Remembered chiefly for featuring singer Phil Lewis who went on to join L.A. Guns, and guitarist Phil Collen who made the very wise decision to accept an invitation to join Def Leppard, Girl had plenty of creative potential but were misunderstood by their record label, Jet, and unappreciated by a rock scene that at the time was in the denim-and-leather grip of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.
Deliberately cultivating an androgynous glam aesthetic absolutely guaranteed to bring them a sound bottling by a Reading Festival crowd, their 1980 debut Sheer Greed (7⁄10) was a peculiar clash of Aerosmith, Japan, Starz and New York Dolls. Cornerstone anthem Hollywood Tease kicks off a record displaying lashings of imagination and bravado, the sleazy The Things You Say, the cocky My Number and the arty pop of Strawberries all part of a bold statement of intent that promised much yet led to 1981’s aptly named Wasted Youth (5⁄10).
Problems with drummers and arguments with their label over direction and producers poured cold water on the band’s previously pouting ardour, and the relatively limp results revealed a band sorely in need of guidance – bizarrely, Nice ’N’ Nasty sounds like an early Quireboys out-take – inevitably heading for oblivion.
The historic gig that launched NWOBHM
