I loved reading this book! The Bangles were one of my favorite bands from the 80s! I love learning the history of the band and the crew! This was a little slow for me though. I wanted to learn more about the band itself and the songs. But it was good learning about each girl before.

Overall it was fun read.

Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Books, and author Jennifer Otter Bickerdike for the advanced reader copy of this book. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Eternal Flame was written with the cooperation of three of the four members of the all-female band The Bangles. They were a rock band at a time when the music industry basically didn’t know how to market female acts, especially those who were actually capable musicians. I have read interviews with Deborah Iyall, who was the lead singer of Romeo Void, that despite the obvious talent in that band, the record company didn’t know how to market them since she wasn’t exactly the “sexy lead singer” type. While the women who made up The Bangles didn’t have the same issues Iyall did, they still ran into a brick wall when it came to being judged based on their talent and not their looks.

The Bangles were the last in a string of bands that featured sisters Vicki Peterson and Debbi Peterson. Even before her younger sister had graduated from high school, Vicki had the idea of being in a rock band together. Although it wasn’t her instrument, Debbi was the drummer while Vicki was the guitarist. They often practiced in the Peterson home and gigged in Los Angeles at a time when it had a burgeoning music scene. Other members came and went as life happened to them, with the two sisters making up the core of the band.

Susannah Hoffs joined and was immediately comfortable with the sisters. The Petersons were a middle-class California family, while Hoffs’ parents were well-off. They moved in different worlds, but got along very well in the beginning. Susannah had the same drive that Vicki did and had connections that also helped them out. The focus for them was harmonizing like The Beatles had done, and the idea was that the band was four equal parts. Michael Steele, formerly of the band The Runaways with Joan Jett and Lita Ford, joined them right when they got a record deal with Columbia.

Eternal Flame tells their story quite well. Everything seemed to be a battle for them, especially getting the recognition they deserved as musicians. They were naive in some ways and got pushed around by the record company and their first producer. It’s a story I’ve heard from many of those involved in music in the 1980s, with songs being recorded with an eye towards sales rather than the art itself. The first producer they worked with, David Kahne, was really hard on them and would bring in session musicians rather than work with the women. It wasn’t until they broke away from him that they felt better about the material they were recording, but by then, the damage had been done to the relationship between the four women.

The three who cooperated with author Jennifer Otter Bickerdike are honest in their versions of what happened. They don’t seem to harbor any resentment, except for the producer and those at the record company who seemed to have a different vision than that of the band. There’s a lot of resentment where the band saw themselves as equals and fought against a push to make Susannah the leader of the band. The music press also treated them as if they were vapid, asking silly questions during interviews they never would have asked of an all-male band.

Their stories here are all told, including how Prince gave them the song Manic Monday which was what catapulted them to fame. If you’re in any way acquainted with the music industry in the 1980s, what they went through will come as no big surprise. The story flows quite well without descending into nastiness. Some of what is expressed likely would have gone a long way toward keeping them together. The band broke apart in 1989 and didn’t record again until the early 2000s. If they’d been able to have an open dialogue, as they were all going through the problems with the producer and record company, they might have managed to keep it together. Instead, there was a lot of miscommunication and hurt feelings.

If you were a fan of the band, you’ll like Eternal Flame a lot. Even if you weren’t, there’s a lot of information here on what the music scene was like back then, especially for women. The Bangles were one of the bands that kicked the door open for the Taylor Swifts of today.

If there was one thing I wish more people knew about the Bangles (a childhood and lifelong favorite band for me), it’s that what this band actually was and the kind of music they mostly made is very different from what people *think* this band is based on their most popular radio singles.

Fitting, I suppose, that even their authorized biography ends up titled after the song that really cemented them in 1980s mainstream pop but sounded the least like most of and the best of their work, which is pure rock and roll.

I’m grateful to Jennifer Otter Bickerdike for finally doing justice to this underrated and misunderstood band. This is a pretty complete biography, and that can be a bit of a slog for those like me who are picky about the genre and don’t love a lot of early life/purely biographical content. It’s to Bickerdike’s credit that her enthusiastic and conversational style makes these parts a lot more readable than they usually are in a biography.

To that end, the author’s thorough research and appealing writing style went a long way toward elevating this beyond a typical “about the band” bio.

If I had a gripe about this book, it’s that we get way too much behind the scenes from All Over the Place and not nearly enough for Everything. But mostly this feels very complete and both fair to and honorable toward the band. In all, a pleasant, informative read.

3.5/5….This is a solid, if at times uneven biography of a band.

It primarily circles around the core trio of Debbi, Vicki, and Sue, with the pre-Bangs tales leaning more heavily on the Petersons than Hoffs…with a dash of Annette and Micki. It was not a surprise to find that the main force driving the band were the guitarists, but I probably found it to be new how driven Hoffs was from the earliest of days (and the group’s wild child), though the entire life of the band…she always had her eyes on the next prize.

