audible in the music and in the vocal tracks of the album, which features Girlschool’s first semi-acoustic ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
"A Love Too Far".
2003 - present: recent activities
In 2003, the band was again in a recording studio for The Second Wave: 25 Years of NWOBHMThe Second Wave: 25 Years of NWOBHM
The Second Wave: 25 Years of NWOBHM is a split studio album released in 2003 by British indie label Communiqué Records. The album contains five songs each from veteran bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal Oliver/Dawson Saxon , Girlschool and Tygers of Pan Tang...
, a split album conceived by the label Communiqué, comprising five songs each for Oliver/Dawson Saxon
Oliver/Dawson Saxon
Oliver/Dawson Saxon is an English heavy metal band formed in 1995 by former members of Saxon, guitarist Graham Oliver and bassist Steve Dawson.-Oliver/Dawson Saxon :...
, Tygers of Pan Tang
Tygers Of Pan Tang
Tygers of Pan Tang are a heavy metal band, formed in 1978 and originating from Whitley Bay, England. They are a notable band of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement...
and Girlschool. A tour of the three aforementioned bands could not be organized and, in October 2004, Girlschool toured supporting the album with Tygers of Pan Tang and Paul DiAnno.
Preceded by the publication of the re-mastered editions of their first four albums, Girlschool released the studio album Believe
Believe (Girlschool album)
Believe is the tenth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Communiqué Records in 2004. It was the first album entirely played by the formation with new guitarist Jackie Chambers. It was re-released in 2008 in a limited edition, including the DVD Around the World, with...
in July 2004. The wish to explore new territories is obvious in some tracks of the album, which is the first one entirely composed by the new line-up at Chambers’ home studio. The changed line-up brought a new balance in the band, with Chambers involved in the composition of all songs. Moreover, the chance to use again two lead singers led to improvements in the vocal and choral parts. Unfortunately, the album was poorly distributed and remained unknown to large parts of its potential audience. In 2005, the band re-released Believe in a new package with a DVD containing footage taken from concerts of the 2000s and sold it through their official website. A US and European tour followed Believe first release, but the project for releasing in 2004 a live DVD tentatively titled Girlschool Live at the Garage never materialized. In June 2005, Girlschool did a UK tour with Vixen
Vixen (band)
Vixen is an all-female American hard rock band which achieved some commercial success during the late 1980s and early 1990s as part of the Los Angeles, California glam metal scene.-Early years:...
and another one in November–December with old pals Motörhead, celebrating Lemmy's band 30th anniversary. During the same year, they were also on stage at summer festivals in Holland and England and opened for Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
in Spain.
Rock and metal festivals have become a constant for the band, that performed both in large open air meetings in Germany (Headbangers Open Air
Headbangers Open Air
Headbangers Open Air is a heavy metal festival held annually in Germany since 1998. The 2007 edition will take place in Brande-Hörnerkirchen on July 12 - July 14.-1999:...
2006, Bang Your Head!!! 2007, Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air
Wacken Open Air is a summer open air heavy metal music festival. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany...
2008 and Wacken Rocks 2009), France (Hellfest Summer Open Air
Hellfest Summer Open Air
Hellfest is an annual music festival which takes place in Clisson, France in mid-June. It is held within the Val de Moine sport complex in Clisson, approximately 35 km south-east of the city of Nantes, and approximately 400 km south-west of the nation's capital Paris. Billed as an "extreme music...
2009), England (Hard Rock Hell
Hard Rock Hell
Hard Rock Hell is a three day music festival currently held at Pontin's Holiday Village, Prestatyn, Wales. The idea of holding the festival at in a holiday camp gives the organisers pre-built venues and stages and because of the on-site accommodation allows them to hold a multi day festival over...
2007 and 2009, Bloodstock Open Air
Bloodstock Open Air
Bloodstock Open Air is a heavy metal festival held annually at Catton Hall in Walton-upon-Trent, England, since 2005. Previous line-ups have included bands such as Opeth , Children of Bodom , Nightwish , Cradle of Filth , Testament , Arch Enemy , Europe and Twisted Sister .Originally on one stage...
