‘You cannot deny what we have done’

In March 1982, Go-Go’s debut album The beauty and the Beat made history as the first album (and, almost three decades later, the only album) by an exclusively female band that wrote all their songs and played all their instruments to reach number 1 on the Billboard 200; She held that top spot for six consecutive weeks.

Band leader Belinda Carlisle and guitarist Charlotte Caffey remember exactly where they were when they heard the news, delivered personally by Sting, who came with a bottle of champagne. Just signed with IRS Records, the Go-Goes were touring with that label’s main group, the Police, whose own album they had hunted that week at number 6. Ironically, just a couple of years earlier, despite the fact that the Go-Go were one of the best drawing bands in Los Angeles, all the major record labels had passed them by.

“They said, ‘We love you. We can see that everyone loves you, but there has never been a female band that has been this big. I mean, you’ve had cult-level successes, like the Fugitives and Fanny, but as for having a huge chance of success, because they’re all women, there’s never been anything before, you know, like you, so I’m sorry, we’ll approve, ‘”Carlisle recalls, speaking to Yahoo Entertainment about the band’s new career-spanning documentary Showtime, The Go-Go’s, released on July 31. “Ginger [Canzoneri]Our manager says he has a file full of denial letters for that very reason. “

“I would like love read all those letters, “laughs Caffey.” It would be so much fun. “

Caffey admits that “looking back, it’s very vindictive” to prove that everyone who doubts A&R is wrong, but at the time, she and Carlisle’s bandmates (guitarist Jane Wiedlin, bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer). Gina Schock) barely had time to realize what they had accomplished, due to their “non-stop work, but also the non-stop party.”

The Go-Goes may have had an impeccably clean pop-girl image, but in reality they were just as depraved as any other band that came from the Hollywood punk scene. “” We teased that all the time: ‘Oh, the Go -¡ Oh, cute, bubbly, effervescent, the loves of America! ‘”Carlisle laughs. “It really was like a big party the whole time. … Of course, it got dark, but not for a while. ”

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Caffey says it was when the Go-Goes acted in Saturday night live in November 1981, when he first realized that the band was heading to the big leagues; the exhibition played an important role in The beauty and the BeatThe slow recording success, with the album finally going to number 1 four months after SNL appearance and eight months after its initial release. However, as revealed in the Showtime documentary, the disastrous performance could They’ve been a career killer, because the Go-Goes were so intoxicated at the time that they barely got tangled up.

“At the time, it was outrageous,” says Carlisle. “Everyone, that was the talk. It was like: ‘Did you do it? see Go-Go performance? OMG they were beside themselves! But I don’t think we were; I don’t think it was that bad.

“It really isn’t as bad as we remember: Yes we remember, because that day was a wasted day, “laughs Caffey.” We started drinking early, and then someone brought some coke and it was like, you know, you’re trying to match it. And then all of a sudden they say, ‘ OK, you guys go on! Remember you’re playing in front of 50 million people! “And we thought, ‘Oh no!’ … You can see the terror on my face[inthe[inthe[enel[intheSNL footage]because I’m like, ‘F ***!’ “(The infamous performance begins at the three-minute mark here.)

Go-Go’s can look back on their first few holidays or even SNL debacle with amusement, but as Carlisle said, his drug use finally took a less “celebratory” turn. Caffey in particular went to a very dark place (to put it in perspective, at the Rock in Rio festival, she was so drugged that she was kicked out of Ozzy Osbourne’s dressing room), developing a “full-blown heroin addiction”. However, not only did she manage to hide this from the press, she was still reproducing the image of the girl next to the group, but she also tried to hide it from her fellow Go-Go.

“I knew I was in trouble, but I didn’t know how to talk about it. and he didn’t want to disappoint the girls, so he would lie, really just trying to want it. And I couldn’t control it, “says Caffey.

“We knew it was happening, but there is not much you can do,” says Carlisle. “But you know, the sunglasses would come out and they’re like telltale signs.”

Fortunately, Caffey registered for rehab shortly after the Ozzy incident, and has been clean. since then, for 35 years. But her sobriety, along with Wiedlin’s departure, contributed to the end of the Go-Go in 1985.