It was a surprise how very early the classic friction between members started leading to the well-known focus on Susanna….even before Different Light and all of the Prince mania…and the eyes thing. It’s weird that what sounds like the most pleasant recording experience was when the band had pretty much completely split into camps during Everything. I wish the epilogue had dipped just a smidge into the post-breakup years, beyond the two later albums. The Hoffs, and Hoffs/Sweet, and soundtrack stuff is well-known…I bet the others have some cool stories as well.

I really only follow Hoffs these days, and her current, totally grown-up vibe seems so much more mature and empathic (and loony in the best of ways)…but then hopefully we all grow up.

I really didn't know a lot of the Bangles so I was excited to read this biography of them. It was written well and was hooked from the first page. It had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed about this type of book. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike has a strong writing style and was glad I got to read this.

I LOVED the group The Bangles. Their music was amazing [I went and bought their Greatest Hits CD whilst listening to this book when I realized I had NONE of their music!!], their talent obvious [at least to me and my friends - apparently not everyone was on board or aware of their talent; sometimes professional reviewers are crueler than 13-year old mean girls, but I digress...], and so I went into this will some previous knowledge of how the band broke up [because of how gleefully the reviewers spewed about it], but was excited to read the whole story.

Unfortunately, after the first half of the book [which gives us a bio of each girl BEFORE the band, including the very early days/iterations of what eventually became The Bangles, and was really intersting and funny and feel-good], the book then devolves into pettiness and the miserableness of the band members when Susannah Hoffs was signaled out by the media and their own management [who seemed to THRIVE on causing chaos in the group between the women, which was NOT Susannah's fault, AND is something she STILL speaks out against; in her mind, they were AND are A BAND], as well as song-writers [I was today's year old when I read about Prince, with Appalonia, writing the song "Manic Monday" for the group!!], and how they never seemed to see what a struggle it was for Susannah as well as themselves.

The sisters [Debbi and Vicki; the 4th band member, Michael Steele chose to not be a part of this biography, and when they reunited for two later albums and several concerts, previous bass players joined the group when Ms. Steele chose not to] were *AND* are particularly resentful [this was shown over and over again in this book; hardly a page goes by without one or both of them talking about how miserable they were [and clearly they still are, as you can tell that they are not just speaking about the past when referring to Susannah], and after awhile, the constant resentment and mindless repetition of it [amongst other things; the editing of this book could have been better IMO], I was drained, frustrated, and honestly, glad I loved the band before this, because the crappy attitudes would have had me running away from them, in SPITE of the excellent music they produced. I have no idea how Ms. Hoffs stayed as long as she did; the raging resentment must have been completely draining.

Overall, this was pretty disappointing; perhaps with better editing, writing that wasn't so clearly skewed in Debbi and Vicki's favor [the author clearly favors them and it shows in the writing, especially when we get to the miserable and resentful parts], and a better narrator, this might have been a more enjoyable read. For a book I was seriously excited about, I am left very disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Hachette Books/De Capo for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a huge fan of the Bangles and truly enjoyed reading this book. It was extremely insightful and entertaining as well. It took me down memory lane getting to read about these experiences.

Deep dive into the Bangles and their rise to the top. With input from almost all the members, it was a great read that shows the highs and lows of music stardom. An entertaining and nuanced behind the scenes of the Bangles with known facts, and things not told until now.

Thank you Netgalley and Hachette Books | Da Capo for the ARC!

If you grew up any time in the 80's, you know at least one of the Bangles songs. This was a nostalgic read that didn't disappoint. Getting to interview most of the band was so interesting and I loved that the author included their different perspectives/versions on key events in the bands history. My biggest surprise was learning Sue wasn't supposed to be the lead singer. The girls wanted to be seen as a whole but that is definitely not how the media spun it to the fans. I took a half star off because it dragged a little in the middle for me. I took another half star off because the ending wasn't that satisfying. I wanted to know the scoop after they broke up and where are they now. Otherwise, this was a fantastic read, and great job to the author for weaving all of the narratives successfully!

Longtime fans of The Bangles will love this thorough book. The members of the band are fully present, with reflections and quotes throughout.

A fan of The Bangles, I knew the music and who was in the group but had no idea of their formation, evolution or the struggles with misogynistic journalists, music producers or contemporary bands. I enjoyed the writing style, and the recounting of their story by the various band members. The focus is clearly on their formation and early success, with song by song details of the first couple of albums. I was disappointed that it abruptly ended with the original break up of the band in 1989. There is just two pages about their two reunion albums, subsequent tours, band member changes, and nothing about what the band members were doing between 1989 and their comeback album in 2003. Still for a look at the early formation of the band this is highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Da Capo for an advanced reader copy.