2009) and the USA (Power Box Festival 2007) and in smaller settings, like the Rock of Ages Fest in England in 2007 and the Metal Female Voices Fest
Metal Female Voices Fest
Metal Female Voices Fest is a heavy metal music festival held annually in Belgium since 2003. It is organized by the Metal Organisation agency. The seventh edition took place at Oktoberhallen in Wieze in the municipality of Lebbeke on October 17 and October 18, 2009.-October 22:*Doro* Leaves' Eyes*...
in Belgium in 2008. Girlschool were opening act for Heaven & Hell in 2007, for Dio in 2008 and for Hawkwind and Motörhead in 2009.
On 15 July 2007, Kelly Johnson died of spinal cancer, after six years of painful therapy and treatment of her illness. At Kelly’s memorial, Tracey Lamb read the eulogy she had written for her. The band performed a tribute gig on 20 August 2007 at the Soho Revue Bar
Raymond Revuebar
The Raymond Revuebar was a theater and strip club at 11 Walker's Court, now The Box Soho, in the heart of London's Soho district. For many years, it was the only venue in London that offered full-frontal, on-stage nudity of the sort commonly seen in other cities in Europe and North America...
in London, with many of Johnson’s friends and former Girlschool’s members and a concert for Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the United Kingdom, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Its aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. As the world's largest independent cancer...
at Rock of Ages Fest in Tamworth
Tamworth
Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...
on 8 September 2007.
The new album Legacy
Legacy (Girlschool album)
Legacy is the eleventh studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Wacken Records in 2008. This album celebrates the 30th anniversary of Girlschool, making it the longest running all-female metal band in activity. A few musicians that the band befriended in the many years of...
, released in October 2008, celebrates both the departed guitarist and the 30th anniversary of Girlschool, making them the so far longest running female rock band in the world. The recording was auto-produced with the assistance of Tim Hamill and the compositions are more individual, revealing a large array of influences, going from NWOBHM, to punk, to West Coast alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
. To emphasize the celebrative mood, the album features many guest musicians, with members of Heaven & Hell, Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister is an American heavy metal band from Long Island. Musically, the band implements elements of traditional heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, along with a style that is similar to early glam metal bands...
and Motörhead supplying vocals and guitars in many tracks. Kelly Johnson’s 'ghost' presence permeates the album and the song "Legend" is especially dedicated to her. The album received excellent reviews and the German label SPV/Steamhammer
SPV GmbH
SPV GmbH is an independent German record label.Founded on January 1, 1984, it has slowly grown to be one of the largest independent distributors and record labels worldwide....
guaranteed the worldwide distribution. Girlschool performed a special show celebrating their 30th anniversary on 16 December at the Astoria 2
London Astoria
The London Astoria was a music venue, located at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. It had been leased and run by Festival Republic since 2000. It was closed on 15 January 2009 and has since been demolished...
in London.
Girlschool are among the many female singers performing in veteran German hard rock singer Doro Pesch
Doro (musician)
Dorothee Pesch , popularly known as Doro Pesch or Doro, is a female rock vocalist, formerly of the German heavy metal band Warlock ....
’s single "Celebrate
Celebrate - The Night of the Warlock
Celebrate - The Night of the Warlock is an EP by German female hard rock singer Doro Pesch, released in 2008 through AFM Records. The EP preceded of a few months the album Fear No Evil and includes three versions of the song "Celebrate"...
", published in 2008. Jackie Chambers and Enid Williams were also present on stage at Doro’s 25th anniversary celebrative concert on 13 December 2008 in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
.
At the beginning of 2010, Girlschool contributed to the release of the cover of their single "Emergency" by Cornish
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
youth music charity Livewire, in order to raise funds for the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake
2010 Haiti earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
.
Girlschool are still active and toured Europe with the Canadian metal band Anvil
Anvil (band)
Anvil is a Canadian heavy metal band comprising Steve "Lips" Kudlow , Robb Reiner , and Glenn Five...
in 2010.
The band spent time in studio re-recording their classic 1981 album Hit and Run, during 2011. The new version of the LP, titled Hit and Run – Revisited
Hit and Run – Revisited
Hit and Run – Revisited is the twelfth studio album by the British heavy metal band Girlschool, released in 2011. The album is a re-recording of the 1981 album Hit and Run, considered by most critics a classic of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal period and the most commercially successful for...
, was released on 26 September 2011 to celebrate the original album's 30th anniversary.
