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Eternal Flame: The Authorized Biography of The Bangles
416 pages, Paperback
Published March 6, 2025
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August 6, 2026
If I was to pick my favourite musical act from the 1980s I would have to go with The Bangles. Vicki and Debbie Peterson, Susanna Hoffs and Michael Steele formed a key part of my life's soundtrack, from the moment I first heard 'Manic Monday' till the present day, and I am still very much enamoured with their music (and in the case of Susanna perhaps a little smitten too by her beauty). I can still recall very clearly purchasing my cassette copy of 'Different Light' from a record store in Canberra's Civic in early 1986, and then there was the time I got to see the band live (sans Steele) at the Enmore in Newtown. Their pop and rock sensibilities, the harmonies and understanding of 60s and 70s music, and yes their overall persona as a group of talented and attractive emale musicians has kept them in my heart for 40 years. So when I found discovered there was an official bio of the band on its way I had to buy a copy. I've done that and now read it, and whilst the book isn't perfect it certainly offers plenty of new and interesting insights into each member and their collective identity, history, careers.
Jennifer Bickerdike's Eternal Flame: The Authorized Biography of The Bangles is a fairly conventional musical biography in that it maps the lives and careers of the main members of the band, from their childhood to the pinnacle of their success and nadir of their collapse, and then in its resolution considers what the Bangles' did after this phase and their legacy. It's all set out in a (mostly) chronological narrative that includes important personal and formative influences, coverage of the band's gigs and recordings, the observations and interactions with out important people for each member and the group as a whole, and critical reflections on what their work signified. Central to all this is Bickerdike's extensive use of primary and secondary source material, including interviews with almost everyone that should have been spoken to (sadly Michael Steele wasn't available) and lots of print and audio-visual content.That the book is so conventional in its structure is both its biggest strength and perhaps its biggest weakness; perhaps it might've been better for the author to reframe the book's structure to reflect the more challenging nature what The Bangles were.
For Bangles fans such as me there is plenty of biographical meat to chew over, starting with the focus on the two Peterson sisters, Vicki and Debbie, as the wellspring for the group's intial set up. The discussion of their influences and also what it was like to live in LA in the 1970s and early 1980s really do help develop an understanding of what it was like for the two as they started their musical and personal journeys. For example, Bickerdike speaks to the importance of 60s family band The Cowsills in helping Vicki put together her musical vision early on:
"Youngest group member, Susan, was featured up close and center screen; the entire family unit was there, working and harmonizing together. The stylistic singing appealed to Vicki, but more important, the Cowsills illustrated a rarely seen combination of seemingly close-knit ties between members and a girl being a valued and integral part of the group.
The importance of the festive performance over a decade before was still tangible in 1978. The Cowsills had reunited, with a show booked at a local venue, Sweetwater Cafe. Amanda, Debbi, and Vicki attended the gig, and a firm friendship formed between the older performers and the up and comers. It was crucial to the elder Peterson that she be viewed as a peer from the very first interaction. “I was so desperate to be seen as an equal,” she tells me. “I made a big point to tell them that we had just played the club. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t coming on as a fan; I was absolutely a fan—but my goal was to be accepted as an artist.”
The Cowsills acted as mentors and teachers, taking the threesome seriously..."
The roads that Michael Steele and Susanna Hoffs took to become members of the band are also laid out in plenty of interesting detail, and perhaps of the two it was Steele who was subjected to the more egregiously confronting experiences as a female rock musician:
"According to (Runaways manager Kim...) Fowley, one night he asked what was wrong, to which she (Steele) responded:
“This isn’t tasteful. We’re singing to guys who jack off and girls who fist fuck, and there’s all this rock ’n’ roll shit, and it’s fun, and it’s interesting, but I’m older than Joan and Sandy, and I want more. This music has to go somewhere. I can’t keep doing this stuff.”²⁵
Micki recalled Fowley saying to her, “‘This is your one chance. You’ll never get another chance. Period. I am your one and only chance at rock stardom.’ I was really young and really impressionable and he was just a really manipulative, unhappy person and he just tried to make everyone else feel unhappy and under his control and he was horrible. He almost put me off music altogether. I thought, God, if this is what it’s like, well, fuck it.”
