| Artist: | Girlschool |
| Studio: | 14 |
| Live: | 4 |
| Compilation: | 14 |
| Video: | 3 |
| Music Videos: | 11 |
| Ep: | 6 |
| Singles: | 13 |
| Option: | 2 |
| Option Name: | Split albums |
The discography of Girlschool, a British all-female heavy metal band, spans over 30 years of a career and consists of thirteen studio albums, six EPs and a large number of compilations.[1] The band was formed in 1978 by Kim McAuliffe, Enid Williams, Kelly Johnson and Denise Dufort. Their first release was the single "Take It All Away" for the small British rock/punk label City Records (November 1979).[2] The song did not chart, but came to the ear of Lemmy Kilmister and of Motörhead manager Doug Smith, who made Girlschool the supporting band on the Overkill tour and managed to get them a contract with the wealthy label Bronze Records.[2]
During the explosion of the new wave of British heavy metal phenomenon, Girlschool released for Bronze four studio albums and many singles, which entered the British charts. Their greatest success came with the split EP St. Valentine's Day Massacre, recorded with Motörhead, which reached number five on the UK Single Chart. The band's following album Hit and Run peaked at number five on the UK Album Chart.[1]
The band success in the United Kingdom rapidly declined in the following years, with the consequence of Girlschool signing for the US label PolyGram in 1985. As a five-piece group they released the album Running Wild, only for the American market, without any charting success. Alone among the band's studio albums, Running Wild would not be reissued in any format until its 2014 CD release.[3] The band signed a new contract with the British label GWR in 1986 and released other two studio albums, before going into quiescence.[1]
In 1989, Castle Communications, a company specialized in cheap reissues of old recordings,[4] obtained the rights for Girlschool’s back catalogue from the bankrupt Bronze Records[5] and later from GWR. During the 1990s, Castle licensed the songs to various labels specialized in mid-priced editions, reissuing also the band studio albums on economic double album compilations on CD. When Castle was acquired by Sanctuary Records in 2000,[6] the rights of the songs changed hands again. In 2004, the new label released re-mastered editions full of bonus tracks of Girlschool's first four studio albums. The Sanctuary Records Group, which was absorbed by Universal Music Group in 2007[7] but was later divested by the latter through a sale in 2012,[8] now owns the rights to Girlschool's old material, while Warner Music Group handles all global distribution and sales.[9] Universal owns the rights to Running Wild, the band's only Mercury album released exclusively in the United States. The American rights to their other albums originally issued by Mercury were transferred to Warner Music's Alternative Distribution Alliance.
The band continued their recording career with four self-produced albums distributed by British indie label Communiqué, which received good reviews but no significant sale results. Their eleventh album Legacy was instead released by Wacken Records in 2008 and distributed by SPV/Steamhammer, followed by two more albums in 2011 and 2015 for WMG's German label UDR.
Girlschool's songs appear also on many heavy metal compilations published all over the world, often associated with other notable bands of the NWOBHM, such as Motörhead, Tygers of Pan Tang, Saxon, Angel Witch and Tank.
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [10] | CAN [11] | NZ [12] | US [13] | ||||||||||||
| 1980 | Demolition | 28 | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1981 | Hit and Run
| 5 | 50 | 49 | 182* | CAN Gold[14] | |||||||||
| 1982 | Screaming Blue Murder
| 27 | 84 | — | 207 | ||||||||||
| 1983 | Play Dirty
| 66 | — | — | 207 | ||||||||||
| 1985 | Running Wild
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1986 | Nightmare at Maple Cross
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1988 | Take a Bite
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1992 | Girlschool
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 2002 |
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 2004 | Believe
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 2008 | Legacy
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 2011 | Hit and Run – Revisited
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 2015 | Guilty as Sin
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| 2023 | WTFortyfive?
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country. | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Year | Album details | |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Girlschool Live
| |
| 1997 | King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Girlschool
| |
| 1998 | Race with the Devil Live
| |
| 2002 | Race with the Devil
|
| Year | Album details | |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Race with the Devil
| |
| 1989 | Cheers You Lot!
