Mixing Belly's "King" at Ocean Way Studios same time as the Highway Men were recording. L to R: Don Was, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Glyn Johns, Tanya Donelly, Gail Greenwood, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson
work and told me Sluggo quit the band. I almost threw up. I hadn't felt that loss before. I knew it was the end, it was really sad. I actually thought it was the end of my music career." Gail had seen Tanya Donelly play with her band THROWING MUSES back when she was in the DAMES, but didn't know her personally. Tanya had since parted ways with the MUSES to focus on her own songwriting and, in 1991, formed BELLY. The band released the Slow Dust EP, which reached #1 on the UK Indie charts, and started to gain momentum as Alternative Rock was beginning to make its way into the mainstream. After the recording of their fulllength debut, 1993's Star, bass player Fred Abong left the band. With Tanya's desire to enhance her dream-pop hooks with a harder edge, as well as a female backing vocalist, a window of opportunity had opened. "Out of the blue, Tanya called me. They auditioned me in my own basement. I made coffee and cookies." After securing the BELLY gig, Gail returned to the woodshed. "I had to relearn how to play bass. I'd been playing guitar in BONEYARD for many years, and it's another instrument." Any apprehension she may have had about musically transitioning from the hard-rocking BONEYARD to the more pop-oriented BELLY would quickly vanish. "They gave me a copy of Star and it was so complex and so original, and it rocked a lot harder than I thought it would. Our first show was at a college in Manchester. It was sold out and there were screaming throngs, I thought, 'Yeah I could do this. This is fun.'" BELLY would spend the rest of '93 on the road, touring the U.S. and Europe with Alternative Rock-radio staples RADIOHEAD and THE CRANBERRIES. The single Feed the Tree topped the U.S. Modern Rock charts and the video received massive airplay on MTV, earning two nominations for that year's MTV Video Music Awards. The band would come face to face with Alt-Rock's infiltration into the mainstream when, in early '94, BELLY was nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album. "We knew we weren't gonna win, someone told us we didn't get it, but we went anyway. I loved every minute of it. The Warner Brothers after-party was at the Museum of Natural History, where they have all the giant taxidermy. I was wearing a gold lamĂŠ dress and some platform 1970's shoes I'd gotten at a flea market, and I had spray painted them gold with Krylon. Somewhere there's a picture of me, with some chick from Baywatch looking down [disgustedly] at my flea market shoes." Having had breakthrough critical and commercial success with Star, BELLY rode a wave of high expectations into Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas to record its followup. With legendary Producer Glyn Johns [LED ZEPPELIN,
BEATLES, ROLLING STONES, to name a few] at the helm, the band entered the studio to lay down their sophomore effort, King. "I might be the only musician in the world that literally cannot listen to ten seconds of the BEATLES, STONES, or the WHO. Just not my taste, that's all. So his amazing pedigree maybe didn't intimidate me as much as it should have. I think that helped me in the studio. He was a stern taskmaster and, yes, he did have an ego. We did all the basic tracks live so if someone messed up you ALL had to do it over again. Multiple takes. But we were very well prepared. He definitely didn't put up with bullshit, but he could be warm and he did have great stories. He told me to think about playing like 'Wymie' [ROLLING STONES bass player Bill Wyman], pluck the string gently and still have it make great power. And that advice has stuck with me today." In early '95 BELLY delivered King, a well-balanced record of expertly crafted songs that saw the band both fine-tune their glimmery dream-pop hooks and intensify their sound with a darker edge. King came out to critical acclaim and the band hit the promotional trail with great vigor. In April, the band landed not only a feature but the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, a unique distinction that only a select few artists will ever be able to claim. "We had done tons of photo shoots, lots of magazines, but that was really a different level of stress. We probably made it more stressful than it should have been. All I see when I look at that picture is the stubble on my legs. They didn't airbrush us, which I guess to some degree is a compliment." BELLY spent the next eighteen months on the road, touring the world in support of King, headlining in the U.S., playing the summer festival circuit, and joining REM for their European tour. While King sold fairly well, it was never able to meet or exceed the heights that Star had reached and was considered a commercial disappointment. Shortly after the conclusion of their year-and-a-half-long trek, a road-weary Tanya quietly disbanded BELLY. "After BELLY broke up, again, I thought it was the end of my Rock career. And then brrring, Donita Sparks called." Notorious L.A. Grunge-Grrrl's L7 were in New York and looking for a bass player. A recommendation from Gail's old friend Gina from the LUNACHICKS put the two camps in touch. Gail met up with Donita in Brooklyn and the two hit it off. "When they called me to join them I dropped every single
L7 backstage at Club Quatro, Osaka, Japan, 1998. L to R: Suzi Gardner, Donita Sparks, Gail Greenwood, Dee Plakas. Photo: Gail Greenwood
thing I was doing and flew to LA. When L7 calls you have to serve your country. I rehearsed with them for a week and we did a two-week Southwest tour. That was my audition." Touring in support the their latest release, The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum, L7 hit the road with MARILYN MANSON and filmed a rockumentary with NIRVANA bass
56 fall & winter 2015 / 2016 • newportnaked.com