Today’s metal crop could learn a thing or two from Girlschool. For the past 45 years, these headbanger queens have specialized in no frills, hard rocking, in-your-face metal cranked up to 11. When other NWOBHM bands dismissed them as a novelty, they proceeded to put them to shame with a string of classic albums and one of the most memorable splits of all time in St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, recorded alongside none other than Motörhead. While their naysayers have since faded into obscurity, Girlschool continues to raise hell loudly and proudly. We sat down with longtime guitarist Jackie Chambers to discuss their 45th anniversary festivities, her favorite memories of Lemmy, and Girlschool’s inevitable triumphant return to America! “C’mon Let’s Go”!
Greetings Jackie and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Jackie Chambers: I’m doing great, thank you very much. Cheers!
Thank you for taking the time to talk! Over Girlschool’s 45 year career, you’ve played guitar for nearly 25 of them. What events led to you joining the band?
JC: I was in a few bands before and I put an advert in the Melody Maker, which is a magazine in Britain. Kim (McAuliffe) answered it. She was trying to do a side project. Girlschool was still going, but she wanted to do something else as well. We lived very, very close to each other, so we got on really well on the phone, hung out that night, and went to see her boyfriend’s band, and we decided to write together. She used to come around to my house because I had a little home studio. I say we used to write together; we just got drunk all the time *laughs*. I think we wrote about 2 songs in 4 years!
At the time, I was hanging out with Kim and Kelly (Johnson) and Denise (Dufort) and Tracey (Lamb). We just got on really well. Kelly said, “Why don’t you join Girlschool?” Even back then in ’95, she had enough. I didn’t really play lead guitar. I was more punk rock and riff based, but I never played a lead solo in my life. She said, “If I teach you how to play lead guitar solos in the band, will you join?” I went, “Yeah, alright then.”, thinking it was never gonna happen. We just partied too much. But eventually, in ’98, ’99, they called me down.
Cris Bonacci, who was also one of the guitar players, she lived 2 streets away from me, so she helped me as well. I just went away and practiced like mad about 3 months until my fingers literally were bleeding. I came back and went, “OK, I can do it!”, thinking it would be 2 or 3 gigs, maybe 4 or 5. Here we are 24, almost 25 years later *laughs*!
Did you grow up listening to Girlschool?
JC: Not really, no. I’m about 5 years younger than Kim, so when I was in school, I grew up with the punk rock in Britain. The rock music to me back then wasn’t my scene as it were. At 13, you’re influenced. In ’77, I was 13 years old and listening to punk rock. I didn’t really get into rock until I was in my late teens maybe, apart from Alice Cooper, who I loved the whole time I was at school as well. We were different kinds of music.
My brother had a Girlschool single, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, so I obviously heard of the band. I didn’t really get into them until later. I didn’t see the band live until ’94. I went to see Saxon with my husband because he knew (Paul) Quinn. We just went to see Saxon and Girlschool was supporting, so that’s the first time I’d seen them. I caught the last 3 or 4 songs of their set. And 4 years later, I’m in the band *laughs*!
This latest album, WTFortyfive?, is the band’s first in 8 years. When did work start coming together on this one and was it made with the realization that an anniversary was on the horizon?
JC: I’d like to say we started writing straightaway, but we didn’t *laughs*. In 2015 when we released Guilty as Sin, we were basically promoting it for 2 or 3 years, doing gigs in Europe and wherever. By the time that was finished, we thought we should start writing a new one. Then of course COVID happened. By 2021, we thought, rather than rush an album and get one out because so many people were releasing albums, we figured wait and release it for our 45th anniversary.
We sat writing riffs and lyrics and stuff like that, so we had things ready. We’re not really organized like that. We didn’t put a lot of thought into it *laughs*. Eventually, we got together and the rest is history. We recorded it in 2 weeks. We don’t labor over things. It’s not like you sit down and write a song and think, “No one can make a verse like this.” It’s raw rock n’ roll! You just wanna get the feel out and the groove out and the energy out. So yeah, the 45th anniversary, here it is *laughs*.
When I think of a Girlschool song, the two things that stand out the most are the commanding riffs and those huge gang choruses. Which usually comes first?
