The Go-Go's: In 1995 I Traced The Group's Improbable Rock 'N' Roll Success Story For AMP

Originally published in American Music Press, 1995
By Devorah Ostrov

The Go-Go's

Back row L-R: Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine, Gina Schock

Front: Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin

The Go-Go's are an improbable rock 'n' roll success story. They went from cute punkettes with a taste for Day-Glo but no musical expertise to Grammy-nominated pop stars with their debut LP. And the fact that just two albums later, they were burnt-out and broken-up makes their story even more fascinating.

Last year, I.R.S. Records released Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's, a comprehensive two-CD retrospective that follows the growth of the band from early rehearsal outtakes through album cuts, hit singles, B-sides, and rare live recordings. Three new tracks bring the package fully up to date.

Meanwhile, an ongoing reunion tour in promotion of the retrospective has found an enthusiastic audience, which includes original fans as well as lots of kids who were too young for the first go (go) round.

To this day, many people wonder what it was that made the Go-Go's so special. After all, they were just five young women who sang about "inconsequential, yet happy things," as Creem's J. Kordosh once cynically quipped.

Promotion for Beauty and the Beat

If you ask vocalist Belinda Carlisle, she might tell you it has something to do with their live performances. "A Go-Go's show is always teetering on the brink of disaster," she says. "We always just sort of wing it as we go along. I think people can feel that, and it's exciting."

That's certainly part of their appeal. However, rock journalist Robot A. Hull hit upon something even more intriguing in his comparison between the dependent nature of the 1960s girl-groups and the artistic freedom enjoyed by the Go-Go's:

A brightly-colored pic featuring the Go-Go's early lineup

from the March 1979 issue of Bomp magazine.

Photo: Jules Bates

"While it's true that the girl-group sound is the Go-Go's reference point, they have escaped its repressive nature," wrote Hull. "The Go-Go's are not manipulated; instead they do all the manipulating. Being the first all-female band to have a Number One album, the Go-Go's have power and freedom unbeknownst to their historical antecedents ... What we hear in the Go-Go's music, then, is the joyful celebration of this freedom — the awareness that women in rock 'n' roll now can pretty much do as they damn well please ... And not since the Sex Pistols revolutionized rock 'n' roll in 1977 has a rock band had such an impact — that is, in terms of transforming the way we perceive the traditions of rock. For after the Go-Go's, no one in 1982 can look back at the girl-group era and not acknowledge how forbidding it was, how extremely repressive rock 'n' roll could be. Through their cheery music, the Go-Go's have liberated us all."

Pieced together from in-person interviews, phone conversations, and liberal borrowing from 'zines of the time — this is the story of the Go-Go's. But if recent events are any indication, it's only The Story So Far.

 * * *

Belinda Carlisle was born in Hollywood, but she grew up in the Valley (Thousand Oaks, to be exact), where she was a high school cheerleader. It was during her senior year, Carlisle told Star Hits magazine, that she became a "freak."

Go-Go's, Alley Cats & Plugz at California Hall, San Francisco

"I started finding out there was Iggy Pop and the Stooges, and Lou Reed, and all this stuff. And my look started to change dramatically. And as soon as I got out of high school, I left home. I couldn't wait to move to Hollywood and hang out at rock clubs and see groovy bands."

Carlisle moved into the notorious Canterbury Hotel (in reality, just a roach-infested hovel), where she met Margot Olavarria and Jane Wiedlin (a fellow Valley refugee, who sometimes called herself Jane Drano).

According to the retrospective liner notes, in May 1978, the three girls were sitting on a curb in Venice, California, when they decided to form a band. (In its November '81 issue, the New York Rocker gives the plot an interesting twist by crediting the whole shebang to Olavarria and her friend Elissa Bello — neither of whom would be around for the first album.) One thing everyone agrees on though, was that none of the initial members were what you might call musicians. Carlisle had been in the Germs for about a day; the others had even less experience.

Wiedlin became the guitarist — she painted numbers on the fretboard to learn the chords. Olavarria acquainted herself with a bass. Carlisle was appointed lead singer, and Bello took up drumming.

Stiff Buy 78 - "We Got the Beat" b/w "How Much More"

Fortunately for all involved, the Go-Go's formed at a time in rock history when enthusiasm mattered more than skill; when having fun was more important than knowing one end of a guitar from the other. Otherwise, as Wiedlin pointed out in a BAM magazine feature on the group: "There would've been no way the Go-Go's ever would have existed."

