Her lips are unsealed: Kathy Valentine on life in all-female band, The Go-Go's
Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go's: "there would not be less of us if more of us were visible"
The Go-Go's entry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was a long time coming. Forty-three years after the all-female group were formed in California, that prestigious induction in October last year came as part of a new chapter that had begun with a reunion in 2019, and has led to new music and recent tours.
Many people would have first heard The Go-Go’s via the 1981 release of their debut long-player, Beauty and the Beat. A cornerstone of the post-punk era in the US, the album featured hits such as We Got The Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed, and shifted more than two million copies while spending six weeks at the top of the American Billboard album charts.
The band’s bassist Kathy Valentine used the Hall of Fame ceremony to call for more women to be given a similar honour. “The Go-Go’s will be advocating for the inclusion of more women,” she said. “Women who have paved the way for us and others. Women who started bands, who sing and write songs, who excel on their instruments, who make and produce records. Because here’s the thing: there would not be less of us if more of us were visible.” A year on and she’s discussing her new autobiography, All I Ever Wanted: A Rock N’ Roll Memoir. It charts her eventful years in the music business with gritty honesty, while the audiobook version comes complete with a driving soundtrack.
“It was really important when I got a deal that they let me integrate the soundtrack. I can do something other writers can’t in that I can write music to accompany the book. I was surprised more people hadn’t done it because there is so much material to mine.” Valentine co-wrote a number of The Go-Go’s definitive songs while abetting them with hooky bass-lines, infectious backing vocals and a rock’n’roll heart on sleeve attitude. “The Go-Go’s might not have had the same amount of hits as many others but it was an important band. I wish it could have been more; it was the best thing that ever happened to me and one of the most frustrating things”.
Despite being one of the most successful female rock bands of all time, the five-piece had a relativity short-run, and originally split in 1985.
“I imagined us being like Cheap Trick; making records, touring and getting better every year but it didn’t happen for whatever reason,” says Valentine. “We are very different now and we have different tastes. When you are age 22 or 23 you change, your friendships have a shelf-life, you grow at different rates and that’s what happened but for that time we were worthy and deserving of that (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) honour.”
The same candour permeates Valentine’s prose. She writes about a chaotic and traumatic childhood living with her English mother. A trip to visit her London-based family in 1973 proved to be something of an epiphany. ‘The moment I saw Suzi Quatro fronting a band of guys while playing bass on Top of the Pops I wanted to be in a band. From that moment on it was a dream and goal, that seed was always there and underlying everything I did. I wanted to be in a band of women and be in the echelon of top bands. That’s a hard thing to get and it only happens once”.
A later visit to London, this time to the King’s Road at the height of punk proved to be another formative experience. “Not long after I got back from London the Sex Pistols announced they were playing at Randy’s Rodeo just an hour down the road from where I lived. There was a lot of curiosity seekers there but those of us who got it saw rock’n’roll being reinvented.” All I Ever Wanted documents Valentine’s exasperation at The Go-Go’s abrupt split. Some have interpreted that as being resentful towards front-woman Belinda Carlisle, who went on to enjoy a string of hits during her successful solo career.
“A few people writing about the book have suggested jealously; I didn’t write that but some will take what they take from it. I think we can all relate to this, it was a hard thing. You don’t resent your neighbour’s good fortune or promotion but you have a feeling of ‘good for you but where’s mine?’ “I worked hard and I didn’t want to be a solo artist. I watched them go on to getting things (other members teamed up with Carlisle) my heart was broken at the end of the band, it was like a divorce. It’s not easy to be confronted with seeing your ex-partner with a new lover, it was like that.”
Both Valentine and drummer Gina Schock would sue former members of the band at different points, usually the kiss of death for any reunion hopes. “The Hall of Fame helped us overcome and heal a lot of stuff, it happened at the perfect time. I sued them when they formed a new partnership and cut me out. Gina also sued Charlotte (Caffey), there was a lot of ugly behind the scenes stuff. The Go-Go’s documentary (simply titled The Go-Go’s) also had a lot to do with healing past grudges. People had been hurting for 30 years, we were five young messed up people who were not compassionate or emotionally mature.”
Valentine suggests the quintet’s current run with the classic line-up is a victory lap. “It’s not too late for audiences to see how good we are because we never broke that big in Europe,” she says. Even their classic hit, Our Lips Are Sealed, co-written by Terry Hall, ended up a bigger hit for him when he released it with the Fun Boy Three.
Despite being stung by the break-up of The Go-Go’s, Valentine went on to have a solo career that included a 2005 album, Light Years, featuring Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, Lenny Kravitz and former Guns N’ Roses rhythm player Gilby Clarke.
She suggests playing bass for The Go-Go’s remains the best channel for her songs. Among her most loved co-writes are Apology and Vacation, the latter a lead single from the band’s second album of the same name. “It’s not the most poetic or best of lyrics but it is so authentic and genuine; that’s what gets to people… they have a bullshit meter for songs that are put together as part of a songwriting team. There will always be some value and connection possible when something is coming from the heart like that. It would never have been what it was without The Go-Gos; it doesn’t matter how good the song is, they were the vehicle to make that song what it is”.
All I Ever Wanted includes some memorable encounters with the likes of Keith Richards, Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart. She says the latter figure struggled to stay up all night with the band, while Ozzy Osbourne threw one member out of his dressing room for being too rowdy.
Valentine admits to being spellbound only once. “I’m rarely starstruck but I was dumbfounded when I met Bowie, I don’t know what it was but I was speechless. We were opening for him [on 1983’s Serious Moonlight tour]. He had been through the more artsy, esoteric and ambient period with a lot of drama and this was back to Bowie rocking out. It was an exciting time to be a fan again and was a highlight of the whole Go-Go experience.”
- Kathy Valentine - All I Ever Wanted: A Rock N’ Roll Memoir is out on March 22
