Dec 14

The Runaways

Greatly Appreciated

THE RUNAWAYS
 
 
The Runaways  were an American all-female rock band that recorded and performed in the second half of the 1970’s.  The band released four studio albums and one live set during its run.  Among their best-known songs are “Cherry Bomb”, “Hollywood”, “Queens of Noise”, and a cover version of the Velvet Underground’s “Rock & Roll”.  The Runaways, though never a major success in the United States, became a sensation overseas, e.g. in Japan, thanks to the hit single “Cherry Bomb”.   (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
As it turned out, three competing and complementary strains of music arose seemingly overnight by 1974:  In addition to power pop, they were what most of us know as “punk rock” – e.g., Ramones, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith Group (with Lenny Kaye on lead guitar), Dead Boys – and “new wave” – e.g., Elvis Costello, Blondie, Talking Heads, the Runaways – the latter band, the first successful all-female rock band, is now the subject of a major motion picture.  
 
(April 2010)
 
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After leaving Code Blue, Michael Ostendorf was in an all-star line-up called Toni and the Movers that was formed by singer-songwriter Toni Childs in 1979.  The other bandmembers were Jack Sherman, who has had an active career in music and is best known for being an early member of Red Hot Chili Peppers and playing on their debut 1984 album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers; and Michael Steele, who was in two different all-female rock bands, the Bangles and the Runaways (she was known as Micki Steele in the latter band).   
 
(September 2012)
 
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After making the EP, Annette Zilinskas joined the band Blood on the Saddle; she was replaced in the Bangles by Michael Steele, who had been the founding bass guitarist for the Runaways under the name Micki Steele.  

 

(November 2013)

  
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After Kim Fowley lost control of the Runaways. the early all-female rock band that he helped found and also managed, he sought to form another band that was counter to the conventions of the day:  a male lead singer that was backed by female musicians.  Called Venus and the Razorblades, bandmembers were Steven T. (vocals and guitar), Roni Lee (rhythm guitar), Danielle Faye (bass guitar), Nicky Beat and later Kyle Raven (drums), and two more vocalists, Dyan Diamond and Vicki Arnold, aka Vicki Razor Blade.  As with the Runaways. the musicians were teenagers; Arnold was 17, and Diamond was only 14. 

 

(December 2013)

 

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These Are the Days by Certain General was produced by Genya Ravan, the former lead singer of perhaps the very first all-female rock band Goldie and the Gingerbreads.  She was also in the band Ten Wheel Drive and has released several solo albums; I have Urban Desire (1978) myself.  Among her other production credits are the Dead Boys’ first studio album, Young, Loud and Snotty (1977).  That’s two important punk rock albums that I know of which were produced by women, the other being the 1979 album by the Germs, (GI), which was produced by Joan Jett (a veteran of another all-female band the Runaways). 

 

(March 2015)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021