Referring to their early ineptness in the liner notes to the retrospective, Carlisle mentions how the seasoned pros in the LA punk scene lent a hand. "We shared a rehearsal room with X and the Motels," she says. "Other bands would come by and give us lessons. They felt sorry for us."

Two months after forming, the Go-Go's made their live debut at the Masque, Hollywood's seminal punk dive. The entirety of their set lasted ten minutes and consisted of two self-penned originals: a political treatise about taking over the world called "Overrun" and "Hilburn," a put-down of the LA Times music critic. Technically, the set only consisted of one-and-a-half songs. As Olavarria once explained, "We did the first one over because we couldn't play the second one all the way through."

Even by punk standards, it was a laugh. And by general consensus, they were dismissed as a cute novelty.

In September, the Go-Go's original lineup was completed with the addition of Charlotte Caffey, a southern California native with a degree in classical music. When Carlisle and Wiedlin approached her, Caffey was playing bass with pop/punk trio the Eyes (whose drummer D.J. Bonebrake went on to join X). And Caffey liked the idea of the group enough to lie when they asked if she could play lead guitar.

"We were always a pop band. The songs were really always there.

We were just so bad at playing them in the beginning!" — Charlotte Caffey

"I figured it only had a couple more strings; it couldn't be that hard," Caffey states in the retrospective liner notes. Over the phone, she adds, "I just learned as I went along."

At the time, Carlisle and Wiedlin were writing most of the group's material, but Caffey very quickly became a key contributor. "I think 'How Much More' was one of the first songs I showed the band," she says, "and then 'Beatnik Beach.' And then we all just started collaborating."

By the following year, the Go-Go's had shed their punk trappings. Gina Schock — a talented drummer who had once backed Edith Massey in Edie and the Eggs — had replaced Bello, and with much hard work under their collective belt, they'd evolved into a surprisingly adept pop band.

The Go-Go's at Flippers

"We were always a pop band," contends Caffey. "The songs were really always there. You can hear the melodies even in the early stuff. We were just so bad at playing them in the beginning!"

The Go-Go's big break came in 1980 when they opened some LA dates for Madness and were subsequently offered the support slot on the nutty boys' upcoming British tour. As Madness were the superstars of the UK SKA movement — topping the charts with "One Step Beyond," "My Girl" and "Baggy Trousers" — it was an invitation the Go-Go's couldn't refuse.

"We sold all of our belongings," says Caffey. "We got rid of our apartments and essentially moved over there."

Touring England, first as guests of Madness and then the Specials, with no record company backing, left them nearly destitute. "We were eating off of other people's garbage," recalls Caffey. But it was all worthwhile because, tucked in with their thrift-store frocks and lipsticks was a five-song demo tape featuring early versions of "Lust to Love," "How Much More" and "We Got the Beat." (Caffey wrote the latter while watching The Twilight Zone after having listened to "Going to a Go-Go," a proposed cover tune, several times.)

The Go-Go's: Creem Profiles

Profession: Getting and keeping the beat.

Although the group had already taken their tape to all the major labels in Los Angeles, none had shown any interest. In fact, says Caffey, "they just laughed at us. Literally. Their thinking was, since there had never been a successful all-female band, they couldn't possibly sign us."

However, Stiff Records, the quirky English label responsible for launching the Damned, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello and Ian Dury (and made rich by Madness) was willing to take a risk. Stiff signed the Go-Go's to a one-off single deal and issued "We Got the Beat" b/w "How Much More" as Buy 78.

Stiff also offered them a deal for the publishing rights to the songs. "We didn't even know what publishing was," remarks Caffey, "but we said 'No.' We figured if it was something they wanted; it was something we should keep." They might have been naïve, but they weren't stupid!

Oddly, while the 45's first pressing sold well enough in England, the single's infectious A-side became an underground dance hit in the States, and when the group finally returned home, they could headline any club in LA.

But they also found themselves in need of a new bassist when Olavarria was laid low with hepatitis shortly before the most prestigious gig of their burgeoning career.