Hoffs seems to have got off somewhat lightly contrasted to her bandmate:
"My version of the jobs office was going around LA with a flyer I made—I still have the original copy of it—saying that I wanted to form an all-girl band."
Featuring a list of all of Susanna's favorite groups, illustrations of guitars she dreamed of owning, and "at the bottom, in the biggest letters on the whole thing, the most important recruitment necessity, 'Must Be Nice,'" she left the handbills in the bathroom at the Whisky. "This is really sad!" she laughs, before confiding, "I kept going into the bathroom to see if anyone had picked any of them up." To her dismay, the stack had been unceremoniously removed—into the trashcan..."
Early on in Eternal Flame: The Authorized Biography of The Bangles the author establishes the core thematic concern of her biography in that the musical capabilities and sheer rock'n'roll chops of The Bangles were always undermined by sexist approaches that focused on their femininity. This is a strong and consistently documented point, though in fairness it must be said that no matter how good they were as musicians Vicki, Debbie, Susanna and Michael would always feel the heat from a male-dominated industry in a far less gender-aware society and time. Bickerdike is right to underline how fresh and talented the band was in their live gigs and early recordings, whereas I think she subconsciously underplays the quality of the work done by the band on their three albums for CBS. Much of this is related to what seems to be an awfully problematic relationship with their producer David Kahne on 'All Over The Place' and 'Different Light', The author plots this in some very strident chapters and passages as she charts the band becoming more and more successful.
The account of the band recording their sophomore album was perhaps the most troubling part of the book, in that this is the release that hooked me onto the Bangles, and is such a wonderful listening experience, yet it came at great cost to the band. Reading how Debbie Peterson particularly had difficulties with Kahne sours something of the pleasure I received from 'Different Light':
"Debbi even began to think about taking her own life. “It was that bad,” she says. “I was thinking of ways of actually doing it. I knew I couldn’t. I wouldn’t because I’m a chicken; but I really felt like I just don’t need to be here anymore. But I was psychologically damaged by that guy. I really was. I don’t know why he went for me. He went for Vicki, too. It wasn’t just me. Me and Vicki were, for some reason, not worth it and not worthy.”"
Then there is the recounting of how the Bangles were reduced to sexual stereotypes at the cost of their musical integrity, viz interviews such as the following that Bikerdike includes in the book:
"Yet not even a global number one was deemed sufficient to garner the longed-for artistic admiration of peers and press. On the British chat show Don’t Miss Wax, host Ruby Wax was as equally demeaning of the band as her print peers:
Ruby Wax: Let’s be honest here, music’s supposed to express the kind of rebelliousness but in those videos. You do kinda look like bimbos. So what’s so rebellious?
Vicki: Yeah, so we studied at the Bimbo Institute Technology in Hollywood, B.I.T. It caters to a lot of the bimbos that come from all over the country to Hollywood to...[unintelligible audio].
Ruby Wax: So, you have to learn that?
Vicki: Yeah, you got to learn it and it’s really hard work.
Ruby Wax: What do you have to like, learn how to stand there with your lips glossed?"
The sexism, the belittling of their talent, the wearying demands of touring and recording, and the sapping of their ability to produce work as a unified entity is shown by the author to take a fatal cost to the Bangles time together, and it is rather sad to read of how after three albums and nominally at the peak of their success they disbanded. It must be noted that Susanna Hoffs certainly wasn't too resistant at forging her own identity, and yes, they did reunite in the early 200s, so the band never totally forwent producing music. Having said that, Bickerdike documents how what was a joyous and exciting rock and pop adventure turned sour in ways that, on reflection, could've been avoided. The Bangles could have been so much more, and that is an unspoken message of Eternal Flame...