Five stars for the Bangles, a criminally underappreciated all-woman rock band, three stars for the writing in this authorized biography. I understand that there are different perspectives on the events in the band's history, but Bickerdike deals with that issue with direct quotes from each source. It quickly grows tiresome to read pages of [Person A]+ Roget's Thesaurus word for "said." So the Bangles (and friends and business colleagues) explain, reflect, recall, tell, remember, point out, clarify, etc. etc. Plus Bickerdike actually repeats the same anecdote, almost verbatim, in the space of a few pages.

But as a certified Banglophile I devoured the book anyway, despite the clunky writing. I knew about the tension between the women, which developed as journalists and record company execs increasingly focused on Susannah Hoffs, belying the "all for one" ethic that defined the band at its inception. The three women who were interviewed* disagree about how much Hoffs encouraged the attention, vs. how much she was a victim of a misogynistic, greedy music industry. Everybody pulls their punches a bit, but you can tell there is lingering animosity.

I didn't know about the emotional abuse The Bangles' record producer inflicted on them, constantly belittling their skills and bringing in session musicians when the band members didn't play the way he wanted their music to sound. Of course that elevated the tensions and frayed the bonds between the women, and their mental health deteriorated to the point where traumatized drummer Debbi Peterson considered dying by suicide. Then the whole Prince and "Manic Monday" thing happened, and all the press wanted to know was whether or not The Purple One was sleeping with Susannah. No wonder the Bangles broke up after just three albums.

I still remember the thrill of hearing "Hero Takes a Fall" for the first time, and I wore out their first album All Over the Place from repeated listenings. The Bangles deserve a biography by an author with more polish, but at least their story is being told by someone whose respect and love for them is obvious.

*Fourth Bangle Michael "Mickey" Steele declined to be part of the project.

Rock 'n' roll as an aspirational anxiety dream, this is an often frustrating story of how press and pressures can nearly unravel a childhood dream.

This was so good! But I am also a fan of any type of book about the behind the scenes in the music industry. I love learning about bands and people. I hope one day they come out with biographies. but overall I was very entertained and kept engaged the entire time.

I received a free copy of, Eternal Flame, by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Bangles are a great band, Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson, and Debbie Peterson. I will always love the song, Manic Monday. I really enjoyed this book.

Great book!

I’ve always loved the Bangles and was so excited to receive an ARC. The author didn’t chase dirt or overemphasize the bad things.

This was balanced and fair. The weren’t perfect and that’s fine. Debbi, Vicki, and Susanna were open and honest. Michael didn’t participate, unfortunately, she was my favorite one in the band.

If you want a real story about a bunch of musicians who chose music early in life, and worked hard to see it all pay off, this is for you. If you want a cool story of a great band, this is also for you.

Great pics as well.

I received an ARC from NetGalley, and all opinions are my own.

Great homage to a badass girl band. Well put together book about the groups history from beginning to end, good bad & ugly. Recommend for any fan.

Today is Sunday. When you think about the next day on your calendar, does a specific tune pop into your head? If you're like me, it's probably "Manic Monday." This and a handful of other memorable and fun songs made the Bangles a hit in the 1980s. In Eternal Flame by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, you'll find out how the Bangles, previously known as the Bangs, came together to form a short-lived but spirited rock band.

Some wouldn't classify the Bangles as a rock band, but once you read the story, you may beg to differ. They started out as a garage band by sisters Vicki and Debbi Peterson, influenced by punk and alternative bands, but most significantly, by the Beatles. Once they met Susanna Hoffs who also held the Beatles in high esteem, they were on their way toward something great. Vicki and Sue wrote songs together and determined that they had the same goal in mind. Once they got going, though, they were pigeonholed as a knock-off of the Go-Gos yet they actually wrote more songs and had more musical prowess.

That fight for relevance defined them until they charted hits like Manic Monday and Walk Like an Egyptian. You would have thought that those achieved goals would make them happy and show the naysayers that they were for real. Unfortunately, their massive hits weren't written by the Bangles for the most part, including the Prince-penned Manic Monday, even though they wrote and recorded many of their own creations. With misogyny and the corporate machine in charge, they barely had a chance, and they weren't even allowed to play their own instruments for the Different Light album. Plus, they continued to receive comparisons to the Go-Gos who weren't really similar at all to what the Bangles were producing and had left the music scene in the mid-1980s.

Things worsened when Sue was the focus of all the attention. Jealousy didn't necessarily break them up but changing goals for the band and said jealousy caused many rifts between the sisters and Sue and Michael Steele who played bass for them after their original bass player chose a quieter life. To me, it seemed like the sisters were blindsided, which stopped their momentum. Although they reunited for the first Austin Powers movie, it was never the same.