Photo from the Rolling Stone list of

"Best Summer Songs of All Time," which ranks 

"Vacation" at number 8.

rollingstone.com/music/lists/best-summer-songs-of-all-time

Enter veteran guitarist Kathy Valentine. Born in Austin, Texas, Valentine's first group was a "really awful" all-female trio called Lickety Split. For a brief time, she was a member of the British heavy metal outfit Girlschool (she taught them ZZ Top's "Tush") before illness forced her to come home, where she formed the Violators with Carla Olson.

"I thought the Violators were gonna be this huge band," muses Valentine, "but we broke up instead." In 1978, she and Olson relocated to LA where they put together the Textones. A respected indie (back when that meant unknown) pop group, the Textones suffered from an ever-shifting lineup; Valentine was actually one of the first to leave. 

Go-Go's on the cover of BAM

"Kathy and I were too far apart in musical tastes," Olson explained to Blitz magazine. "I was into Merseybeat type music, and she was into the Sex Pistols and hardcore." Ironically, Valentine was about to join a band that now leaned more towards Merseybeat than the Textones ever would!

Valentine's entrance into the Go-Go's came about when a mutual friend introduced her to Caffey, who inquired whether she played bass. Valentine, like Caffey before her, lied.

"I hadn't ever played bass before," laughs Valentine, "but I was sure that I could! I borrowed a bass, and the next day Charlotte came over and gave me a tape of their songs. I was like, 'Wow! I really like these songs!' And after I met everybody and we started rehearsing, it was really fun. I decided right there and then that I wanted to be in the band."

"Kathy learned all our songs in three days," marvels Caffey. Which was just in time for their new bassist to join them for a delirious series of sold-out New Year's Eve shows at the Whisky. The Go-Go's had arrived at last!

But they still couldn't get a major-label deal.

Amazingly, only one lone independent label was actively pursuing the Go-Go's — and had been for months. Apparently, I.R.S. Records founder Miles Copeland had personally contacted the group almost a year before they signed to the label in April 1981. But as Valentine admitted to Trouser Press: "At first, we were really unsure about I.R.S. We thought it was just something you do if you can't get signed with a big label."

I.R.S. publicity photo

Back row: Kathy Valentine & Belinda Carlisle

Front: Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin & Gina Schock 

In the same article, Wiedlin appreciatively added: "They were the most persistent company. They knew our material, they knew our names, they'd even hang out with us."

For 1981's Beauty and the Beat, their first full-length offering, I.R.S. paired the Go-Go's with producer Richard Gottehrer. It was an inspired choice.

Gottehrer's résumé stretches back at least to 1963 when he authored and produced the Angels' "My Boyfriend's Back." In the mid-'60s, he was one-third of the fabled F.G.G. team that produced "Hang on Sloopy" for the McCoys and scored massive hits of their own (as the wacky Strangeloves) with "Night-Time" and "I Want Candy." A decade later, he could be found producing Blondie's first two albums. In other words, the guy knows pop music. And what he helped the Go-Go's craft was nothing short of a pop masterpiece.

"Our Lips Are Sealed" — the hook-happy classic that Wiedlin fashioned from a letter sent by the Specials' Terry Hall — kicked off side one with a bang. It was followed with the assured power-pop punch of "How Much More" and "Tonite" (its snappy beat and time-honored teenarama lyrics are credited to Wiedlin, Caffey, and the Plimsouls' Peter Case), as well as "Lust to Love" and "This Town."

Creem magazine Rock Shots

Original caption: "By incredible coincidence, every member of
the Go-Go's complains of achiness and poor posture simultaneously."

Side two got off to an equally strong start with "We Got the Beat" (a tad less spontaneous, but not unrecognizable from the Stiff 45) leading into the melodramatic "Fading Fast." Some momentum was lost with the bewildering "Automatic" ("...too arty and disjointed," cited one review), but the action picked again with the surf-guitar driven duo of "You Can't Walk in Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep)" and "Skidmarks on My Heart." The LP came to a terrific close with Valentine's "Can't Stop the World," featuring the memorable line: "Your heart, your will, your car/They've all been broken."

A rave review in Creem noted how the group's "impeccable three-part vocals blend expertly with sparkling guitar lines and snap-shot drumming ... behind melodies that leave you hooked-out and harmonizing." And other 'zines termed Beauty and the Beat "bright," "compelling," and "artistically accomplished."

