Rock Goddess was a London based all girl band that very nearly stole Girlschool’s crown of top female achievers in the British rock scene. The band wrote catchy hard rocking songs blessed with Jody Turner’s raucous high powered vocal delivery whilst her younger sister Julie manned the drums. The original line-up comprised the Turner sisters, whose father John managed the band, bassist Tracy Lamb and keyboard player Donnica Camon. This band had featured a track ‘Make My Night’ on the Girlfriend Records compilation ‘Making Waves’ and toured with The Gymslips to promote its release. Major label A&M Records signed Rock Goddess shortly after a four track Vic Maile produced demo and a triumphant appearance at the 1982 Reading festival.
Upon the release of the album ‘Rock Goddess’ a second guitarist Kate Burbela was drafted in to beef up the live sound. Lamb had been feeling dissatisfaction within the band for some time and announced in 1983 that she was to quit. However, she was persuaded to stay on for a British tour supporting Def Leppard and then more dates with Fastway. Lamb eventually walked out following their Hammersmith Odeon gig. Her replacement was 19 year old Dee O’Malley, but not before Girlschool guitarist Kelly Johnson stood in on a one off German TV special. Burbella also quit to team up with Lamb in a new band entitled She, this unit coincidentlly including future Girlschool members guitarist Chris Bonacci and vocalist JACKIE BODIMEAD.
The second album ‘Hell Hath No Fury’ was well received. A&M issued two versions, a photo sleeve variant for the US market which included the Gary Glitter cover version ‘I Didn’t Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock And Roll)’ and a European variant with an artwork cover and ‘No More’ and ‘Seen It All Before’ not included on its American counterpart. The band promoted an opening single of ‘I Didn’t Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock And Roll)’ supporting both Y&T and Iron Maiden on their 1983 European tour.
That year Jody Turner lent her lungs to backing vocals for Tank’s ‘This Means War’ album. Further sets of demos were laid down with Paul Samson and Chris Tsangarides but these would not surface commercially. This second set of demos saw Darren Wharton of Thin Lizzy contributing keyboards and muscle mountain THOR donating his vocal skills to an updated ‘Rock n’ Roll ’85′. A setback came when A&M decided not to pick the band up for another album but nevertheless Rock Goddess did manage sporadic touring in France, opening for Saxon and Spider, during 1984-’85 and Jody Turner contributed backing vocals to another London Metal band, appearing on TYTAN’s ‘Women On The Frontline’. O’ Malley departed due to pregnancy dashing hopes of a projected American tour.
The only activity during 1986 was the recording by the band of backing vocals for Paul Samson’s solo album ‘Joint Forces’. In 1987 the Turner sisters were finally augmented by keyboard player Becky Axten and ex-PDQ bassist Julia Longman. An album ‘Young And Free’, produced by Samson’s Paul Samson, actually the demos recorded a few years earlier, surfaced in France but never saw a British release. Rock Goddess finally called it a day in the autumn of 1987.
Jody Turner soldiered on for a while with a solo project entitled The Jody Turner Band featuring sister Julie, former Phantasm, First Strike and General Dymanix guitarist Gavin Taylor and bassist Phil Manley-Reeve. After a four year hiatus Rock Goddess surfaced once more in the latter half of 1993 with a line-up of Jody Turner, ex-Warhammer, Ice Age and Original Sin guitarist Isabella Fronzoni, Aki Shibahara on bass and drummer Nicola Shaw, previously with Sisterhood. The band effectively folded when Fronzoni quit but Jody Turner switched titles to Braindance in 1995. Fronzoni relocated back to Italy to enroll with Thrash covers band Conspiracy. Back on the move, the guitarist journeyed to South Carolina in 1988 before jumping back to the UK, forging Death Metal project Self Disgrace.
The reunited band, alongside Tigertailz, Sonata Arctica, THE Quireboys, W.A.S.P., Terrorvision, Girlschool, QUEENSRŸCHE and New Yorkdolls, played the ‘Hard Rock Hell’ festival in December 2009 at Pontins holiday resort in Prestatyn Sands, North Wales. The band was also confirmed for the ‘Headbangers Open Air’ festival taking place in July 2010 in Brande-Hörnerkirchen, Germany.
Members:
- Isabella Fronzoni 1993- 1995 - ORIGINAL SIN, CONSPIRACY, SELF DISGRACE, WARHAMMER, ICE AGE
Guitar - Aki Shibahara 1993- 1995 -
Bass - Nicola Shaw 1993- 1995 -
Drums - Jody Turner - THE JODY TURNER BAND
Guitar / Vocals -
Albums
- Rock Goddess (1983) – UK #65
- Hell Hath No Fury (1983) – UK #84
- Young and Free (1987)