Music and style
RevolverRevolver (magazine)
Revolver is a bi-monthly rock and heavy metal magazine published by Future US. Before covering heavy metal, rock & hard rock solely, it was a more mainstream oriented magazine. The magazine is structured in a manner similar to publications such as Spin while covering many avenues within the heavy...
magazine editor Christopher Scapelliti aptly described Girlschool's music as a "punk-metal mix tough, but poppy enough for radio". The influences of classic hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
and heavy metal are present in the musical background of all the original band members and they are particularly evident in the clean and sometimes bluesy solo guitar work of Kelly Johnson. On the other end, punk rock had a direct influence in the birth of New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
and New Wave of British Heavy Metal and that music was still very popular when the band was born. Moreover, both Denise Dufort and Gil Weston had played in punk bands before joining Girlschool. "We're both too heavy to be New Wave and too punk to be a heavy metal band", McAuliffe explained to Robbi Millar of Sounds
Sounds (magazine)
Sounds was a long-term British music paper, published weekly from 10 October 1970 – 6 April 1991. It was produced by Spotlight Publications , which was set up by Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left "Melody Maker" to start their own company...
in 1980. The raw and almost live recording sound of their first two Vic Maile produced albums represents perfectly the core music of the band in the years from 1979 to 1982, which were the most successful for Girlschool. The combination of metal and punk was a large part of the sound which also propelled Motörhead to notoriety and chart success in the early 80s in the United Kingdom. This sound, the tours and recordings made together with Lemmy’s band, the girls’ denim and leather look
Heavy metal fashion
Heavy metal fashion is the style of dress, body modification, make-up, hairstyle, and so on, taken on by fans of heavy metal, or, as they are often called, metalheads or headbangers.-Origins:...
, as much as their rowdy and alcohol driven off-stage behaviour soon gained Girlschool the moniker of 'sisters of Motörhead', which they are often still identified with today. Their close association with Motörhead at the beginning of Girlschool's career was anyway a useful springboard for their early success.
The mounting pressure to appeal to a mainstream audience, the quick change of tastes in British rock fans with the decline of the NWOBHM phenomenon and the chance to have a breakthrough in the US market prompted Girlschool to change their music, starting with the album Screaming Blue Murder in 1982. Their sound, following the success of Def Leppard's album Pyromania
Pyromania (album)
Pyromania is the third studio album by British rock band Def Leppard, released on 20 January 1983. It featured new guitarist Phil Collen and was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album charted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and #18 on the UK Albums Chart.The album was partially recorded with...
, became more polished with the introduction of keyboards on Play Dirty and veered toward hard rock and glam metal, losing the raw edge of their early works. "We were signed to an American label (...) there was a certain amount of pressure exerted on us to sound more American" was McAuliffe explanation, speaking about the tame sound of the album Running Wild. The band appearance also changed to a more feminine and sophisticated style, imitating the successful American glam metal bands of the time and generally following the direction of the market. However, the failed attempt to create a niche for Girlschool in the USA and the rapidly changing record market behaviour made the band change their mind and go back to their original sound, which they retain to this day. Girlschool's members themselves described their music in different ways, from "slapstick rock" to "raucous (...) heavy metal rock 'n' roll", and, even acknowledging the common origin of their music in the NWOBHM, they sometimes found it difficult to associate their songs to a single genre or sub-genre of rock music.
Just like most punk songs, Girlschool’s lyrics usually have short and direct texts, often reflecting the wild rock 'n' roll lifestyle and treating sex and romance as seen from a feminine point of view, with the use of reverse sexism and tongue-in-cheek
Tongue-in-cheek
Tongue-in-cheek is a phrase used as a figure of speech to imply that a statement or other production is humorously intended and it should not be taken at face value. The facial expression typically indicates that one is joking or making a mental effort. In the past, it may also have indicated...
sense of humour. Some of their songs deal also with more serious matters, such as exploitation and abuse
Abuse
Abuse is the improper usage or treatment for a bad purpose, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, sexual assault, violation, rape, unjust practices; wrongful practice or custom; offense; crime, or otherwise...
of women, murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, addiction
Addiction
Historically, addiction has been defined as physical and psychological dependence on psychoactive substances which cross the blood-brain barrier once ingested, temporarily altering the chemical milieu of the brain.Addiction can also be viewed as a continued involvement with a substance or activity...
, the destruction of the environment, social and political issues.