Ultimately, this is a worthy read that does all one could hope for in terms of musical biography. It has been written with passion and a depth of research that reflects most positively on Bickerdike. However, I suspect its appeal will be almost entirely most attractive to those of us who love the Bangles. There is nothing too innovative or unusual as to the author's narrative and approach, and that's not a fault or problem, but it does mean that one won't come away from her work feeling like you've encountered a new biographical voice. This book tells its story well, and ultimately offers a detailed yarn about one of the most significant bands to achieve success in the 1980s.
Jennifer Bickerdike's Eternal Flame: The Authorized Biography of The Bangles is a fairly conventional musical biography in that it maps the lives and careers of the main members of the band, from their childhood to the pinnacle of their success and nadir of their collapse, and then in its resolution considers what the Bangles' did after this phase and their legacy. It's all set out in a (mostly) chronological narrative that includes important personal and formative influences, coverage of the band's gigs and recordings, the observations and interactions with out important people for each member and the group as a whole, and critical reflections on what their work signified. Central to all this is Bickerdike's extensive use of primary and secondary source material, including interviews with almost everyone that should have been spoken to (sadly Michael Steele wasn't available) and lots of print and audio-visual content.That the book is so conventional in its structure is both its biggest strength and perhaps its biggest weakness; perhaps it might've been better for the author to reframe the book's structure to reflect the more challenging nature what The Bangles were.
For Bangles fans such as me there is plenty of biographical meat to chew over, starting with the focus on the two Peterson sisters, Vicki and Debbie, as the wellspring for the group's intial set up. The discussion of their influences and also what it was like to live in LA in the 1970s and early 1980s really do help develop an understanding of what it was like for the two as they started their musical and personal journeys. For example, Bickerdike speaks to the importance of 60s family band The Cowsills in helping Vicki put together her musical vision early on:
"Youngest group member, Susan, was featured up close and center screen; the entire family unit was there, working and harmonizing together. The stylistic singing appealed to Vicki, but more important, the Cowsills illustrated a rarely seen combination of seemingly close-knit ties between members and a girl being a valued and integral part of the group.
The importance of the festive performance over a decade before was still tangible in 1978. The Cowsills had reunited, with a show booked at a local venue, Sweetwater Cafe. Amanda, Debbi, and Vicki attended the gig, and a firm friendship formed between the older performers and the up and comers. It was crucial to the elder Peterson that she be viewed as a peer from the very first interaction. “I was so desperate to be seen as an equal,” she tells me. “I made a big point to tell them that we had just played the club. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t coming on as a fan; I was absolutely a fan—but my goal was to be accepted as an artist.”
The Cowsills acted as mentors and teachers, taking the threesome seriously..."
The roads that Michael Steele and Susanna Hoffs took to become members of the band are also laid out in plenty of interesting detail, and perhaps of the two it was Steele who was subjected to the more egregiously confronting experiences as a female rock musician:
"According to (Runaways manager Kim...) Fowley, one night he asked what was wrong, to which she (Steele) responded:
“This isn’t tasteful. We’re singing to guys who jack off and girls who fist fuck, and there’s all this rock ’n’ roll shit, and it’s fun, and it’s interesting, but I’m older than Joan and Sandy, and I want more. This music has to go somewhere. I can’t keep doing this stuff.”²⁵
Micki recalled Fowley saying to her, “‘This is your one chance. You’ll never get another chance. Period. I am your one and only chance at rock stardom.’ I was really young and really impressionable and he was just a really manipulative, unhappy person and he just tried to make everyone else feel unhappy and under his control and he was horrible. He almost put me off music altogether. I thought, God, if this is what it’s like, well, fuck it.”
Hoffs seems to have got off somewhat lightly contrasted to her bandmate:
"My version of the jobs office was going around LA with a flyer I made—I still have the original copy of it—saying that I wanted to form an all-girl band."
