BIOGRAPHY – Girl

Long before he was strutting his stuff on Sunset Strip L.A. Guns frontman Phil Lewis was the lead singer of cult English glam group Girl. Alongside future Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen Lewis finally had a shot at being a rock star, having already appeared as a guitarist in a travelling theatre company during the mid-1970s. Girl was formed in 1978 when Lewis made the acquaintance of local guitarist Gerry Laffy, who offered to assist with his first recording session. The two performed several of Lewis’ songs and returned soon afterwards to record tracks they had composed together, which eventually lead to the formation of Girl.

To complete the group Laffy drafted in his brother, Simon, to play bass, whilst Collen, who was performing around London’s East End with his own group Dumb Blondes, answered an ad in a magazine for a guitarist. Inspired by such androgynous groups as The New York Dolls the band decided to fuse punk, pop and glam, but it would be a video that the group distributed of the recording of their demo that would bring them to the attention of record companies. Signing to Jet Records Girl commenced work on the first album, having recruited Dave Gaynor as their drummer. The record would include their most successful track, My Number, which was released on 7″ in clear vinyl.

Produced by Chris Tsangarides, who would later work with Thin Lizzy on their final two albums, Renegade and Thunder and Lightning, Girl’s debut, Sheer Greed, would bring the group minor acclaim and would feature a cover of the Kiss track Do You Love Me?. Gaynor was soon replaced as drummer by Pete Barnacle, who would later tour with guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen, for Girl’s second album, 1982′s Wasted Youth. The group enjoyed their most success in Japan, who embraced their glam image, but soon after the release of Wased Youth Collen was hired by Def Leppard to replace their own guitarist, Pete Willis. Girl’s final show took place in Bangkok in August 1982 before the group disbanded to focus on their own projects.