2020 has been a disaster, to put it mildly. But there have been rays of light in between the perpetual doom and gloom, especially when it comes to music. One such nugget of good news has been the release of new music from iconic all-female punk-rock group The Go-Go's, which will coincide with a documentary about the band's rise to fame and their enduring place in music history and pop culture, due to air on Showtime on 1 August.
The official Go-Go's website describes their story as a "punk version of the American Dream: they came, they saw and they conquered the charts, the airwaves and, with their kicky kitsch appeal, pop culture in general" and band members, namely Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock and Kathy Valentine, became international rock stars.
The new track, titled Club Zero, is set to be released on 31 July and will be their first new song in almost 20 years. Back in 2001, following the huge success of the VH1 "behind the music" special, the band released a collection of new material - God Bless The Go-Go's - and received rave reviews from critics and fans alike, which in turn led to a successful tour and a live DVD.
More recently, The Go-Gos discography (including Our Lips Are Sealed, We've Got The Beat, Head Over Heels and Vacation) provided the vibrant soundtrack to the hit Broadway show, Head over Heels, which was loosely based on The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia written by Sir Philip Sidney.
I think it's safe to say that Belinda Carlisle was the band's breakout solo star; her music was an integral part of my burgeoning musical tastes in the late 80s and early 90s. I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to see her live in a small venue in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 2005. I will never forget the euphoric feeling when she walked onto stage and lit up the space with her energy or the thrill of dancing and singing along to the songs that I'd grown up with - just a few meters from the stage. Some of these timeless classics include: Heaven Is A Place On Earth, Circle In The Sand, La Luna, Leave A Light On, Summer Rain and (We Want) The Same Thing.
With the release of new Go-Go's music and the Showtime documentary around the corner, now is the perfect time to revisit some of the sensational songs from their four studio albums (Beauty and the Beat, Vacation, Talk Show and God Bless The Go-Go's) as well as those power pop paragons from Belinda's solo catalogue.
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