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The Runaways were an American rock band who recorded and performed from 1975 to 1979. Formed in 1975 in Los Angeles, the band released four studio albums and one live album 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". Never a major success in the United States, the Runaways became a sensation overseas, especially in Japan, thanks to the single "Cherry Bomb".
Fowley met lyricist Kari Krome at a party held for Alice Cooper, put her on salary, and had her begin looking for female performers. Krome met Joan Jett and brought her to Fowley. Jett successfully auditioned for Fowley by playing ukulele to a The Sweet album, and picked up guitar as her instrument. Soon afterward, in the parking lot of the Rainbow Bar and Grill, Fowley met Sandy West, who agreed to play drums. Fowley had Jett rehearse with West at the latter's home in Huntington Beach, and auditioned the pair on the telephone to music journalist Ritchie Yorke. He then turned to two radio stations to advertise for further auditions, which brought lead vocalist/bassist Micki Steele (later of the Bangles).
The Runaways were formed in August 1975. Fowley touted the new group the Runaways as "an all-girl answer to Grand Funk," and the band signed to Kim Fowley Productions for management in September 1975. The lineup of Jett, West, and Steele made its live debut playing the Whisky a Go Go September 28–29, opening for Fowley's previous conceptual band the Hollywood Stars (then billed as "The Stars").
On October 30, Steele left due to creative differences. In November, bassist Peggy Foster joined, as well as Lita Ford as lead guitarist, allowing Jett to focus on rhythm guitar.
Fowley and Jett discovered Cherie Currie at the teen nightclub The Sugar Shack and brought her in as lead vocalist for the group.
In two weeks, Foster left the group too and was replaced by Jackie Fox, whom Fowley's colleague Rodney Bingenheimer found at the parking lot of the West Hollywood nightclub the Starwood.
The band toured the U.S. in support of headlining groups such as Cheap Trick, Van Halen, Talking Heads, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. For their stage performance, the 2004 documentary (directed by former Runaway bassist Vicki Blue) revealed each girl patterned herself after their musical idol: Currie on David Bowie, Jett on Suzi Quatro, Ford on a cross between Jeff Beck and Ritchie Blackmore, West on Roger Taylor, and Fox on Gene Simmons. Edgeplay: A film about The Runaways, Sacred Dogs LLC, Los Angeles, 2005 (from interviews with Fowley and Currie)
The Runaways were the subject of a writeup in People magazine in September 1976. A week later, Fowley severed his ties with the band and forfeited his rights, titles, claims, and merchandising ownership to Mercury Records. Mercury refused to accept Fowley's stakehold in the band and turned it back to him the following week. Fowley and the band reconciled in November and returned to the studio to record their followup album Queens of Noise. The album was released on January 7, 1977.
The Runaways performed a world tour in support of Queens of Noise. The band quickly became lumped in with the growing punk rock movement. The band (already fixtures on the West Coast punk scene) formed alliances with mostly male punk bands such as the Ramones and the Dead Boys (via New York City's CBGB) as well as the British punk scene by hanging out with the likes of the Damned, Generation X and the Sex Pistols.
In the summer of 1977, booking agent David Libert secured dates in Japan, where they played a string of sold-out shows. They were unprepared for the onslaught of fans that greeted them at the airport. Jett later described the mass hysteria as "just like Beatlemania".Jett 1977, Tomorrow with Tom Snyder. Event occurs at 29:23–29:25. While in Japan, the Runaways had a TV special, made numerous television appearances, and released the album Live in Japan, which went gold. Jackie Fox left mid-tour and was replaced by bassist Vicki Blue when the group returned to America.
Cherie Currie left the band on August 9, 1977. Fowley recorded the Runaways' third LP, Waitin' for the Night, at Larrabee Studios the same month, with the band as a four-piece and with Joan Jett on vocals. The album was released on October 17, 1977, and was the final album that Fowley would record with the group.
Blue left the group due to medical problems and was briefly replaced by Laurie McAllister in November 1978. McAllister was referred to the band by her neighbor, Duane Hitchings, who played keyboards on And Now... The Runaways. Before joining the Runaways, McAllister played with Baby Roulette and the Rave Ons, who had one song released on a Kim Fowley compilation LP called Vampires From Outer Space. McAllister appeared onstage with the Runaways at their final shows in California in December 1978 and quit in January 1979.
