Kim McAuliffe – Photo Credit: Adam Kennedy

Girlschool: On Their Final North American Tour

The iconic Girlschool is now in the midst of their Final North American Tour Part 2 on the West Coast, including a stop at The Belasco Theater in Los Angeles on October 30th.  Traveling in support of this event are Lillian Axe and Alcatrazz, making this a must-see rock and roll extravaganza for the ages.  From their inception in 1978, Girlschool has rocked the world with their anthems, and recently issued a brand-new album entitled WTFortyfive?!  Highwire Daze recently interviewed Kim McAuliffe, one of the founding members, to discuss their upcoming tour, the story behind WTFortyfive?, working with legends such as Lemmy of Motörhead and Ronnie James Dio, and other highlights from an epic career in music.  Read on…

What are you looking forward to the most about your upcoming North American Tour?
Basically, we haven’t been there for a while. The last time we were there was in 2015. So, we’re looking forward to it and seeing some old mates over there. It should be fun.

Do you have any past history with the support acts Lillian Axe and Alcatrazz?
Not with Lillian Axe. Well, we did the first half of the American tour back in March when we did the East Coast – and that was the same lineup. And that was the first time we had met them. They’re lovely blokes – a great band. But they’re on the same tour management label as us as well – the same as Alcatrazz. So that’s how that came about. We’ve known Alcatrazz for a few years now. They’re our touring buddies. We get along really well with them – we’re like family, so it’s great when we get together again. So, we’re looking forward to it.

What could one expect from his upcoming tour here on the West Coast?
A lot of rock and roll really. As Lemmy always used to say, “We’re Motörhead – we’re a rock and roll band!” I think that pretty much sums us up as well. So yeah, it’s good old-fashioned rock and roll!

Tell me about the new Girlschool bassist Olivia Airey, and what is Olivia’s background?
That’s quite amazing that she’s in the band now, because we were recommended to her by a journalist who is sadly no longer with us now – Malcolm Dome – and that was back five years ago when we were looking for a new bass player when Enid left. And he recommended us to her then – and of course we’ve kept in touch over the years. So, when we needed another bass player, it was a bit like a no-brainer really. And then five years later, she’s finally in the band. We actually love her being the band, because it brings down the average age quite a bit, because she’s so bloody young. (Much laughter) But the girl, she’s got a great pedigree. Her father is Keith Airey, a guitarist – he plays with The Zombies and people like that. And her uncle is Don Airey, obviously in Deep Purple at the moment and Rainbow and the rest of it. And I think her other uncle is also a keyboard player as well. I’ve actually lost track of them – too many Aireys. (Laughter) But she’s a brilliant bass player and she’s lovely as well. We just get on so well, like we’ve known her forever. That’s a great sign. And she’s really excited about this as well. It was a bit worrying actually – she only had her interview at the embassy last week and I didn’t even know if she had gotten her passport back. It was like, “Oh, god, hopefully we’re going to make it!” I’ll tell you what, America doesn’t make it easy for us Brits to get out there – that’s for sure!

What made you all decide that this would be Girlschool’s final North American Tour?
It’s so difficult to get Visa’s these days and it’s so expensive jumping through hoops and everything. It’s quite an undertaking for a band to actually be able to tour with work visas and interviews let alone the cost. It’s just mind boggling really. So, it’s not something you could do every year or every couple of years. We just wanted to make the most of it. And obviously we’ve been together for 46 years now. I don’t think we could wait another 8 years to get there, because that would be 54 years. So, this seemed like a good time. And that’s not saying that we’ll never get out there again, because there’s always a possibility of these cruise things or festivals or something – which would be fantastic. But as for an actual tour, it’s cost and trying to get everybody all on the road at once together. Let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with all that – that’s what management is for. We just have the fun stuff.

Your current album is called WTFortyfive?. Can you believe 45 and now 46 years? What goes through your mind?
That’s why we called it WTFortyfive?. I’m not going to swear, but you can guess what it means. Because that’s obviously what we kept saying. Every time we looked at each other, we’re what the f*ck? We can’t believe how long it’s been. If we do another album, we’re going to call it FFS – For F8cks Sake. I don’t know – it’s unbelievable really. If you said to us when we were first starting out when we were 18 and 19 and had our first success that we’d still be going at this age all these years later, we would have thought that you were having a laugh. But time – it just seems to go on – doesn’t it really?

Absolutely! Let’s talk about a few of the songs on the new album. It Is What It Is – tell me about the inspiration behind It Is What It Is.
Basically, that’s another thing that we’ve been saying for a while. It Is What It Is – What Will Be Will Be – What Will Happen Will Happen. One time, I was just lying in bed, and I couldn’t sleep, and I suddenly just got this chorus – “It Is What It Is, so what ya gonna do about it.” And I thought, “Oh, that sound quite good.” So, Jackie and I got together and put some riffs together for it and knocked out the lyrics. It’s just a thing that a lot of people say and have that sentiment. What are you going to do about it? You’re just going to get on with it – whatever “it” may be.

Invisible Killer. Was that inspired by the pandemic?
Yes, our ex-bassist Tracey – she wrote the lyrics for that. There were also other sorts of meanings in that as well. But we didn’t want to dwell on that too much. We want nothing more to do with that business – it’s all gone now.

