Belinda Carlisle

A couple of years ago, Belinda Carlisle’s life was everything it wasn’t supposed to be. The band she sang for, the GoGo’s, had established themselves as one of the most massively popular all-girl groups ever with Beauty & The Beat and Vacation. They were foisted on the public as fun, bubbly, effervescent California girls singing about inconsequential—yet happy—things.

Meanwhile, Belinda Carlisle was becoming an alcoholic. Her friend and fellow band member, Charlotte Caffey, was having drug problems of her own. Their third album, Talk Show, flopped. Guitarist Jane Wiedlin left the band. Belinda and Charlotte decided to clean up and then leave the band themselves. Their last performance with the Go-Go’s was in January, 1985, in Rio, in front of 350,000 people. The next time Belinda and Charlotte took the stage, it was in front of about 400.