All language subtitles for 222The.Go.Gos.2020.1080p.BluRay.x264-TREBLE-English

We are the first all-girl band
that wrote their own material

and played their own
instruments to be really successful.

All right, this is for
you for being so nice.

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?

People automatically assumed

that we were probably
put together by some guy,

but we did it all ourselves.

Let's go!

We got on stage,

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

It was great.

One in a million bands
gets to where we got.

America knew who The Go-Go's were.

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.

- The Go-Go's!
- The Go-Go's!

We were really making big
strides, loving what we were doing

and being in that moment of, like, wow!

Can't stop the world...

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

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

In the course of a year,

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

Can't stop the world

I was on top of the world,
I felt like we had made it.

There never would have been The Go-Go's

without the punk rock
scene in Los Angeles.

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

Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

There's a problem with the monitor here,

and I'm getting shocked. Sorry.

At the time, there were 50
kids tops in the LA punk scene.

It was DIY, 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

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

- 'Cause we're - We're

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 had 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...

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, "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,

your bra or your bare
boobs would come out.

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.

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.

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.

Everybody in the LA 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 LA drove up.

It was really like a
religious pilgrimage.

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

Problem, problem, problem, problem...

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.

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

Good night!

You know, it was kind of like,

"Oh, man, these 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.

I met Elissa.

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

Margot then met Belinda.

The punk scene was so small,
so we all knew each other vaguely.

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.

With one little problem?

That we didn't know
how to play instruments.

Well, I wanted to play bass

and I knew I would
have to learn by doing.

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

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

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

I certainly thought I could sing.

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

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

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."

Charming, darling.

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

nothing really seemed
right or whatever...

Was it the Misfits, it was gonna 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.

I remember doing our first
show. It was at the Masque.

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.

We only knew those songs,

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

We didn't need one.

There's one song about Robert Hilburn

who was a huge music
critic at the LA Times.

Betcha think you're really smart

We know better You're a boring fart

New wave music makes good
copy Tell us Bob, could punk be art?

People were either laughing
or completely mortified in horror.

It was a big, fat mess.

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.

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.

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, you know...

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?"

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.

Margot and I went to an Eyes show
where we thought, "Oh, Charlotte!"

Yeah

We thought she was perfect.

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."

We started rehearsing...

but, you know...

we were pretty crappy in the beginning.

We really didn't sound that great.

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.

This song's called "Fashion Seekers".

Bland ideas in a borrowed head

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.

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.

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.

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.

We definitely needed to bring
somebody in that wanted to be there.

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

That's how it started,
I invited 'em over for...

They said, "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 cologne

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

It was really, like, ta-da!

I need promises...

The next thing I know, they
found this other drummer.

I was very upset and hurt.

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.

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.

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 dollars and two grams of coke.

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.

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.

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

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?"

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.

She was right.

We improved, and it pushed us
to another level. And I was on fire!

I was sitting at home,
it was about midnight,

I was watching The Twilight Zone.

You're flying to a new planet,

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

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.

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.

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,"

'cause it was a pop song.

See the people walking down the street

I don't remember her being
nervous, I just remember thinking

it was an amazing song. I
mean, it's just so obvious.

We all loved it right away.

They got the beat, they got the beat

They got the beat

When she started
playing that eighth-note riff,

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

I knew it was gonna be like...

I felt like we had arrived.

It was definitely another
step up that ladder.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 one of the
best things 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!

Their manager started talking with Ginger

about how to bring us over to England
so we could tour with both bands.

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.

She sold everything. Her car...
She put her whole life on sale

basically to fund us to get to London.

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

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!

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!

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?

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

My crowd's hanging around

We were being spit at, stuff
thrown at us every single night.

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're Americans.

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

No, we don't do that...

You know here are these five
little girls from southern California,

get up on stage and play
to these scary skinheads.

It was frightening.

One venue, a fella was
standing people in a line

with a razor, and another
fella with a hammer.

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 a lot of romances
going on between the band members.

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

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

Gina is one... 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 had asked." You know?

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

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.

Behind the scenes, I was
bringing their cassette tapes around.

Stiff Records might've
been a small label,

but they had a group of dedicated people.

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."

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.

Well, I stuck to my guns and signed this

one-single deal with Stiff Records.

"Friday, June 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".

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

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

They're grew, they proved themselves,

and for The Go-Go's,
to pick themselves up

and leave from LA and
come to London, you know...

Wow! Respect to them
girls, man, you know?

Their musicianship, compared
to us, was second to none.

They taught me a thing or two.

Lust to love

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 Roqs.

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

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.

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

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.

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."

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.

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

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

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."

Bring it down!

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."

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."

Can you hear them?

Talking about us

Telling lies Well, that's no surprise

Can you see them?

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

They have no shield No secrets to reveal

It doesn't matter what they say

In the jealous games people play

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.

Hush, my darling

Don't you cry

Quiet, angel

Forget their lies

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.

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

We started writing more melodic songs...

and we got this hybrid of pop and punk.

- Hush now darling - Our lips are sealed

Hush now...

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

My identity is 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.

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.

I just felt like, well 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 what kind of musician you are?

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.

Kathy, I met at the Whisky-a-Go-Go.

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.

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

It sounds, you know...

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

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

because I can't hear.

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.

I played it over and over.

I'm a perfectionist, you know.

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

was to get pharmaceutical help.

I basically learned all
their songs on a coke binge.

Charlotte came over
to see how it was going.

I went to her house.
She was kind of like,

in the middle of 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.

By the time I'd learned those songs,

I just wanted to be in the band.

In case you haven't noticed,

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

and her name's Kathy.

Kathy Valentine, yeah.

In came Kathy Valentine
like a knight in shining armor.

