Solo Carlisle goes Retro on summer tour
On July 4, the big attraction in Los Angeles was the Go-Go’s, who played the Hollywood Bowl with a full orchestra and fireworks. This week, frontwoman Belinda Carlisle is a free agent once again, headlining the Retro Futura tour Sunday in Lynn. As always, the tour includes a mix of MTV-era hitmakers. This year features ABC, Modern English and three more lead singers gone solo: Limahl from Kajagoogoo, Tony Lewis from the Outfield and Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow. Carlisle’s set will include the biggies from both the Go-Go’s and her later solo career.
“I love doing these festivals because it’s instant gratification,” she said. “You don’t have to listen to the filler material and I don’t have to sing it.”
As for the Go-Go’s, whose farewell tour hit Boston last year, they really are over — at least until next time.
“We don’t really do shows anymore unless they’re something special. But the Fourth was magic. We had an Air Force band and a high school marching band, so it was a real night of Americana.”
The band won’t be there, but the Go-Go’s are about to make a comeback on Broadway. Hardly your typical rock musical, “Head Over Heels” is an Elizabethan romp with plenty of gender-bending, based on a Greek play and set to their songs. Some big names are behind it (Gwyneth Paltrow is coproducer) and it opens in New York later this month.
“We let the experts do their jobs for once,” Carlisle said. “It’s a pretty outthere thing, to take a story that was written 300 years ago, and I’m not a big fan of that Shakespearean genre. The obvious thing would have been to make it biographical. When the book was presented to us, we really weren’t sure. But when we saw it, we were completely blown away. We thought it was funny and timely, with the gender issues and all that’s going on in the world. We just don’t know whether it’s going to be a keeper.”
Carlisle has been sober and a devoted Buddhist since 2005, and she says her new life works surprisingly well for rock ’n’ roll.
“I thought it was going to be a lot tougher. Being a partier, I don’t think I ever went onstage without a few drinks at least. So when I got sober, I wasn’t a little afraid, I was a lot afraid. But you know, and forgive me if this sounds pretentious, but when you perform and you’re in the groove, you’re trying to connect to something bigger than yourself. That’s harder to do when you’re tipsy.”
The Go-Go’s are always credited for breaking the walls down for female rockers, but Carlisle isn’t sure.
“If it really worked, then why aren’t there more GoGo’s out there? We’re no prudes, as you probably know, but it seems women have gone back in time to being sexualized. And I can’t blame the artists, because they don’t have artistic control like we did. But all that bumping and grinding and twerking and licking — Why are they doing that? It’s icky, and I know how much I’m starting to sound like my mom.”