Book: Lips Unsealed

Lips Unsealed
by Belinda Carlisle

Book of the week: Not many people know (I certainly didn’t), but 80s pop icon Belinda Carlisle is actually punk as fuck. She was a drummer (briefly) in The Germs, wore garbage bags as dresses, and even dabbled in witchcraft where her and her friend would, if they liked a dude, put a drop of their period blood in his drink to cast a love spell (and provide a full evening of devious comedy). The Go-Gos first album remains the only time in the history of American music that a band comprised solely of women who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments had an album go to number one (that was 1981 and it never happened again,how fucked up is that?)
Of course, being that hardcore can come with a price- we never know what kind of pain and problems someone may be dealing with, even the shiniest stars (so let’s all be fucking kind to each other). This memoir is super candid and full of the sort of contrarian, fuck-em-all attitude we don’t often see women put out there. A solid, if sometimes sordid, read that ends on a beautiful high note and holds its own with any rock roll memoir on your shelf.

Insanity. I read this book so long ago and somehow never added it to the site, even though Belinda is my absolute favourite and of course her book is more badass than anyone’s (’cause she doesn’t get super fucked up and just cry at home for weeks at a time like Slash and Nikki Sixx did, Belinda kept the wool pulled over everyone’s eyes. That might not be a good thing but it takes fucking gumption, that’s for sure.) #fuckyeahbelinda
You should google “Belinda Carlisle Garbage bag dress” to see her old punk rockedness. And also watch this clip from 1980 taken from the documentary Urgh! A Music War.