Cristina "Cris" Bonacci is an Australian-born producer, songwriter, and musician. She was the lead guitarist in the British heavy metal bandGirlschool and has also provided session guitar work for other artists.
Career
Cris Bonacci was born at Myrtleford in north-eastern Victoria and grew up on a country farm close to Melbourne where her family had moved when she was "11 or 12" years old. She started playing the guitar soon after coming to Melbourne following her fascination with the instrument. Her introductions to music included her father's guitar playing and her uncle's membership of a band, as well as hearing flamenco guitar from her family's Spanish neighbours. She describes her own guitar style as "pretty much" self taught, aided by a few occasional guitar lessons, but her main musical training came from listening to classic rock albums and practicing to them. In 1985, she declared that her main influences came from rock guitarists Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, along with early Black Sabbath's albums. Bonacci played in numerous bands in her native Australia, but never staying with one unit for more than a couple of years. She joined a rock group, Vixen, on lead guitar alongside Wendy Hemmings on drums, Glenda Hunt on bass guitar and Robyn Youlten on lead vocals and lead guitar. Bonacci and Sally Zylstra formed Sweet Jayne, in early 1975 in Melbourne with Robyn Clark on drums and Sally Zylstra on bass guitar. They advertised for a lead singer and found Chris Scheri who also played the flute. This band developed a sizeable local following in Melbourne and recorded several demos and an EP between 1977 and 1983. Their self-titled EP was issued in January 1980 and had five tracks, "Ambiguous Girl", "Omniscience", "Some People", "State of Mind" and "Crushed and Crazy". Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, opined that it "highlighted Bonacci's crunching guitar riffs offset by Scheri's melodic vocals and lilting flute lines." Soon after Brendan O'Shea replaced Zylstra on bass guitar and John Zaffarese replaced Clark on drums. In October 1981 this line-up issued a single, "Icarus", with Fab Versace replacing Zaffarese on drums before being replaced in turn by Billy George in 1982. The group disbanded in January 1983. After Sweet Jayne, Bonacci went to the United Kingdom to work as session musician after being invited by Mike Oldfield. In London, Bonacci joined the all-female hard rock outfit She as lead guitarist. She included lead vocalist Jackie "Jacqui" Bodimead and former Rock Goddess bassist Tracey Lamb, whom Bonacci would later team up with in Girlschool. In fact, the all-female heavy metal outfit Girlschool was short of a lead guitarist after Kelly Johnson's departure and, on hearing Bonacci, they invited both her and keyboard player Bodimead to join the band. Both agreed and, during her time with Girlschool, Bonacci recorded the albums Running Wild, Nightmare at Maple Cross, Take a Bite and Girlschool, touring extensively all over the world. In a period of inactivity for Girlschool in 1990, she joined up with British rock singer Toyah Willcox, performing on GMTV to promote Willcox' album Ophelia's Shadow. In the years 1991 and 1992, Bonacci and Willcox formed the short-lived band She Devils, which made two short tours around Europe. After the She Devils project, Bonacci finally left Girlschool and joined Marc Almond's touring band. In December 2004, however, Bonacci re-joined Girlschool for a one-off gig at the London Garage alongside original guitarist Kelly Johnson and current guitarist Jackie Chambers. She also played at the tribute gig for Kelly Johnson on 20 August 2007 in London. After leaving Girlschool, she worked also as a session guitarist and became a member of Jonathan Ross' house band for the British TV showSaturday Zoo, where she backed international artists such as Suzanne Vega, and k.d. lang. Bonacci wrote lyrics, music and produced for a variety of artists. She wrote mostly for the bands she was a member of, but she has also written for and produced other artists, such as All Saints and Samantha Fox. In 2003, Bonacci wrote and produced the song "Look Up" which was released on the dance compilation CD Fashion Lounge: Id Models, published in the US by Water Music Records. She also co-produced and engineered Dawne Adams' album Assume Nothing in 2004. She is currently affiliated with Electracult, a band she formed with Michelle Mullen in January 2005. Electracult released their first full-length release Electracult Me on 15 April 2008, on Renaissance Records. Since 2000, much of her focus has been on software training. In June, 2015, Bonacci was interviewed extensively about her musical career on the Australian Rock Show podcast.