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

They wanted me, and I wanted them,

and I guess it's a lot like cheaters,

you know, people having affairs.

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 guts to do it.

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?"

In our little scene in LA,

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Miles Copeland, who managed The Police,

decided to start his own boutique label.

And he called it I.R.S. Records.

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 LA?

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.

We signed on April 1st to I.R.S. 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

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,

and 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

When Richard Gottehrer got a hold of us,

he said, "Slow everything down."

This town, litter the
streets in this town

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

I think actually it was my idea
for the face masks and towels,

to sort of be timeless and incognito.

I thought fabulous graphically,

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 of...

That I snorted.

It made me feel 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

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!"

And 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."

She was way more out of control

than I think any of us really knew about.

You all right?

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

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.
- Okay.

Yeah. Okay, we'll give it a try.

Here we go. In three, two...

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

Well, it was a cheap
music video, actually.

"Our Lips Are Sealed" was
done on a 6000-dollar 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

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.

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.

We jumped around in that
goddamn fountain for quite a while

and nobody even paid any attention to us.

No one would arrest us.

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

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."

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...

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

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!

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.

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.

They brought us champagne.

It was actually very
gentlemanly of them to do that

and not kick us off the tour!

Beauty and the Beat
has gone to number one,

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

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 it fulfilled everything.

This is a circus. I swear.

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.

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.

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!

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,

"Oh, you know, we started
a band because of you!"

And that's probably the
best feeling in the world,

I mean, 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.

We got there 11:00 in the morning,

and we had to wait until
11:00 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.

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.

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

We were like cross-eyed drunk.

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

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."

Well, now that we've had a
little bit of success and stuff

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

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, 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.

We asked them why they are succeeding

where other girl groups have failed.

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

because if people don't like your songs

they're not gonna wanna come
see you live or buy your records.

Doesn't matter 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.

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.

Do you have any time to write songs now

with all the traveling you're doing?

We've come to... Right
now, we're starting...

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

What are you gonna write about?

Well, I can't really say what we're
gonna 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

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.

Are you still getting along?

Yeah, we're getting along really good...

- Surprisingly, yeah -
...as a matter of fact.

But this is the beginning of tour,
we'll see how it is the last week.

No, we'll get along, we always
have got along pretty good, I'd say.

Show time!

It's everything but party time

It's everything but party time...

I mean, this was like
a fucking treadmill.

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

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."

This has been an incredible year.

The success, how's it affected your life

at this stage of the ball game?

We're aware of how well
we're doing but we don't...

- feel it, yeah, not yet.
- Feel it, yeah.

Just too much overload
on the brain right now.

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.

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,

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

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

Can't seem to get my mind off of you

What's the worst thing
about being a manager?

When they don't want you anymore.

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

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.

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.

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.

How angry were you?

Angry enough to move to New York?

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.

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."

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?

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 I mean,
that's like 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 I didn't...

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

This is mine, you know, 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.

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!

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, I really
had no right to say anything,

because I was such a fuck-up.

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.

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.

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.

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

and also each other's worst enemies.

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.

This is when we first got to
England, making the third record.

And this was the clown family.

We had something called the clown family

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

This is the clown family watching TV.

And here's the clown
family doing some blow.

Upon arrival in London.

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

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?"

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.
- No, I'm The Go-Go's.

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

Well, anyway...

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

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

And 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

I was always an optimist hoping
that we would keep things together.

And 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

"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 like,

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.

We had just like a shit ton of drugs,

and we're driving into Palm
Springs going 100 miles an hour.

It was a total weekend of
debauchery and drugs and drinking.

Sex

Fun

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.

It did bring the band
together temporarily.

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.

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.

Well, I do want to talk about the tour.

What kind of tour sponsorship
are you considering?

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.

You guys have been
together now for quite a while.

Do you still all just
get along as friends?

Yeah.

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.

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

This band is everything to me.

My driving focus was
to keep that shit together.

- I just want to turn
to you - Turn to you

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

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

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.

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.

The Go-Go's as a unit worked.

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

Maybe not.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Belinda!

Are you... What are your
expectations towards the festival?

It should be a lot of fun.

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.

In Rio, this is the height
of everybody's drug intake.

People driving around in cabs
searching for coke all night.

I didn't sleep for, like, a week.

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.

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 Out of control

Head over heels No time to think

Looks like the whole world's out of sync

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.

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."

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 that... 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.

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.

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 and apologizing.

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,
"They've changed their mind!"

And instead he goes,

"You're going to get a
call from the LA 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.

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.

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.

And then after a few years,

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

It was only like, Belinda!

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.

Belinda offered me a job.

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

And I was so grateful
to her, because I...

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...

that wasn't the totality of who I am.

So, she gave me that bridge.

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."

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 very
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.

Because the story never ends!

The story never ends.

Thank you for coming out tonight.

See the people walking down the street

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.

The Go-Go's day in Hollywood!

We are making Go-Go's
history with our debut

as Broadway songwriters.

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

We know you can...

Can you drum?

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

- That was fantastic.
- That was amazing.

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

- I love that.
- It was great.

That wasn't bad for not playing together

- a really long time.
- Yeah, next time...

Hey, it doesn't hurt to rehearse,
it only makes you tighter.

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.

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...

- It was hard!
- We've been able to live through it!

- What were you saying, Gina?
- Wait a minute!

Okay, are we ready to go loud?

- Yeah, man.
- You wanna go loud?

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...

There was this power that we all felt,

of us together, doing what were 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

Tick-tock, tick-tock

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

- I love it.
- We did blow in our bras.

- We did blow and we gave birth.
- Yeah, it was time to have babies.

- Which one is that?
- She's having her baby.

Why am I always the baby?

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