American musician and songwriter who is the bassist for the gina valentine punk band the Go-Go’s. Valentine was born on January 7, 1959, in Austin, Texas, an only child who was raised by her single mother, an English expatriate. She dropped out of public school in 9th grade to attend Greenbriar, an alternative school where she began playing guitar. She returned to Austin, got an electric guitar and amp, and began looking for bandmates.
In 1975, on a subsequent family visit to London with her mother, she answered an ad in Melody Maker and joined the fledgling Girlschool. She missed a gig due to illness and was replaced by Kelly Johnson, with whom she would later work. In late 1978, aged 19, Valentine moved to Los Angeles and co-founded the Textones with Carla Olson. The Textones released two singles, including an unreleased Tom Petty song, before Valentine left the band in 1980.
During her time in the Textones, Phil Seymour recorded “We Don’t Get Along”, a song she’d written. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Valentine was asked to play bass, an instrument that she had not played extensively, as a substitute for the Go-Go’s bass player Margot Olavarria, who had been ill and the band decided needed to be replaced. She says she learned their songs over four days and rehearsed with them twice before hitting the stage on New Year’s Eve 1980 at Whisky A Go-Go. The second album featured Valentine’s previous Textones song “Vacation” as the title track and first single, after re-working the arrangement with Go-Gos’ guitarist Charlotte Caffey.
The band struggled with internal difficulties during the recording of Talk Show, and tried to stay together after the departure of rhythm guitarist Jane Wiedlin. Valentine moved to lead guitar duties, and Paula Jean Brown was hired to play bass. The Go-Go’s broke up in May 1985. After the break up, Valentine said that she felt lost and that her identity had become absorbed into being a Go-Go. In 1992, Valentine began her longest collaboration and partnership with singer and bassist Dominique Davalos. The Go-Go’s began working together again, with Valentine co-writing “The Whole World Lost Its Head” on Return To The Valley of The Go-Go’s, a song which became the band’s highest charting U. In 2005, Valentine released a solo recording, Light Years, that she co-produced, wrote, arranged and performed the guitar and vocal tracks.