ROBERT HILBURN : CARLISLE SET TO GO-GO IT ALONE

In the days after the breakup of the Go-Go’s last year, lead singer Belinda Carlisle sat down to take inventory.

The voice behind such lively, disarming hits as “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed” knew she faced one major problem: establishing herself as a solo artist after stepping away from one of the most successful female groups in rock history.

But she gradually realized an even deeper challenge: the need to rebuild herself--physically and emotionally. For all the cheerful, party-minded aura surrounding the Go-Go’s, Carlisle’s life had become a tangled, depressing mess.

“My skin was screwed up . . .,” she recalled in an interview this week. “I had also gained a lot of weight from not sleeping or eating right . . . and from drinking too much. I was embarrassed (to go out) because everyone knows how people like to talk about (celebrities). . . . ‘God, she looks bad.’ I could feel that was what was happening (to me).”

To see her these days, it’s hard to believe she had these problems.

Carlisle--who’ll make her formal solo debut Thursday and Friday at the Roxy--has the slim features and warm, sunshine-glow of a fashion model. She also has the contentment of a happy new bride--which she is (she recently married public relations executive Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason).

But this former Ventura County high school cheerleader needed a lot of assistance before she was in any shape to step out on her own. That help came from a nutritionist, a voice teacher, a physical fitness instructor--and Alcoholics Anonymous.

“I feel like a different person,” Carlisle, 27, said this week in Solana Beach, where she made the first of several California “warm-up” appearances in preparation for the Roxy show.

The Go-Go’s success story was so captivating that it sounded like something dreamed up in Hollywood--not merely acted out there.

A group of young women form a band and set about persuading skeptical record executives that they can do something that no female band had ever done in rock: sell a lot of records.

The group’s first release, “Beauty and the Beat,” was a smash in 1981, selling more than 2 million copies. Though the next two albums failed to repeat that double platinum success, the group continued to receive strong reviews and remained a lively and popular concert attraction.

The reason for the appeal was obvious: There was a pajama-party exuberance about the Go-Go’s on stage, and the group’s best songs went beyond the giddy celebration of teen daydreams to include affecting reflections on the dark side of fame and the heartbreak of romance.

But it was apparent in 1984 that success was taking its toll. Co-founder Jane Wiedlin left the group that year, and Carlisle took the lead a few months later in calling the whole thing quits.

She recalls the moment last year when she knew it was all over for the band.

“We were getting ready to do a concert in Rio, and I just didn’t feel right,” Carlisle said. “I remember it real clearly because I started to cry. It wasn’t fun any more. We were just sort of going through the motions, pretending to have all the fun on stage that we really did have in the beginning.

“I was so unhappy that I hated seeing new artists because I knew I couldn’t be one of them. I couldn’t (share) the freshness or excitement (they were going through). I was sort of envious.”

In the weeks after the breakup in May, 1985, Carlisle and Charlotte Caffey--her closest friend in the band--decided to work together on an album. It would be Carlisle’s album, but Caffey, who co-wrote several Go-Go’s tunes, would write some of the songs and play on the record.

“I was pretty insecure when we started,” Carlisle said. “I knew I needed some changes . . . and one thing led to another. The first thing was get myself in shape. So I went to to nutritionist and began working out every day with weights and a trainer. I also started seeing a voice coach three times a week.”

The most dramatic change, however, involved going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. She had been inspired by seeing how Caffey had overcome substance abuse problems of her own.

“I knew I needed that, too,” Carlisle said. “If I was still carrying on in the old life style, there is no way I would have been able to do what I’m doing now. We were talking about it today. My guess is I’d probably be broke, alone and desperate. Sometimes you feel it was a miracle or something.”

Carlisle’s album, titled “Belinda,” won’t be out until May 19, but the upbeat single--”Mad About You”--is already in the stores and a video of the song debuted this week on MTV. After the Roxy shows, Carlisle will be on the road through July, opening for Robert Palmer.

“I know I am starting over,” Carlisle said. “That’s one reason we wanted to go back to the Roxy. That’s the last club the Go-Go’s ever played before we started playing arenas. It reminds me of a lot of good times.”

She’ll celebrate those good times in her show. Unlike those solo musicians who refuse to do songs from their old band’s repertoire, Carlisle plans to include several key Go-Go’s tunes in her set.

“I think it is silly when someone refuses to do any of their old songs,” she said. “Those are the songs that put you there in the first place and I love them.”

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Monday for two Pacific Amphitheatre shows: Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme on Aug. 16 and Julio Iglesias on Sept. 27. . . . Tickets will be available Sunday for these Universal Amphitheatre concerts: Rocio Jurado on June 1 and Roger Whittaker on July 3. . . . Run D.M.C. headlines the Los Angeles Sports Arena on May 30, and Public Image Ltd. plays the Hollywood Palladium on July 5.