1984 March Talk

Write-ups, reviews and mentions

• March 18, 1984 - Los Angeles Times
  
• March 22, 1984 - Toronto Globe and Mail
  

TV Appearances

• March 28, 1984 Cinemax Album Flash

1984 Music - R.I.P Punk, Hello POP

March 18, 1984

Los Angeles Times write-up

The Go-Go's- At that Awkward Age

Talk Show review

Excerpt from the Los Angeles Times article

The Go-Go's are growing up.

After defining the teen-age experience in its first two albums - rock's premier girl-group finds itself on the edge of adulthood.It's an awkward age, and the Go-Go's third go round tries to capture its emotional textures. The result is an awkward album. But it's a stage the firls have to go through. Otherwise, they start recycling the familiar teen dreams -a dead end in the long run.

The major change is the disappearance of the pop hooks that made the Go-Go's debut so ingratiating. Those hooks didn't come so easy on last year's 'Vacation' and they've now been jettisoned altogether. Martin Rushent has replaced Richard Gottehrer as producer, and he muscles aside the effervescence of the Go-Go's sock-hop pop with a tougher instrumental attack.

It's still basic L.A. power - pop with chiming guitars, throbbing undercurrents, oo-la-la-la backing choruses and snappy beats, but in rocking harder the Go-Go's move up to a Plimsouls energy level- especially on the soul-tinged garage-rocker 'I'm the Only One' Without the hooks, though, the songs demand more work from the listener, and the elaborate melodies certainly demand more of singer Belinda Carlisle.

March 22, 1984

The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ont)

Inside the Sleeve Pop

By Liam Lace

The GoGo's big sound change - courtesy of Martin Rushent, the would-be Phil Spector of English rock - is the first striking thing about this record. It's a big fat sound, with overlapping harmonies, slapping percussion and oodles of professional authority.

Old GoGo's fans will miss the rag-doll, found-art ineptness of the band's previous albums, but it has to be considered a positive step that Belinda Carlisle sounds as though she's learned to sing in tune.

March 28, 1984

Cinemax

Album Flash: The Go-Go's

Taped at VSP Studios in Hollywood

Each of the GoGo's is interviewed individually at home. They discuss their personal history with the band as well as the making of Talk Show LP. Interviews are intermixed with them in the studio playing several songs from Talk Show LP.

By early 1984 the music pendulum had swung again, this time from punk to pop. Music now was

sunny with an upbeat emphasis. No more weighty themes of the '60's music or punk aggression and attitude from the late 1970's early '80's.

Music of 1984 was pure pop music and fun yet artistically more sophisticated. There was a melding of rock and disco.

Early 1984 radio play include:

Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just want to have Fun

Pointer Sisters Automatic

Queen Radio Ga Ga

Wham Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

Dwight Twilley's Girls

Lionel Richie Hello

Culture Club's Karma Chameleon

Kenny Loggins Footloose

The Go-Go's Head Over Heels

Van Halen's Jump

Michael Jackson

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