The Vacation tour of America:

Go-Go's with A Flock of Seagulls

Both "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got the Beat" were Top 20 singles — providing I.R.S. with its first hits — and the album held the Number One position in the country for six weeks running. It ultimately sold upwards of two million copies and garnered the Go-Go's a Grammy nomination for Best New Group.

If you don't think that's a pretty big deal, consider this: Beauty and the Beat was the first LP by an all-female rock band, who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments, ever to penetrate the Top 100! As The Trouser Press Record Guide proclaims: "It was proof that an all-female band could make it big without a man pulling the strings and without resorting to an image grounded in male fantasy, be it sex kitten or tough leatherette."

Actually, the only ones to find fault with the record were the Hollywood punks who yelled "Sell Out!" as loud as they could and, believe it or not, the Go-Go's themselves.

"When we got the tape of the first album, we hated it," declares Caffey. "We cried. It wasn't what we sounded like live. You can hear on [Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's] how we sounded right before we went into the studio. We were very raw."

In hindsight, Caffey allows that Gottehrer was "obviously the right guy at the time to work with." But is she inferring that the vastly experienced producer dominated the much less experienced group?

The Go-Go's and John Belushi

"Hell, no!" Caffey practically shouts. "We had all the songs, and a lot of those arrangements were ours. He just cut off some of the rough edges and brought more of a pop element out of us."

Carlisle (who says her main regret is not including "Fun with Ropes" on the debut) also bristles when asked about the extent of Gottehrer's involvement. "He just produced it. Maybe some arrangements might have been a little different, but that record is definitely us."

"One thing he did do," reveals Valentine, "was bring in these songs for us to cover; songs that were written for the [1960s] girl-groups. He really wanted to play up that side. And we almost fell for it. It was really close. I remember we said, 'Wait a minute, we have great songs! We love our songs! We don't need to do anybody else's songs!'"

To promote the album, the band was put on a grueling tour schedule. It began with club dates and a rented van. ("We wrote Van '81, like Airport '77, all over the inside of it," giggles Valentine.) And it finished with a properly kitted-out bus and a support slot on the Police's world tour.

By the end of the year, avoiding the Go-Go's was next to impossible. The singles were pumped out of both Top 40 and hip FM stations on an hourly basis, and the video for "Our Lips Are Sealed" — in which the colorfully attired girls drove around LA in a snazzy convertible and merrily frolicked in a fountain — was in heavy rotation on MTV.

Go-Go's Put Out — the girls in their underwear

on the cover of Rolling Stone

On the newsstand, they could be found in the pages of the New York Rocker talking about their towel-clad LP cover...

Caffey: "Now everybody thinks we don't have a wardrobe."

Schock: "Or else they think that we were trying to be sexy or something. That's a laugh. We were taking the piss out of the whole idea on the front with the cold cream..."

Reciting their busy to-do list in Trouser Press...

Schock: "Usually our day consists of getting up around nine or ten, doing interviews and photo sessions all day, then doing a sound check and coming home to take a shower, get dressed and go to the show. And then we've got to do the show. Obviously, we enjoy it. I just never realized it would be as hard as it is."

Or brushing aside all the hype in Creem...

Caffey: "There was something in an article about us being hyped and I thought about it for a while, but you know, a lot of the difference between us and other bands in the LA area is that we went out touring before we even got a record deal and we laid a lot of groundwork, which a lot of other bands didn't get a chance to do. So, when our album came out there really were a lot of people who were looking forward to it."

Talk Show era publicity picture

Topping it all off was the controversial — although it was more slumber party than cheesecake — photograph of the girls in their underwear on the cover of the August 1982 issue of Rolling Stone.

In theory, this meant one of two things could happen with the second album:
a) due to higher visibility, it would be an even bigger hit or...
b) because everyone was sick of "America's Sweethearts," it would flop.

Released in 1982, Vacation landed somewhere in the middle.

The Go-Go's at the Merriweather

Post Pavilion - September 12, 1982

Gottehrer was once again producing. There were still hooks-aplenty. The lyrics were still cleverly composed. The three-part harmonies were still impeccable. The guitars still sparkled. The drumming was still snap-shot. And reviews were still favorable.

