Get up and go (Go-Go's) (LP 2627 - 2629)

Go-Go's  Beauty And The Beat (Vinyl, IRS Records, 1981) ****  

Go-Go's  Vacation (Vinyl, IRS Records, 1982) **** 

Go-Go's  Talk Show* (Vinyl, IRS Records, 1984) ****  

Genre: Pop 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records for the first two; Music Exchange (Hastings) for Talk Show*

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Skidmarks On My Heart (Beauty...)

Gear costume: This Town (Beauty...); Our Lips Are Sealed (Beauty...)

Active compensatory factors: I love the aesthetics involved in so-called girl groups like The Runaways, Fanny, The Shangri-las, and Go-Go's. 

There is something unique about their sound, and I'm not just talking about the vocals.

Go-Go's were an eighties band made up of Belinda Carlisle (lead vocals), Charlotte Caffey (guitar, keyboards), Gina Schock (drums), Kathy Valentine (bass), and Jane Wiedlin (guitar). Caffey and Wiedlin are the main songwriters.

The songs have a punky/ new wave early eighties sound that still sounds fresh in 2024 to my ears. Plus, they were/are fun!

The three albums share the same approach and were recorded while the band members shared a similar purpose. Cracks started to appear with the third album Talk Show*. The cover is a bit of a giveaway - five separate photos!

I used to own the first two albums (bought while working at Marbecks), and sold them! Doh. I had to buy them back again in the last few years. Talk Show* (no idea what that pesky asterisk was all about) was an album I didn't know existed until I was going through the bins at a shop in Hastings (no longer there).

The three albums are remarkably consistent - definitely four stars every time. 

Where do they all belong? There was a fourth album - God Bless The Go-Go's released in 2001, which I've yet to come across.