All language subtitles for mjfdsa

[amplifier feedback]

[concertgoers cheering]

[clapping rhythmically]

[screaming and cheering]

[Jane Wiedlin]
We are the first all-girl band

that wrote their own material
and played

their own instruments to be
really successful.

[crowd cheering]

Alright, this is for you
for being so nice.

[cheering]

[drumsticks tapping]

[band playing
"Can't Stop the World"]

♪♪♪

♪ I gave up looking
for a reason ♪

♪ To live with things
just the way they were ♪

♪ I came around, used to be ♪

♪ Easy to get to so they ♪

♪ Got to me
in just about every way ♪

♪ Caught with no cards up
your sleeve ♪

♪ Not much to choose from ♪

♪ Grew up all along ♪

♪ Just thinking that you
couldn't lose ♪

♪ I came around, used to be ♪

♪ Easy to get to so they ♪

♪ Got to me
in just about every way ♪

♪ Can't stop the world ♪

♪ Can't stop the world,
why let it stop you? ♪

[Belinda Carlisle]
People automatically assumed

that we were probably put
together by some guy,

but we did it all ourselves.

Let's go!

[band playing
instrumental break]

♪♪♪

[Charlotte Caffey]
We got on stage,

and it happened to be a group
of women really kicking ass.

It was great.

[Kathy Valentine]
One in a million bands

gets to where we got.

[Gina Schock] America knew
who The Go-Go's were.

[male announcer]
These are The Go-Go's.

Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock,

Jane Wiedlin, Kathy Valentine

and Belinda Carlisle.

The greatest all-girl group
of all time, The Go-Go's.

[man] The Go-Go's!

-[woman] The Go-Go's!
-[cheering]

[Kathy] We were really making
big strides,

loving what we were doing

and being in that moment of,
like, wow!

♪ Can't stop the world... ♪

[Belinda] I couldn't walk down
the street at that time.

That's how famous
The Go-Go's were.

[Jane]
In the course of a year,

we had gone from playing dive
bars to Madison Square Garden.

♪ Can't stop the world ♪

[Gina]
I was on top of the world,

I felt like we had made it.

[song ending]

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[instruments tuning]

[Jane] There never would have
been The Go-Go's

without the punk rock scene
in Los Angeles.

[MC] Well, you got it!
From Hollywood, The Go-Go's!

[Margot]
Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

[crowd cheering]

There's a problem
with the monitor here,

and I'm getting shocked.

Sorry.

[Belinda] At the time,
there were 50 kids tops

in the L.A. punk scene.

It was D.I.Y.

and if you were terrible
you were cooler,

and anybody could
do whatever they wanted.

It was total freedom.

♪ Don't assume that we never
think ♪

♪ You think you know
but you haven't a clue ♪

-♪ 'Cause we're ♪
-♪ We're ♪

-♪ Here...
-♪ Here ♪

-♪ Now...
-♪ Now ♪

♪ We don't need you around ♪

[Elissa Bello] It was about
feeling emotion, anger, rage,

and you got to express it.

And the rawer the better.

♪♪♪

♪ Don't make the mistake
of criticizing ♪

♪ Don't even bother
patronizing ♪

I was such a punk,
it was like my identity.

Being in The Go-Go's meant being
more involved in the scene

with all your friends,
just a great sense of belonging.

♪ ...around ♪

♪ And we're... ♪

[Charlotte] I was a little bit
of an outsider

because I wasn't overtly
punk rock.

You wouldn't think so
looking at me,

I look really straight, but I
have a very twisted mind.

♪♪♪

We hated society
and our parents,

but we supported each other.

Everyone was welcome,

outcasts, geeks, gays,
straights,

people of color, women.

It was inclusive.

-♪ 'Cause we're ♪
-♪ We're ♪

-♪ Here ♪
-♪ Here ♪

-♪ Now ♪
-♪ Now ♪

And that was a great place
for me to be,

because I always
felt like I didn't fit in.

I kind of have this image

of being this really happy
person, and I can be.

But I have this thing in me
that's just always there,

like, ugh, urgh.

I have a lifelong history
of depression.

When I was 15,
I tried to kill myself.

Right around that same time

I was looking at
Women's Wear Daily

and they had all these photos
of the London punk scene.

Oh, my God,
it really spoke to me.

I was like, "Ah, I want this!"

So I just started making
my own punk clothes,

and one weekend I went to
this store on Sunset Strip

that was called
Granny Takes a Trip,

and while I was in there
I met Pleasant Gehman.

This little girl came in,
she had huge eyes.

She looked like an anime
action figure.

She had these shirts

that had two zippers sewn in
over the boobs,

and so, when you unzipped
them, you know,

your bra or your bare boobs
would come out.

[Jane] She told me that there
was a scene in Hollywood,

a punk scene,

and she gave me a flyer
for this club called The Masque.

[punk band playing]

[indistinct shouting]

[feedback]

In the punk scene, there was
just so much energy and anger.

♪♪♪

And having suppressed bad
feelings my whole life,

the suicide attempt was
obviously it trying to come out,

and then,
becoming a punk rocker,

I felt was a really positive way
for it to come out.

People used to cross the street
when they saw me.

I felt powerful
for the first time.

I just felt like I had
found my home.

[Belinda] The punk scene gave me
an outlet to act out

and be the badass
that I thought I was.

I'm the oldest of seven kids.

My father left when I was five.

My stepfather was hardcore,

very much an old-school
disciplinarian.

We had no money.

I remember growing up
and being in school

and always feeling like I was
pretending to be something

that I probably wasn't...

I was a real good student,
I was a cheerleader.

Does anybody have a cigarette?

...But then, I discovered
the punk scene,

and that opened up
a whole new world for me.

[Pleasant] Everybody in the L.A.
punk rock scene,

it was like there was invisible
smoke signals

getting sent out of, like,
you know,

"You need to go to this club
on that night."

And the Sex Pistols were playing
at Winterland in San Francisco

and pretty much
everybody in L.A. drove up.

It was really like a religious
pilgrimage.

They were just the kings of the
original, original punk scene.

♪ Problem, problem, problem,
problem... ♪

[Jane] The Sex Pistols gave
this, like, slacker performance

that wasn't compelling at all.

Johnny Rotten at the end
of the show

said the famous quote of his.

[Johnny laughing]

Ever get the feeling
you've been cheated?

Good night!

[Jane]
You know, it was kind of like,

"Oh, man,
you guys were our heroes"

and they kind of suck.

And it also felt like the first
wave of punk was sort of dying.

It was time for some new people
to start doing something.

I think that was the weekend
I actually got to know Margot,

and then we started talking
about forming a band,

a girl band, actually.

Everybody was in a band.

I mean, it was like the cool
thing to be in a band

and we were basically
the only people left

that weren't in a band,
so we decided to do it too.

[Margot] I met Elissa.

She was one of my high school
friend's cousins.

[Elissa]
Margot then met Belinda.

[Belinda]
The punk scene was so small,

so we all knew each other
vaguely.

[Jane] Thinking about bands like
The Shirelles

and The Shangri-Las,
it was exciting to think

we could do the new version
of that.

But this time, we were going
to play instruments.

[director]
With one little problem?

That we didn't know how
to play instruments.

[laughing]

[Margot]
Well, I wanted to play bass

and I knew I would have
to learn by doing.

[Elissa] I didn't have drums,
I had to go out and find drums.

[playing guitar riff]

[Jane] You know, I had a couple
of weeks of folk guitar lessons

when I was 12,
I'll just play guitar.

[Belinda singing indistinctly]

I certainly thought
I could sing.

I thought I sounded like
Julie Andrews. But...

♪ We can do what we want
we can say... ♪

[Jane] We didn't know what
we were doing.

In the punk scene it was like,

"Great, you don't know
what you're doing?

Just fucking do it."

We'd sort of been, like,
going over different names,

nothing really seemed right.
Whatever--

Was it The Misfits
was going to be,

because that's how we sort of
felt at the time.

At that time, The Kinks came out
with Misfits the album,

we thought, no, everyone will
think, you know,

we stole it from them.

So, The Go-Go's seemed
to fit us.

[crowd cheering and clapping]

I remember doing our first show.

It was at the Masque.

[Pleasant] Everyone was excited

when The Go-Go's played
at the Masque.

Their set was three songs long

and two of them
were the same song. [laughs]

[Margot]
We only knew those songs,

so it wasn't a matter
of having a set list.

[laughing]
We didn't need one.

[Jane] There's one song about
Robert Hilburn

who was a huge music critic
at the L.A. Times.

[Belinda]
People were either laughing

or completely mortified
in horror.

It was a big, fat mess.

[Margot]
I wasn't really intimidated

about being as terrible
as we were in the beginning.

That was the whole point,

you can sound horrible
and still make music.

[giggling]

[Belinda]
I think that deep down inside

we knew that we had something
really special,

but we needed someone
that actually knew how to do it.

[electrical feedback]

Let's try plugging the amps
into the wall first,

like, you know what I mean?

When I was very, very young,
like, first and second grade,

I had an Elvis Presley record

and Johann Strauss
"Blue Danube Waltz".

I would listen to both of them,
like put one on, dance around,

put the other one on,
waltz around, yeah.

[classical piano playing]

I started playing piano
when I was four years old.

