This is an ‘authorised’ biography of The Bangles, for all that means. But significantly at least one member, namely bassist Michael Steele, did not participate. I saw the Bangles back in 2004 at the Palais on their comeback tour. I had tickets for them back in the day in 1990, but they broke up before they got here. A really important band for me at the time, for lots of reasons. I was looking forward to getting the goss about their career with this book.
While the book satisfied some curiosity I had about the band and their career, it was overall a disappointment. The author, Bickerdike, clearly was not interested in discussing the music and spent way too much space featuring quotes from people in the Bangles’ retinue who were clearly not reliable. At one point she quotes NME journalist Barbara Ellen at length only to have her testimony questioned in a footnote because she, the author, knows what is written doesn’t jibe with what she knows about the Bangles personally. So, why even feature the quote? Keyboardist Greg Hifman mentions working with the Bangles ‘several times’ in Australia, which is puzzling, because the original Bangles never played Australia (I should know – I had tickets!). As the narrative later mentions, their tour was canceled over some union strike (I actually recall it being because they broke up, but never mind). Then there’s the over repetition of complaints
about the industry’s misogyny and their press-obsessed ‘rivalry’ with The Go Go’s. This goes on way too long. There was a nice anecdote about the Simon & Garfunkel song they covered, Hazy Shade of Winter. They left out a verse from the original about vodka and lime and so sent Paul Simon a case of vodka and limes to get his approval of the song – which he gave. Actually, it’s the little anecdotes I enjoyed the most.
Early on, a nice little factoid came up about their first single as The Bangs (soon to be Bangles), a song called Getting Out of Hand. It’s described as sounding a bit like the Mamas and Papas. I then realised this is the song they must have re-recorded and put out during their Doll Revolution comeback. I’ve heard it on Spotify and I had thought it was an old Mamas and Papas song they were covering; but no, it’s an original that was their first song. And it’s really good! Then they recorded their first self titled EP with earlier bassist Annette Zilinskas. I have this EP and it’s pretty good. I especially like the song I’m In Line, sung by Debbie.
There was an interesting detail about their first US tour as the Bangles with the British Beat. It seems there were some romantic entanglements, including a dalliance between Susannah Hoffs and Rankin’ Rogers from the Beat. It was good to see the book giving us some dirty goss, coz most of it felt pretty airbrushed. All the accounts given of Annette Zalinskis’ departure suggest it was amicable and down to her wanting to do a duo country thing with her boyfriend. But I smell a rat. Bassist Michael Steele admits she was being a bit opportunistic by moving in with Vicki Peterson at the time, like she wanted the gig. Many of their managers express surprise at Annette wanting to leave just as the band were on the cusp of big success. Was she pushed? Did the Bangles pull a Pete Best?
The chapter about the Different Light album focused quite a bit on Manic Monday. So many conflicting accounts of how they came to record it, it was like something out of Rashomon. Or, as the author writes: ‘There are many different renditions of how Prince first became aware of the Bangles…and exactly how “Manic Monday” originally got into the band’s hands’. No kidding! An interesting detail was the suggestion it was Apollonia, the protege of Prince, who supplied much of the lyrics. She talked about how he was prone to stealing other people’s lyrics, including hers. 
She seemed proud of them, citing them as ‘poetry’ or haikus. Hard to reconcile that with what’s there in the song. ‘C’mon honey, let’s go make some noise’. It ain’t exactly poetry. And it definitely sounds more like Prince than the Bangles. Susanna Hoffs hated that line so much that, to this day, she doesn’t sing it. When I saw them perform it at the Palais in 2004, she had the audience do that (which we did, happily).
So, not a great biog but okay. They come off as a band struggling with the push and pull of wanting to be successful, and willing to make the compromises needed to do that, but also wanting credibility within the industry and to be true to themselves. You can hear the former on the hit singles; but the latter (and the real heart and soul of the band that every true fan knows) can be found on those deep album cuts like Dover Beach, Angels Don’t Fall In Love and Make a Play For Her Now. Check ‘em out!