Creem gushed: "Vacation is no extension of the Go-Go's successful debut, it is in fact so much more of the same that it's a pleasure to hear, like a missing second record of a two-album set..."

But the LP was an acknowledged rush job. And while they were now able to headline arenas like the 30,000 capacity Boston Gardens, album sales peaked at 800,000 while the wistful title track (written by Valentine during her Textones' days and embellished by Caffey and Wiedlin) proved only a modest hit.

Internally, things were also unraveling. Businesswise, they fired their longtime manager Ginger Canzoneri, which Wiedlin attributed to inexperience: "[She] was basically a friend of ours who had never managed anybody before... She hadn't made big-figure deals, and she hadn't pushed record companies around. She hadn't done any of the things that become necessary when a band gets huge. We wanted someone who would yell and scream, if necessary, and get things done for us."

They eventually signed with the high-powered Front Line Management organization, and Vacation reached a respectable Number 8 in the charts. However, its perceived mediocrity put the Go-Go's in a precarious situation. Critical backlash alleged that the first LP was a fluke; they really couldn't play; they weren't serious about the band and they couldn't take the pressure.

The Go-Go's model Star Hits T-shirts

None of which was true, of course. But the group resolved to move towards a tougher, more "adult" sound and change their "silly, airhead, dizzy broad image" — as Schock characterized it in one interview.

In the midst of all this, Caffey incurred a problem with her wrist which kept her from playing for several months. She also developed a severe case of writer's block, leaving the bulk of material for the next album up to the others.

"It was such a guilt thing on me," Caffey lamented in Record magazine. "I felt, 'I'm ruining it...' I don't know what triggered what, or what came first — if having my hand not working made me not be able to write or vice versa ... It was a very, very difficult time for us." In the same article, Valentine confessed, "I was really scared we were going to break up ... We were falling apart at the seams."

All in all, it was two years before the Go-Go's re-emerged with Talk Show, their third (and final) LP. British producer Martin Rushent replaced Gottehrer, causing many fans to fear the worst. A synthesizer aficionado, Rushent was best known for his work with the Human League and Altered Images — and for his publicly stated conviction that guitars were likely to become obsolete.

Talk Show advertisement

album & cassette out March 19th!

But Rushent more or less controlled himself, and as David Sprague stressed in his Star Hits review: "It's guts not gloss that prevails." And in many ways, Talk Show did what it was supposed to do. Songs such as "Head over Heels," "Turn to You," "You Thought," and "Beneath the Blue Sky" (a reworking of the Textones' "Movie Life") all ably demonstrated the group's new maturity. And by entering the Top 20, the album also re-established the Go-Go's chart credibility.

But it was too little too late.

The tour to promote Talk Show was postponed while Schock recovered from surgery to repair a congenital heart defect, and magazine features observed how the girls united in support: "I don't think there are many bands who love each other as much as we do," Valentine announced.

However, as Carlisle explains in the retrospective liner notes, "When you're that young and having that kind of success, there's no sane way to handle it. I remember smoking a cigarette and someone saying, 'My God, you smoke?' And I thought, Jesus, if you only knew. We were good people, but it was hard to live up to being cute, bubbly and effervescent, which is what they always called us."

Elsewhere in the liner notes, Wiedlin states: "We had this whole unwritten code that you had to be a Go-Go every minute of the day. We all had to think the same thing and want the same guys. Party together. Shop together. The togetherness was ridiculous. It was probably the equivalent of ten lifetimes of marriage."

Jane Wiedlin teams up with Sparks

for the "Cool Places" 45

By the end of '84, Wiedlin — the first of the group to explore solo possibilities by recording the tune "Cool Places" with Sparks — left to "get a life."

She was replaced by Paula Brown, but less than six months later the Go-Go's folded. The band's last show (before the reunions) was in January 1985 at the Rock in Rio festival.

Wiedlin's departure may have prompted the split ("The chemistry wasn't the same anymore," says Caffey), but it could also be put down to sheer exhaustion. "We were burnt-out," confirms Caffey. "From 1981-1984, we made three records and went on a zillion tours. We didn't know how to say 'No.' We didn't know how to take breaks."

"What we should have done," reasons Carlisle, "was taken a break and all come back at a certain point. But we didn't know that."