At a very young age,
I was moved by music.

I had an ear for music.

I went to Immaculate Heart
College, taking classical piano.

I loved it, but it was kind
of snotty attitude,

like, some of these students
were just like, "Who are you?"

[screaming]

I started going to some of
the punk rock shows.

The punk bands
just busted me open,

knowing that all
this music theory,

rules had to be
thrown out the window.

♪ Don't talk to me ♪

When I graduated college,

my best friend Joe Ramirez
and I started a band.

We named it The Eyes.

It was one of the most
freeing things

just to turn up our amps to ten,

bash through
and just anything went.

♪ Don't talk to me,
don't look at me ♪

♪ Don't talk to me, oh yeah ♪

"Don't talk to me, don't look at
me, don't talk to me..."

That is like a feminist anthem

for women of my generation.

[Belinda] Margot and I went
to an Eyes show,

where we thought,
"Oh, Charlotte."

♪ Yeah ♪

We thought she was perfect.

[Charlotte]
I'm backstage,

and I see these two sets of legs
walking up.

One has spikey heels,

ripped fishnets, a trash bag.

That was Belinda.

She said, "Hi, Charlotte.
"You know,

we're starting this all-girl
band, do you wanna join?"

And what am I gonna say, no?

I was totally intimidated
by them

because Jane and Belinda
and Margot,

they're all like punks
and they're asking me,

like the dork of all time,
to, like, join their band.

So, I felt kind of special,
I guess.

When they asked,
"Hey, do you play lead guitar?"

I lied.

I figured I played bass
so, you know,

"Yeah, it's a couple more
strings, it'll be okay."

[sighing]

[guitar riff plays]

We started rehearsing,

but, you know, we were pretty
crappy in the beginning.

We really didn't sound
that great.

[Belinda singing indistinctly]

[Ginger Canzoneri]
It was pretty screechy.

I remember going into The Masque
one Saturday afternoon,

hearing some music
and thinking,

"Oh, who's rehearsing
down here today?"

And then, opening a door
and seeing Belinda on stage

holding a mic kind of awkwardly.

I just thought,
"Oh, God, that's so great,

women pulling together
to achieve something,"

and I wanted to support
that cause and be part of it.

I love communities of women.

This band caught my interest
for that reason.

[crowd cheering]

This song's called
"Fashion Seekers."

♪♪♪

♪ Bland ideas
in a borrowed head ♪

[Belinda] We saw no reason why
we couldn't be

just as good as the boys or men.

♪ They'll suck the shirt
right off of your back ♪

We weren't going to be anything
but a great band.

[Elissa] They were really
on the fast track

and they wanted to get going.

And so, they weren't going to
let anything stand in their way.

[Jane]
Elissa was very, very eccentric.

I don't know if she was shy
or an introvert,

but she was never
really part of the gang.

She always held herself apart.

[Elissa] I was coming from
two different worlds.

I had to answer to my employer

and I had to answer to the band.

And they wanted me to quit
my job, the girls,

and be more dedicated.

I stuck my toe in the water,
but I never dove in all the way.

[Belinda] We definitely needed
to bring somebody in

that wanted to be there.

I happened to meet the girls
at a party one night,

and um... that's how it started,
I invited 'em over for--

You know, they said, "Oh, we're
looking for a drummer."

"Oh, we're looking
for a drummer."

And I said, "Great.
I'll try out for the band."

♪ One, two, three, four ♪

♪♪♪

The amps are set up, they bring
their guitars, plug in,

we play like three songs,
and it was like, done deal.

♪ I buy you cologne ♪

[Jane] Holy shit!

I don't even know how
to describe the difference.

It was really, like, ta-da!

♪ I need promises... ♪

[Elissa] The next thing I know
they found this other drummer.

I was very upset and hurt.

[Jane] When you kick people out
of bands, it's fucking tough.

But at the time, these things
just seemed necessary

and they seemed
for the good of the band.

[Mrs. Schock] When she was 13
she would come home from school,

go up into the front bedroom,

put the earphones on
and bang on the drums.

[Gina] A lot of girls weren't
playing drums back then and so,

I got in a band
right away.

We were Baltimore's first
new wave punk band.

We had a lot of fun,

but at that point I was like,
"I want to play in arenas,

I don't want to stay playing
in clubs my whole life."

♪♪♪

When I left Baltimore
I told everybody,

"The next time you see me,
I'm gonna be a rock star."

I drove across country
with a dream and a camera.

I was, like,
always taking pictures.

I had $2000,
and two grams of coke.

[laughing]

[Belinda] I remember the first
time I met Gina,

she had this frizzy blonde hair
and she was wearing overalls.

She looked crazy, and I was
like, "I'm going to fix you."

She needed a little bit of,
you know, punking up.

So, we cut her hair,
dyed it black and she was ready.

[Gina] Then, I was into taking
just Polaroids.

The punk scene allowed you
to be whoever you wanted to be,

play the way you wanted to play
and you fit in.

You were accepted.

Being in that setting
made me feel safe.

And it just allowed us
a lot more freedom

to do what we wanted to do.

It's like a dream,
only you're really living it.

Jane was just so cute and sweet
and bubbly

and her little voice.

We both had crushes on each
other, I guess you could say,

but we were girlfriends
for a while.

She was the boss
in the relationship,

I was the new kid in town
and it made me feel comfortable.

Jane broke up with me.

[laughing]

It wasn't like either one of us
were heartbroken or anything.

You think something like that's
going to fuck with the band?

No way.

♪ One, two, G-O, G-O... ♪

[Charlotte] What Gina brought,

besides being a really
amazing drummer,

is that she made us work hard.

She said, "You guys have
to rehearse every single night."

And we're just like,
"What are you talking about?"

[Gina] Hey, it doesn't hurt
to rehearse,

it only makes you tighter.

I mean, I was determined
to whip them into shape.

Because I felt there was
something magical there,

you just needed to push it more.

You needed to get the girls
to be more focused

and more serious
about what they're doing.

[Belinda] She was right.

We improved and it pushed us
to another level.

[Gina] And I was on fire!

I was sitting at home,
it was about midnight,

I was watching
The Twilight Zone.

[TV announcer]
You're flying to a new planet,

a planet of light,
of darkness and the in-between.

[Charlotte]
I wanted to write a song

and I was listening to the music
all day long.

I really wanted to write
something with a beat.

I was hearing something
in my mind.

[clock ticking]

I was just sitting there
minding my own business

and all of a sudden
this whole melody,

this whole idea came to my mind
and I was like, "Oh, shit."

I ran and got my little
cassette player.

[beginning notes of
"We Got The Beat" plays]

And I wrote the song,

it was like five minutes,
it just all came out.

The zone of writing,
I don't know what happens,

but I can get to that place
and boom,

just these ideas just start
flowing and it's like,

it's pretty... pretty phenomenal
when it happens.

Back then, I didn't have
a sense of myself.

Songwriting was
so important to me,

it was my identity,
my safety zone.

And so, with "We Got The Beat"
I was terrified.

I was thinking, "Man,

these girls are going to throw
me out of this band"

because it was a pop song.

♪ See the people
walking down the street ♪

[Belinda] I don't remember her
being nervous,

I just remember thinking
it was an amazing song.

I mean, it's just so obvious.

[Margot]
We all loved it right away.

♪ They got the beat,
they got the beat ♪

♪ They got the beat ♪

[Gina] When she started playing
that eighth-note riff,

the pattern that I play on the
drums just poured out of me.

It was "do-do da-da
do-do da-da."

[drumming]

[Jane]
I felt like we had arrived.

It was definitely another step
up that ladder.

[Charlotte]
Fortunately, they just loved it.

♪♪♪

And I believe that changed
the trajectory of the band.

♪♪♪

♪ Go-Go music really
makes us dance ♪

We were rough sounding
when we played live,

but we had these songs
that were just coming together.

♪ That's when we fall in line ♪

Just doing those little shows,
it was a really cool time.

[Gina] We were the house band
at The Whisky.

So, we would open up
for whatever bands

would come into town.

Madness came into town and they
were English, you know,

we loved that.

[Thompson] All-girl band writing
their own tunes?

I mean, outrageous.

Yeah, we got it!

♪ We got the beat ♪

Come on, don't be too cool.

[Gina]
They thought we were great

and they went back and spread
the word about The Go-Go's.

And then, The Specials came
and we opened for them.

One of the best things that
happened for The Go-Go's

was meeting us, you know,

and I would say probably one
of the best thing happened to us

was meeting The Go-Go's.

They were young, they were
fresh, they were beautiful.

We are a bunch of misfits,
of course, that's why it works!

[Gina] Their manager started
talking with Ginger

about how to bring us over
to England

so we could tour
with both bands.

[Ginger] Somebody from The
Specials came to me and said,

"We're planning
a seaside tour in England.

Do you think your band might be
able to get over there?"

And I said, "Yes!"

I did a lot of pawning
of jewelry

and selling a lot of things

to be able to get the girls
over on that trip.

[Belinda] She sold everything.

Her car,
she put her whole life on sale

basically to fund us
to get to London.

[Charlotte] My dad was in
the entertainment industry,

but he was not behind me
being in this band.

He said,
"Hey, there's an opening

at the music library
at Paramount."

