Girlschool - Would You Buy A Used Washing Machine From These Girls?

Originally published in Rave-Up #4 (1982)

Interview by Devorah Ostrov

Ron Quintana showing issue #5 of Metal Mania to Girlschool
guitarist Kelly Johnson & drummer Denise Dufort 
during a record store visit in San Francisco.
Photo by Gil Weston (using Ron's Instamtic camera)

Still riding high on the UK chart success of Hit And Run and before the release of their third album, a short string of US dates (cheekily called the "Lock Up Your Sons" tour) brought Girlschool to the Old Waldorf in April. 

Following their soundcheck, we spoke to Kim, Kelly, Denise, and newcomer Gil about the tour, discovered what their parents think of their alliance with Motorhead, and uncovered scandalous tales of what went on at a real girls' school. Plus, Kim took the opportunity to quiz Denise and Gil about their work history experience! 

Q: With the massive success of Hit And Run, do the music papers tend to treat you with more respect?

Kim: I don't know. I think we got a bit of a backlash, didn't we? They built us up and built us up... We were always in the press for a while. And then we started doing really well, and the album started doing really well. Then suddenly, they thought they would start criticizing us!

Q: When you started out, did you have to prove yourselves to the audience because you were girls? Or didn't that matter to English audiences?

Kim: I don't know, really. We didn't think we had to prove ourselves, but I expect we did in a way. They [the audience] used to come along and pack down three drinks in the pub beforehand and then just come and have a good laugh. But a lot of them came back again because they liked the music.

Motorhead & Girlschool 
at Friars Aylesbury

Kelly: It's starting again over here because we don't know anybody and we're playing small clubs. 

Q: This is your first time touring America?

Kim: Yeah, it's been fab [sarcastically].

Kelly: Fun, fun, fun [also sarcastically].

Q: How are the mostly male audiences treating you here as opposed to England?

Kim: Really well, actually! We're quite surprised. A few of them know the songs. It's nice. We feel like we're at home!

Q: Have you been getting good reviews so far on the tour?

Kelly: Yeah! I don't know why. It's surprising.

Kim: I don't know why, either. But yeah, they've been really good. They think we've done these amazing things, like going way over the top, you know. And we're saying, "Wait, are they talking about us?" 

Q: Where have you played so far?

All Together: Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Trenton, New Haven, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland...

Q: New Haven? Trenton? No one ever plays there!

Kim: We'd never even heard of New Haven and Trenton.

Q: Did anyone come to see you there?

Kim: Yeah! I suppose because they don't have many bands there.

Q: They didn't care who you were!

L-R: Denise Dufort, Kelly Johnson, Kim McAuliffe and Gil Weston
(publicity photo)

Kim: Exactly! We did a gig in Portland [Oregon], and that was sold out — 3,000 people! We were looking at the city and there was nothing to do at night. So it must have been a big event. A gig!

Q: Is the Old Waldorf the smallest place you've played in a while?

Kim: We've played a few over here that have been about this size. But we've never played to people sitting down eating dinner!

Q: Motorhead played here last year. It was amazing! 

Kim: Yeah, right! Steve, one of our guitar roadies was with them. He said they didn't have any tables or chairs for them. But they knew about it in advance. If we'd known... Nobody tells us anything! [Note: Most of the tables and chairs were removed before the show started.]

Q: Did your parents warn you not to hang around with Motorhead because they were a bad influence?

Mercury/Polygram Records publicity photo

Kim: No, not really. They all really like Motorhead. My mum and dad went to their last concert at the Hammersmith. They're really into the band; they helped us a lot in the beginning. They never said, "Oh no, we don't want you to do this. We want you to become a secretary." They helped us all they could. We're pretty lucky, really. 

Q: Did any of you actually work as secretaries?

Kim: I worked in a bank, that's pretty close. [Pointing at Kelly] She was various things. What were you, Gil?

Gil: A skivvy.

Denise: I used to sell washing machines and 'fridges and stuff in a big chain shop. They sold kettles, tea sets, paint, posters...

Kim: Did you ever sell anything?

Denise: Yeah! I used to get wages, but I'd get a commission on top if I sold a washing machine. I sold four in a week once.

Q: Were you more influenced by male heavy metal groups or Suzi Quatro and other female rockers?

Kim: Neither! I used to love Led Zeppelin, and I suppose they influenced me quite a bit. But we...

Kelly: She actually loves them!

Kim: I do, yeah! I think they're one of the best bands ever in the whole universe! I don't know really, there's so many. I think David Bowie is a pretty common hero with this band. He's just terrific! He's my hero. [Gil was wearing a David Bowie t-shirt.]

Q: Did any of you go to a girls' school?

Kelly Johnson posing for my camera at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and walking
down Hollywood Blvd. before the show - Los Angeles, California, 2004 
(Photos: Devorah Ostrov)

Kim: I did, yeah. Denise did. They're good fun! I used to have great laughs at school. We used to cause riots!

Kelly: She used to beat people up!

Kim: I didn't beat people up! We just used to go out and get pissed at dinner time, go back and create havoc, you know. There wasn't much they could do with six or seven drunken girls. Our school had the highest pregnancy rate in London. We all had our own boyfriends who'd come and pick us up after school. I used to have this cute boyfriend with a motorbike who'd pick me up. But while we were at school it was just a lot of girls together. Like it is now, actually. From one girls' school to another!

The opening group, Stepmothers, start their soundcheck and everyone gets distracted...

Kim: Is this the support band? They're really good! They're heavy. I thought they were going to be punk rock. Or are they heavy?

Q: They're heavy metal punk rockers! The heavy metal kids don't like them because they're too punk rock. And the punks don't like them because they're too heavy metal.

Stiff Records advert for the US release of Hit And Run (a combination
of the first two UK albums) plus exciting tour information!

Kim: We had exactly the same problem. When we came out, it was the new wave era in Britain. So, when we used to play new wave clubs, they didn't like us 'cause we were too heavy metal. When we played heavy metal places, they didn't like us 'cause they thought we were too much like new wave.

Kelly: We got a little confused. We developed this neurosis.

Q: What did you finally decide you were?

Kim: The kids decided what we were.

Kelly: We wanted to be labeled!

Kim: We got labeled in the end 'cause Motorhead came along, saw us, and wanted us to support them on tour. We said, "Yes!" And then of course we started to play to all heavy metal audiences. After that, we were labeled as HEAVY METAL!

¿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."