straits. "Back to square one again", McAuliffe said at the time. The band decided to go back to their roots, remaining a quartet with only McAuliffe on vocals and going on a UK tour in November – December 1985 supporting Blue Öyster Cult; their immediate goal was to play as much as they could and regain some of their fan base. In early 1986, thanks again to Lemmy's suggestion, they eventually signed for Doug Smith's new label GWR Records, which also included in their roster Motörhead. The girls immediately started working on a new album with their old producer Vic Maile at Jackson's Studio in Rickmansworth. The first output of their new work was a team-up with British glam rock singer Gary Glitter for the cover of his 1973 hit "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)", which was released as a single in April 1986. The album Nightmare at Maple Cross, released in July of the same year, marked for the band the return to the sound of Hit and Run and to their trademark abrasive lyrics. The album received fairly good reviews, but it did not enter the British charts and was released in North America only a year later. The following European tour saw the girls supporting the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth. In January 1987, after five years with the group, bassist Gil Weston-Jones left Girlschool to spend more time with her American husband. Her place was quickly taken by Tracey Lamb, who had been the bass player of the all-female NWOBHM band Rock Goddess and a bandmate of Cris Bonacci in She. Girlschool spent the rest of the year promoting the album with a US tour and appearances in various TV shows across Europe, followed by a long European tour supporting usual label mates Motörhead. At the beginning of 1988, the band started rehearsing material for a new album with producer André Jacquemin, who had worked on all the Monty Python’s records. The album Take a Bite was published by GWR in October 1988 and follows in the steps of Nightmare at Maple Cross, presenting powerful and melodic metal songs, tinged with the humour typical of the band. To promote the album, Girlschool did a UK tour with Gary Glitter, followed by a North American tour. In 1989, they travelled across Europe with Dio and to the Soviet Union with Black Sabbath, until the