JC: The riff…well, usually. Yeah, the riff. Obviously, I got a little home studio upstairs, so I just put riffs down as they come to me. Then me and Kim get on Zoom and I say, “What do you think about this one?” “Oh I like that one! I can hear something for that, yeah. Oh no, I don’t like that one.” You pick and choose the ones you like. Then she’ll come back with an idea for a chorus like “It Is What It Is”. Then I go away and record a bit more, put a verse through or whatever, and then she’ll come back with some lyrics.
We just go backwards and forwards until we come up with a song. And then the group vocals really came in when we were in the studio and just all bashed it. I put my tracks in and Kim just bashed the vocals out. Just like you said, a crowd thing, “Yeah!” *laughs* There’s no real massive harmonies or anything going on there. Nothing too intricate going on there, just pub mentality.
Right, because then whether you’re playing a packed club or a festival with 10,000 people, you’ve got the crowd with fists in the air, heads banging, and everyone screaming along to the chorus, which is just what you want.
JC: That’s what you want! Anthemic songs are the ones that stick in my head. I like to sing a chorus. I don’t care about all the intricacy of the music, as long as I can sing the chorus. Don’t bore us, get us to the chorus *laughs*!
Speaking of anthems, I want to talk a bit about the album’s latest single, “It is What It Is”. In true Girlschool fashion, this is a pure hellraiser and an ode to the band’s solidarity. Considering Girlschool always stuck to their guns, never selling out when it was fashionable to do so, do you think this gave the band an edge over some of their peers?
JC: I don’t really know about that. We just are who we are. I don’t think we’ve ever tried to be anything else. We don’t use any whistles and bells in the studio. We just go in with raw guitar. We don’t use any effects as it were. Obviously, we got a great producer in Tim Hamill, but we don’t go in there with the intention of, “We must sound modern! We must sound like this! We must sound like that!” This is how Girlschool sounds.
Denise gets behind those drums. Kim puts her guitar on and plays that strumming stuff. I put a riff over the top, and then Kim’s vocal…it just sounds like Girlschool. No matter what we try to do, we couldn’t sound like anybody else if we tried. We just sound like us. No matter what kind of song comes out, it just sounds like Girlschool. I think we all have our different own styles that we put in. It just worked. We never tried to make it sound like anything. This is us *laughs*.
Closing out this album is a rollicking rendition of the Motörhead classic, “Born to Raise Hell”. Considering Girlschool’s close relationship with the band, what is your favorite memory of Lemmy?
JC: There’s so many. I’ve told them all pretty much by now, but I still love the fact when we were doing the Legacy album, me and Kim were on our own because it was Christmastime. We were having a few drinks and we wanted him to be on the album. I sent him a text asking, “Lemmy, would you like to be on our 30th anniversary album?” I got a text back saying, “Sure Jax! What do you want? Bass, vocals, harmonica, or triangle?” I sent him a text back saying, “Triangle!” *laughs*
He had a great sense of humor, a brilliant sense of humor. Of course, when we rang him the next day, we had this one idea. I had written the music already with Denise. We had one lyric, where Kim was like, “Don’t talk to me!” So we’re going, “Don’t talk to me! Don’t talk to me!”, and that’s all we sang on the phone. We had no lyrics! Lemmy says back on the phone, “I can’t make out what you’re saying!” “We’re not saying anything Lemmy! We don’t have any lyrics! Could you write the lyrics as well please?”
So the poor guy had to write the lyrics, sing the song, play the bass, and then right at the very end, he goes, “Ping!”, on the triangle! It’s brilliant. If you’ve got the Legacy album, it’s “Don’t Talk to Me”. It’s the last song on the album. We thought the fun part of that would be to have the very ending of this heavy metal album be, “Ping!” Lemmy doing triangle!
We need to add that to Lemmy’s list of talents: Singer, songwriter, bassist, guitarist, roadie…and triangle player!
JC: Yeah, triangle! Who knew?
I can’t say I’m surprised when I think of the kinship between Motörhead and Girlschool. Here were 2 bands that were as no frills as you could get and loved rock n’ roll with a passion. In Motörhead’s case, as much as they’re missed, we’ve got 40 years of music to look back on. Meanwhile, Girlschool is still making music today. I think that means a lot in this day and age to see the band still going strong. I wasn’t planning on asking this, but at this point in the band’s career, are the words “retirement” or “farewell” even mentioned?
JC: It is mentioned a lot. Obviously, we’re all getting to the age now where…I’m the youngest and I’m 59. I’ll be 60 next year. You have to talk about it because it’s like, how long can we do this? We’ll keep on doing this until we can’t or we’re fed up or we don’t enjoy it or nobody wants to see it. When we did Legacy, we figured that would be our last album. “This is our legacy!” *laughs* And then we did 3 more after!
