Kelly Johnson, 49, "Girlschool" guitarist and singer dies
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Kelly Johnson, guitarist, singer and songwriter: born London 20 June
1958; died London 15 July 2007.
Girlschool, the first British all-female rock band of note, were part
of the new wave of heavy metal in the late 1970s that spawned Def
Leppard, Iron Maiden and Saxon. The group formed in 1978 when Kelly
Johnson, singer and lead guitarist, and the drummer Denise Dufort
joined forces with Kim McAuliffe (rhythm guitar and vocals) and Di
"Enid" Williams (bass, vocals). With their tight playing and no-
nonsense attitude, Girlschool developed a strong following in the UK
and Europe.
They also forged a strong friendship with Motorhead, and their three
support slots with the heavy metal band led to them being signed by
Bronze Records in 1979. The partnership with Motorhead culminated in
the St Valentine's Day Massacre EP, on which the two bands - billed as
Headgirl - teamed up to cover each other's songs, "Emergency" and
"Bomber", and to record a version of "Please Don't Touch", the 1959
hit by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, with Johnson and Motorhead's Lemmy
Kilmister on vocals. In February 1981, the St Valentine's Day Massacre
EP reached the Top Five in the UK and Headgirl appeared on Top Of The
Pops.
Their enhanced profile helped Girlschool secure a similar chart
position for Hit and Run, their second album released two months
later. Johnson co-wrote most of the group's original material with
McAuliffe, including the singles "Hit And Run" and "C'mon Let's Go"
and sang lead on both, as well as on Girlschool's version of T-Rex's
"20th Century Boy" issued in 1983. After the release of Play Dirty,
their fourth album, produced by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea of Slade in
1984, Johnson left the band and moved to the US but returned to
Britain when the band reformed in the 1990s.
Johnson was only 19 when she joined Girlschool. The group took their
name from the fact that McAuliffe and Williams had formed their
previous band, Painted Lady, while still at school in south London.
Girlschool didn't need anyone to tell them what to do. Taking their
inspiration from the Runaways (the all-girl rock group assembled in
Los Angeles by Kim Fowley in 1975), they wore leather jackets, had a
healthy DIY punk attitude, and issued their début single, 'Take It All
Away', on City Records, in December 1978, the year before Motorhead
arranged for Gerry Bron, the man behind Bronze Records, to see the
band. "I went to an early rehearsal and was surprised how well
Girlschool played their instruments. How terribly chauvinistic of me,"
Bron later recalled.
None of them were particularly good looking, although from a distance
Kelly Johnson looked like that Charlie's Angels' actress, Farrah
Fawcett. But there was something about them.
After signing with Bronze Records, the band supported not only
Motorhead, but also Uriah Heep and Black Sabbath, holding their own in
front of fans of the established hard rock bands. Their first single
for Bronze, a cover of the Gun's "Race With The Devil", made the Top
50 and their début album, Demolition, spent more than two months in
the British charts in 1980.
Girlschool's popularity peaked in 1981, when they headlined a British
tour as well as the Reading Festival, and their first two albums went
gold in Canada. Subsequent attempts to crack the lucrative US market,
however, led to disillusion within the ranks. In 1983, the bassist Gil
Weston replaced Williams in time to record Screaming Blue Murder, the
group's third album, but Johnson quit the following year.
Attempts at a solo career in the US floundered, as did an attempt to
form a group with the guitarist Kathy Valentine, and Johnson took up
sign language and worked with the deaf. She rejoined Girlschool in
1993 but cancer forced her to stop playing in 2000 after recording the
album Not That Innocent: 21st Anniversary.
Pierre Perrone
Published: 17 July 2007