Girlschool Announce Nothin’ To Lose Live Album From Reading 1981

August 28, 2026

Girlschool revisit their historic 1981 Reading Festival headline set on the new archive live album Nothin' To Lose.

Girlschool will release Nothin’ To Lose (Live In Reading 1981) on 25 September, with the title track available now as the first single. The album captures the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal icons at the 1981 Reading Festival, where they became the first female rock band to headline the event. More than four decades later, they remain the only one.

The historic performance almost began in disarray. The band’s hired pink Cadillac, reportedly once owned by actress Jayne Mansfield, arrived at the venue damaged after a collision. A roadie then restrung Kelly Johnson’s guitar with two D strings, while the band’s flashing neon backdrop was sabotaged by another act on the bill.

Kim McAuliffe said Johnson’s ability meant the guitar problem made little difference.

“The thing with Kelly is, she was such a genius and natural player, you could put anything in front of her and she could play it,” McAuliffe said. “She had an instinct. I used to watch her onstage sometimes, and I was quite amazed by her. She was such an incredible presence on stage.

“The roadie could probably have handed her a guitar with four strings and she’d still have been brilliant. I don’t think having two strings the same would have bothered her at all.”

Nothin’ To Lose (Live In Reading 1981) will be the first of five archive Girlschool live albums scheduled for release over the coming months. It will be available on CD, digital formats and red-and-white spatter vinyl.

The set is dominated by material from Hit And Run, opening with C’mon Let’s Go, The Hunter and (I’m Your) Victim. Songs from the debut album Demolition also feature, before the performance closes with Race With The Devil and Yeah Right.

McAuliffe recalled attending Reading Festival as a fan only a few years earlier. “I’d been there a couple of years before, standing on the other side in the mud, with this big plastic bag thing over me and knee deep in mud,” she said. “So happy to be there, grinning away, having the time of my life. Little did I know I’d actually be headlining a couple of years later. It was absolutely nuts.”

The band’s pyrotechnics were reportedly audible seven miles away. Future Flash, the song during which they were fired, did not make the recording.