The Go-Go's

I mean the documentary isn't bad but some of the content makes you sick to your stomach. Somehow they thought they were special when all they really amounted to was another cookie cutter pop band in the 80s. It is interesting listening to how their first major label picked them up based on image (didn't care if they were good) and then made them change their sound (oh all of our songs are pop songs when we play them slower). I mean anything can be a pop song if it's played like a pop song lol.

Also the way they talked about being misfits and finding each other (family) really seems like a bunch of hogwash when in the next scene they kick out members for no better reason then money and fame.

The whole mess just seems like the brain washed ramblings of a band that once had an impact. Also the pacing of the documentary is horrendous. With proper editing it could have been much better (stylistically not it's content).

Alison Ellwood's (Laurel Canyon) Documentary does a pretty fair job of covering the story of the all-girl band who made good in the early 80s. It's an authorized Doc with the full participation of all five main members, but they do speak pretty openly of their the squabbles and feuds which led to their breaking up after only three albums. Two founding band members who were fired before they hit the big-time are also given time to speak their minds, as is the group's original manager who was forced out when they were at their peak of fame. Still, there are obvious gaps in the storytelling (including a major lawsuit by bassist Kathy Valentine that kept her out of the band's reunion shows for a few years), and while the two guitarists, Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey, talk openly about their personal issues, singer Belinda Carlisle is very circumspect. Gina Schock is refreshingly candid. As someone who was a big fan of the band when they hit the scene, there's a sense of sadness about band's story. For a band who's music and public image was all big and bouncy, one comes away feeling that they didn't enjoy their couple of years of fame. Sure, the sex, drugs and booze standard rock 'n roll rise and fall story applies to many bands, but, the Go-Gos rise and fall tale seems to have happened on speed dial. Indeed, the unspoken message here is that it was their comet-like rise to the top that caused them to crash and burn even that much more rapidly. They were the first all woman band to play their own instruments to have a Number One album (and still are!!), but the pressure to cash-in on that newfound fame caused jealousies and divisions within the band and accentuated Wiedlin and Caffey's personal demons to the breaking point. Still, for all the turmoil, Ellwood shows that the women have patched things up. The band also shows personal photos of the good times they had together. They do seem to be, if not content now, at least more at peace with themselves - and each other. And, their new song, 'Club Zero' ain't half bad, either.

Watch this if you want to understand the trials and tribulations of being in a band, whether or not you're a fan of the Go-Go's.

A great documentary: all the important players are interviewed; there's plenty of interesting content and it all moves along at an appropriately fast pace.

I do think we ask far too much of bands. We not only want them to write great songs and give great performances, but we also seem to want to have pretty much full access to their lives. I do wish we could be kinder to musicians, to the people whose music so enriches our lives.

Enjoyed hearing their their insights about the the LA Punk scene and their first UK Tour when they were starting out. After that there was little new information except for the amount of drug use they admitted too and the firing of their original manager.

Seven years together, four albums, followed by intermittent reunions ... sorry ladies, but wait your turn for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"The Go-Go's" (2020 release; 98 min.) is a documentary about "the most successful female rock band of all time". As the movie opens, we are reminded (for the first, but not the last, time) that the Go-Go's are the only all-female rock band to write and perform their own songs who scored a Billboard No. 1 album. We then go to "Los Angeles, 1979" as the local punk scene is small but ferocious and a number of the eventual Go-Go girls are very much a part of it (check the footage and photos of Jane Wiedlin attending a show at the Masque). We then turn to Belinda Carlisle as she too came up through the SoCal punk scene. "The punk scene was safe and welcoming" she comments. "You don't know what you are doing? Just do it!" At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from long-time documentarian Allison Ellwood. Here she brings the story of the Go-Go's, very much like those erstwhile VH-1 "Behind the Music" episodes. The documentary's first 45 min. are absolutely flawless, benefiting from the amazing amount of archive footage and pcitures from the early days. The band's first (1980) tour of the UK (opening for the Specials and Madness) gets ample attention, and rightfully so. Equally transfixing is the band's evolution from punk to new wave to pop. Confesses Charlotte Caffey (on writing "We Got the Beat"): "I was sacred. I thought the girls would throw me out of the band for writing a pop song." Absolute genius! The band's meteoric rise is as dazzling as it is dizzying (reaching No. 1 on the Billboard album chart with their 1981 debut album). They would never achieve such heights again. The second half of this documentary isn't nearly as compelling as, predictably, it focuses on the band's in-fighting, drug addictions and ultimate demise (and return). The biggest flaw, or annoyance, of this film, though, is the repeated pleas to get the Go-Go's in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Do they belong? For sure. But hitting you over the head with this in a documentary isn't really the way to go.

"The Go-Go's" premiered a few days ago on Showtime, and is now available on SHO On Demand, Amazon Instant Video and other streaming platforms. If you are a fan of the Go-Go's from back in the day, or simply are a music fan, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.