While so many dismiss the ‘70s as simply a time of daggy fashion, daggy television and daggy music, thankfully others remember what an absolute watershed it was for women in music. While nowadays it’s (mercifully) de rigueur for girls to play on a level field with the guys when it comes to music, if you think about the state of play anytime pre around 1975, if a girl was in a band she was either a singer, strummed ever-so-politely on an acoustic guitar or generally was otherwise only ever seen with such ‘girlie’ instruments as keyboards or that old stereotype, the tambourine.
But then came British punk and US “punk” (there’s quite the distinction), and blew such bullshit stereotyping completely out of the water – and mercifully for good. The likes of The Runaways, Heart, The Pretenders, X-Ray Spex – and the list goes on – more than ably demonstrated that strapping on an axe and getting raunchy with it was no longer just the domain of the blokes, and that the chicks often had a lot more to say than the odd “ooh” or “la la la”.
Come the start of the ‘80s, the first all-girl group to play their own music and really make their presence felt came along. With a song co-written by band member Jane Wiedlin and Terry Hall of the highly influential British band The Specials, The Go-Go’s topped charts worldwide with Our Lips Are Sealed, a gorgeous pop anthem with an edge that cleared the way for their debut album, Beauty and the Beat, to also assail the “hit parade” – even spending six weeks atop the US Billboard chart. A couple more albums followed, seeing a steady degradation of their punky-pop sound into ‘80s styled sludge – and then they went their separate ways with, of course, singer Belinda Carlisle going on to a rather successful solo career – hawking ‘80s styled sludge.
Still proving to be remarkably popular many years later, not too long ago The Go-Go’s reconvened and recorded a new album, God Bless The Go-Go’s, and in doing so they re-found a vitality quite akin to their early days. The concert presented here sees them in full flight, doing promotional duties for the record, but mixing it well with those tunes that made them the pinups of boys AND girls the world over.
All the classics are here, Beatnik Beach, We Got the Beat, How Much More, This Town, Vacation – and, of course, good old Alex the Seal (complete with a bonus verse – as featured in the reggae version Terry Hall did with his post-Specials band Fun Boy Three) – and they all sit perfectly with the new stuff, such as the single co-written with Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Unforgiven, and the catchy as anything Apology. Then there’s the finale – a rip roaring assault on The Ramones’ classic I Wanna Be Sedated - these girls remember where they came from.
So, have they still got the beat? You’d better believe it buster! While Belinda looks like she got kind of lost on the way to a jazz gig she still has THAT gorgeous warble, Jane still comes across as some sort of wonder-hybrid between Betty Boop and Barbarella, Gina is still an absolute powerhouse of a drummer, Charlotte can still lick it up with the best of them and the bass goddess that is Kathy Valentine comes across for all the world like Kim and Kelley Deal’s even cooler big sister.
Some of us wanted nothing more than to be in their gang growing up, and I daresay many just wanted them, full stop. With five bona fide rock goddesses crammed onto one tiny five inch disc, The Go-Go’s Live in Central Park is both a chance to relive those dreams, and to bop around the room like a possessed ninny to a bunch of classic and joyous punky-pop anthems.
Shot on high definition video and presented in full frame, this concert looks magnificent. The vision ducks and weaves all over the stage giving, as it should, equal time to all band members. The colour is spectacularly vivid, and it manages to be gloriously sharp and detailed without heading into aliasing territory – a nice change for a music disc.
Sonically we’re hardly starved for choices. There’s a standard Dolby Digital stereo mix which is like, you know, alright and all – but flip over to the delightful DD 5.1 mix or even better the somewhat punchier DTS 5.1 mix and you’re in for a being there-type treat. The latter two mixes use the surrounds how they should for a presentation like this, delivering the ambience from “behind you, behind you!” without playing funny buggers with the music, and the subwoofwoof delivers that rumble in the floor on every kick beat and bass note that can excite the most jaded of music fans.
Pleasingly, here we have a music disc that actually contains some decent extras. There’s a behind the scenes documentary feature that runs just shy of half an hour, showing the band in makeup before the gig, on their way there, about to go on stage and giving a quick run through on their history. There’s heaps of interview footage, and lots of fun trivia to be gleaned from this – plus Jane with green hair, hmm – noice! As well as this there’s an almost four and a half minute featurette entitled In Retrospect that delivers a quick history recap, featuring early footage and some of the interview stuff from the first bonus feature.
