Record Mirror, February 23, 1980 23

Front page n "Kin and I originally decided to get together a group three years ago, said Enid- about "She suggested that I play guitar. Mind you, bass, her in thcould days it didn'trtreally matter because neither of us could play! went along." We learnt as things The present line-up came into being during March 1978 and ONE OF the Current crop of new heavy metal bands, GM have started playing live within a month. harvested and matby been processed Jet Records, home of t3O. "We started doing lots of small gigs themselves as heavy around Britain and Describing "Intellectual rope," whether France," explained Enid, "and then began to write our own their camp clothes and cute looks can cut much ice with material." diehard heavy metal tans remains to be seen. Girl were formed They built up a tight set of originals and and in Amsterdam to months ago by lead vocalist the covers under Philip Lewis and astute guidance of manager Doug Smith (also responsible guitarist Gerry Laity- On returning to London they were pined for such acts as Hawkwind, by Phut Cotten on Motorhead, and The Damned) guitar, Simon tatty on bass and Dave Gaynor climbed several important rungs last year. on drums They knocked on Jet Records' to They played support door, armed not only Motorhead, Wild Horses, and Budgie and nearly got to with a demo tape but with a video too. Eventually they made appear with Loudman Nugent, their debut al the Camden Music Machine. Girl list their -He cancelled our spot as about three days before the gg adlnrances Bowie, Japan. Aerosmilh and Queen. said Kim, addingwith wry 'We want to bring back the rude a"apparentlysmile, he didn't fancyy 4`, r element to music; we want the idea of a bunch of chicks being same to break a few hearts." says Philip. Time on the bill as him!" e' , alone will tell. They also put out a rather good debut single on City Albums evadable: called 'Take Records It All Away', which sold about 8,000 copies and got el 'Sheer Greed' (Jet JET LP 2241. quite a bit of airplay. I Despite their improvement, Girlschool lace a giant -sized " problem namely still sa - that heavy rock is still very much a male- a. dominated society which doesn't readily accept female entrants. No one is more aware i, of this than the band themselves. ' o When we 4 started out," said Enid, i watch "people came along to us just for a laugh and didn't really take us seriously. It's only now that we've ,t come to be regarded more as a band t } rather than a bunch of girls. Girlschool put part of the blame for this attitude firmly at the ¡i r-. doors of female apathy. trouble with girls," t II P 4 said Kim, "is that you usually can't r any find who can play already, and want to be in a ol. I the years, a few girl bands, such as Fanny, have . band.raiOver _ y L attempted to change this outlook but none ever got very tar. - "F 1 Gilschoors philosophy is significantly different in that they r // don't i see themselves as leading a feminist crusade. ' «We didn't go out of our wayto make this a female group," emphasised Enid. "When we got the frst idea of forming a I rock group, we knew a few blokes who could play, but they just - laughed vi. at the thought of us taking up instruments. So it i% wouldn't have been possible for us to play with them anyway." The future does look decidedly promising. 1980 is already shaping up into quite a year for Kim, Kelly, Enid and Denise. GIRL They've recently recorded a new single, 'Emergency, which is their fist release since signing on the dotted line with Bronze. Having heard an early pressing of it, I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that d will be a Top 20 smash hit (even .l it isn't I'll still lied room for it in my personal 20 fares of 1980). Hopefully the band will be releasing a follow-up single (possibly GIRLSCHOOL the superb 'Nothin' To Lose', one of their best live numbers) "1 JUST don't see any reason why girls shouldn't play heavy rather quickly, and then will go into cut their debut album; rock," said Kim McAuliffe, guitarist / vocalist with all - female theyre certainly got enough of their own good stuff to make it GIRLSCHOOL hard rockers Girlschool. a real beauty, Kim and the rest o1 the band - Kelly Johnson (guitar / vocals), Enid Williams (bass / vocals) and drummer Denise Single evadable: ., Mort are four girls who prove that you don't need 'Take It Away (City WIK6) poses and chest hair to earn a "commission" in the heavy 'Emergency' (Bronze BROW) platoon. machoMALCOM DOME Turn to page 24 ETALFoR _RS The Heavy Metal Compilation Albumyfeaturing only Iron Maiden . Praying Mantis £3.99 Limited Edition RRP Nutz . Sledgehammer Ethel .r Li The Frog. An9elwitch )- Toad The Wet Sprocket } Samson . E. F. Band " 1 EYC 3315 NEW SINGLES OUT NOW 1 1rsgci 14. AIbEII RUNNING SOUNDHOUSE TAPES PART 2 FREE (12)IUR 5204 Calgared Cif! /uVt! Cool The Ripper' (7ada-ameiWa)