| |
| 1991 | C'mon Let's Go
| |
| 1991 | The Collection
| |
| 1993 | The Best of Girlschool
| |
| 1994 | From the Vaults
| |
| 1997 | Emergency
| |
| 1998 | The Collection (2CD)
| |
| 1999 | Can't Keep a Good Girl Down
| |
| 2002 | The Very Best of Girlschool
| |
| 2003 | Wild at Heart
| |
| 2007 | The Singles (2CD)
| |
| 2012 | Private Lessons (2CD)
| |
| 2013 | The Bronze Years (4CD)
|
| Year | Album | Other artist | Songs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | British Steel: Heavyweights of Metal Live & Loud
| Angel Witch, Samson, Tank | "C'mon Let's Go", "Emergency", "Take It All Away" |
| 2003 |
| Oliver/Dawson Saxon, Tygers of Pan Tang | "Passion", "Mad Mad Sister", Coming Your Way", "Believe", "Innocent" |
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | Notes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | ||||||||||||||
| 1981 | St. Valentine's Day Massacre
| 5 | UK Silver[15] | a collaboration between Motörhead and Girlschool. | ||||||||||
Hard Rock on 12 Inch / Stay Clean
| — | split EP by Motörhead and Girlschool, containing the songs "Please Don't Touch" and "Demolition Boys" (live) | ||||||||||||
| 1982 | Live and More
| — | released only in Japan before the 1982 tour | |||||||||||
| 1982 | Wildlife
| 58 | ||||||||||||
| 1983 | 1-2-3-4 Rock and Roll
| — | released also as a 7 inch single, with an edited version of "1-2-3-4 Rock and Roll". | |||||||||||
| 2015 | Propaganda!
| — | ||||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country. | ||||||||||||||
| Year | Titles | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | AUS [16] | ||||||||||||
| 1979 | "Take It All Away / It Could Be Better" | — | — | Non-album track | |||||||||
| 1980 | "Emergency / Furniture Fire" | — | — | Demolition | |||||||||
| "Nothing to Lose / Baby Doll" | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Race with the Devil / Take It All Away" | 49 | — | |||||||||||
| "Yeah Right / The Hunter" | — | — | Hit and Run | ||||||||||
| 1981 | "Hit and Run / Tonight" | 32 | — | ||||||||||
| "C'mon Let's Go / Tonight (live)" | 42 | — | |||||||||||
| 1982 | "Don't Call It Love / Wildlife" | — | — | Screaming Blue Murder | |||||||||
| 1983 | "20th Century Boy / Breaking All the Rules" | — | — | Play Dirty | |||||||||
| 1984 | "Burning in the Heat / Surrender" | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1986 | "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am) with Gary Glitter / Never Too Late" | — | 12 | Nightmare at Maple Cross | |||||||||
| 1987 | "All Day All Night / Play with Fire" | — | — | ||||||||||
| 1988 | "Head over Heels" (US only promo single) | — | — | Take a Bite | |||||||||
| "Fox on the Run" (US only promo single) | — | — | |||||||||||
| "—" denotes singles that did not chart, have not charted yet, or were not released. | |||||||||||||
| Year | Song | Album | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | "Nowhere to Run"[17] | Reform School Girls soundtrack | Rhino Records RNLP 70310 |
| 1989 | "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)" (live)[18] | Gary Glitter's Gangshow: The Gang, the Band, the Leader | Recorded during the 1989 tour in support of Gary Glitter. |
| 1994 | "Twas the Night Before Christmas"[19] | X-Mas: The Metal Way | Metal version of a Christmas classic. |
| 2008 | "Auld Lang Syne"[20] | We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year deluxe edition | Metal version of a Christmas classic previously released for download on Eagle Rock Entertainment website.[21] |
| "Metropolis"[22] | Sheep in Wolves' Clothing: A Tribute to Motorhead | Motörhead cover recorded with Eddie Clarke for Motörhead fan club tribute album, which preceded its release on Legacy by a few months |
| Year | Video details | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Play Dirty Live | The show was filmed in London on 7 December 1984, before the US-only release of the album Running Wild. It was directed by Marc Over and released in the USA by PolyGram Videos.[23] |
| 2005 | Live from London
| This is a re-release in DVD of Play Dirty Live by the British label Iguana Project, specialized in new editions on DVD of old material. The DVD has the same content of the VHS, with the addition of a presentation of the musicians.[24] |
Around the World
| Self-released DVD, containing live footage from tours in the 2000s, interviews and photos. It was sold through the Girlschool Official website combined with the album Believe.[25] [26] |
| Year | Song | Director | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | "Race with the Devil" | ??? | ||
| "Emergency" | ??? | |||
| "Yeah Right" | ??? | |||
| 1982 | "Don't Call It Love" | ??? | ||
| "Tush" | ??? | |||
| 1983 | "20th Century Boy" | Sebastian Harris | [27] | |
| "Play Dirty" | ||||
| 1985 | "Running Wild" | ??? | ||
| 1986 | "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)" | ??? | ||
| 1988 | "Fox on the Run" | Jean Pellerin | [28] | |
| 2004 | "Come On Up" | ??? | ||
| 2005 | "Emergency" | ??? | ||
| 2023 | "Are You Ready?" | ??? |