You never know. We look at this WTFortyfive? and we’ve got to 45 years. Can we make it to 50? Who knows? Nobody knows what’s around the corner. We didn’t know COVID was going to happen. We didn’t know anything was going to happen. We never say never. I think that’s the thing, isn’t it? It is what it is *laughs*!
You are the longest running lead guitarist in Girlschool, having filled the shoes of the late Kelly Johnson. What are your favorite riffs and solos of Johnson’s to play?
JC: I love “Future Flash”. I just love doing that. It’s one of my favorite solos. Riffs? There’s so many good ones. I would say “Screaming Blue Murder”, that’s a good one. Yeah, favorite riff, “Screaming Blue Murder”, favorite solo, “Future Flash”, if I had to pick 2.
Great choices! Expanding upon that question, with a career as long and storied as Girlschool’s, how does the band go about settling on a live setlist?
JC: Oh God, that’s a nightmare *laughs*! It really is. We can’t agree at all. It’s just hard because the songs we would put in as a band…obviously, you always want to put new things in. We want to do something fresh for us, but then you gotta decide what to take out, unless you’re doing a 5 hour show. If you’ve only got an hour spot at a festival, everybody wants to hear “Race with the Devil”, “Hit and Run”, “C’mon Let’s Go”, “Emergency”, “Demolition”, so you can’t take any of those songs out.
Straightaway, you’ve got 5 or 6 songs that people expect to hear every time. We tend to put in “Future Flash” all the time. It’s really hard because we’ve got 13, 14 albums to choose from. You want to put something in that represents at least 1 song from each album, but you just can’t do that, otherwise we’d be on stage all night. You’d never get us off *laughs*! Me and Kim were chatting about this earlier, “What do we put in the set?” We’ve got a new album we need to put something in from.
How many do we do? Should we do “Are You Ready”? Should we do this or that? So we thought what we’ll do is we’ll wait to see what people like on the album and then take it from there. What we like and what the audience might like might be 2 different things. We’ll see how the album goes down and then hopefully when we start touring South America in September, we’ll decide which 2 we’re gonna put in and which 2 we’re gonna take out *laughs*.
Will Girlschool ever tour the States again?
JC: Funny you should say that! I had an email this morning that was very timely. We’re doing South America in September, and there’s a plan to get to America just after that. It makes more sense. There is talk of November this year. I know for sure our manager said there could be a part 2 in March of next year because we’ve got a festival called Hell’s Heroes. Does that sound familiar? I couldn’t tell you where it is, but I know it’s in America.
Yeah, that’s down in Texas. Funny enough, they’re announcing the lineup in 10 minutes!
JC: Oh! Yay, there you go! I’ve blown it *laughs*! Go Jax! So we will be stepping foot in America for at least that. I can’t imagine we just go for 1 gig, so they will book some gigs around it. So yeah, we’ll be back!
It’s been far too long for us! Besides this new album, what other plans do Girlschool have in store for their 45th anniversary?
JC: Like I said, gigs! We’ve got gigs coming up. We’re in Sweden this weekend, Denmark next weekend. Then we’ve got festival season. We’ve got South America in September, Finland in October, America in November. We’ve got a few gigs in December. Things are starting to come in a lot more now, usually 3 months before the gig. It’s looking like we can get to America at least next year in March, which will be interesting because I’ll have my 60th birthday there!
What a way to celebrate!
JC: That’s what I said. No party, I just wanna do a gig.
That is a party!
JC: Exactly, yeah. Better than a party in a way!
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned from your time in Girlschool?
JC: To do this to enjoy it, not to do this for the money. If anybody’s in this for the money, give up! It’s not gonna happen *laughs*. It’s not gonna happen with streaming. Do it and enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it, it can be “hard work”. It’s not the glamor it used to be. Enjoy every minute, because you never know how long it’s gonna last. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to do because people get enjoyment from it, from you. If you’re enjoying it onstage, the audience gets to enjoy it too and their enjoyment feeds us as well. It’s just amazing.
The new Girlschool album, WTFortyfive?, comes out Friday, July 28 on Silver Lining Music. For more information on Girlschool, visit www.girlschool.co.uk.
Yaaaassssss come to Argentina!! 🇦🇷🤘🏻🇦🇷