Rock Goddess are an English all-female heavy metal band formed in

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its nam ...

, South London, in 1977 by sisters Jody Turner and Julie Turner. The band were initially active during the

new wave of British heavy metal The new wave of British heavy metal (commonly abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that started in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Journalist Geoff Barton coined the term i ...

musical movement, releasing two singles that entered the Top 75 charts in the UK. The band had a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

throughout the 1980s and reformed in 2013.

History

The band was formed in

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sut ...

in 1977, by sisters Jody Turner (

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

) and Julie Turner (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

) when they were thirteen and nine years old respectively. They recruited high school friend Tracey Lamb on

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

and that completed their first line-up. Later Donnica Colman joined, adding a second guitar, and after her departure, Jackie Apperley replaced her, also on second guitar. After Apperley left, the band rehearsed intensively as a trio, and placed a track on a sampler album, which circulated in the London music underground. Meanwhile, their manager John Turner, Jody and Julie's father, who owned a

music store A music store or musical instrument store is a retail business that sells musical instruments and related equipment and accessories. Some music stores sell additional services, such as music lessons, music instrument or equipment rental, or re ...

and rehearsal rooms, used his musical connections to get the band their first gigs. Finally, after an appearance at the

Reading Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

in 1982, the band obtained a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with A&M. They released their eponymous debut studio album with record producer

Vic Maile Vic Maile (1943 – 11 July 1989) was a British record producer. After starting his career as sound engineer with Pye mobile studios for the Animals on their song "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", Maile worked with some of the biggest names in t ...

in February 1983, and at that time there were temporary legal problems – Julie Turner was still a minor attending high school, and she was restricted in the number of live shows that she could participate in. Also during this period, Kat Burbella briefly joined the band as a second guitarist, and Tracey Lamb became disgruntled and quit the band, initially forming the band She with Burbella, but then joining

Girlschool Girlschool are a British rock band that formed in the new wave of British heavy metal scene in 1978. Frequently associated with contemporaries Motörhead, they are the longest-running all-female rock band, still active after more than 40 ye ...

in 1987. She was replaced by Dee O'Malley, who played the bass guitar and keyboards on the band's second studio album, '' Hell Hath No Fury'', which was produced by

Chris Tsangarides Christopher Andrew Tsangarides (17 August 1956 – 6 January 2018) was a British Grammy-nominated record producer, sound engineer, and mixer of Greek Cypriot origin. He was best known for his work with many heavy metal artists, including G ...

and released in October 1983. The band co-headlined with Y&T, supported

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harr ...

and

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drums, backing vocals), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals), ...

on UK and European

tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

, and embarked on their own headlining tours. O'Malley announced her pregnancy just before Rock Goddess' first US tour and left the band. Rock Goddess left A&M with their third album unfinished and unreleased. O'Malley was replaced by Julia Longman on bass guitar, and Becky Axten on keyboards. In 1987, their third studio album was released exclusively in France, with the title '' Young and Free'', however, due to insurmountable problems Rock Goddess disbanded shortly thereafter. In 1988, the Turner sisters reappeared as the Jody Turner Band with two male musicians, but they did not go beyond the local club circuit. Jody Turner fronted a new line-up of Rock Goddess in 1994. After a name change to Braindance, the band disbanded again in 1995. They played their last gig at the pub Thomas O'Becket. The band reformed in 2009 to play the

Hard Rock Hell Hard Rock Hell is a three day music festival held at Vauxhall Holiday resort, Great Yarmouth. It was previously held at Hafan y Môr Holiday Park, Pwllheli, Gwynedd, North Wales, and up until 2011 at Pontin's Holiday Village, Prestatyn, Wales. ...

music festival in

Prestatyn Prestatyn is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. Historically a part of Flintshire, it is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. Prestatyn has a population of 19,085, History Prehistory There is evidence that ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, but split before they had a chance to perform. In March 2013 it was announced that the original line-up of Jody Turner, Julie Turner, and Tracey Lamb had reformed and would start recording a new album. The three of them began the process of recording a new album tentatively titled ''Unfinished Business''. The album failed to appear, but in 2017 a 3-track EP was announced. ''It's More Than Rock and Roll'' was released on 19 May 2017, and a video for the title track was released via Vintage TV on 21 April that year. On 10 July 2018 it was announced that bassist Tracey Lamb had left the band. She later rejoined Girlschool in 2019 as a temporary touring member initially and then as the successor for long-time bassist Enid Williams. Jenny Lane was announced as the new bassist on 9 October 2018. The band were then set to release their comeback record ''This Time'' in October 2018, but it was delayed until 1 March 2019 where it gained a top 10 placing the UK rock/metal chart and a top 40 placing in the national indie chart.

Band members

Current lineup

* Jody Turner – vocals, guitars (1977–1987, 1994–1995, 2013–present) * Julie Turner – drums (1977–1987, 2013–present) * Jenny Lane – bass (2018–present)

Former members

* Tracey Lamb – bass (1977–1983, 2013–2018) * Dee O'Malley – bass (1983–1987) * Aki Shibahara – bass (1994–1995) * Nicola Shaw – drums (1994–1995) * Isabella Fronzoni – guitars (1994–1995)

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums EPs Singles

References

External links

Rock Goddess at Encyclopaedia Metallum

Rock Goddess
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Metaladies.com
{{Authority control 1977 establishments in England All-female bands A&M Records artists English heavy metal musical groups Musical groups from London Musical groups established in 1977 Musical groups disestablished in 1995 Musical groups reestablished in 2013 British musical trios New Wave of British Heavy Metal musical groups Women in metal