I remember it was like
a really good-paying job,

and I just said to him, I said,
"I can't,"

because inside of me
I had to leave.

I had to do this,
I had to do it.

♪♪♪

♪ Seen your pictures
in the 'zines ♪

♪ And you look real good ♪

♪ Pale blank faces,
black and white keen ♪

♪ London boys, cigarette lean ♪

♪ London boys,
wish you were here ♪

[Jane] Because the punk rock
scene had started in England,

all the bands that we worshipped
were English.

I mean, England was always,
for us,

ground zero of great rock music.

It was like Mecca!
[laughing]

[Golding]
When The Go-Go's come over here,

walking around the city is just
really, really bleak.

Shite, absolutely grim, grey.

It wasn't a very nice place
to be.

There seemed to be an air
of something's about to go off.

♪ We're living
in gangster times ♪

Don't call me Scarface!

[Jane] The Specials
and Madness were both ska bands

and they were stars.

We felt like having these
opening slots with two bands

that were at the top
of their game

and were very, very
successful there,

that, I mean, how could we fail?

♪♪♪

[Margot] It was our first time
touring in a tour bus

and playing every night.

♪ The street lights
are shining bright ♪

♪ The billboards are shedding
their light ♪

[glass breaking]

♪ My crowd's hanging around ♪

[Charlotte]
We were being spit at,

stuff thrown at us
every single night.

[Jane] Ska music attracted a
bunch of the white nationalists,

they called themselves the
National Front in England.

And they hated us!

First of all, we were not ska,

so what the hell were we doing
opening for these ska bands?

Second of all,
we we're Americans.

And third of all, maybe worst
of all, we were chicks.

[Belinda] No, we don't do
that...

[crowd jeering]

[Belinda] You know, here are
these five little girls

from southern California,

get up on stage and play
to these scary skinheads.

It was frightening.

[Thompson] One venue, a fella
was standing people in a line

with a razor,
and another fella with a hammer.

[Jane]
The tours were not going at all

like we thought they were going
to go.

But at the same time,

we were also having the time
of our lives.

There was like a lot of romances
going on

between the band members.

But it was good 'cause we all
had boyfriends in like, Madness

or The Specials to console us
when we got off stage.

[Golding]
Gina is... I love her.

"I just didn't know how
to come and approach you."

I should've asked you
to marry me

and you probably would've
said no,

but I'd have felt better
that I asked.

We had such a good laugh,
oh, she's lovely she is.

[Jane] I met Terry.
He was in The Specials.

We were very attracted
to each other.

We spent a lot of time together
on the tour

and it was kind of
sort of a romance,

but, I mean, he had a
girlfriend, and supposedly,

she was a fiancée and they were
going to get married.

And I don't know what I was
thinking.

You know, I just thought it was
this big, important romance.

[Ginger] Behind the scenes,

I was bringing their cassette
tapes around.

Stiff Records might have been
a small label,

but they had a group
of dedicated people.

[Dave Robinson]
I think Ginger asked us

whether we would like
to sign them,

but I thought an American
punk girl band

who are objecting to
being spit at,

I don't know
that it's going to really work.

But I remember seeing
"We've Got the Beat"

as a potential single,

which was my talent
to find the door opener.

I tried to publish the song

'cause I could see
that it would do well.

They were really pressuring
about the publishing,

and I had been told

that that was something
you don't give up.

Ginger, I think,
was a bit more knowledgeable

about the idea of hold onto
what you've got.

[Jane] Thank dog she knew

an artist needs to keep
their publishing,

because really it's one of
the only ways to make money,

and it's very valuable and it's
valuable for a lifetime.

[Ginger] Well,
I stuck to my guns

and signed this one single deal
with Stiff Records.

♪♪♪

[Gina reading] "Friday,
June the 6th in Bridlington.

"Tonight was okay, the audience
were rude but we played fair.

"Bridlington was pretty shitty.

Oh, well,
I guess we'll try harder".

[Charlotte]
We were just determined, like,

"We're gonna show
those fuckers."

Every night, we'd get on stage

and we would be so belligerent
with our playing,

and just being even more
of who we were.

♪ And you're the one to blame ♪

♪ I used to know my name ♪

♪ But I've lost control
of the game ♪

♪ 'Cause even though I set
the rules ♪

♪ You've got me acting
like a fool ♪

[Margot] They were really wild,
crazy audiences,

but we made fans, as well.

♪ Lust to love ♪

♪ Was the last thing I was
dreaming of ♪

♪ And now all I want is
just to love ♪

♪ Lust turned to love ♪

[Golding] They're grew,
they proved themselves,

and for The Go-Go's to pick
themselves from L.A.

and come to London, you know,

wow, respect to them girls,
man, you know.

[Thompson] Their musicianship
compared to us

was second to none.

They taught me a thing or two.

♪ Lust to love ♪

[Gina] There was nothing much

that we couldn't handle
at that point.

♪ Just to love ♪

♪ Lust turned to love ♪

♪ Lust to love ♪

It was us against the world,

and I think we were ready to
take it to the next level.

♪♪♪

Our Stiff Records single was
the key that unlocked the door.

People were able to buy
the single in Los Angeles.

KROQ-AM in Burbank
and KROQ-FM in Pasadena,

we're live on the rocks.

Okay, here's The Go-Go's,
"We Got The Beat."

[Jane] When we did come back,

it was like the triumphant
return of the home girls,

The Go-Go's!

Everyone thought we were huge
stars in England

and we were not telling them
anything different.

[Belinda]
I remember doing our first show

after we got back
at the Starwood.

There were kids wrapped around
the block to get in to see us.

We were like,
"Whoa, what happened?"

And I guess our strategy worked.

♪♪♪

I was in the Starwood one night
and The Go-Go's were playing,

and they had been in England.

♪ Go-Go music really
makes us dance ♪

It was packed
and everyone was going crazy.

That's when they got more
of my attention.

I thought,
"Okay, they're going places."

♪ 'Cause we got the beat,
we got the beat ♪

♪ We got the beat ♪

♪ Yeah, we got it ♪

♪ We got the beat ♪

The difference from before
that tour and after the tour

was just stunning.

♪ We got the beat ♪

I was like, "Oh, my God,
this is going to be huge."

-♪ We got the beat ♪
-♪ We got the beat ♪

♪ We got the beat ♪

-♪ We got the beat ♪
-♪ We got the beat ♪

-♪ We got the beat ♪
-♪ We got the beat ♪

♪ We got the beat ♪

[crowd cheering]

[Jane] People would freak out
when we played.

It was great.

I mean, we felt like we were
at the top of our game,

and yet we couldn't get anywhere
with it.

[Ginger] I had a file folder
of rejection letters

from record labels
in Los Angeles.

"Thanks, but you know, all-girl
bands just don't sell records."

[Belinda] They wouldn't sign us
we were told

because we were girls, and
there'd been no predecessor

that had been that successful.

There'd been The Runaways,

but we put ourselves together,
we had no Svengali.

[Gina] It was ridiculous.

Okay, we were girls,
but look at what we're doing.

You know,
close your eyes and listen.

♪ I know a cat who can
really do the cool jerk ♪

[Belinda] Through the years
I've been asked,

"Were you feminists?"

We were, I realize it now,
because of our attitudes,

but we weren't, "We're going
to do this against the guys

and you know, fuck them,"
that kind of thing.

We weren't like that at all.

♪ When they see me
walking down the street ♪

We thought anything
was possible,

including succeeding
in that industry

that was run by men.

♪ They know I'm the queen
of the cool jerk ♪

♪ Oh cool jerk ♪

[Kathleen Hanna] Knowing
about being a woman in a band

and how many obstacles
they'd had to face,

that the response isn't,
"I'm going to quit."

[Belinda]
Bring it down!

Whooooo!

It's, "Thank you, assholes,
for telling me I can't do this.

Thanks for the inspiration,

now watch me get my next
hit single."

[guitar playing]

[Jane]
After we got home from England,

I would move back and forth
from my parents' all the time

because I'd run out of money.

Terry stayed in touch.

He would send me letters,
and in one letter

he talked about how he dreamed
of having his own band.

and he sent me a bunch
of lyrics.

And he said, "I'm going to write
these songs."

[Jane singing lyrics]

I saw the lyrical beginning
to "Our Lips Are Sealed."

And even though I'd gotten
a little bit lazy

about writing music because
Charlotte was so good at it,

I figured, why should
I bother, I'll just do lyrics.

But this time, I actually went
back to writing music.

I just thought it was such
a good song.

I was so in love with it.

I didn't show it to the band
for weeks and weeks

'cause I was so afraid
if they didn't like it,

what was I gonna do?
I was gonna... die.

[Belinda] I remember hearing
that song for the first time.

I was completely blown away
with it.

♪ No secrets to reveal ♪

Because of Jane's not being
a trained musician and writer,

the chord progression
in that song is so unusual.

♪ ...people play ♪

It really got your attention.

♪ Our lips are sealed ♪

♪ Pay no mind to what
they say ♪

[Charlotte] We started writing
more melodic songs,

and we got this hybrid
of pop and punk.

♪ Hush now darling,
our lips are sealed ♪

♪ Hush now... ♪

[microphone feedback]

It was changing and some people
didn't like the change.

