Gina Schock, drummer of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band the Go-Go’s, stands for a portrait between vintage band posters on display in her retrospective exhibition at the Haight Street Art Center.
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
Even though Gina Schock is a member of several halls of fame, she still considers herself a working-class kid from suburban Dundalk, Baltimore, who is just excited to make music.
“If you work hard and love what you do, it can pay off,” Schock, 68, told the Chronicle on a recent tour of “A View From the Throne: Gina Schock — Inside the Go-Go’s,” Haight Street Art Center’s retrospective of the drummer’s more than four decades in music.
Gina Schock and Martha Reeves in Conversation: 6 p.m. Thursday, May 14. $25.
Gina Schock and Martha Reeves in Concert: 6 p.m. Friday, May 15. $50.
“A View from the Throne: Gina Schock — Inside The Go-Go’s”: Noon-6 p.m. Thursday-Sunday. On view through Friday, May 15. Free.
Haight Street Art Center, 215 Haight St., S.F. www.haightstreetart.org
In the exhibition, there’s a showcase tucked quietly into a corner with a small selection of her many honors with the Go-Go’s, the first all-female band to have an album reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, with “Beauty and the Beat” in 1982. Trophies for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, California Hall of Fame and Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame along with a plaque celebrating the Go-Go’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame sit not far from punk club fliers and $100 snare drum that began Schock’s career.
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“That kind of stuff isn’t just a victory for our group; it’s for all our people, the punks and the rejects,” said Schock. “We’ve gone against the grain from the beginning.”
The show, curated by Renee de Cossio, displays not only a trove of memorabilia related to the Go-Go’s but also a slice of life backstage in the heady early 1980s when Schock and bandmates Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin were breaking music’s glass ceilings. The materials range from instruments and personal photographs to promotional materials and fashion.
Years of music memorabilia owned by Gina Schock on view in “A View From the Throne: Gina Schock — Inside the Go-Go’s” at the Haight Street Art Center.
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
A San Franciscan now for more than two decades, Schock first began playing the city in the late 1970s with the band Edie and the Eggs, which was fronted by John Waters cult film actor Edith Massey. After joining the Go-Go’s in 1979, she returned for gigs at venues including the legendary Mabuhay Gardens and the I-Beam.
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Schock, said de Cossio, “carefully collected, saved and took care of every item, which made it really easy to do a show that felt authentic to her.” And given how her career frequently intersected with the city, de Cossio felt she was a perfect subject for the Haight Street Art Center.
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To close out the show, Schock will also do two events with pop-soul singer Martha Reeves, 84, of Martha and the Vandellas. On May 14 Schock and the Motown legend will be in conversation about their long careers in music, followed by a concert together the next night that, thanks to contributions from Gen Z and Alpha artists, will span four generations of female musicians.
Looking back, Schock said, reminds her how important it is to continue paying it forward to the next generations of rockers who tell her that the Go-Go’s were pioneers.
“I knew being an all-girl band meant something then, but I didn’t realize it would mean so much all these years later,” Schock said of that intergenerational connection.
Ahead of the show’s final weeks, Schock told the story behind some of the objects in “A View From the Throne: Gina Schock — Inside the Go-Go’s.”
Gina Schock sits for a portrait with her DW drum kit on display in “A View From the Throne: Gina Schock — Inside the Go-Go’s.”
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
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Entering the exhibition plunges viewers into a soundtrack of vintage concert footage with one of Schock’s own DW drum kits lit as though onstage — or on an altar. After trying drums from other makers, Schock has come to prefer DW.
“This is a newer kit DW made for me,” said Schock. “They stamp a note inside the shell and that is the perfect note to tune the drum to, and it sounds incredible.”
Even as a child, the drums spoke to Schock.
“I played bass and guitar first, but there was something about the drums where my body just knew how to make the right moves,” she noted.
So, what is “the view from the throne,” aka the drummer’s seat, really like?
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“It’s me looking at the backside of everyone in the band, cracking up, laughing at everybody and the antics onstage,” said Schock. “It’s a different perspective than the rest of the band. The first thing they see is the audience, but I get to watch the band every night.”
Gina Schock with an exhibit meant to recreate a backstage dressing room in “A View From the Throne: Gina Schock — Inside the Go-Go’s.”
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
In keeping with the backstage access feel of the exhibition, de Cossio used a section of the show to make a dressing room scene complete with makeup mirror, ephemera including concert passes and posters and even a couple of fashion pieces.
A black and red plaid shirt and matching sneakers were made for Schock by New York artist Scooter LaForge.
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“He’s an old friend. I knew him from Trannyshack when he was the coat boy,” Schock said of the legendary South of Market drag event founded by Heklina and Pippi Lovestocking in 1996. “When he showed me his stuff, I was knocked out. These are the shirt and shoes from when we were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
In a perfect California touch, the mirror is decorated with a bumper sticker from the famed Amoeba Records.
A wall of polaroids taken over the years by Gina Schock at the Haight Street Art Center.
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
Schock has been a prolific photographer since she was a teenager in Baltimore using her camera to get backstage access to rock shows. In addition to shooting with a Canon AE-1, she also fell in love with the instant gratification of the Polaroid camera and used one to document life on the road with the band.
“There was a phase where I took nothing but Polaroids,” said Schock. “I love how they’re making a comeback. People want to do entire shows of just Polaroids. And man, do I have plenty! In every one of these photos, there’s a story.”
Many of those stories and photos are compiled in Schock’s 2021 book “Made in Hollywood: All Access With the Go-Go’s.”
A wall of Go-Go’s fliers from punk venues hang in “A View From the Throne: Gina Schock — Inside the Go-Go’s,” at the Haight Street Art Center.
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
Bay Area audiences have long been among Schock’s favorites.
“We played San Francisco early on, the minute we could get the money to come up here,” Schock said of her early years with the Go-Go’s. “The first show we did was at the I-Beam, and then, of course, Mabuhey.
“I’d grab these fliers anywhere I could find them,” she continued. “I’d pick them up on the street after the show. I saved everything.”
Pointing to the flier for an engagement at Mabuhay Gardens, she noted the Go-Go’s place on the bill.
“The Mutants were the headliners that night. We were playing in the middle.”
One of the things de Cossio has discovered while the show has been on view is just how broad the Go-Go’s fanbase is.
“There was a very Wall Street looking guy who was in here in a suit, and he pointed to that flier and said he remembered the I-Beam show,” she said.