1984

1984 February

1984 February

Home Again!

February of 1984, the girls were back in Los Angeles. Things were starting to look up. They were just back from recording their 3rd LP. All were looking forward to it's release next month and to hitting the road on a spring tour.

All had high hopes 1984 would turn out better than 1983.

1983 was a tough year. It brought a lots of tension to the band.

1983 and the Post Vacation Blues

• Vacation LP - disappointing sales
  
• Critics being critical
• Charlotte's wrist ailments
  
• Charlotte's writing block
  
• Boy friend problems
  
• Belinda new interest in movie projects (Swing Shift)
  
• Lack of income
  
• Endless meetings with prospective managers
• Endless search for a fresh new producer
  
• Loss of momentum
• Loss of confidence
  
• Band Identity Crisis
• The whole Airhead - Dizzy- Broad image thing to shake

The Go-Go's were able to spend some time with family and friends and their homes.

• Marina del Rey
  
• Malibu
  
• Studio City
  
• West Hollywood
  
• Los Feliz
  

The following photos by me me me.....

Belinda had a condo in Marina del Rey

Jane lived in Malibu

Gina had a home in Studio City

r.i.p.

Kathy had a condo in West Hollywood

Charlotte had a home in Los Feliz

Not her house

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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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1984 March Madness

In March of 1984, the GoGo's were back at their Los Angeles rehearsal studio getting ready for an upcoming tour. Things were looking up.

However - Gina recalled that while in England she found herself often getting sick and tired. So she made it point to see a doctor once she was back in the States.

• Gina's Heart Skips a Beat
  
• Palm Springs Weekend

Bean brought down by a broken heart

During the exam Gina's doctor detected a heart murmur. One side of her heart was stronger than the other. So he strapped electrodes to her chest with a tape recorder to monitor her heatbeat.

Photo by Lynn Goldsmith Philadelphia PA

Gina recalls that two days later -while at rehearsal, she got a phone call from her doctor. He wanted her to come in to the office to discuss the results. Gina, historically the hypochondriac, knew something was wrong right away. She started to cry. The girls were very concerned about her. They all drove with her over to Cedars Sinai get the test results and lend support.

Doctors determined that she had a hole in her heart the size of a marble. It was a congenital birth defect called an atrial septal defect. The disease had caused the left side of her heart to swell to twice the size of the right side.

She was told it would be best to have surgery as soon as possible. It she waited too long the effects would be irreparable and possibly life threatening. Lucky for her she was in great physical shape from years of drumming.

However, upon hearing the news, Gina started to break down and cry. The others were hysterical. She decided to have the operation as soon as possible. (10 days later)

Palm Springs Weekend

The day after Gina got the prognosis, the girls rented a Cadillac Eldorado convertible and a Jaguar XJS and wisked her off the Palm Springs.

They thought she needed some cheering up and they wanted to help her take her mind off the impending surgery.

They brought all the drugs and booze they could muster up out to the desert. In their convertables they cruised around the desert, drank margaritas, went to the spa and to the discos. But they did admit they toned down the partying a bit since they were worried about Gina's heart.

Ten days out of the diagnosis, Gina Schock went into the operating room.

At the end of March, with family and friends around her -

...the surgeons pulled her rib cage apart and her heart out of her body so they could sew up the hole. A plastic surgeon close it so the scar would be minimal with time.(Boston Globe article by Steve Morse)

Gina spent the next several weeks at home recovering. The Go-Go's put off their tour for three months to let Gina recover completely. The U.S. tour was now set to start in June in Detroit

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