The Go-Go's have announced their farewell tour.
The group will perform 18 shows in August to bring down the curtain on a 38-year career.
In a statement shared by Rolling Stone, the "Our Lips Are Sealed" band says, "We are gearing up for one last blast of a summer tour. We feel so lucky and so grateful to have had the incredible support of our fans for so long. We can't wait to get out on the road and give the people what they want: some loud, fast music and a great party!"
Longtime bassist Kathy Valentine, who left the group several years ago and took legal action against it, will not be on hand for this trek.
The tour begins August 2nd in Clearwater, Florida; other dates include August 13th in New York's Central Park and the hometown finale at L.A.'s Greek Theater on August 30th.
A quick show of hands please ... seriously ... has ANYBODY out there really missed them?!?!? (kk)
The GO GO'S? I never missed them!
Mike
Hi
Kent,
Hope all is well.
Has anybody missed the
Go-Go’s?
They played their part. As the 70s wound down, rock
music was essentially arena rock (represented by albums and not singles) and
disco. Punk rock had been the natural reaction to this as the kids set out to
make their own music; often pressing up their own recordings for sale /
distribution at venues. But punk hit a ceiling and couldn’t go
mainstream.
Enter new-wave and a re-emergence of pop in all the
major markets – the US, UK, Australia and Germany. So titles such as “Careless
Whisper”, “Cruel To Be Kind”, “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” and “Vacation”
were pop sounds that could have easily been recorded in the early to
mid-60s.
The Go-Go’s toured the UK before they were famous,
recorded the Fun Boy Three’s “Our Lips Are Sealed” as their first hit and wrote
“Surfin’ And Spyin’”, which was recorded by the Ventures. Production was handled
by the great Richard
Gottehrer (one-third of the Feldman - Gottehrer - Goldstein writing and
production team and co-founder of Sire Records).
New wave ended and the era of the 45
was finally put to rest by an industry eager to make the kids fork over $12 or
so for a full CD, the format that took over. I miss new wave and, although they
were not the best the genre had to offer, because of their involvement, I miss
the Go-Go’s.
Best regards,
Mike Edwards
HEY KENT,
JUST FELT THE NEED TO RESPOND TO YOUR COMMENT ABOUT
THE GO-GO’S. I HAVE TO SAY, I’M NOT THE BIGGEST GO-GO’S FAN IN THE WORLD, BUT I
WOULD LIKE TO GIVE THEM CREDIT FOR AT LEAST ONE THING. MYSELF AND A FRIEND ARE
HUGE MUSIC FANS. WE GET TOGETHER ONCE A MONTH AND ALWAYS TRY TO COME UP WITH A
MUSIC THEME WE CAN DEBATE.
ONE THEME WE DISCUSSED WAS, “THE BEST THREE SONGS TO
START OFF AN ALBUM.” WE CAME UP WITH U2 - “JOSHUA TREE”, (“WHERE THE STREETS
HAVE NO NAME”,”I STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR” AND “WITH OR WITHOUT
YOU”); EURYTHMICS - “REVENGE”, (“MISSIONARY MAN”, “THORN IN MY SIDE” AND “WHEN
TOMORROW COMES”) AND, FINALLY, THE GO-GO’S - “GOD BLESS THE GO-GO’S” (“LA-LA
LAND”, “UNFORGIVEN” AND “APOLOGY”.)
GRANTED, THE GO-GO’S SONGS HAVE NOWHERE NEAR THE
COMMERCIAL SUCCESS OF THE OTHERS BUT THEIR THREE SONGS TOGETHER DEFINITELY ADD
TEN MILES AN HOUR AS YOU GO CRUISIN’ DOWN THE HIGHWAY.
I’M SURE YOUR READERS COULD COME UP WITH MANY OF
THEIR OWN.
“THANKS” SO MUCH,
GARY
Interesting concept ... I like it. (Of course the wheels
IMMEDIATELY started turning for me ... and I think you're right ... our
listeners can probably come up with some GREAT threesomes ... first three
lead-off tracks from an LP.) The VERY first one I thought of was The Bee Gees'
"Spirits Having Flown" album ... "Tragedy", "Too Much Heaven" and "Love You
Inside Out" ... three INCREDIBLE tracks that all went to #1. (Of course Capitol
Records did a pretty good job of packaging "Meet The Beatles" for US release,
too ... "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "This Boy"
... it doesn't get much better than that!)
If you guys want to put together some of your all-time favorite
threesomes, we'd be happy to run them. The tracks have to have been the first
three tracks on a new, commercially released LP (greatest hits collections don't
count, nor do live LP's). This could become a VERY interesting topic ... and
just might get some folks to dig out their albums again! (kk)
FOR THE RECORD: The Go Go's knocked out six quick Top 50 Hits between 1981
and 1984 ... "Our Lips Are Sealed" (#20, 1981); "We Got The Beat" (#2, 1982);
"Vacation" (#6, 1982); "Get Up And Go" (#50, 1982); "Head Over Heels" (#10,
1984) and "Turn To You" (#28, 1984) ... and then Belinda Carlisle went on to
have six more as a solo artist (including four that made The Top Ten: "Mad
About You" (#3, 1986); "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" (#1, 1987); "I Get Weak"
(#2, 1988) and "Circle In The Sand" (#7, 1988) ... so they definitely made their
mark on the charts.
