Born on January 7: Kathy Valentine, bassist with the Go-Go's, tells all in a book

She was born in Austin, Texas, in 1959, and raised by a single English mother.

Searching for her earliest musical memories, Kathy recalls succumbing to Suzi Quatro's mischievous face while watching BBC's “Top of the Pops”. The girl's glam-rock choruses like “Can The Can” and “Devil Gate Drive” left a deep impression on her. Her only dream now is to follow in Suzi's footsteps and pick up a bass too! An experienced guitarist, she opted for this instrument a few years later as a member of the Go-Go's.

Before joining Belinda Carlisle and her girlfriends, she spent some time with Girlschool, the first all-female English hard rock band. Then, back in the States and still surrounded by girls, she continued her apprenticeship with The Violators and The Textones. Bands that were far angrier than the Go-Go's would ever be...

Alongside Belinda, Charlotte, Gina and Jane, all California girls in their own right, Kathy Valentine has always honed her ugly duckling image. After her first gig at the legendary Whisky A Go Go (Los Angeles) on New Year's Eve 1980, the other four girls asked her to stay on with them. She offered them her own compositions, such as “Can't Stop The World” and, later, “Vacation” and “Head Over Heel”. “Beauty And The Beast” (1981) and ‘Vacation’ (1982), the Go-Go's first two albums, are still examples of unpretentious but devilishly effective acid pop. The third, “Talk Show” (1984), exposed the group's tensions and led to their first split. 

While she didn't shy away from successive reformations before being sacked like a piece of trash, Kathy never kept her mouth shut. To the point of suing her former girlfriends for “breach of contract”! A dispute that was settled in court and didn't stop her from joining them one last time in 2018 for a short farewell tour.

A true music enthusiast, Kathy recorded an impressive series of albums with The BlueBonnets and The Delphines. All frankly more rock than the Go-Go's repertoire! On a personal note, I'd recommend the solo albums by this under-appreciated multi-instrumentalist and singer: “Light Years” (2005) above all, and also “All I Ever Wanted” (2020), the musical accompaniment to her book “A Rock'n Roll Memoir ” published by the University of Texas...

(Stéphane Soupart - Tr.: MH - Phoro : © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Kathy Valentine (right) with Belinda Carlisle (left) with The Go-Go's on the set of Génération 80 in Brussels (Belgium) on October 30, 1982.