Girl Band With Global Impact

The Runaways (including guitarist Joan Jett pictured at left) were the first girl rock group to make a global impact.  Under-age, under-dressed, rebellious and over-the-top, their story is now a movie (in case you get impatient with the first link, go here).

A review of a performance back in 1976:

“Runaways brought the house down with some hot, hard, bitching rock and roll, the fact that they are young and extremely horny teenage females was a bonus” – words which might have earned him some censure in today’s changed social climate.

And discover how fans worldwide took a fancy to the group nearly instantaneously:

Japan took to The Runaways to such an extent that, astonishingly, they were the fourth most popular overseas act in the country, behind Abba, Kiss and Led Zeppelin. During a Japanese tour in the summer of 1977, promoting their Queens of Noise album, Jackie Fox quit, Joan Jett taking on her bass-playing duties for the remaining dates until Vicki Blue took over. When Cherie Currie walked out at the end of the shows, Jett took on the lead vocalist mantle. The next year The Runaways split with both Kim Fowley and Mercury Records, and then themselves split up, playing their final date on New Year’s Eve 1978.

Read more about this incredible story here.  And learn more about the new movie here.

Does your business rock the world as hard as the Runaways?

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney

Photo:  Members of the 1970s female rock group The Runaways (from left), Joan Jett, Sandy West, Cherie Currie, Vicki Blue and Lita Ford in 1977.