[Margot]
My identity as a punk,

I was so absorbed in the scene,

it was my life, my lifestyle,
my everything.

Oh, yeah, Margot, fuck, man,
yeah, she hated it.

She's like, "I don't want
to be a fucking pop band!

I'm in a punk band."

And I don't know, I think
the rest of us were like,

this is evolving,

so fucking get with it
or get out, I don't know.

[Margot] You know,
it wasn't just the music,

it was the sense of being
packaged into a product.

It was just becoming less
about art and more about money.

[Gina] I just felt like, what
the fuck are you doing it for,

to stay with a following
of a couple of thousand people?

Or do you want to have people
all over this country

know your music
and know your songwriting,

know, you know, what kind of
musician you are?

[Jane] We had shows over
New Year's Eve at The Whisky,

and Margot had
gotten really, really sick.

So, we had to scramble around
and find someone.

[Charlotte] Kathy, I met
at the Whisky a Go Go.

[Kathy]
I was approached by Charlotte

and asked if I could play bass,
and I said yes.

It was a big lie.

I figured, I've been playing
guitar five or six years,

why can't I play a bass?

So, I go home.

First thing in the morning,
I borrow a bass from somebody.

Charlotte came over.

She brought me a little
cassette.

She left.

I plugged my bass
into my guitar amp.

Feels weird, I use my pick.

[Go-go's playing fast song]

I start listening, I can't
hear, it's a rehearsal tape.

It sounds, you know... zzzt!

[music playing, quickly]

You know, I'm like, "Shit."

[rewinding tape]

[music playing]

First thing I have to do is
learn on guitar the chords,

because I can't hear.

[bass playing]

Then, I started picking up
some of the bass parts.

What I could make out
I learned,

what I couldn't make out
I just made up my own.

♪♪♪

[rewinding tape]

I played it over and over.

[rewinding tape]

I'm a perfectionist, you know.

[rewinding tape]

The only way to do it
as much as I was doing it

was to get pharmaceutical help.

[sniffing]

I basically learned all
their songs on a coke binge.

[sniffing, rewinding tape]

[sniffing]

[bass and guitar playing]

Charlotte came over to see
how it was going.

[laughing]
I went to her house.

She was kind of like
in the middle

of like a three-day bender
on coke,

and I'd never met anyone
like that.

And I thought, "Wow, my God."

She was a badass musician.

She learned those songs on bass
in, like, a couple days,

and she had never played bass.

[Kathy] By the time
I'd learned those songs,

I just wanted to be in the band.

[Belinda]
In case you haven't noticed,

we have a bass player filling
in for Margot, she's sick,

and her name's Kathy.

[Charlotte]
Kathy Valentine, yeah.

[crowd cheering]

In came Kathy Valentine like
a knight in shining armor.

♪

[Kathy] I got to be there
with the sold-out shows.

It was everything that I had
been looking for

since I started playing.

I'm an only child,

and it was just me
and my mom when I was raised.

I really liked the idea
of a band being a family.

Right away, I just felt like

these are going to be
my sisters.

Something just felt right,
it just felt like, "We're here."

♪ Last night you slept,
you slept in fits ♪

♪ You smashed your windows
bit by bit ♪

[Kathy] They wanted me
and I wanted them

and I guess it's a lot
like cheaters,

you know, people having affairs.

[Belinda] I remember Margot
being true to herself

and very authentic.

She wanted to remain a punk band
but we didn't,

so we just decided it was best
to carry on without her.

I was told I had to do
the firing because,

"You're the manager, Ginger,
you've got to do it."

Because none of them had the...
the guts to do it.

[phone ringing]

[Margot] It was a shock to get
a phone call from Ginger.

"You're out of the band.

The girls didn't want
to tell you."

It was a decision that they had
made and that was it.

It was something I'd worked
so hard for

and with friends.

People ask me, "How do you deal
with such betrayal?"

[Belinda]
In our little scene in L.A.,

there was lots of gossip and
lots of people talking about us,

and not in a good way.

We had fired Margot,
we had sold out,

we weren't a punk band,
we were ambitious.

[Pleasant] In the community,
it became like a divorce

because it was like they were
on a rocket to fame

and they decided to fuck
Margot over.

[Margot] I knew I would miss
the scene and the community,

but I didn't want to be
hanging out

where I would risk running
into them.

I didn't want to see them
at all.

♪ Pay no mind
to what they say ♪

♪ It doesn't matter anyway,
hey hey hey ♪

[Kathy] I didn't think about how
that must have felt for her.

♪ Our lips are sealed ♪

There were shows booked
for three weeks later

and I just wanted to make sure

I was the one doing them,
you know.

♪ Pay no mind
to what they say ♪

[Ginger]
Kathy Valentine fit right in

and was the needed change

to propel the band
to their next step.

♪ Our lips are sealed,
our lips are sealed ♪

You have no idea how barren
the landscape was in '81.

The idea that women,
a host of different women,

would tell their stories
in these kinds of songs

and do it the punk way.

Finding their own way
in a very difficult environment,

that was unheard of.

♪♪♪

There was a whole new generation
of music coming up

and the establishment record
business

really sort of dismissed them,

and I saw them
as a generational change.

[Jane] Miles Copeland,
who managed The Police,

decided to start his
own boutique label.

He called it IRS Records.

[Miles] Part of what
I wanted to do

was to find some local
American bands.

And I'd heard about The Go-Go's.

All girls, punks from L.A.?

Even if they were crap
you'd almost want to sign them,

you know what I mean?

But they were good
and they had good songs.

[Kathy] We signed on April 1st
to IRS Records

and the next day
we flew to New York.

♪ ...if you could
and be one of us ♪

We played a couple more gigs.

♪♪♪

You know, I was 22 years old

in New York City making
a record.

♪ Change the lines
that were said before ♪

♪ We're all dreamers ♪

[Richard Gottehrer]
With The Go-Go's as a punk band,

they didn't have the experience

to know they could do more than
just execute the moment.

That's what I would try
to instill in them,

to say there are grooves,
there are feelings.

If your songs are really good,
you don't run through them.

♪ Change the lines
that were said before ♪

♪ We're all dreamers,
we're all whores ♪

♪ Discarded stars
like worn-out cars ♪

[Gina] When Richard Gottehrer
got a hold of us,

he said, "Slow everything down."

♪ This town,
litter the streets ♪

So, you could actually
understand the words

and the melodies were more
flowing.

♪ This town is our town ♪

♪ It is so glamorous ♪

That's when I realized,
these are all pop songs.

♪ And be one of us ♪

[Belinda]
I think actually it was my idea

for the face masks
and towels,

to sort of be timeless
and incognito.

[Ginger]
I thought fabulous graphically,

I thought, "Oh, that could be
really brilliant."

[Gina]
Once again we had no money,

so Ginger went to Macy's
and bought all those towels.

She returned those towels
to Macy's afterwards. [laughs]

I couldn't invest in all these

brand-new fluffy, white,
expensive towels.

We couldn't afford those.

♪ It is so glamorous ♪

We were like going through
adolescence again together.

[Richard] Being the good
middle-class boy growing up,

girls are one way,
guys are another way.

Well, I learned it's not
like that.

I learned that completely
from them.

We'd get done with a session
and I'd hear something like,

"Let's go get some booty
tonight."

And I'm thinking, "booty?"

We had a lot of fun,
did a lot of drugs,

drank a lot,
just like a band does.

[Kathy]
Just a bunch of scruffy girls

having the time of our life.

♪ This town ♪

But in the midst of all the
bonding and insanity and fun,

I just felt so much distance
with Charlotte.

[Belinda] Charlotte tended to
isolate herself quite a bit.

So, we had really...

she had this whole secret life
going on.

We knew it probably wasn't good.

Okay, let me talk about myself.

I was full-blown heroin addict
at the time.

So, I would be scoring dope,
which is so scary.

Like, I'd go down
to Alphabet City. Yikes!

[Margot] When I moved to
New York, I became a squatter

living in what is now
the East Village,

and I saw Charlotte walking east
to Alphabet City.

The Alphabets is where everyone
would go to cop drugs,

so I knew where she was going.

[Charlotte]
After I graduated from college,

I tried heroin
for the first time.

"Oh, let me try this.
I'll be fine!"

It was like, you know,

a little matchstick head size
that I snorted.

It made me feel like really
great,

and I was like,
"Wow, I like this feeling!"

But I didn't understand
at that time,

like, it was deadly shit.

Then, I became addicted.

♪ Automatic, time stop ♪

[Jane] She and I were like
sharing a room together

and she was actively having
a heroin addiction,

which I never saw her take
heroin, I never saw heroin.

I mean, how did she do that?
She was very secretive.

She'd come to rehearsal, I'd
say, "Look at her fucking eyes!

Her eyes are pinned,
look at her eyes!"

[Kathy] I went and I knocked
on her door.

She answered
and she had on her Ray-Bans.

And I said, "They told me
that you do heroin."

And she just looked at me,
she said, "No, no, no."

And I was like,
"Oh, okay, good."

[Gina]
She was way more out of control

than I think any of us
really knew about.

[man]
You alright?

Yeah, I'm trying to figure
something out here.

[man]
Okay, go ahead.

Just put yours first,
just keep it the same.