Reception
The fact of being a band composed of girls, beside the obvious marketing gimmick based on sexuality, has always been perceived as a handicap in the sexist and male-dominated heavy metal scene, especially in the early 1980s, when metal was rapidly taking the place of punk music in the tastes of many young males in Great Britain. However, Girlschool's good musicianship and their aggressive but fun-loving attitude quickly won the NWOBHM audience, which treated them with respect, forming a loyal fan base. In Kelly Johnson's word, Girlschool were so well accepted because "most of the audience is headbangers and they spend most of the time banging their heads and hardly look at us".In 1980, Girlschool's fondest fans formed a club called 'The Barmy Army', which followed and supported the band during every tour in Great Britain and Europe. The fan club
Fan club
A fan club is a group that is dedicated to a well-known person, group, idea or sometimes even an inanimate object . Most fan clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to supporting them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the person...
did not survive the decline of the band and almost ceased its activities by the end of 1982.
British specialized press took notice of the band and especially weekly magazines like Sounds
Sounds (magazine)
Sounds was a long-term British music paper, published weekly from 10 October 1970 – 6 April 1991. It was produced by Spotlight Publications , which was set up by Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left "Melody Maker" to start their own company...
and later Kerrang! dedicated covers to Girlschool and had frequent articles for either their stage performances or for their off-stage drinking bouts and 'no-nonsense attitude', during their period of maximum media exposition and chart success. In 1980, Sounds voted the band second 'Best Newcomer' and Kelly Johnson third 'Best Female Vocalist'. Two years later, Kerrang! still voted Kelly Johnson second 'Best Female Vocalist' and best 'Female Pin-up'. In that period, British radio stations gladly broadcast Girlschool's singles and the band was also guest of music TV shows, culminating in a performance at Top of the Pops on April 1981 to promote the single "Hit and Run".
On the contrary, Girlschool's change of musical style in 1984 and their sudden predilection for the US market were not well received by the British press and by their fans at home. The change of attitude and image, exemplified by the music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Running Wild" on rotation on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, which showed the girls playing with heavy make-up, combed hair and fancy costumes, imitating a trendy American glam
Glam metal
Glam metal is a subgenre of hard rock and heavy metal that arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene...
outfit, alienated the love of British fans, whose perception of the band was still that of roughneck companions to Motörhead, instead of competitors of Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. The group was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil...
and Ratt
Ratt
Ratt is an American heavy metal band that had significant commercial success in the 1980s. The band is best known for songs such as "Round and Round," "Wanted Man," "Lay It Down," "You're in Love", "Slip of the Lip", "Back For More", "Dance", "Body Talk", "I Want a Woman", and "Way Cool Jr." Ratt...
. In the time span of two years, Girlschool passed from headliner act to having serious difficulty to find a gig in the UK: "Nobody seems to want us in Britain anymore", confessed McAuliffe to journalist Malcom Dome in 1984. The return of Girlschool to the sound of their beginnings came too late to win back the large fan base of their heyday and the band fell to cult status already in the late 1980s.
Legacy
Pete Makowski in an article of the August 1980 edition of Sounds defined Girlschool "the leading pioneers in the battle against sexismSexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
". However, even if Enid Williams' showed interest in feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, the band never openly expressed opinions about female discrimination, happy of being appreciated simply as musicians instead of 'female musicians'. Nonetheless, the simple fact of being a successful all-female group in the macho
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
heavy metal scene was a statement of sexual equality, as many reviewers remarked, arriving as far as to associate Girlschool with the American feminist Riot Grrrl
Riot grrrl
Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement based in Washington, DC, Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and the greater Pacific Northwest which existed in the early to mid-1990s, and it is often associated with third-wave feminism...
movement.
Reviewers and critics have also often associated the production of recent all-female metal acts to the sound and music of Girlschool, identifying them as a band that, just like The Runaways before them, helped in paving the way to the presence of women in rock music. However, Williams remembered in 2004 how, in her experience, Girlschool were more inspirational for young male musicians than for female ones in starting rock bands. Moreover, important female metal bands of the 2000s, such as Crucified Barbara
Crucified Barbara
Crucified Barbara is a Swedish all-female metal band, formed in Stockholm in 1998. Their music may best be described as a cross between heavy metal, Thrash metal and rock'n'roll.-Background:...
and Drain STH
Drain STH
-Biography:Noted today for their Seattle/Grunge sound, Stockholm all female quartet Drain STH have undergone many direction changes in both musical style and image. Guitarist Flavia Canel and drummer Martina Axén have been together in many acts starting with punk band Livin' Sacrifice...