“Now I’m glad, because I was writing really fucked up songs. I’m going to be really honest about it. Was no happening, “says Caffey.” And, also personally, I had two or three months of sobriety when we left the band, and I had to choose myself for the first time. As if I had to no I chose the band, because I really knew deep inside that if I didn’t do this, I was going to die. He was not going to be able to survive, because there was a lot of garbage. We never really figured things out. We have learned how since then, but not then. And there was never a time when we would have had time to figure something out, because we were nonstop for seven years. ”

“I think I lacked a lot of empathy back then and I wasn’t as kind as I could have been,” admits Carlisle of the band’s last days filming their troublesome third album. Talk show, which according to her is the most difficult part of the documentary for her. “I didn’t participate, but I wanted all the rewards. I didn’t participate as much as I should have, because I was out enough for lunch. He was devoid of empathy. It is something that you may develop as you get older and have life experiences. It was an incredible moment, incredible, and I don’t know, it’s something damaging at the same time. Having that kind of success is really difficult to handle, and you just go crazy. So I don’t think anybody was that nice during that period. “

The Go-Goes met in the 1990s and have since recorded and performed intermittently; they’re definitely enjoying a rebirth right now, thanks not just to the documentary and its musical jukebox Upside down, but also his first new song since 2001, “Club Zero”. (As for whether there will be more new music, Caffey jokes: “We do everything in 20 years [increments]. You never know with this group. “) Caffey describes The Go-Go ‘s, directed by Alison Ellwood, as an “incredible story” that was extremely “healing” for her, and Carlisle says, “When I saw it, it really moved me.” I mean, that’s ours lifetimeand really seeing it up there, it’s the most incredible experience. I am very, very proud of that. “

With all these new accolades and accomplishments, it seems like the time is right for the Go-Go’s to finally enter the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In fact, The Go-Go’s ends with Stewart Copeland of the police ranting, “What the hell?” for the fact that they have never been nominated. And Carlisle, who in movie jokes says they’ve been rejected because they once complained to Hall’s co-founder /Rolling Stone Tycoon Jann Wenner on his sexist Rolling Stone cover – definitely shares that attitude.

“First of all, I don’t think any of us really feel that we need to be validated by them, no matter what. So we don’t sit and talk and think about it. But I do think we don’t love them, “says Carlisle.” Which is fine, you don’t have to like music, but you really can’t dispute the fact that we were the first of our kind. We get together. We write our own songs. We played our own instruments We came from absolutely nothing We came out of the garage We had 100 percent artistic control We had one of the first male or female debut albums to be No. 1. I mean that doesn’t happen that often; I think maybe 20 artists have had that in music history, kind of ridiculous.

“So I think it’s a personal thing, which is silly because at the end of the day, it’s about innovative artists and it’s about innovative acts like the B-52s or Suzy Quatro or Cher. There are so many who are innovative and not just fraternity boys coming in, ”continues Carlisle, getting nervous. “I mean, I get the ballot every year, and I just look at it and say, ‘Are you joking me?’ I don’t even know why they send me a ballot. They know how I feel. But I just wrote ‘Go-Go’s,’ mark it, and send it back. ”

When asked who they wanted to give the Hall’s induction speech if the Go-Go were going to enter, Caffey suggests Patti Smith, and Carlisle says Debbie Harry. But Carlisle reveals that he will probably skip the ceremony entirely. “I don’t think it will appear now. I do not go into the corporate. I think it is too little, too late, actually, ”she says. “I think it is personal. I know for sure that there are quite a few people who don’t want us on the panel, whatever they are. It’s okay. You cannot deny what we have done. I don’t say that in an arrogant way. I’m just saying facts.

Get all the facts when The Go-Go’s premieres on Showtime this Friday and check out Carlisle and Caffey’s full and extended Yahoo Entertainment interview below, where they talk about their punk beginnings in Los Angeles, and London punks spit them out on their terrifying first tour. around the UK, his infamous night at the 1982 Grammy Awards, Fashion and Don’ts, and much, much more:

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