Disagreement among band members included the musical style; Jett wanted the band to make a musical change, shifting towards punk rock/glam rock while Ford and West wanted to continue playing hard rock/heavy metal music. Neither would accept the other's point of view.Sherman, Dale. 20th Century Rock And Roll: Women In Rock. Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc, p. 53 The band played their last concert on New Year's Eve 1978 at the Cow Palace and officially broke up in April 1979.
In a 2015 interview with WHMH-FM, Ford said that she decided against a possible reunion in the early 1990s because "Nirvana was just kicking in, and it was really bad timing; it wouldn't have worked. People would have just turned their nose up at it."
In December 2018, Ford said that a Runaways reunion would never happen.
On May 12, 2021, Currie was asked about a reunion, to which she responded,
I've played with all the girls individually; I've played with all of them—with Lita, with Joan, and, of course, with Sandy; I never did a show without her before she passed away. So I'm the only one that's actually played with all the members. Lita and Joan have a little bit of an issue, and that just seems to be the problem. Lita doesn't like Kenny. I wish they would get over it, honestly, but I don't think so. Kenny was my manager during the early stages of making Blvds Of Splendor. We were very good friends for 20 years. But then, unfortunately, with the record, with them holding up Blvds Of Splendor for 10 years, that kind of eroded my friendship with him a bit.
West died from lung cancer in October 2006, having been diagnosed the previous year. A memorial tribute concert was later held in Los Angeles, featuring the Sandy West Band, Cherie Currie, the Bangles, the Donnas, and Carmine Appice and Vinny Appice, among several others.
Currie still performs and records, remaining under contract with Blackheart Records, but her current passion is chainsaw carving which she displays at an art gallery in Chatsworth, California. In 2013, Cherie recorded two songs with Alexx Michael for the Munich-based hard rock-glam metal group Shameless, which were released on the album Beautiful Disaster on October 2, 2013. Currie's most recent solo album, Blvds of Splendor, was released in 2020.
In July 2015, after Fowley's death, Fuchs revealed publicly that Fowley raped her on New Year's Eve 1975 at a party after a Runaways performance at a club in Orange County. Sixteen years old at the time, she was reportedly given Quaaludes by a man who she thought was a roadie and raped while she was incapacitated. Currie said she spoke up against Fowley's actions, then stormed out of the room when he refused to stop. Look Away, a documentary about sexual abuse in the rock music industry features Fuchs' story.
| Joan Jett | 1975–1979 | all releases | ||
| Sandy West | 1975–1979 | |||
| Kari Krome | 1975 | lead vocals | rowspan="1" | |
| Micki Steele | 1975 | |||
| Lita Ford | all releases, except Born to be Bad (1991) and Cherokee Studios Demos (2024) | |||
| Peggy Foster | 1975 | bass | rowspan="1" | |
| Cherie Currie | 1975–1977 | lead vocals | ||
| Jackie Fox | ||||
| Vicki Blue | 1977–1978 | |||
| Laurie McAllister | 1978–1979 | bass | And Now Tour 1978 (2019) |
| Mark Andes | 1975 | bass | Cherokee Studios Demos (2024) | |
| Nigel Harrison | 1976 | The Runaways (1976) | ||
| Rodney Bingenheimer | orchestration | |||
| Duane Hitchings | 1978 | keyboards | And Now... The Runaways (1978) |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
The Runaways received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 70% rating based on 187 reviews, and an average rating of 6.19/10.
It did not take long before Fowley, who still owned the Runaways trademark, was putting together a new Runaways band built around Welch. Missy Bonilla was recruited from the typing pool of CBS Records, Denise Pryor came from Compton and Kathrine Dombrowski ("Kathy DiAmber") was also added. Welch was present only on tape and only on the first song on the CD, "I Want to Run With the Bad Boys". Millay played guitar, David Carr played keyboards and a drum machine rounded out the team. Glenn Holland, also from New Zealand, a friend of both Bingenheimer and Fowley, facilitated. The album, Young and Fast, was released in 1987, and was a minor hit.
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