Featuring a list of all of Susanna's favorite groups, illustrations of guitars she dreamed of owning, and "at the bottom, in the biggest letters on the whole thing, the most important recruitment necessity, 'Must Be Nice,'" she left the handbills in the bathroom at the Whisky. "This is really sad!" she laughs, before confiding, "I kept going into the bathroom to see if anyone had picked any of them up." To her dismay, the stack had been unceremoniously removed—into the trashcan..."
Early on in Eternal Flame: The Authorized Biography of The Bangles the author establishes the core thematic concern of her biography in that the musical capabilities and sheer rock'n'roll chops of The Bangles were always undermined by sexist approaches that focused on their femininity. This is a strong and consistently documented point, though in fairness it must be said that no matter how good they were as musicians Vicki, Debbie, Susanna and Michael would always feel the heat from a male-dominated industry in a far less gender-aware society and time. Bickerdike is right to underline how fresh and talented the band was in their live gigs and early recordings, whereas I think she subconsciously underplays the quality of the work done by the band on their three albums for CBS. Much of this is related to what seems to be an awfully problematic relationship with their producer David Kahne on 'All Over The Place' and 'Different Light', The author plots this in some very strident chapters and passages as she charts the band becoming more and more successful.
The account of the band recording their sophomore album was perhaps the most troubling part of the book, in that this is the release that hooked me onto the Bangles, and is such a wonderful listening experience, yet it came at great cost to the band. Reading how Debbie Peterson particularly had difficulties with Kahne sours something of the pleasure I received from 'Different Light':
"Debbi even began to think about taking her own life. “It was that bad,” she says. “I was thinking of ways of actually doing it. I knew I couldn’t. I wouldn’t because I’m a chicken; but I really felt like I just don’t need to be here anymore. But I was psychologically damaged by that guy. I really was. I don’t know why he went for me. He went for Vicki, too. It wasn’t just me. Me and Vicki were, for some reason, not worth it and not worthy.”"
Then there is the recounting of how the Bangles were reduced to sexual stereotypes at the cost of their musical integrity, viz interviews such as the following that Bikerdike includes in the book:
"Yet not even a global number one was deemed sufficient to garner the longed-for artistic admiration of peers and press. On the British chat show Don’t Miss Wax, host Ruby Wax was as equally demeaning of the band as her print peers:
Ruby Wax: Let’s be honest here, music’s supposed to express the kind of rebelliousness but in those videos. You do kinda look like bimbos. So what’s so rebellious?
Vicki: Yeah, so we studied at the Bimbo Institute Technology in Hollywood, B.I.T. It caters to a lot of the bimbos that come from all over the country to Hollywood to...[unintelligible audio].
Ruby Wax: So, you have to learn that?
Vicki: Yeah, you got to learn it and it’s really hard work.
Ruby Wax: What do you have to like, learn how to stand there with your lips glossed?"
The sexism, the belittling of their talent, the wearying demands of touring and recording, and the sapping of their ability to produce work as a unified entity is shown by the author to take a fatal cost to the Bangles time together, and it is rather sad to read of how after three albums and nominally at the peak of their success they disbanded. It must be noted that Susanna Hoffs certainly wasn't too resistant at forging her own identity, and yes, they did reunite in the early 200s, so the band never totally forwent producing music. Having said that, Bickerdike documents how what was a joyous and exciting rock and pop adventure turned sour in ways that, on reflection, could've been avoided. The Bangles could have been so much more, and that is an unspoken message of Eternal Flame...
Ultimately, this is a worthy read that does all one could hope for in terms of musical biography. It has been written with passion and a depth of research that reflects most positively on Bickerdike. However, I suspect its appeal will be almost entirely most attractive to those of us who love the Bangles. There is nothing too innovative or unusual as to the author's narrative and approach, and that's not a fault or problem, but it does mean that one won't come away from her work feeling like you've encountered a new biographical voice. This book tells its story well, and ultimately offers a detailed yarn about one of the most significant bands to achieve success in the 1980s.
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