Are we both saying it?
"Hi, we're Kathy and Charlotte."

Yeah, let's just do it.

[man] Okay,
we'll give it a try.

Here we go.
In three, two...

[both] Hi, we're Kathy and
Charlotte of The Go-Go's

and you can watch MTV
24 hours a day

on cable vision in stereo.

♪♪♪

♪ Can you hear them? ♪

♪ They talk about us... ♪

The Go-Go's and MTV came up

at the perfect time
for each other,

because MTV was all about,

"This is what the artists
that you love look like."

They came along looking adorable
and effervescent and fun.

It just was a match made
in heaven.

♪ Hey hey hey ♪

♪ Our lips are sealed ♪

[Jane] Well, it was a cheap
music video, actually.

"Our Lips Are Sealed"
was done on a $6000 budget,

and that money came
from a Police video

that they didn't spend
all their money on,

so Miles took the money
and let us spend it.

♪ Doesn't matter
what they say ♪

[Belinda] We had no idea how
important video was going to be,

so we thought,
"This is a big waste of time.

Why are we doing this?"

None of us took it seriously.

We wanted to get arrested
and have that on tape.

[Jane] We decided if we jumped
in the fountain,

the Beverly Hills cops
would come and arrest us

and it would be a really great
way to end the video.

So, we're sitting there
frolicking in the water,

frolicking, frolicking,
frolicking.

[Gina] We jumped around
in that goddamn fountain

for quite a while and nobody
even paid any attention to us.

No one would arrest us.

[Jane] Next thing you know, MTV
is the biggest thing in America

and they're showing The Go-Go's
every half hour.

♪ Our lips are sealed ♪

[Copeland] I was saying to
Ginger, "Your band is happening.

If we put you on
opening for The Police,

it's going to really open so
many more eyes and more ears

that it might really help make
the difference."

[Ginger] Miles Copeland,
with his vision saying,

"Would you like The Go-Go's to
open for The Police?" Why, yes!

It was a coup for us because
they were huge at the time.

We traveled around the world
opening for them.

♪♪♪

They were the best
opening act ever.

The Go-Go's came out, they were
so enthusiastic, so up,

their songs were so bright

that they just would light up
the room.

♪ Walking by ♪

♪ You hold your head
so close to hers ♪

♪ I could cry, I could cry ♪

♪ I want to be... ♪

[Gina]
When we toured with The Police,

it took us from playing clubs
to arenas.

When I walked out on stage,
I almost died.

♪♪♪

♪ How much more can I take ♪

[Stewart] They had the most
important ingredient

of musicianship, which is feel.

They established a groove
that worked,

that you could lock into.

They just created something
that exploded on the stage.

♪ Yeah,
crazy oh yeah ♪

Yeah!

[crowd cheering]

[Jane] During that Police tour,

our album kept going up and up
and up in the chart.

Their album was like a sky
rocket,

and that made it really fun
for us.

It was like a vicarious thrill
because we were old and jaded,

to see these women, a new band,

experiencing the thrill
for the first time,

that lit us up.

[Kathy] We were in Atlanta and
Sting came in the dressing room

and he's got champagne.
"Congratulations, girls."

We're looking at him,
like, what?

He said,
"Your record has passed ours."

They were number six
and then we went to number one.

[Jane]
They brought us champagne.

It was actually very gentlemanly
of them to do that

and not kick us off the tour!
[laughing]

[Ginger] Beauty And The Beat's
gone to number one

and I think we were all kind
of over the moon.

[Kathy]
This is it, this is everything.

Every step along the way,
it just kept getting better.

I wish there was another phrase
other than "dream come true,"

because it was so beyond that.

It was like fulfilled
everything.

This is a circus.

[laughing]

[Miles] When you have something
that bucks the system

and succeeds,
it opens people's eyes.

They did something that no group
has ever done before them,

and that is have a number-one
album in the United States,

being all girls.

They opened people's eyes
to potential for women

to do something that had never
really been done before.

For The Go-Go's to have a debut
album go to number one,

that's something that only like
26 other artists have done,

like you know, the biggies,
Elvis, The Beatles.

[Chris Connelly]
They made history.

They're the first
all-female band

to play their own instruments,

write their own songs,
number-one record for six weeks.

Mic drop.

[crowd cheering]

[Hanna] When I went to
The Go-Go's concert in 1982,

as a young girl going
into a space

where women own the stage,

and own it unapologetically

like they were born to be there,

to me it represented a moment
of possibility.

Thanks, good night!

[crowd cheering and applauding]

Thanks a lot!

These-- we're having a high
school reunion, you see.

I went to high school
with all these people.

Girls run up to us and say,

"We started a band
because of you!"

That's probably the best feeling
in the world,

it's really great
to think that you inspire people

to go out and start a band.

So, this is the dawning
of a new era, this is it.

Everybody has a different
perspective I'm sure

on what happened at
Saturday Night Live.

Oh, God.

[Kathy] We got there
11 in the morning,

and we had to wait
until 11 at night basically.

I think it was just a case of us

sitting around a TV studio
way too long,

and then, just starting to dip
into the booze.

[Kathy]
Let's have a toast, champagne.

And then, oh, it's lunch time,
we'll have some wine.

So then, you want to balance
it out,

you want to lift things up
a little,

so magically the blow appears.

[Charlotte]
Right before we went on,

they said, "Remember, girls,

you're playing in front of 50
million people live."

And we were just like ...

♪ Yeah, we got it ♪

[Gina]
We were like cross-eyed drunk.

[laughing]

The funny thing is, the next day
we sold a ton of records.

[Kathy]
Even buzzing, messed-up Go-Go's

being beamed into people's
living rooms,

it' still something that people
are just going,

"Whoa, we like this."

[audience cheering]

Now that we've had a little bit
of success and stuff

and now we know how wonderful
it can be, we want more.

[Jane]
The Rolling Stone cover

was supposed to be a comment
on sexism,

and obviously it backfired,

because if we had really been
trying to be sexy

and push our wares as women,

you know, we would have worn
sexy underwear

instead of, you know, Hanes
and Fruit of the Loom.

It's so tame,
but when it came out

it did not help that Rolling
Stone chose the headline:

"The Go-Go's Put Out."

[Ginger] "Ginger, you've gotta
call Rolling Stone.

We're not happy.

We don't like that they used
these pictures

on the front of the magazine."

So, I phoned
Rolling Stone

and asked for Jann
the publisher.

I said, "Jann, some of the girls
are very upset about the image

used on the front
of the magazine."

And there was a brief pause
and Jann said,

"I thought you were calling me
to thank me for the cover.

You girls need to grow up."
Clunk!

Maybe that's why we're not in
the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,

those ungrateful wenches.

Our success was so quick,

and I always felt like a little
bit of an impostor

when it came to success,
like it was undeserved.

[host] We asked them
why they are succeeding

where other girl groups
have failed.

The majority of the reason must
be because of the songs,

if people don't like your songs
they're not gonna wanna

come see you live,
or buy your records.

[Gina] Whether you're a girl or
whatever you are.

I think that timing and luck,
there is an element of that.

I think luckily for us
there are now five....

women all in one band
who all have fear of failure.

Really.

[Belinda] I think everybody,
not just the band,

probably the record company,

was scrambling around to figure
out what to do next

on the back of such a big
success.

Putting out a second album made
sense to the record industry

because they want to make more
records and make more money.

And they're going to milk it
for everything that they can,

but at a price.

[host] Do you have any time to
write songs now

with all the traveling
you're doing?

[Charlotte] We've come,
right now we're starting,

this next month we're going
to work on new stuff.

[host] What are you gonna
write about?

[Charlotte]
Well, I can't really say

what we're going to write
about, I don't know.

Vacation as a record,

we were so rushed that
the songwriting reflects that.

But I felt like, "Oh, my God,
I wrote a hit song

and now what do I do,"
you know?

It's like,
it messes with your head.

And, you know, you always hear
about the sophomore jinx.

I was freaking out because
we were scrambling for material

and then, luckily we got
"Vacation."

Kathy wrote "Vacation" and was
playing it in her previous band

to The Go-Go's, The Textones.

♪ I've thought a lot of things
about you ♪

♪ I've stayed awake just
thinking 'bout you ♪

[Kathy]
I showed it to Charlotte,

she said,
"I really like this song,

I think, you know,
it needs more of a chorus."

♪ Tomorrow's a day of mine
that you won't be in ♪

I really felt like the original
version kind of went down,

and this, it just should have
gone up.

♪ Vacation, all I ever wanted ♪

♪ A vacation,
had to get away ♪

If we hadn't had that song
on the record,

it would have been a very
different outcome for us.

That probably would've ended
everything right there,

'cause that song
was really cool.

♪ Had to get away ♪

♪ Vacation,
meant to be spent alone ♪

Who knew that the girls were
such able water skiers?

At the video shoot,
they started wandering off

wearing their little
water ski tutus

and started walking up
La Brea Avenue.

I followed them
and started snapping away.

They just looked like
four ballerinas

between takes on a movie set
or something.

"Vacation" soon hit
the radio waves

and did really, really well
and got lots of play.

But it stalled in the charts.

[interviewer]
Are you still getting along?

Yeah, we're getting along really
good, as a matter of fact.

