Brassens sang: “No, people don’t like it when you have your faith.” And it’s true. When Joan Jett wanted to start a rock band of teenage girls in the early 1970s, many thought it was madness. But Jett had seen how Suzi Quatro was spending it and didn’t give up her efforts. He succeeded, and in these days we celebrate half a century of epic, luminous and, at the same time, dark like few others.
In August 1975 Jett founded the Runaways, one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most innovative bands. They were girls aged just 15 and 16 who, on topics such as Cherry bomb, You drive me crazy OR Thunder They sang about “what happens to us, falling in love, getting drunk, taking drugs, hating someone,” he explained in a 1978 interview. They were teenagers who, playing with unprecedented fury, dove headlong and without a net into the American rock ecosystem, one of the most masculinized and sexist industries of the time, with the permission of the police, the prison system and the military.
The first concert of Jett (guitar), Sandy West (drums) and Micki Steele (bassist and vocals, later in The Bangles) took place on September 12, 1975 in the dining room of the house of Phast Phreddie Patterson, founder of the Californian fanzine The back door man. Two weeks later they played at the Whiskey a Go-Go, and were soon joined by Lita Ford (guitarist), Cherie Currie (vocals) and Jackie. Fox Fuchs, replacing Steele.
They lasted less than four years, some of their members lived tragic experiences, but the long shadow of their influence is in punk, the Riotgrrrls movement or current bands like Hinds or Shego. Even in the lives of a multitude of anonymous girls who, listening to them, seeing them act or looking at their photos, understand that they too are free to do what they want.
“We represent the idea that you can command others to take the wind and determine your destiny,” Jackie explains. Fox Fuchs via email. “Now they see us as rebellious girls who don’t care what the world thinks,” she adds.
With his good and bad arts he contributed to forming the group and Kim Fowley was its representative, man of music successful in the 1960s and 1970s, later accused of having cheated them out of money, mistreated them and sexually abused them. “Obviously the worst moment (in the group) was when our manager He raped me and then the gang acted as if nothing had happened. We all carry and continue to carry, I think, the trauma that that act caused us,” says Fuchs, who made the attack public in The Huffington Post 10 years ago.
Fowley’s atrocious behavior appears to have been an open secret that was downplayed at the time. In 1977 they described it like this in a publication entitled Rocky Mountain Musical Express: “Countless people in the music business have called Kim Fowley everything from ‘stale little pimp’ to ‘sleazy hustler who pulls shitty bands out of pop music’s bathrooms.’ Luckily for Fowley, he has the only ammunition that could counter their insult attacks: fifty gold records.”
Between Iggy Pop and Bardot
In the wild seventies, a band with the courage, ferocity and presence of the Runaways was as misunderstood as it was revolutionary. in the magazine Daddy Craw In 1976, Charles M. Young wrote upon seeing them live: “I was overcome with the urge to masturbate against the stage, which at roadies breaking my teeth mercilessly, fighting my way through a thousand demented teenagers spewing cheap wine and out of their minds, just so I can touch the platform boots of these 16 year old girls. They launch a direct sexual challenge, almost too threatening, like the Stones or Alice Cooper in their early days. No ‘how could you leave me, my life has become shit’; no “I’m a girl” cosmos and, if I paint my nipples pink, maybe the boss will be fooled and marry a little slut like me.
Playing like there was no tomorrow, wearing tight leather or lamé pants—or a corset in the case of Currie, who some classified as “the lost daughter of Iggy Pop and Brigitte Bardot”—they hit seedy bars, mid-sized clubs and huge stadiums. Also behind the scenesbars open until late at night, music magazine editorial offices and record label offices. And they wanted to eat them raw.
Without asking permission, without asking for forgiveness, his very existence was a culture shock. “Him rock’n’roll It is above all a sexual issue and for this reason it was believed that girls should not play the guitar or the drums. In the United States it is uncomfortable to talk about sex in general, but even more so about the sex of a woman, and even more so about that of a teenager,” Jett reflected in a dialogue organized by The New York Times in 2018.
They were also misunderstood musically speaking. “People didn’t know what to think of the Runaways. They labeled us as provocative teenagers or punk rockers. I didn’t care about labels. I just wanted to play guitar,” Lita Ford explained to the magazine. World of guitar this same summer. “We were very good as a band, and that’s what usually gets lost in the conversation about the Runaways,” Jett reflected in the 2018 conversation.
They played with the Ramones, with Blondie, but also with Cheap Trick or Van Halen. “Back then they were very despised. They accused them of being a prefabricated product and behaved very cruelly towards them,” explains Anabel Vélez, author of Rocker from A to Z (Red Book, 2023).
Others supported them from the beginning, like Lemmy Kilmister and his Mötorhead, for whom they acted as a support group at the Roundhouse in London in 1976. Because they had a better reception outside their country. In places like the UK itself, Canada, Germany, Australia and especially Japan, where they were considered the fourth biggest band in the world, behind Led Zeppelin, Abba and Kiss. There they recorded a live album (You live in Japan1977) and thousands of teenage boys and girls packed the dozen concerts they gave across the country. “It was incredible, it was like suffering beatlemania. We couldn’t believe it,” Jett explained in Tom Snyder’s Show Tomorrow in 1978.
They had recorded before The fugitives (1976) e Queen of noise (1977). On what would be their third LP of that same year, Waiting for the night, Jett was already singing: Currie had left the band exhausted, addicted to cocaine and drugs. quaaludesand soon after Fuchs also left him. In 1978 they published And now… The fugitivesand the following year they separated. Fuchs confesses that there are things about the ’70s that he misses: “We had a sense of freedom and lived in the moment. There were no cell phones or the Internet. There were no constant demands demanding our attention. We could just go out in crazy clothes and meet all kinds of people.”
Over time, the band has acquired legendary status. “Partly this is due to the disappearance of cultural prejudices against women’s contributions,” reflects Fuchs. “Yes, there is one thing for sure fandomthe film helped –The fugitives (2010), directed by Floria Sigismondi, with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie respectively, and important work is being done to recover forgotten figures,” emphasizes Vélez.
When the band broke up, Fuchs became a lawyer (he studied law at Harvard and had Barack Obama as a partner); West, who died of cancer in 2006, released a solo album, recorded some sessions with John Entwistle, The Who’s bassist, and was a drum teacher; Ford continues to record and perform (this summer he played in Bilbao); Jett founded Blackheart Records and fronted his band The Blackhearts for decades, and Currie, who still performs occasionally, has become a writer, painter, fitness instructor and has several awards as a chainsaw wood carver.
