Girlschool
Girlschool are a British rock band that formed in the new wave of British heavy metal scene in 1978. Frequently associated with contemporaries Motörhead, they are the longest-running all-female rock band, still active after more than 40 years.[3][4] Formed from a school band called Painted Lady, Girlschool enjoyed strong media exposure and commercial success in the UK in the early 1980s with three albums of "punk-tinged metal"[5] and a few singles, but lost their momentum in the following years.[6]
This article is about the band. For girls' schools, see single-sex education. For the song by Britny Fox, see Britny Fox (album).
Girlschool
London, England
1978–present
- She-Devils
- Strange Girls
In the 1990s and 2000s, Girlschool focused on shows and tours and made few studio albums. During their career they travelled the world, playing in many rock and metal festivals and co-headlining with or supporting important hard rock and heavy metal bands. They maintain a worldwide cult following, and are an inspiration for many female rock musicians.[7] Despite frequent changes of line-up, all original members who are still alive—Kim McAuliffe, Enid Williams and Denise Dufort—had been in the band until 2019, when Willams quit. Original lead guitarist and singer Kelly Johnson died of cancer in 2007.[8]
History[edit]
1975–1978: Painted Lady[edit]
In 1975, school friends and neighbours from Wandsworth, South London, Kim McAuliffe (rhythm guitar, vocals) and Dinah Enid Williams (bass, vocals) formed an all-girl rock cover band called Painted Lady, together with Tina Gayle on drums. Deirdre Cartwright joined the new band on lead guitar, Val Lloyd replaced Gayle on drums and they started playing the local pub scene.[9][10] "The reason we were all girls was we couldn’t find any blokes who wanted to play with us! This was the natural thing to do", McAuliffe explained to Gary Graff in 1997 about the all-female composition of the band.[7]
Cartwright, who was older and more musically experienced than the other members,[9] left in 1977 to form the band Tour De Force[10] and then followed different professional opportunities in the music business; she is now a renowned jazz guitarist.[11] Her place in the band was briefly taken by visiting American Kathy Valentine, who approached the band through an advertisement in the British music newspaper Melody Maker.[9] When Valentine returned to the United States in 1978 to form the Textones and later join The Go-Go's as bass player, Painted Lady broke up. However, McAuliffe and Williams were still willing to pursue a musical career to escape their day jobs in a bank and a bakery; they reformed the band,[12] recruiting lead guitarist Kelly Johnson and drummer Denise Dufort in April 1978.[13] The new line-up changed their name to Girlschool—taking it from "Girls' School", the B-side of the hit single "Mull of Kintyre" (1977) by Paul McCartney and Wings—[14] and immediately hit the road, touring small venues in France, Ireland and Great Britain.[4]
Legacy[edit]
Pete Makowski in an article of the August 1980 edition of Sounds defined Girlschool "the leading pioneers in the battle against sexism".[37] However, even if Enid Williams showed an interest in feminism,[97] the band never openly expressed opinions about female discrimination, happy of being appreciated simply as musicians instead of 'female musicians'.[14] Nonetheless, being a successful all-female group in the macho heavy metal scene was a statement of sexual equality, as many reviewers remarked,[35][37][146] arriving as far as to associate Girlschool with the American feminist Riot Grrrl movement.[7][147]
Reviewers and critics have also often associated the production of recent all-female metal acts to the sound and music of Girlschool,[148][149] identifying them as a band that, just like The Runaways before them, helped in paving the way to the presence of women in rock music.[5][7][150] However, Williams remembered in 2004 how, in her experience, Girlschool were more inspirational for young male musicians than for female ones in starting rock bands.[97] Moreover, important female metal bands of the 2000s, such as Crucified Barbara and Drain STH, denied even of knowing the music of Girlschool.[151][152] Only the American all-female rock band The Donnas publicly acknowledged the influence of Girlschool on their music.[153]