Ginger Canzoneri was an American band manager. She was the original manager of 1980s power pop and female punk rock group The Go-Go's, starting in 1979.[1] Canzoneri joined the band after its formation in 1978, and she pawned her jewelry and secured a loan on her car to fund the band's UK tour opening for The Specials and Madness in the summer of 1980.[2][3] She helped the Go-Go's sign their first major label record deal.[4] She was associated with the women in punk rock movement.[5] She went on to manage other bands.[6]
Canzeroni notably called Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner on behalf of the band to complain about what they felt was a sexist depiction of them on one of the magazine's covers.[7] She is featured prominently in a documentary about the band, The Go-Go's (2020), which mentions that she felt pushed aside when the band became more successful.[8]
Once the band left Ginger's management, they acquired a corporate management team, including an accountant and lawyer.[9] Ginger, like the members of the band, was female and promoted it as an all-girl group, but the management run by Irving Azoff that succeeded her was all-male.[10][11] Canzeroni was beaten with a nightstick by the LAPD at the so-called Elks Lodge massacre or police riot, or the St. Patrick's Day massacre, March 17, 1978, at what is today the Park Plaza Hotel.[12][13] She lived in Alphabet City.[14]
Ginger and the Go-Go's members were sued for wrongful termination by Margot Olavarria, the band's original bassist, and the suit was settled in 1984.[15]