Formed at school in the mid-70s, when friends Kim McAuliffe on guitar and bassist Enid Williams joined forces as Painted Lady, Girlschool formed in 1978, swept up as part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement that also gave us Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Saxon, recruiting lead guitarist Kelly Johnson and drummer Denise Dufort in April 1978.
Debut LP ‘Demolition’ made it into the UK Top 30 in 1980, and the girls even found time while recording their follow up album ‘Hit And Run’ (1981) with producer Vic Maile, to record the ‘St Valentines Day Massacre’ EP with label mates Motörhead as HeadGirl.1982’s ‘Wildlife’ EP would be Enid’s last outing with Girlschool for a while, as she was replaced on bass by Gil Weston for ‘Screaming Blue Murder’ (1982).
Their fourth album, ‘Play Dirty’ (1983), was issued in the States on Mercury Records, who also picked up the option to release their fifth, ‘Running Wild’ (1985). The first album to be released without Kelly Johnson, it saw founder members Kim McAulliffe and Denise Dufort joined by Gil Weston, Jackie Bodimead (lead vocals, keyboards) and Cris Bonacci (guitar).
A new deal with GWR saw albums ‘Nightmare At Maple Cross’ (1986) and ‘Take A Bite’ (1988), by which time the bass slot had been filled by former Rock Goddess Tracey Lamb. Their eighth studio album, the self-titled ‘Girlschool’ came out in 1992 and 2002’s ‘21st Anniversary – Not That Innocent’ marked the beginning of a more prolific time for the band, as they would follow it up with ‘Believe’ (2004), ‘Legacy’ (2008).
CD 4 features many rare B-Sides and non-album cuts, as well as demos dating from 1978 up to 2002 and CD5 boasts an ultra rare live recording from the pre-Girlschool Painted Lady.
This five disc set comes with an extended essay from NWOBHM expert John Tucker, and features plenty of pages of rare photos and sought after memorabilia.
• In-depth box set, delving right back to the band’s pub rock roots right up until the present.
• A celebration of Girlschool’s 40 plus years of rocking the globe, kicking off with their independently released 45 ‘Take It All Away’ b/w ‘It Could Be Better’
Tracklisting
DISC ONE
Demolition Girls (1979-1983)
1 Take It All Away (A-side)
2 It Could Be Better (B-side)
3 Emergency
4 Nothing To Lose
5 Demolition Boys
6 Not For Sale
7 Take It All Away
8 Breakdown
9 Race With The Devil
10 Yeah Right
11 Please Don’t Touch (with Motörhead)
12 Hit And Run
13 The Hunter
14 (I’m Your) Victim
15 Watch Your Step
16 C’mon Let’s Go
17 Tush
18 Don’t Call It Love (Wildlife EP)
19 Screaming Blue Murder
20 It Turns Your Head Around
21 You Got Me
22 Take It From Me
23 1-2-3-4 Rock And Roll
DISC TWO
Playing Dirty (1983-1988)
1 20th Century Boy
2 Play Dirty
3 Running For Cover
4 High & Dry
5 Going Under
6 Burning In The Heat
7 Nowhere To Run
8 Are You Ready?
9 Let Me Go
10 Running Wild
11 Love Is A Lie
12 Nasty Nasty
13 Back For More
14 All Day All Night
15 You’ve Got Me (Under Your Spell)
16 Let’s Go Crazy
17 Play With Fire
18 Head Over Heels
19 Action
20 Love At First Bite
21 Too Hot To Handle
DISC THREE
Still Not That Innocent (1992-2015)
1 My Ambition
2 Can’t Say No
3 Can’t Do That
4 Take Me I’m Yours
5 Innocent
6 Knife
7 Coming Your Way
8 Mad Mad Sister
9 Let’s Get Hard
10 Secret
11 You Say
12 Passion
13 Other Side
14 I Spy (Dio/Iommi Mix)
15 Legend
16 Metropolis
DISC FOUR
I Told You So – Singles, B-Sides (1980-1983)
1 Furniture Fire (B-side)
2 Nothing To Lose (7″ edit)
3 Bomber (St Valentine’s Day)
4 Emergency (St Valentine’s Day)
5 Tonight (B-side)
6 Demolition Boys (Live B-side)
7 Tonight (Live B-side)
8 Wildlife
9 Don’t Stop
10 Tush
11 Don’t Call It Love
12 1-2-3-4 Rock And Roll (ext ver)
13 Like It Like That (B-side)
Demos (1978-2002)
14 Let’s Spend The Night Together
15 Just Don’t Care
16 Nothing To Lose
17 Baby Doll
18 Not For Sale
19 Running Wild
20 Love Is A Lie
21 I Told You So
22 Have A Nice Day
23 London
DISC FIVE
The Pre-School Years – Painted Lady Live (1978)
1 I Wanted To Boogie
2 Be My Lover
3 Smoke On The Water
4 King of The Blues
5 Sometime World
6 Rub It In
7 I Saw You Standing There
8 All Along The Watchtower
9 Paper Plane
10 Johnny B. Goode
11 Shoot Shoot
12 How Can I Tell You
13 Can’t Get Enough
14 All Right Now
15 Knocking On Heaven’s Door
16 Gimme Some Loving
17 Honky Tonk Women
18 Change’s Coming
19 Hey Joe
20 You Keep Me Hanging On
** WHILE EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ENSURE OPTIMUM SOUND QUALITY, DUE TO THE LIMITATIONS OF THE AUDIO SOURCE, THIS RECORDING HAS BEEN INCLUDED FOR ITS HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE AND DOES NOT REPRESENT THE FIDELITY OF THE STUDIO RECORDINGS.**
