{"id":2193,"date":"2016-09-05T03:35:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T10:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=2193"},"modified":"2016-09-05T03:35:04","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T10:35:04","slug":"the-go-gos-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2016\/09\/05\/the-go-gos-farewell\/","title":{"rendered":"The Go-Go’s Farewell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Go-Go’s <\/em><\/strong>have played a big role in my life.\u00a0 Even though they broke up (for the first time) shortly after I entered high school, thebjjjjy reunited by the time I got to college.\u00a0 Not only had I realized I was gay, but I realized that they were gay icons (well, seeing Sara Gilbert <\/strong>at the shows kinda solidified it).\u00a0 The girls often call themselves one big dysfunctional family, and as I’ve gotten to know them, I can confirm that’s pretty accurate.\u00a0 Like most families, they’ve had their ups and downs.\u00a0 But what I’ve always admired is that they’ve never made a secret of the problems.\u00a0 Every time they fought, we knew they’d eventually get back together.\u00a0 They never called any of their shows a farewell – until now.\u00a0 The “GOing, GOing, GONE” tour came six years after Belinda Carlisle <\/strong>first broached the idea of disbanding.\u00a0 In retrospect, she may have been onto something.\u00a0 The girls may sound and look better than ever, but we currently have only four-fifths of the band.\u00a0 Kathy Valentine <\/strong>was jettisoned three years ago – the most public schism yet.\u00a0 Since Kathy’s ouster, the band has continued with fabulous bassist, Abby Travis<\/strong>.\u00a0 But for purists, it’s not exactly the same – something I’m sure Bangles <\/em><\/strong>devotees felt when Abby replaced Michael Steele<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So I went into the final shows with mixed emotions.\u00a0 At this point, the group is a well-oiled machine, and their set included all of the hits and a few rarities (including some which were only for die-hard fans).\u00a0 The tour poetically wrapped up at the Greek Theatre <\/em>in Los Angeles – the site of their landmark Wild at the Greek<\/em><\/strong> concert in 1984.\u00a0 This was not a weepy, maudlin farewell, but a celebration.\u00a0 The capacity crowd danced and screamed for the full 90-minute concert, and the girls seemed to be having a blast.\u00a0 Still, I couldn’t help but notice that just before the final bow, Belinda Carlisle stopped for a moment, scanned the audience, and took it all in.\u00a0 She was the first to quietly slip away.\u00a0 After the show, the girls hosted a reception for family and friends.\u00a0 While most of the band were extremely accessible (including an incandescent Carlisle), Jane Wiedlin <\/strong>needed some time to herself before celebrating.\u00a0 It should be noted that gay luminaries Tab Hunter <\/strong>and Greg Louganis <\/strong>were there to join in the fun.<\/p>\n

One postscript – despite the bad blood between Kathy Valentine and the group, she still responded to a post on Belinda’s Instagram <\/em>account.\u00a0 “Sad not to be there!\u00a0 I loved my 32 years in the Go-Go’s and hope for a great reunion at the RRHOF [Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]!!\u00a0 love to all the fans and my former band.”\u00a0 Carlisle quickly wrote back, “And we send our love to you.”\u00a0 Something to look forward to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Go-Go’s have played a big role in my life.\u00a0 Even though they broke up (for the first time) shortly after I entered high school, thebjjjjy reunited by the time I got to college.\u00a0 Not only had I realized I was gay, but I realized that they were gay icons (well, seeing Sara Gilbert at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2194,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193\/revisions\/2194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}