, denied even of knowing the music of Girlschool. Only the American all-female rock band The Donnas
The Donnas
The Donnas are an American all-female rock band from Palo Alto, California. They draw inspiration from The Ramones, The Runaways, AC/DC, Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Kiss. Rolling Stone has stated that "the Donnas offer a guileless take on adolescent alienation; they traffic in kicks, not...
publicly acknowledged the influence of Girlschool on their music.
Band members
Current members- Kim McAuliffe – rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, lead and backing vocals - Enid Williams – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, lead and backing vocals - Jackie Chambers – lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, backing vocals - Denise Dufort – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, backing vocals
Discography
- DemolitionDemolition (Girlschool album)Demolition is the first studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool.It was released in Europe on Bronze Records in 1980, with the catalogue number Bronze BRON 534...
(1980) - Hit and RunHit and Run (album)Hit and Run is the second studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool.It was originally released on Bronze Records in 1981, UK catalogue number BRON 534, having been recorded at Jackson's Studios, England, in December 1980 and January 1981. There was a limited pressing in red vinyl...
(1981) - Screaming Blue MurderScreaming Blue Murder (Girlschool album)Screaming Blue Murder is the third studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool. It was released on Bronze Records in 1982, and featured one line-up change in bassist Ghislaine 'Gil' Weston, formerly of The Killjoys, replacing the recently departed founding member Enid Williams...
(1982) - Play DirtyPlay Dirty (album)Play Dirty is the fourth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Bronze Records in 1983 and produced by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea from the hard rock band Slade....
(1983) - Running WildRunning Wild (album)Running Wild is the fifth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Mercury Records in 1985.It is the only studio work released as a five-piece group by Girlschool, after singer and lead guitarist Kelly Johnson had left the band...
(1985) - Nightmare at Maple CrossNightmare at Maple CrossNightmare at Maple Cross is the sixth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on GWR Records in 1986. Under the direction of producer Vic Maile, this album marks the return of the band to the sound of their earlier works and to a four-piece formation. All tracks were composed...
(1986) - Take a BiteTake a BiteTake a Bite is the seventh studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released by GWR Records in 1988. It is the first album to feature Tracey Lamb on bass, replacing Gil Weston-Jones.-Overview:...
(1988) - GirlschoolGirlschool (album)Girlschool is the eighth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Communiqué Records and Progressive International in 1992. It is the fourth and last studio album recorded with lead guitarist Cris Bonacci and the only one with bassist Jackie Carrera...
(1992) - 21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent is the ninth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Communiqué Records in 2002. The production of the album lasted for a prolonged time and it was finally released when lead guitarist Kelly Johnson and bassist Tracey Lamb had already...
(2002) - BelieveBelieve (Girlschool album)Believe is the tenth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Communiqué Records in 2004. It was the first album entirely played by the formation with new guitarist Jackie Chambers. It was re-released in 2008 in a limited edition, including the DVD Around the World, with...
(2004) - LegacyLegacy (Girlschool album)Legacy is the eleventh studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Wacken Records in 2008. This album celebrates the 30th anniversary of Girlschool, making it the longest running all-female metal band in activity. A few musicians that the band befriended in the many years of...
(2008) - Hit and Run – RevisitedHit and Run – RevisitedHit and Run – Revisited is the twelfth studio album by the British heavy metal band Girlschool, released in 2011. The album is a re-recording of the 1981 album Hit and Run, considered by most critics a classic of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal period and the most commercially successful for...
(2011)
Videography
- Play Dirty LivePlay Dirty LivePlay Dirty Live is the first video album released by the British heavy metal band Girlschool in 1985. The American release of the VHS was done by Polygram, the label that had Girlschool under contract at the time. The release of the video was part of the marketing strategy to launch the studio...
(1985) - Girlschool - Live from LondonPlay Dirty LivePlay Dirty Live is the first video album released by the British heavy metal band Girlschool in 1985. The American release of the VHS was done by Polygram, the label that had Girlschool under contract at the time. The release of the video was part of the marketing strategy to launch the studio...
(2005) - Around the WorldBelieve (Girlschool album)Believe is the tenth studio album by British heavy metal band, Girlschool, released on Communiqué Records in 2004. It was the first album entirely played by the formation with new guitarist Jackie Chambers. It was re-released in 2008 in a limited edition, including the DVD Around the World, with...
(2008)