The Go-Go's Lips No Longer Sealed: 'Made In Hollywood' Book Drops

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Go-Go's drummer, Gina Schock, is the self-appointed historian of the most famous girl band in history, and she still has the beat.

She just released a collectible photo account of the band's roller-coaster ride through rock history. The book drops within weeks of the band's induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the Go-Go's, Schock told Patch, have not slowed down.

"Made in Hollywood" is a hardcover glossy journey into the past. It opens with a look at the band's beginnings, when Schock joined the Go-Go's to add her definitive beat. Schock marked the tempo, and the rest of the women brought the fun, Schock said in a recent interview.

The girls "needed the beat, a little shot in the arm, up-tempo," she said. "I brought in a professional attitude, and they brought the fun punk scene. It ended up blending into beautiful support of each other that is still going to this day."

The women grew up together at The Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip and went on to perform in tiny venues and huge stadiums. They faced obstacles, many of their own making, and survived the 1980s rock scene to tell the tale from the other side.

"The Go-Go's were so lucky to have been in L.A. at that time in history and still be here to tell the tale," Schock said. "I feel, like, 'Here we are so many years later!' Things keep happening — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the book release — and we are all still here and able to enjoy this. Making music and loving what we’re doing."

Each page of Schock's story is a work of art, giving readers a backstage pass to life on the road. Every photo essay is a testament to the fact that Schock is one of the biggest music fans you'll ever meet.

Schock's photos captured some of the biggest bands of the era: The Police, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie. Behind each picture is a story. In the book, Schock offers a look at life with the Go-Go's, their breakups and makeups. She takes you into the Playboy Mansion and to the hospital following her heart surgery, which changed the band's trajectory.

"Made in Hollywood" is an intimate portrait of the group as it managed to stay together through thick and thin in a time when not everyone carried a camera everywhere she went.

The band is not political: The girls were just there for the fun. The story of the Go-Go's boiled down to one thing, Schock said.

"It happened," she said "And we are so grateful."

Schock is preparing to return to her second home in Los Angeles, the place where everything started for the band.

She will attend a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame VIP after-party and book launch at Harley Laguna Beach in early November and another in West Hollywood after the band's induction.

Drew Barrymore is slated to induct the band at a ceremony and concert Oct. 30 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The show will air sometime later on HBO and stream on HBO Max, with simulcasts on satellite radio.

Joining Schock will be bandmates Charlotte Caffey (lead guitar, keyboard), Belinda Carlisle (lead vocals), Kathy Valentine (bass) and Jane Wiedlin (guitar, vocals). The group has had its ups and downs but has survived to come out on the other side.

They're preparing a European tour with Billy Idol, among other new adventures.

On Oct. 29, the entire band will be interviewed live by Mandy Smith, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's director of education, and SiriusXM host Lori Majewski. Tickets to the outdoor interview sold out almost immediately, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will stream it free on its YouTube and Facebook channels (unless it rains or snows, which is possible given Cleveland weather).

"As the most successful all-woman rock band of all time, the Go-Go’s performed catchy, well-crafted songs that formed a bridge between the brash urgency of L.A. punk and the dark melodies of new wave pop," the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced earlier this year,

Those catchy tunes owed a lot to Schock's drumbeats that set the rhythm for such iconic melodies as "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We've Got the Beat." The Go-Go's are the first of the original Los Angeles punk bands to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And it's about time.

"The Go-Go’s circumvented record label sexism and signed with IRS Records in 1981," the hall of fame said in its induction announcement. "Their debut album 'Beauty and the Beat' was released later that year and became the first (and, to date, only) album by an all-woman band that played its own instruments and wrote its own songs to top the Billboard albums chart."

The irresistible album and the band's charisma took the women from playing "dive bars to Madison Square Garden" in less than a year, Wiedlin said in the trailer to "The Go-Go's," the feature-length documentary directed by Alison Ellwood that debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

During the coronavirus lockdown, Schock's bandmate Valentine released a book, "All I Ever Wanted," which is a more personal story of life as a member of the Go-Go's. Both Go-Go's authors will sign books at a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame event the day before the induction ceremony.

As for the young women who follow in their footsteps? Schock has this advice: "Keep the faith. Push forward. Don’t take 'no' for an answer. Believe in yourself. All the things that if you had good parents, they instill in you. If you can make someone feel better, that’s what this band is about."

Will you go to the Harley Laguna Beach signing? Tickets are still available.

Patch writer Lisa Black contributed to this report.