Trailblazing Melbourne garage-pop/hard rock band Girl Monstar who a couple of weeks ago released their first new album in 34 years GRRRR!!, have released a new video for the single “Hate Train”.
Sez Girl Monstar singer/guitarist Sherry Rich: “I wrote the lyrics to HATE TRAIN with my sister-in-law Ros Zimmerman, a poet living in the US, protesting daily outside the ICE holding centres in Boston. Girl Monstar guitarist Anne McCue is also enduring a winter in the US surrounded by this freak show. It feels essential as artists to use our craft to protest in this way…against the corporate kings and billionaire bros destroying the planet and driving us all to hell to feed their own monstrous greed and egos.
“The video was made by young femme Melbourne filmmaker @freezedried with inspiration from DEVO and performance art following the ‘baby men’ as they wreak havoc on the Melbourne train network. But who are they really?”
Known to some as the band that introduced the world to Sherry Rich, Anne McCue and Sue World, Girl Monstar were the first all-female band to gain a national profile in Australia in the late ’80s/early ‘90s. They played over 200 shows, sharing stages with Iggy Pop, the Ramones, Sonic Youth, the Hard-ons, GOD, the Hoodoo Gurus, The Divinyls, Poison and Skid Row.
Formed in 1988, Girl Monstar gained a reputation as a formidable live act and made an impact with their all-too short recording career. Two singles – ‘Surfing on a Wave of Love’ and ‘Joe Cool’ topped the Alternative charts in 1989 and 1990, both nominated for Best Independent Release at the ARIA Music Awards. They appeared on TV shows Countdown Revolution, The Big Gig, Rage and The Factory and released the one album ‘Monstereo Delicio’ in 1992.
A short documentary on the band is now up on YouTube.
After splitting originally in 1993 – their last show was a fiery gig the first Melbourne Big Day Out – three of the four Girl Monstar members went onto noteworthy music careers.
Singer/guitarist Sherry Rich switched up genres and formed the pioneering alt-country group Sherry Rich & The Grievous Angels (featuring Steve Connolly and Charlie Owen on guitar) before a ten-year stint in Nashville working as a songwriter and collaborating on two albums with members of Wilco. Returning home in 2006, Sherry continued with the Grapes, a ’60s flavoured folk rock duo with Ashley Naylor and released her most recent solo album ‘The Divine Crimson V’ in 2021. She has co-written with the likes of Paul Kelly, Mick Thomas and Nashville writers including Jim Lauderdale, Tammy Rogers and Will Kimbrough.
Lead guitarist Anne McCue relocated to Los Angeles and then Nashville, forging a career as a singer songwriter and producer, merging country and blues with rock and pop. She has released 8 solo albums, including ‘Roll On,’ BBC broadcaster Bob Harris’s ‘Album of the Year’, and ‘Wholly Roller Coaster’ released in 2025. She has toured the US with Heart and Lucinda Williams and played guitar on Robyn Hitchcock’s 2017 self-titled album. Anne is also radio host of ‘Songs on the Wire’ on Nashville WXNA.
Drummer Sue Shaw (Sue World), who had, while still at high school in 1981, formed the seminal all female Melbourne garage band the Wet Ones, has maintained a strong presence in the last 30+ years on the local garage scene with the Exotics, Plastic Section and the Wraylettes.
Completing the line-up is bass player Janene Abbott, who had disappeared into the wilds of the Northern Territory, but was freshly divorced and had just bought a new bass and amp when Sue found her. She was ready to rock!
With decades more musical and life experience under their belts and fired by the joy of reconnecting, Girl Monstar are back, stronger and more creative than ever with new songs informed by their unique experiences as women, feminists, mothers, musicians and activists.
Girl Monstar on Instagram
Girl Monstar – YouTube
GRRRR!! is available to now via Bandcamp:
GRRRR!! The Album | GIRL MONSTAR | Girl Monstar