Director Allison Ellwood pretty much goes through everything you’d ever need to know about the world’s most successful all-woman band in her documentary The Go-Go’s. Every band member, plus the band’s manager, is interviewed here, even original members that didn’t make the cut of the band’s phenomenally successful Beauty And The Beat debut album. Friends, producers, and record executives also pipe in. These interviews make for most of the meat and gristle of this two-hour band overview.
There’s some fantastic early footage of the Go-Go’s before their “Our Lips Are Sealed” days when the quintet was finding their way in Los Angeles and then later in the UK, playing their early brand of punk. The band lovingly recount days playing venues like the Masque and Whisky a Go Go, as well as touring the UK with the Specials and Madness.
Every step of the group’s rise is chronicled, and what a rise it was. Slowly creeping up the charts, becoming darlings on MTV, warming up for the Police, playing big music festivals of the time, and enjoying hits and the kind of success that comes with it that few bands ever experience. And they were the first all-female band to do it!
Ellwood is no stranger to making stunning music documentaries. She directed the Laurel Canyon series and the History Of The Eagles. She knows how to dive deep, leaving pretty much no stone unturned. Drug use, band conflicts (that lead to lawsuits), a music industry prejudice to women, even the Go-Go’s reforming and a new single, “Club Zero,” which featured in this film — it’s all covered in The Go-Go’s documentary.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