I mean, but this is
the beginning of tour,

so we'll see how it is
the last week.

No, we'll get along,

we always have got along pretty
good I'd say.

[crowd cheering]

Show time!

♪ It's everything
but party time ♪

♪ It's everything but
party time... ♪

[Gina] I mean, this was like
a fucking treadmill.

They were pushing us constantly.
We were on tour constantly.

[Ginger] You would be
absolutely exhausted

and arrive from some long
transatlantic flight,

and the promoter
for an upcoming show

was reaching out to you
in panic saying,

"We need the girls to do this,
this, this and this."

[interviewer] This has been
an incredible year.

The success,
how's it affected your life

at this stage of the ball game?

[Charlotte] We're aware of
how well we're doing

but we don't feel it, yeah,
not yet.

[Kathy] Just too much overload
on the brain right now.

[Belinda] My life has been
planned out for me

for the next two years.

I can tell you my schedule

until September of next year
practically.

[Miles] When you go
from nowhere to number one,

things change, it's inevitable.

The old joke is, you know,
when you're a new manager

and you knew what you were doing

and you're signing a new band,
you're God.

The day they're number one,
you're the janitor.

♪ Can't seem to get my mind
off of you ♪

[director] What's the worst
thing about being a manager?

When they don't want you
anymore.

[Belinda] I think the band just
got too big for her to handle.

[Gina] We wanted to make
the most of the time

that we had in the spotlight.

We wanted to make money
and continue to be successful,

and we felt like we needed...

a more experienced person
at the helm.

[Ginger]
It was surprising how quickly

people came out of the woodwork,
other managers,

saying how they could do
so much better

if they had a big management
team behind them.

[Gina]
I'm pretty sure that she knew

we wanted her to work
with a bigger manager

that had a firm
instead of like one person.

I'm getting kind of choked up,
my throat.

It's like...

No, no, it's just that
it's emotional for me,

because going back to that time

it was difficult, remembering it
and how I felt.

It was very painful.

My band was taken away from me.

I remember sitting in
on meetings

and feeling incredibly little

as the girls sat
on the edge of their seat

looking enthralled
by these new managers,

all men,
not that that mattered,

but just like a new power base,

like this was going
to be great,

that this was going to be,
like, change everything.

It was horrible having them say
with the band there,

"Well, Ginger, we know you know
how to take a band from A to B,

and you do a great job.

We can take that band
from B to Z."

We felt like it was going
to help us go to another level.

People that set all of it
in motion,

they knew that my days
would be numbered,

that anyone with any integrity,

you're not going to stick
around. Why would you?

I guess we hurt her,
must have hurt her pretty badly

because she just,
one day she was gone.

It was no "fuck you" or nothing,
it was just gone.

[director]
How angry were you?

Angry enough to move
to New York?

[Belinda]
She was like the sixth Go-Go.

When she left, it really turned
into a big business.

It wasn't even that much fun
anymore.

We just, that's all we knew
how to do was be a Go-Go.

[Jane] Gina was in our new
manager's office,

supposedly a more professional
management company

who turned out to suck,

we should've just stuck
with Ginger.

But, I guess Gina saw a check
that Charlotte got

and it was for, like,
a gazillion dollars.

And of course, Gina wasn't
getting a check like that.

I almost fell over.

He said,
"See how much she makes?

That's 'cause she's
a songwriter."

[Miles] There are two ways
you make money out of a record.

You make it in the recording
and the publishing.

The person who writes
the songs,

which is really
the vehicle that you need...

is going to make more money.

And that can cause problems.

You write a lot
of the songs, right?

-Yeah.
-With Charlotte?

[Jane] Charlotte writing
"We Got The Beat"

all by herself,
that song was huge.

It's like everyone wanted it for
commercials and movies

and TV shows, and that's like

cha-ching, cha-ching,
cha-ching, cha-ching.

Songwriting was so important
to me, it was my identity.

That's why I held so close,
so dear to me

and, you know, you can't, you
can't take any part of this.

This is mine, this is who I am.

I will still stand behind
the belief that songwriting

is a really specific skill
that many people don't have,

and it's a lot of extra
hard work

that other people aren't doing.

[Kathy] I'd made more money

than I'd ever imagined
in my lifetime,

but I knew there was going to be
an issue in the discrepancy

between the highest earner,
who was Charlotte,

and the lowest earner,
who was Gina and Belinda.

I knew there was gonna be
a problem.

Most people think that we're
really rich right now,

but I don't...

I know that we're
not rich right now!

[Belinda] I was too busy
having a lot of fun,

and I just let the others
write the songs.

Gina would say to me,
"This is not fair,"

and, you know, and I would say,
"I know it's not fair,"

but I felt like inside

like I really had no right
to say anything

because I was such a fuck-up.

[Kathy] What scared me was
an unhappy lead singer,

who pretty much made the band
into contenders,

feeling cheated
and unappreciated.

It set up a vibe

where I started feeling very
concerned about our future.

And it's like,
are you fucking kidding me?

Now, we're already having this
be a problem?

The fighting
and the real drugs

happen when we all get money,
you know.

It wrecks everything.

♪ Walking around it's clear
that I'm worlds away ♪

Charlotte was isolating
quite a bit.

I spend a lot of time here.

I don't go out that often,

because I like it here a lot
in my house.

I bought a house up in the hills
and I was by myself.

It was a bad situation.

I was suffering,

and I didn't know who to talk
to or what to do.

[Belinda]
No, we're just like sisters

and we're all looking out for,
you know,

each other all the time,

and we all love each other
very much.

We didn't communicate,
and then when we did communicate

we didn't do it in a loving,
sort of respectful way.

[Jane] By 1984, things were
getting pretty frazzled with us.

We'd still really never had been
given enough time to write

or recuperate or anything.

So, it was very tense.

[Gina] Being in a band, you
become each other's best friends

and also each other's
worst enemies.

[Kathy] It became a difficult
place to be

because I always wanted
to put out fires.

Somebody's not happy, you know,
fix this, fix, fix, fix,

you know, and have fun.

No matter how miserable
everyone is, have fun.

[military drumming]

[car horns honking]

[Gina] This is when we first
got to England,

making the third record.

And this was the clown family.

[Kathy] We had something called
the clown family

where everybody posed the same
way and put on a clown nose.

[Gina] This is the clown family
watching TV.

And here's the clown family
doing some blow,

upon arrival in London.

[laughing]

The ultimate is the clown family
giving birth to another clown.

[laughing]
Except Jane was the other clown.

Every single person
birthed Jane.

♪ Like an old movie backdrop ♪

♪ The radio's blasting ♪

We still managed to have a lot
of fun,

despite what might have
been going on.

♪ She says "I just wanted
to make you" ♪

♪ "I never meant to break you"
♪

♪ He says "Have some mercy
on me" ♪

♪ "Do you have to be
such a mercenary?" ♪

[Miles] I went into the studio

when they were recording
the third album.

There was a famous scene of one
of the members vomiting on me,

you know,
she'd had too much to drink.

I won't mention who,

but I was covered in vomit
in the studio.

So, I knew stuff was going on.

Good evening,
I'm Charlotte.

-Good evening, I'm Gina.
-Good evening, I'm Jane.

-I'm Kathy.
-Good evening, I'm Belinda,

-I'm The Go-Go's.
-She's not! No, I'm The Go-Go's.

-I'm The Go-Go's.
-No, we're all The Go-Go's.

Well, anyway...

[Kathy] We'd started writing
songs for the third record,

but Charlotte hit
a bit of a writing block.

It got harder to write,
actually, it prevented me.

I was really writing a lot,

because Charlotte was in a lot
of trouble with the drugs.

♪ When it goes dark,
forget the night ♪

There are people that really
loved that album,

but I can't even listen to it

because to me I was so miserable
during that time, oh, my God.

♪ When it goes dark ♪

♪ Get me to bed ♪

On that trip,
there was an implosion.

Jane got really upset.

♪ Wait for the light of day ♪

I think she felt frustrated
probably with me

and with wanting to have
a bigger role.

♪ I'm the only one you run to ♪

♪ The one you come to ♪

♪ The only one you can get to ♪

♪ I'm the only one for you ♪

-♪ I'm the only one ♪
-♪ Only one for you ♪

-♪ I'm the only one ♪
-♪ Only one for you ♪

-♪ I'm the only one ♪
-♪ Only one for you ♪

♪ I'm the only one ♪

[Jane] When we were recording
the album,

I had decided that I wanted
to sing one song on the record,

and there was one song
that I'd written

that was super personal to me
called "Forget That Day."

Then, I went to each girl
and was like,

"Please,
can I sing this one song?"

♪ I remember that day ♪

♪ Wind pushing birds around ♪

She came to us
and we just said, "No."

Belinda was the lead singer,
it just felt weird.

We decided that
that wasn't the way to go,

that we wanted to keep everybody
had their role within the band,

and that was the way
it was going to be.

I don't really like to talk
about that,

because it wasn't like a
unanimous thing in this band.

One of them said,

"What makes you think you're
good enough to sing a song?"

Which is something I'll never
forget hearing.

It was a huge betrayal,

and I did not know how to get
past it.

♪ I lost my heart ♪

♪ But I just said
I hate heights ♪

It never occurred to any of us

that we have to sit down
and how can we make this work?

