THE GO-GO’S (Sundance 2020 Premiere)

One of the highlights of my Sundance Film Festival experience was not only attending the world premiere of the documentary “The Go-Go’s”, but getting up close with all 5 band members: Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock and Kathy Valentine on the red carpet! (see video below).

I was a child of the 80’s and remember all their songs (3 albums) very fondly, but I didn’t know anything about the members separately or together. Had no idea they started out a Punk band. “We Got The Beat” was played all over the radio when I was a kid, it was impossibly catchy, as was the fact that it came from an all-female band, we thought that was cool, and sought no further information.

The Go-Go’s were actually the first band composed entirely of women who wrote their own songs, played their own instruments, and scored number-one hits. Yes, the Runaways were an all-girl band, but they were the packaged product of a male producer. The Go-Go’s did it all themselves. Which is why they do deserve to be in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

Belinda and Jane had 0 musical background when they began. But they were into the punk scene and to truly be accepted you needed a band, so they set about forming one. They recruited a drummer (Elissa Bello), a bass player (Margot Olavarria) and, after a handful of gigs, Charlotte Caffey as a second guitarist. Caffey is the one who wrote “We Got The Beat” while sitting at home watching “The Twilight Zone.” She got a riff in her head, and just laid the whole thing down in a night. But she didn’t take it immediately to the girls, worried they would dismiss it as it didn’t contain the dark distortion of a punk song. And it didn’t set right with Bello who soon left the band replaced by Gina Schock. Olavarria wasn’t long for the band either, she had a life outside the punk/music scene and couldn’t see herself touring. Only they replaced her with Kathy Valentine before Olavarria had officially quit. What’s great about the doc is those early band members agreed to be interviewed to tell their side of the story.

In fact everyone is very candid about their mistakes, their egos, drug problems etc… During the Q&A Wiedlin, still an adorably edgy pixie, declares “I didn’t see any point in doing this if we weren’t going to tell the truth”.

Director Alison Ellwood handles the interviews, pacing, images, 80s nostalgia deftly, but she doesn’t reinvent the wheel. There’s a standard template for rock-band disintegration and the Go-Go’s story fits within a basic music-doc rulebook, but that makes it no less fun. There’s nothing I love better than a tale of rising beyond one’s wildest dreams, peaking, then taking that terrible tumble, only to learn lessons and find your footing again.

I won’t give much more away other than I loved one story about their manager buying fluffy white towels at Macy’s to use for the cover of “Beauty and the Beat,” then returned them after the shoot because they couldn’t afford them.

The below Q&A has NOT been edited for spoilers. I could not find an announcement date of when the doc will be release in theaters or streaming; however, also be on the look out for a new Go-Go’s single!