Goldie and the Gingerbreads

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Goldie and the Gingerbreads were an American rock band from the 1960s.

Goldie and the Gingerbreads still hold a special place among the few all-women music groups of the early 1960s . While her colleagues went largely unnoticed by big record labels and mostly without a real audience, Ginger Bianco , Margo Lewis , Carol Mac Donald († March 12, 2007) and Genya Ravan were the first to break into the male-dominated music industry in 1963 to deliver the finest rock music to an astonished audience .

Beginnings

Genya Ravan, then lead singer in Richard Perry's band The Escorts , met Ginger Panabianco in a New York club. Ginger was there on the side of one of Perry's friends as a drummer . The discovery of a female drummer alone gave Genya Raven the idea of ​​a rock band made up of all women. Together with Ginger, she came up with the name Goldie and the Gingerbreads for the band.

Richard Perry and the other Escorts band members were college students. When the summer concert season was over and college started again, Genya and Ginger started looking for a piano player . Carol O'Grady was soon recruited for the project.

Finding a guitarist was more difficult. At first, different women replaced each other here. In 1962, on their first tour with Chubby Checker through Germany and Switzerland, the band had no guitarist at all.

It was not until 1963 that Carol Mac Donald joined the Gingerbreads , which had been temporarily reinforced by a bassist. Carol O'Grady had also been replaced by Margo Lewis. As a guitarist and background singer, Carol Mac Donald was to become the fourth permanent member of the band.

Girls, girls, girls

At the time Goldie and the Gingerbreads toured North America, their music wasn't half as interesting for the clubs as the spectacle that an all-women band was then. Later on, quality and professionalism also gave them a dilemma when “white” radio stations disliked their “black” music, while “black” radio stations disliked the skin color of the gingerbreads.

Mods and Rockers Ball 1964, European tour

The fashion photographer and director Jerry Schatzberg held a party in 1964 for the birthday of the then famous model Baby Jane Holzer . Goldie and the Gingerbreads were supposed to organize the evening musically. But it became the festival of gingerbreads . The Rolling Stones and Ahmet Ertegün , director of Atlantic Records, were among the guests at the “Party of the Year” . That same year there was a meeting with Eric Burdon and the Animals . Your manager took over the Gingerbreads for England - tour . Problems with the British immigration laws meant that the band initially appeared a few times in Germany, including at the Hamburg Star Club .

At the concert events of that time, the gingerbreads were often only one of up to six bands that performed on the same evening. In Great Britain they toured with the Animals, the Yardbirds , the Hollies , the Rolling Stones and the Kinks, among others . A trip to the Paris Olympia made them instantly popular with the public there too.

The end

In 1967 Goldie and the Gingerbreads broke up. The most probable cause is to be seen in the strong personality of Genya Ravan, who always made the bigger impression on critics and music journalists and also strived to broaden her musical horizons. Although she would miss the camaraderie of the other band members, she initially began performing alone in Europe.

Goldie and the Gingerbreads 1968

In 1968, however, Genya Ravan returned to the United States to work with the gingerbreads again for some time . But once again the Gingerbreads were dissatisfied with their management and in the same year the band finally broke up. Part of the responsibility was the growing contradictions between women and jealousy. Annoyed by the development, Margo Lewis left the band first.

Isis

Carol, Ginger and Margo together with Suzi Ghezzi later formed the core of the jazz fusion band Isis .

Women in Rock 1997

On November 13, 1997, the Gingerbreads performed together again for their 30th anniversary and on the occasion of the publication of the Rolling Stone book Women in Rock .

Touchstone Award

On February 3, 1998, Goldie and the Gingerbreads received the second Touchstone Award from Women in Music . The award goes to women who have the courage and the inspiration to change the music industry and whose work has set milestones.

Discography

Goldie and the Gingerbreads did not release any long-playing records . Your singles are likely to be valuable collector's items today .

  • Skinny Vinnie / Chew Chew Fee Fi Fum - 1964
  • That's Why I Love You / What Kind of Man Are You - 1965
  • Think About The Good Times / Please Please - 1966
  • Walking in Different Circles / Song of the Moon - 1967
  • Can't You Hear My Heartbeat / Little Boy - 1965
  • That's Why I Love You / Skip - 1965
  • Sailor Boy / Please Please - 1965
  • I Do / Think About The Good Times - 1966
  • Can't You Hear My Heartbeat / That's Why I Love You - 1969

literature

  • Barbara O'Dair (Ed.): The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. Random House, New York 1997, ISBN 0-679-76874-2 .
  • Genya Ravan: Lollipop Lounge. Memoirs of a Rock and Roll Refugee. Billboard Books, New York 2004, ISBN 0-8230-8362-4 .

Web links