Denise Dufort, the original drummer of pioneering rock band Girlschool, and Jackie (Jax) Chambers, who took over as lead guitarist from the late great Kelly Johnson in 1998 give us an insight into what it is like to still be head-banging 34 years later...
Q: How does it feel to be a member of the longest-running female band?
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| Jackie Chambers |
DENISE: "(It) Feels AMAZING, who would have thought that I would still be in this band
After all these years..PHEW!"
Q:Have you got a particular favourite GS song/album?
JAX : "Before I joined the band I was good friends with Kim (McAuliffe) and she gave me the albums to listen to and on first listen my favourite tracks were Play Dirty and Don't Call it Love, I thought they were well written songs, neither of which we do live..shame! I also loved Race With The Devil which is still one of my favs. Whilst in the band one of my fav albums has to be Believe as that was the first full album I appeared on and had a hand in writing all the songs on there."
DENISE: "Play Dirty used to be my favourite album but now its'Legacy',
My favourite song on that album is I SPY."
Q: Who inspired you to become a musician?
JAX: "I think music is in the blood, to be a musician you have to love and be passionate about it. Whilst I was at school it was the 'punk rock' era, I was about 13 and hating all the prog rock in the charts I heard this new exciting energetic music and I loved it, something to get my teeth into and express myself and because it seemed like anyone could do it, I wanted to too. I didn't actually pick up the guitar until I was about 17 almost 18 and even then I only got the guitar as I wanted to write songs and needed one to get the songs across... Ironic."
DENISE: "My brother inspired me to be a drummer, I grew up watching him play in bands and loved it so much that I always knew that that's what I wanted to do."
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| Denise Dufort |
JAX: "(It was) the record companies idea, it was the albums 30th anniversary and we didnt want to just put the old one out we wanted to mark the occassion like we did the bands actual 30th anniversary. We re-recorded it basically as we wanted to own our own songs again, didn't quite work out but it was fun to go back in the studio with the old songs and re-do them. We do about eight of them live anyway so it was an easy and quick album to do."
Q: Are there any plans to go on tour to promote it?
JAX: "Well we've been out and about promoting it all this year really. It was supposed to come out in April, we recorded it last Xmas..record co's tut! We have a couple more gigs this year in the UK and then the gigs start again in Europe in January 2012, so we will keep on going through the summer and do the festivals again too; well that's the plan."
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| Original bassist, Enid Williams, live in Brixton |
Q: How did you end up joining the band?
JAX: "My band had just split up in 1995 and I'd put an advert in the Melody Maker to look for a new band. Kim answered my ad as she was also doing a side project in a covers band, we chatted on the phone, got on well, met up for drinks that night and kept in touch. I didnt join her covers band as at that time I didnt play lead guitar. Kelly (Johnson) at that point wanted to do something different and kept trying to persuade me to join so she could leave, so she offered to help me with the lead guitar parts by teaching me them all. I ended up joining a covers band to practise lead guitar and practiced Girlschool songs until my fingers bled, then finally in 1999 I was ready. I was supposed to do Wacken as my first gig but thought that would be a bit much so Kelly did it as her last...the rest is history!"
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| Kim McAuliffe |
DENISE: "Its a Long story..lol...too long!"
Q: Are you still in touch with past members of the band?
JAX: "Yes we pretty much keep in touch with everyone, it's like a little family. I lived two streets from Cris Bonacci and a half mile from Kelly and Denise when I first joined so we were always hanging out together .Then I shared a flat with Kelly, Now I share with Kim and live on the same street as Enid, can't get away...lol. We don't see Jackie Carrera or Gil Weston that often as they don't live in London but we do keep in touch and Tracey, now lives in Spain but were in touch via skype etc."
DENISE: "Yeah, we're still in touch with Tracey Lamb, Jackie Carrera and Gil Weston."
Q: What has been the highlight of your career?
JAX: "That would have to be supporting Alice Cooper, he was always my musical hero whilst I was growing up so to sit and chat with him was amazing! And of course I got to see him play straight after us, result!"
DENISE: "Touring with my heroes...bands like Deep Purple, Rainbow, Sabbath, and of course Motorhead."
Q: What music do you listen when you're not on tour?
JAX: "I like to play Rammstein very loud to get me in the mood, always brings a smile to my face too... Love it!"
DENISE: "I love Rammstein and Muse but I'll listen to anything that's good..."
Q: The last album of new material, Legacy, was released in 2008- do you plan to make another album of completely new material?
JAX: "LOL, give us a chance we're still promoting this one. I guess by the summer of next year we will be at least talking about it, so hopefully so."
DENISE: "We are still promoting the Hit and Run Revisited album..that's only just come out..give us a chance ha ha."
Q:Do you have a favourite song to perform live?
JAX: "I like to do Never say Never and still get a buzz from doing Race with the Devil even after doing it every gig for 13 years, LOL."
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| Jax & Kim rockin' out |
DENISE: "Yeah I love playing I SPY live."
Q: Girlschool has toured with a lot of different big names- is there anyone you would like to tour with?
JAX: "Yes we've been very fortunate over the years, there's probably a few bands that I'd love to play with but to nail it down I'd say Rammstein or Foo Fighters for me."
DENISE: "I would love to tour with AC/DC, they have always been my favourite band."
Many thanks to Denise and Jax for agreeing to the interview; to find out more about Girlschool and see their latest tour dates, see their official website: http://www.girlschool.co.uk/
Their new CD 'Hit and Run Revisited', can be purchased at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hit-Run-Revisited-Girlschool/dp/B005DO4MO8/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1321910354&sr=1-1
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| Me, backstage with Girlschool after their opening night with Anvil in 2010 |
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