Cold Dark Heart – tell me a little bit about that one.
We just wanted to do something really dark. It was all about the Countess Bathory – the woman was said to have bathed in virgin’s blood and the first female vampire and all that sort of business. We just sort of envisioned this woman and a way to make it all creepy – in which I think we quite succeeded with that one. I don’t think we’ve really had a heavy song like that in ages. So, we really wanted to do something really heavy to get our teeth into. “To get our teeth into!” (Much laughter)

Born To Raise Hell – the Motörhead cover. You really had some cool people on there. Biff Byford, Phil Campbell, Duff McKagan. How did that all come about?
We decided on the cover, and it was going to be the last song on the album, and we wanted to have a little fun with it. We’ve known Biff as long as we’d known Lemmy and Motörhead and everything. And we had never actually done anything with him apart from gigging all over the world. I had actually never done a duo with a bloke either, so it would be great to do something like that. Doro sang on one of our songs – I think on our Hit And Run – Revisited album, but we didn’t do a duet. I’d actually never done a duet before. Apart from doing something with Lemmy – but that was Kelly – that wasn’t me. I have never done a duet before. So, we asked Biff, and he said “Yeah of course.” So that was fun. And then of course Phil Campbell we’ve known for all of these years – he’s always up for playing. It was actually one of his songs that he wrote as well, so that was ideal for him. And then with Duff, it was a friend of ours who said “I know someone who would be up for it. Duff.” But we had never even met the bloke, but apparently, he was a fan, and he was a great mate of Lemmy’s. And so of course my friend asked him, and he said yes as well!

You did actually did a few other tracks in the past with Lemmy – Please Don’t Touch and Emergency. When you look back on working with Lemmy on those songs, what do you think of them now in retrospect?
And of course we did Bomber as well, because Please Don’t Touch was an EP. Please Don’t Touch was the A side, and then on the B side for a bit of fun, they covered our song Emergency, and we covered their song, Bomber. And of course, a lot of people think Emergency is a Motörhead song – well it isn’t – it’s our bloody song! (Much laughter) Of course it was great. Obviously, we did a lot with Motörhead. especially in the beginning. We went into the studio with them and that was real good fun. A few tantrums we had – not by us I might add. Boys will be boys! (Much laughter) But it worked out really well – it went in at Number Five. We were all just absolutely ecstatic. In those days, you actually had to sell records to get into the charts. We sold a quarter of a million, and only got to number five. I think you only have to sell 10,000 now and you get to number one! So yeah, we did a quarter of a million of them and it only went to number five. And of course, we went on Top Of The Pops, and we were excited about that. We were there a few times. Those were the days!

You also worked with Ronnie James Dio on a song called I Spy. Give me a little background on working with Dio and what that experience was like.
That was on an album we did called Legacy. And we just had the idea – again just for a bit of fun – just to invite some people on – because it was our Legacy on going back. And even then, we were thinking that it was possible that this could be our last album. And we wrote a track called I Spy – and that track was quite heavy as well – so quite Black Sabbath-y. A good friend of ours was Simon Wright who played drums for Dio – so he met and toured with Dio over the years. Funny enough, the first three gigs that we played with were with Black Sabbath at Hammersmith Odeon three nights in a row – he was the singer then. So, we had known him throughout the years – and then got to know him a bit more when Simon joined the band. So again, we asked him if he would fancy singing for us and he said yes. And then Tony Iommi said that he would do a bit, so we got two for the price of one! So yes, it’s been incredible with these people. But if you don’t ask, you don’t get, do you? And Rudy Sarzo engineered that, and Dio did singing on it. It was a great experience!

Let’s go back 40 years – you have two albums that have either celebrated – or are about to celebrate their 40-year anniversaries – Play Dirty and Running Wild. When you look back on those two albums and that time in the Girlschool history – what do you think of them now in retrospect?
Bloody hell – I didn’t know they were 40 years old! Oh god – oh blimey! Take me back a bit! Play Dirty was obvious great fun because we were actually working with our childhood heroes Slade. That was a great time. And then Running Wild – basically Kelly had left, and we wanted to go in a different direction. Thinking back now, I think we probably should have changed the name, because it wasn’t Girlschool. We should have done it as a side project – that would have probably been a better way to do it, I think. You look back on those things, and you go “It is what it is!”

We just wrapped everything up around there. (Much laughter) Are you currently involved with any other bands or projects outside of Girlschool? I know Jackie has Syteria…
Jackie just loves playing. Then again, she hasn’t been doing it as long as me and Denise. In fact, the funny thing is, she was always the new girl – even though she’s been with us for 25 years. She was always the new girl. But she’s not the new girl anymore of course, because Olivia is the new girl. She’s lost that now. (Laughs) But no, no I’m not. I’m quite happy up here (at home). I’m looking out at my garden at the moment – the sunshine – looking at my squirrels and feeding the birds. Quite boring life really but having said that – not at the moment. We’re leaving next Tuesday, so it’s quite a few things to get together before then. So yeah, I’ve been running around like a bit of a maniac this year. I enjoy it when I go away, but obviously I enjoy being at home as well.

Do you have any messages for Girlschool fans who are reading this right now?
Yeah! Come and see us! We’re looking forward to it! We would love to see you there! And come and say hello!

Lineup:
Kim McAuliffe: rhythm guitar, lead and backing vocals
Denise Dufort: drums
Olivia Airey: bass
Jackie Chambers: lead guitar, backing vocals

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Girlschool – http://girlschool.co.uk/
Lillian Axe – https://www.lillianaxe.com/
Alcatrazz – https://www.alcatrazzofficial.com/