Loveday Writing

You are cordially invited to the reunion of GoGirls! at the Worthington Function Centre on Saturday September 13th 2025. Please RSVP to Mrs Valerie Morganside by Friday August 14th and inform her of whether you will be bringing along your spouse and/or family members.

 

Melanie Shaughnessy Angus—Go Girls! Vocalist

 

I was pleasantly surprised when I got the invite.

I look back on those days as the best start to adulthood. I was only 17 when I joined the band with Geri. Despite how much she hated being centre stage, she was actually excited and determined to go for it. She loved Battle of the Bands and winning it with me, but she also wanted to go beyond the school ground with our music. It’s not that I didn’t want to audition or didn’t love music, but at the time I wasn’t sure if it was the only thing I wanted for my life. We were finishing school and I was trying to think about my future, but I knew we’d regret it if we didn’t go for it.

All of us seemed to mesh really well together and we got along for the most part, that being said Brittany and I had our moments. I think the problem was that we were equal in age, talent and temper—it was an advantage on stage but not always off. We didn’t hate each other, our personalities just clashed, but the press love a good “cat fight” even if there wasn’t one.

I couldn’t believe how successful we had become but I loved every minute of our high, but it was on one of our rare tour breaks that my life really began. Shane Angus was the boy next door when I was a little girl and we were best friends until he and his family moved away at the end of year 6. He moved back to town to go to uni and live with one of his old friends and we met up. It was love at first sight.

When the band hit the five year mark, we hit the three year mark. While our singles and albums failed to do as well on the charts, my relationship with Shane grew stronger every day, even with the difficulties of being 22 and navigating living together. When what would be our final album only managed to get as high as 32 on the charts, Shane proposed, and I found out I was pregnant within the same month, I knew it was time to move on.

Our beautiful daughter, Rosemary Lauren Angus, was born on August 10^th 2000. Not only did my life change when I saw Shane again but it changed forever again when she was put into my arms. Being a mother meant giving up certain things, which included some of my friendships which included Geri. As she was busy too studying medicine, we drifted apart, this has been one of my biggest regrets in life, especially when she told me she was dying (I still have the letter she sent me to tell me but I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it again). I could barely cope with the guilt when she died…two days after Rosemary’s 14^th birthday.

Geri wasn’t the only band member I had regrets over, I also regretted letting teenage pettiness get in the way of a great friendship with Brittany. After we disbanded we all drifted apart, busy with our own careers and families, but Brittany and I saw each other again over time, multiple times, when our own daughters were pursuing their dreams. While Rosemary, (she goes by Lauren now, apparently Rosemary was too much of an old person’s name to be cool) was pursuing acting on the side while modelling, she met and became friends with Brittany’s eldest daughter, Basia, while doing audition after audition. It was these times when Rosemary and Basia would run into each other and let me and Brittany know, that we managed to finally be good friends. I can’t wait to see her at the reunion. I saw that Valerie invited Marilyn, I hope she comes too, we’d love to see her.

Shane and Rosemary are going with me to the reunion. Although I’ve always talked about my time with GoGirls!, I’d like them to see and hear what I was really like back then as I wanted to keep them out of the spotlight while it was shining on me.