But, no, nothing could change,
nobody could grow.

And I was part of it, too.

♪ I left to get
some work done ♪

We made Belinda feel guilty
for being a star and a diva.

We made Jane feel like what
she wanted and needed

was not important enough for us
to even sit down and talk about.

We made Gina feel like what she
contributed wasn't enough.

You don't deserve to make
as much.

♪ Why'd you say you love me ♪

And we couldn't see the pain

that Charlotte was walking
around in.

♪ Try to forget that day ♪

[Miles] I was always an optimist

hoping that we would keep
the things together.

I don't know that they
recognized then,

and after the third album,
what they really had together.

♪ Head over heels,
where should I go ♪

[Kathy] "Head Over Heels",
we made a video,

it got released as a single.

The tour machine's picking up.

♪ ...out of sync ♪

♪♪♪

We were getting ready to tour
for the third record.

We were at rehearsal
and a call came in,

it was like, "Gina,
your doctor's on the phone."

I was like... We all sort of
stopped, like, what is this?

Gina had always been like coming
off stage, "I can't breathe,"

and we'd be like, "Oh, my God,
she's such a drama queen,"

like, no, absolutely like no
sympathy whatsoever for her.

Now what?

Because she has been seeing
this doctor and that doctor

and we're just like,
"Oh, come on."

But as it turns out she couldn't
breathe

because she had a hole
in her heart

and she wasn't getting enough
oxygen. Yeah, so... our bad.

Gina was diagnosed with a hole
in her heart.

She was going to have surgery.

Heart surgery, what the fuck?

It was a little scary,

but we dealt with it
with a lot of, like, humor.

Our humor was, you know,

always gallows dark.

So, we decided to have
this final lost weekend

in Palm Springs together
just in case Gina croaked.

They were taking me out
on my last hurrah.

♪♪♪

We rented I think a convertible
Jag and a convertible Cadillac.

Let's buy a bunch of drugs
and go out to the desert.

[Jane] We had just like
a shit ton of drugs

and we're driving
into Palm Springs

going 100 miles an hour.

[truck horn blaring]

It was a total weekend
of debauchery

and drugs and drinking.

♪ Sex ♪

[Jane]
And we had a special rule

that Gina was not allowed
to do cocaine,

she can only do booze,
Valium and mushrooms,

so you know,
we were keeping her safe!

Because they didn't want me
to have a heart attack.

[laughing]

♪♪♪

[Belinda] It did bring the band
together temporarily.

[Gina] It's funny how you can
feel so isolated

from people in the band,

and then in a minute, in a
second, you're family again.

We were really at odds,
and when I had that surgery

everybody sort of came together
for a while there.

[host] We've gotten a lot of
calls and letters

and your fans are real
concerned.

If you could just give us
an update on your health?

I'm fine.
My heart is better.

My doctor told me I can do
anything I like.

I can't wait to get out on tour
because I'm bored to death.

[laughing]

[host] Well, I do want
to talk about the tour.

What kind of tour sponsorship
are you considering?

[Jane] Before the album was
released, that's kind of

when the publishing thing
really came to a head.

We were called to a meeting

at the crappy management's
office,

and it was stated all
the publishing

needs to be split equally.

And then, I said,
"Well, wait a minute,

"this album is totally done.

"I totally agree to do that
for the next album,

"but I'm not doing it
for this album,

because I fucking worked
my ass off."

And they're like,
"Nope, you gotta do it."

I'm like, "I won't do it."

"You've gotta do it."
"I won't do it."

And then, I just said,
"Fuck you, I quit."

And that's when I quit
the band.

But, of course,
I couldn't leave the band yet

because we had a whole,
huge tour planned

to support the new album.

She told us that she was, after
the tour for

Talk Show
she was going to leave.

[host] You guys have been
together now for quite a while.

Do you still all just get along
as friends?

Argh!

There would be a lot
of questions

about what our relationship
with each other was like.

"Oh, we love each other.
We're like sisters."

Yeah, like sisters that fucking
stab each other in the back.

[crowd cheering]

♪♪♪

It was a little toxic,
shall we say.

♪ But I know
what you're doing ♪

But the machine, Go-Go machine,
had to keep going.

♪ Falling to ruin ♪

♪ You got your walls so high ♪

Things were really coming apart.

♪ There may be some
explanation ♪

[Kathy]
This band is everything to me.

My driving focus was to keep
that shit together.

♪ I just want to turn to you ♪

-♪ Come on let me turn to you ♪
-♪ Turn to you ♪

♪ Turn to you ♪

[Charlotte] There was a lot
of crap going on,

and it felt like the dream
of The Go-Go's was slipping away

and, of course, I more so felt
like my life was slipping away.

♪ It has a lot to do ♪

[Jane]
There were definitely times

when you really had to fake it
to get through it.

We had this whole thing
that we called robo Go-Go-ing,

where you would just get out
there on stage

and no one would fucking know

that you had just had
a screaming fight backstage.

You would just get out there
and be like, robo Go-Go!

♪ I want to turn to you ♪

♪ Come on,
let me turn to you ♪

♪ Please let me turn to you ♪

During the tour,

Jane announced that she was
leaving, which I didn't believe.

And then, sure enough she did
and it was really devastating.

[crowd cheering]

I felt completely betrayed.

I felt like...

she was breaking up something
that was so precious.

We knew we were in trouble then,

because, I mean,
she's an original member,

she's a key songwriter,
and she's irreplaceable.

It was like a hatchet had come
and just...

it was never going to be
the same after that.

That was it, really, a piece
of the puzzle was missing.

I felt like the rat that had,
you know, left the sinking ship.

[Miles]
The Go-Go's as a unit worked.

And you take out a piece,
is the picture complete?

Maybe not.

[Kathy] I just thought this
could be the end of everything.

All I was, I was a Go-Go,
that was all.

That meant I could take care
of my mom.

By this time,
I'm supporting my mom.

It's easier to find
a bass player

than it is a guitar player.

I'll play guitar,
we'll get a bass player.

Hundreds of girls wanted to be
in The Go-Go's.

Big surprise.

[Charlotte]
I really wanted Paula Jean,

and the other girls weren't
really agreeing with me,

but for some reason
they acquiesced,

and Paula Jean became
our bass player.

[Paula Jean] I felt like Dorothy
walking into Oz,

because they were all
so much shorter than me.

I knew before I auditioned that
the band was having problems

because Jane quit the band,

and I had read enough
and followed them enough

to know that things weren't
going great interpersonally.

[Kathy] So, we started
rehearsing with Paula Jean,

getting ready to go to Rio.

We're playing the biggest show
of our life.

It's the Rock in Rio festival.

[man]
Belinda!

What are your expectations
towards the festival?

Should be a lot of fun.

[Paula Jean] I could tell that
the joy of them playing together

was not what it probably
once was.

It felt to me like they were
all trying to muster it

for the occasion.

[Gina] In Rio,

this is the height of
everybody's drug intake.

People driving around in cabs
searching for coke all night.

[Belinda] I didn't sleep for,
like, a week.

[Charlotte] I'm supposed to go
to sound check

and I went out to cop some dope.

I was late,
and I had to make up a big lie,

and that's another thing
with drugs,

like, you become a big liar.

[Gina]
Charlotte was so out of control

that Ozzy Osbourne threw her out
of his dressing room.

Now that's pretty fucking bad.

♪ Head over heels,
where should I go ♪

♪ Can't stop myself,
outta control ♪

♪ Head over heels,
no time to think ♪

♪ Looks like the whole world's
out of sync ♪

[Paula Jean]
The Go-Go's were a family,

and, you know,
I think that Gina and Kathy

kind of had become
the caretakers in a way,

trying to hold it together.

Charlotte was there, but you
could tell just not there.

It was just getting to be where
it was unsustainable.

[Kathy]
Paula goes,

"You guys, Charlotte's
really in trouble."

What?

New girl says what?

I said, "I just really feel
like she's going to die."

[Charlotte] Paula came to me
one day and said, you know,

"Charlotte, I know a place where
you can go to get some help."

And I said,
"What are you talking about?"

She told me about, you know,

a recovery hospital, you know,
for addicts.

And then, something shifted
in me.

I went back to Los Angeles

and I checked myself into rehab
with Paula's help.

I'm not saying it was easy,
but I was dedicated.

And I'm forever grateful to her
for giving me that information,

because it totally changed
my life and saved me.

When I got sober,
it was so amazing

to be free of that prison
that I was living in.

As dedicated as I was
to my band,

I was dedicated to myself.

When we started rehearsing again
for the fourth album,

I made the decision to choose
myself over the band.

It just wasn't working,
it wasn't going to work.

Paula was great,
but she wasn't Jane.

The only decent song that came
out of it was "Mad About You."

They really liked
"Mad About You."

It's a song that Paula wrote
for our band.

The relationships were
just disintegrating in the band.

Charlotte and I discussed
ending the band.

[Kathy] Gina and I are feeling
more and more

like Charlotte and Belinda
are on one side,

and me and Gina
are on the other side.

[Gina] Her and Belinda
called Kathy and myself

into management's office.

I was like, "This is not good."

It's not good.

Even now, I can't. Remembering
this makes me feel ill.

