Review: Newcastle 1980

Girlschool

Liverpool

It's different for girls. Female rock bands always stretched coincidence to beyond snapping point. The coming together of four or five ladies in a playing capacity, no matter which way you look at it, just doesn't ring true somehow. Gender first, ability second. Well, they're OK for girls.

Until now, that is. Girlschool have largely bypassed all of this. They are just about the only heavy metal band that Sounds scribes who aren't called Geoff Barton feel comfortable writing about, so they're certainly the acceptable face of HM. And also the acceptable face of femme rock. No arty-pratty Slitisms or tiresomefy rampant Raincoat feminisms. Nor do Girlschool have the come-and-get-it flaunt of The Runaways. Girls will be girls, and these four have got it just right.

The sexuality they project is real, natural and uncontrived. Rhythm person Kim McAuliffe favours spray on velvets but they're what she wears anyway, rather than 'stage clothes'. The most brazen scholar, she dedicates 'Take It All Away' to the Tygers Of Pan Tang as ...a thank you, no doubt, for her Tygers T-shirt. Lead guitarist Kelly Johnson had maybe a touch of the Hyndesight about her, being stylish and forceful, but without the pose. Ms J has probably never been within kicking distance of a choreographer but can really move. No shake it about temptress, Kelly Johnson is the real thing and pours out more raw rock and roll in every step than virtually any female treading the boards today. And plays rather well too. Denise Dufort provides an ordinary back beat but is a character in the best St Trinians-Minnie The Minx tradition. Enid Williams' bass is a bit pedestrian, but her smile makes up for it. But my heart belongs to Kelly.

The material, while nothing extraordinary, is a Sot more interesting than most being hawked round by the young metal merchants. The reverse sexism of 'Midnight Ride' and 'Nothing To Lose' gives them one up on the chest-beaters and fills out a set that doesn't flag. The recorded 'Race With The Devil' misses the brass and manic laughter of the Gun original (won't stop it from being a bit, though) but works just fine live.

Girlschool's honest approach captures the predominantly male audience immediately so that not one 'get em off' is uttered. Me? If I had the album I probably wouldn't play it more than twice, but I'd go and see them live any time.

(Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 19/07/80)