¿Dónde Está Girlschool? When Seeing A Band South Of The Border, It's Important To Know The Lingo.

Originally published in Rave-Up #17 (1989)
By Devorah Ostrov

Girlschool at the time of this interview (Enigma publicity photo)

L-R: Cris Bonacci, Tracey Lamb, Kim McAuliffe & Denise Dufort

It's been four years since I last saw Girlschool, two years since bassist Tracey Lamb joined the group, and eight long hours since my bus pulled out of the Hollywood Greyhound station bound for Tijuana, Mexico, where Girlschool are playing at Iguanas.

According to the original itinerary, the California leg of the band's Take a Bite tour was supposed to kick off at the Country Club outside Los Angeles. That show should've been followed by Iguanas and a private party at Raji's. Then there was a day off to drive to San Francisco, where they would've played two gigs at the Stone before returning to Southern California.

Take a Bite (Enigma/GWR 1988)

And that's exactly how my cheapo/non-refundable/un-changeable plane ticket was booked. But with a week to go before the Country Club gig, the whole schedule was turned topsy-turvy. Tijuana was now the first stop, with other dates canceled, changed, and added on. And trust me, the airline industry really didn't care.

Iguanas is located just across the border, in a mostly empty shopping center. You can't miss the place: the building's architecture is recognizable as "Old Mexico," but the garish yellows, oranges, pinks and greens of its paint job actually pulsate in the bright afternoon sun and give me a headache. Apparently, the club caters primarily to young punk and metal fans from San Diego, which is less than an hour's drive away. The only Mexicans I saw inside Iguanas were the guards and the bartenders.

While Girlschool prepared to hit the stage later that night, I asked bassist Tracey Lamb (who replaced Gil Weston-Jones, following stints in UK all-female metal outfits Rock Goddess and She) why the band didn't tour the US back when she first joined.

"There was talk of a tour," she explains, "but it didn't happen. It didn't have anything to do with us. It was delayed by management hassles and record company hassles."

Cris Bonacci and Kim McAuliffe in Tijuana
Photo: Devorah Ostrov

With Take a Bite (released last year on Enigma Records in the US/GWR in the UK), hopefully all those hassles will be a thing of the past.

"Things are starting to happen for us," confirms Tracey. "I think it's the right time, and we have the right record company."

"We're keeping our fingers crossed," adds vocalist/guitarist Kim McAuliffe.

The first single from the new album — a cover of the Sweet's '70s glam classic "Fox on the Run" — has already been picked up by 200 radio stations across the country. However, the promo video has received surprisingly little attention from MTV.

Directed by Jean Pellerin, the video incorporates scenes filmed on a park bandstand with live footage and quick cuts of the girls goofing around. Lacking any special effects, silly concepts, or staged choreography, much of it looks for all the world like a charming home movie.

"Our original plan was to shoot a live video while we were on the road with Gary Glitter," says Kim, referring to their support slot on the recent Gangshow tour. "But we didn't have our own stage set up, and Denise [Dufort, drums] was over to the right of the rest of us. So, we had to make it up as we went along. We went around to all these places and just shot film."

"There's this Victorian bandstand on the commons across from Kim's flat," reveals Tracey about the setting for the outdoor scenes. "We thought it was the ideal thing to do."

"It was ten in the morning when we were on the commons," grumbles Kim. "We'd only gotten back from the Gary Glitter tour at five the morning before. We were dying! But Jean was saying, 'Just jump around a lot and they won't be able to see how rough you look.'"

My backstage pass for the Girlschool show 

at Iguanas - June 17, 1989

Plagued by a late start time, Girlschool played a blistering gig to only a handful of diehard fans in Tijuana. The crowd, which had been bouncing enthusiastically during TSOL's opening set, was already driving home by the time the headliners went on.

The next morning found all of us back in California, in the tiny border town of San Ysidro, debating over eggs and sausages for here or to go. Then it was time for Girlschool's tour bus to head up Highway 5 to their next show in San Francisco (with a quick detour to drop me off in Hollywood, because according to my plane ticket, I wasn't going home yet).

Plans for a stop at the beach and a boat ride were soon forgotten as signs for the Orange County K-MART loomed in the distance. And there was no stopping Kim as she strode intently across the acres of parking lot and into the ultimate American shopping experience.

"Kim becomes a different person when she's shopping," confides guitarist Cris Bonacci (who replaced Kelly Johnson in 1984). "She gets really aggressive!"

With bags stuffed and everyone satisfied that no corner of the store remained unexplored, the tour bus again wound slowly up the freeway. I took advantage of a mid-afternoon traffic jam to ask Kim if a rumored move to Los Angeles was true.

Girlschool - publicity photo

"It does seem like the best time to do it," she allows. "We've got this interest from Enigma, which is based in LA. We've never had that interest from an American label before."

She also points to Def Leppard's US success as a reason to concentrate on these shores. "I told Joe [Elliott, Def Leppard's vocalist] we were going to try to crack America, and he said that's exactly what they did."

As the bus finally turned onto Sunset Blvd., the conversation shifted back to how it all began. It was 1978 when the group changed its name from Painted Lady and played its initial shows as Girlschool. Now the band, which Kerrang magazine termed "a great British institution," is being cited by more and more young female fans as a musical influence. It's a compliment Kim takes with a grain of salt. "It makes me feel really old," she laughs. "But then there's bands like Heart that are still going, and I'd heard of them before I ever thought about picking up a guitar."