"We've decided to break up
the band,"

that was the first thing.

And Gina and I said, "You can't.

You can't do that,
it's our band too."

"Yes, we can."

Somebody said,

"She writes the hits
and I am the voice."

"She's the voice
and I write the hits."

And Kathy and I were fucking
flabbergasted.

They completely freaked out,
completely freaked out.

There was a lot of crying
and screaming.

I definitely raged,

and then, I dialed back the rage

and groveled, apologizing.

I... I wanted to kill
both of them.

I really did.

After all we'd been through,

how could you fucking dare
say that to me?

I won't survive this
if I stay here

and I cannot risk using
and drinking again,

I cannot risk that.

What was horrible was like
going home from that meeting

just shattered.

And then, the phone rings

and it's the guy
from the management company

and my heart just, like, "Ah,
they've changed their mind!"

And instead he goes,

"You're going to get a call from
The L.A. Times

to make a comment
about the band breaking up."

It's like, "What,
are you fucking kidding me?"

You know, it's been an hour.

Within months of me leaving
the band ended up breaking up,

and I certainly wasn't happy
about it,

but I also wasn't
surprised either.

[Charlotte]
We didn't speak to each other

for five years after that.

Gina and Kathy,
I didn't speak to.

Jane was off doing her solo
record.

I felt the need to try
something new.

I was also interested
in singing my own material.

I was used to being a big star,

and all of a sudden it was like,
"She sucks!"

I hated it so much
and I was just so mad,

but now honestly, I really feel
like the person I am today

would not exist without all
the failure I went through,

and all the success I ever had
never taught me one damn thing.

Never.

[Kathy] I tried so hard
to create another band

with the chemistry and the magic
that The Go-Go's had,

and nothing I did seemed
to work out.

I tried being a singer.

I never wanted to be a singer,
but I tried it.

I couldn't be a studio player

because I didn't know how
to read music

and that wasn't my thing.

And so, I went out
and tried to get a solo deal.

I did one show at the Roxy and
got signed by Capitol Records,

which was great for a while.

[Jane]
And then after a few years,

it was almost like The Go-Go's
didn't even exist anymore.

It was only like, Belinda!

[Katie Couric]
When The Go-Go's split up

I guess everybody went
their separate ways,

but you're the only one
who really hit it big.

Why do you think that's
the case?

Well, I think I definitely had
a head start

as being the focus
of the band,

which, you know,
people do tend to focus

on the lead singer of any band.

And, you know, that did give me
some advantages.

[Charlotte]
Belinda offered me a job.

She said, "Do you wanna tour
with me and write on my record?"

I was so grateful to her,

because that was still
at that place in my life

where that was my identity,
doing that,

and just beginning to find out
that that wasn't who--

that wasn't the totality
of who I am.

So, she gave me that bridge.

[Kathy] As they went on,

Charlotte was working
with Belinda.

Jane is back in the fold.

Now, all of a sudden, it's like,

the three of them
are doing shit for Belinda.

I started feeling like it was
a vendetta against me and Gina.

It was... it was horrible.

I just wanted to write
and play drums.

I've written stuff
for other people.

I had a song covered
by Miley Cyrus,

and then four songs
by Selena Gomez,

so I felt like, "Yeah, finally
getting what I deserve."

[laughing]

I've always known I had a book
in me...

When I turned 40,

I was dropped by my record
company as a solo artist,

and that was actually
the beginning of, like,

soul searching
and what is this all about?

What were The Go-Go's all about?

Who am I?

With sobriety, my world is vast
and bigger than it's ever been.

I think for me, there are a lot
of ego issues, to be honest,

a lot of slapping down
I've needed,

and a lot of...
I needed a lot of humbling.

It's five people in this band,

and everybody was set
on their own sort of course...

But then we got back together.
[laughing]

Because the story never ends!

The story never ends.

[crowd cheering loudly]

Thank you for coming out
tonight.

[playing "We Got the Beat"]

♪♪♪

♪ See the people walking
down the street ♪

[Kathy] As angry as I was when
they broke up the band,

I missed them.

Nobody really knows what that
felt like to be in The Go-Go's,

only four other people know
what that feels like.

And that's the bond.

Nothing has happened so bad
that it overshadows that.

I don't know how
this keeps going,

I swear to Christ, I don't.

[man]
The Go-Go's day in Hollywood!

[crowd cheering]

We are making Go-Go's history

with our debut as Broadway
songwriters.

[Gina]
You get older and you get wiser,

and you drop a lot
of the bullshit.

We are a family,
that's just what it is.

♪ We got the beat ♪

♪ Everybody get on your feet ♪

[out of sync]
♪ We know you can... ♪

-[laughing]
-Can you drum?

[Jane]
Gina needs coffee.

♪ We used to have the beat ♪

♪ We had the beat ♪

I remember when we had the beat!
We got it back.

♪ Everybody, we got the beat ♪

♪ We got the,
we got the beat ♪

[Kathy]
That was fantastic.

That was amazing.

Oh, my God, do we have
the motherfucking beat.

I love that.

That wasn't bad for not playing
together a really long time.

[playing guitar]

Hey, it doesn't hurt
to rehearse,

it only makes you tighter.

[Belinda]
I think that The Go-Go's,

if you believe in karma,

there's a lot of karmic ties
in this band.

Just the fact that we've been
in each other's lives

for so many years, it has to be
to work out something.

♪ Fair's fair, don't care ♪

♪ They may have control
but we're not scared ♪

♪ Zero fucks given ♪

Oops.

About a year ago,
I went to a psychiatrist

who diagnosed me
as being bipolar.

♪ Wake up, can't you see ♪

For the first time in my life

I haven't thought of suicide
in a year,

which is like fucking
mind-blowing to me.

Do you want to decide which key
you like better?

-Yeah, that'd be good.
-Okay.

And luckily, The Go-Go's have
finally gotten to the point

where we actually can be civil
to each other and get along.

I can see the good in everyone
in the band.

[playing guitar]

♪ There's a place for us,
don't look for a sign ♪

♪ Not on a map ♪

♪ It's a state of mind ♪

♪ This is club zero ♪

Okay, so, verse or chorus?

We talked about things we wanted
to write about

and we did kind
of make a conscious decision

to try to write about, you know,

the place of women
and our future roles.

It's kind of a testament
to our longevity and our bond.

-Tenacity.
-And how we can work together.

That we've been able
to withstand it, I think...

[laughing]

[Charlotte]
It was hard!

We've been able to live
through it!

[laughing]

What were you saying,
Gina?

Wait a minute!

[Kathy]
Okay, are we ready to go loud?

-[Gina] Yeah, man.
-[Jane] You wanna go loud?

[Gina]
One, two, a-one, two...

♪♪♪

♪ There's a place for us,
don't look for a sign ♪

♪ Not on a map ♪

♪ It's a state of mind ♪

♪ This is club zero ♪

♪ The rules they made
are battle lines ♪

♪ The grand design
is out of time ♪

♪ Hey, we've got something
to say... ♪

[Charlotte] There was this power
that we all felt,

of us together
doing what we're doing.

We showed up as who we were

and just, against all odds,

busted through some ceilings.

I don't know what more
they have to do

to get in the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame.

What the fuck? They're not?

Come on! Come on!

They're in my Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame.

♪♪♪

♪ There's a place for us,
don't look for a sign ♪

♪ Not on a map ♪

♪ It's a state of mind ♪

♪ This is club zero ♪

♪ Time's up,
it's the clarion call ♪

♪ 'Cause zero hour
is upon us all ♪

♪ Tik-tok, tik-tok ♪

♪ The rules they made
are battle lines ♪

♪ The grand design
is out of time ♪

♪ Hey, we've got something
to say ♪

♪ Gonna make the world shake ♪

♪ Ready or not, here we are ♪

♪ Better get out of our way ♪

♪ Looking for heroes,
we are club zero ♪

[laughing]

-I love it.
-[Gina] We did blow in our bras.

That day we did blow
and gave birth.

[Jane] Yeah, it was time
to have babies.

Which one is that?

She's having her baby.

[Jane] Why am I always the baby?

[Kathy]
You were always the baby

'cause you were the only one
that could fit between our legs.

♪ Fair's fair, don't care ♪

♪ They may have control
but we're not scared ♪

♪ Zero fucks given ♪

♪ Wake up, can't you see ♪

♪ Heads up, we're the new MVPs
♪

♪ Of the twenty-first century ♪

♪ The rules they made
are battle lines ♪

♪ The grand design
is out of time ♪

♪ Hey, we've got something
to say ♪

♪ Gonna make the world shake ♪

♪ Ready or not, here we come ♪

♪ You better get out
of our way ♪

♪ We won't stop
until we're done ♪

♪ Better get out of our way ♪

♪ Walking like heroes,
we are club zero ♪

♪♪♪

♪ The rules they made
are battle lines ♪

♪ The grand design
is out of time ♪

♪ Hey, we've got something
to say ♪

♪ Gonna make the world shake ♪

♪ Ready or not, here we come ♪

♪ You better get out
of our way ♪

♪ We won't stop
until we're done ♪

♪ Better get out of our way ♪

♪ Looking for heroes,
we are club zero ♪

♪ Walking like heroes,
we are club zero ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪h

♪h