The end was messy. Reports said that Carlisle was an alcoholic, and that (at least some of) the others had drug problems of their own. It was rumored that when Carlisle and Caffey decided to quit, they had their manager tell the others the news — although back then, Carlisle insisted: "We just called a meeting and told them, that's all." Meanwhile, Valentine and Schock supposedly vowed to deliver a fourth Go-Go's album to I.R.S., which never materialized.

Promo poster for the I.R.S. 2-CD retrospective
Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's

Carlisle embarked on a successful solo career, reaching Number 1 with 1987's "Heaven is a Place on Earth." Schock put together a short-lived group and released the LP House of Schock. After collaborating a bit with Carlisle, Caffey went on to form the critically acclaimed Graces. Valentine teamed up with guitarist Kelly Johnson (who had replaced her in Girlschool) and returned to the club circuit as the World's Cutest Killers.

For a long while, none of the ex-Go-Go's spoke to one another. Then, in March 1990, they reunited for a one-off benefit show in support of California's "Big Green" initiative. "At that point, we had all just gotten back in touch," says Valentine. "Enough time had gone by, so we weren't mad at each other anymore, and it was really fun!"

The benefit was followed by a short tour to promote a Greatest Hits CD, after which everyone again drifted off in different directions — this time amicably.

Last year, I.R.S. marked its fifteenth anniversary and issued Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's as part of the celebrations. When the band heard that the label planned to trace their history through album cuts, hit singles, B-sides, alternate takes and live rarities, they immediately wanted to get involved.

"We really thought that we could make it a better package," states Valentine. It was the group's idea to include previously unreleased material from early rehearsal tapes (such as "Living at the Canterbury," "Fun with Ropes," and "London Boys"), all of which Caffey had held onto. "It was part of the history of the band," she says. "I didn't want to just dump them."

Prime Time Tour '84

C.S.U.F. Amphitheatre in Fresno, California

As a final (unintended) touch, the CD's imaginative cover art — a painting of the grown-up Go-Go's designed to resemble a cheesy, exploitive movie poster — is causing the same kind of fuss as the cover of Rolling Stone once did.

Carlisle loves the artwork: "Someone actually said to me, 'Don't you think you're being presented as bimbos?' I think it's hysterical! It's Modesty Blaise, Casino Royale..."

But they also wanted to see if there was still some life left in the Go-Go's, so they thought about recording a few new songs. According to Caffey, "Before we started writing, we said, 'We're just gonna see what happens. If we like what we write and it feels good to us, we'll record it. If not, we won't.' There was no calculation. It was just like, 'Whatever.'"

As it turned out, they came up with nine new tunes, then pared it down to three: "Good Girl," "Beautiful," and "The Whole World Lost Its Head." Valentine and Wiedlin paired up to write the latter, which became the band's first single release in a decade. (MTV ignored the video and the 45 fizzled in the States, but it's just entered the British charts at Number 29!)

Minus Caffey (who's expecting the birth of her first child), the reunited Go-Go's are currently in the middle of a large-scale tour in support of the retrospective CD. The highlights have so far included a six-night stand at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, a televised performance with Little Richard at the American Music Awards, and an appearance on Top of the Pops.

The big question is: When the tour finishes, will the Go-Go's continue?

The answer is: Maybe, maybe not.

Photo from "The Whole World Lost Its Head" single

Photo: Vicki Berndt

"We're going to continue to do things together in the future," ventures Valentine. "But it's not the only thing we're going to do."

So, the Go-Go's isn't their main priority?

"No, I can't say that it is," asserts Valentine.

"No," agrees Carlisle. "The reality is, I have a family and [solo] career that I have to take care of."

"Everyone's got full lives," emphasizes Valentine, "and that's why the band isn't a priority. It's just a matter of seeing what happens really."

* * *

Promo poster for the Vacation 

Tour of America

1995 Update: Carlisle is currently living in France. Valentine is playing the blues and thinking about moving back to Texas. Wiedlin is writing "gut-wrenching, introspective" solo material. Caffey speaks excitedly about finding new inspiration in her husband (Redd Kross vocalist/guitarist Jeff McDonald) and other women rockers: "I feel great about where I'm at musically," she says, "and I'm working on getting a solo thing together." Schock was playing in Kindred Spirit with ex-Bangle Debbi Peterson until a couple of years ago; presumably, she's also keeping busy with solo projects.