I really loved the enthusiasm the author had for the band and how she uncovered that these women were a force in rock. I gained more respect for them, especially Vicki and Debbi. I don't necessarily blame Susanna Hoffs for bowing to stardom and her own career. It didn't seem like she did it intentionally, but it must have been flattering and a dream come true to know that you're reaching the masses. Plus, she does stand out when you watch the videos and any concert footage--she knew how to work the camera. However, from Sue's account, it made her physically ill and gave her incredible amounts of stress. The women couldn't outwardly complain because who would feel sorry for this incredibly successful band.

While I enjoyed this book, I would have loved finding out what they ended up doing once the band broke up as well as about their personal lives. In the book, you do get an account of Debbi's marriage to one of their sound guys in England. It does figure into the break-up because Sue and Micki, as Michael Steele was known to them, failed to attend, citing physical and mental health issues. Even though you get the straight dope from Vicki, Sue, and Debbi, Micki did not participate. Her background sounded intriguing, and I would have been interested (nosy?) to read why she appeared so aloof and dark.

If you're a fan of 1980s music, particularly songs from the Bangles, this book brings you back to the early 1980s through the late 1980s. I loved taking that ride and hearing what these talented ladies had to say.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Books for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I was a tween and teenager when The Bangles hit it big, and I was obsessed with them! They were such positive role models for kids like me, a music group that had catchy, pop tunes, as well as some real rock ‘n roll Moxey. I was thrilled to get this ARC and dived right in.

Michael Steele declined to be involved with the project, which is too bad, because she was my favorite, but Debbi and Vicki Peterson and Susanna Hoffs, as well as many others in the group’s orbit, provide details of the band’s formation, ascension, and ultimate breakup.

This very thorough and intimate look at the band and its germination, hard fought battles for gigs, changing lineup of members, and the slow road to success are covered in detail. I really appreciated this, as when I was a kid, I only read the fan magazines. I’m glad of that, though, because the author shares some really heinous, misogynistic quotes from articles covering the ladies at the time. Really sexist stuff. Constant comparisons to the Go-Go’s, who were a great group, but the pitting of women against women is ridiculous. Two “girl groups” could, and can, occupy the same space at the same time. I didn’t realize at the time, but the band was frequently accused of not playing their own instruments, much like another favorite of mine, The Monkees, and no number of live performances could shut down the naysayers.

The stories of what the record label and management would ask them to do, especially the styling of the ladies, is really frustrating. They were very much a “thrift store” chic that I admired, yet, there were constant pressures for tighter clothes, shorter skirts, bigger hair, tons of makeup, etc. Looking back on it all now, the women said they put up with it because they didn’t want to make waves with the label, and they should have fought for more stylistic control.

Speaking of control, some real knot head sexist producers help make their records. The experiences the band had making their classic album Different Light are upsetting to read about, because they were really psychologically messed with during the whole process, and it soured them on the process of creating great music. However, they asserted their control for their next album and had much creative success.

The struggles the band went through as they gained exposure and success makes me admire the band even more. Each band member dealt with it differently, and those thoughts are shared by the band members. While Michael did not participate in the creation of this book, her thoughts are relayed in various interviews she’s given through the years. Vicki, Debbi, and Susanna provide a lot of stories that weave the tales of the band.

The genesis of some of the band’s greatest hits, including Walk Like and Egyptian, Eternal Flame, Hazy Shade of Winter, and Prince’s Manic Monday, are all explored. In fact, the Prince stories really stand out. He was an early backer of the band and would frequently pop up when the ladies were performing and ask to come onstage with them. The ladies, to this day, have no idea why Prince took a shine to them, although they are appreciative.

All in all, this a great official biography of one of my favorite bands during a formative time of my life. Highly recommend! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hachette Books provided an early galley for review.

I became a fan of the Bangles music in the mid-80's. So, this new book that encapsulates their history was something which very much interested me.

Bickerdike has several music-themed books to her credit, so she clearly has the credentials to deliver here. Having strong input from three of the four mainstays (a note in the foreword indicates that Michael Steele declined to be involved with the project) gives the book a more intimate voice. Debbi and Vicki Peterson and Susanna Hoffs (among others) paint the picture of the group's rise from the LA music scene to become world-wide superstars.

For me, I learned a lot from the various configurations of line-ups before the dust settled with the configuration that most people know. I always enjoy the behind-the-scenes details about recording, touring and video production. I liked when the author was able to touch upon the personal dynamics between the band members; everyone cannot always get along all of the time so it was good to see how the tension played out as the band was achieving fame.

Of course, one of my favorite parts was the interactions of the band and Prince, which led to the song "Manic Monday" which he wrote and the band took all the way up the charts in the late fall of 1985. These fascinating insights to the enigmatic artist come from the Bangles themselves, Prince's drummer Bobby Z and others.

All in all, this was a very in-depth look into the band. I recommend it to any fans of 80's music.