Continuing her relentless recording schedule, Suzi and Other Four Letter Words followed the next year, the last album Suzi would record for RAK Records. In 1980 Chapman and Chinn left the company to start Dreamland, taking Suzi with them. Her first record on the new label, Rock Hard, became her worst performing album to date. Sales were slow in all markets except Australia, where her fans bought everything she produced. Suzi was left facing an uncertain future. Her brand of rock was well and truly left behind in the wake of the new music coming from Spandau Ballet, Joy Division and the Clash.
For the first time since her London-based career was launched, Suzi released an album without Chapman and Chinn, whose Dreamland label had already folded by 1982. Main Attraction was produced by Len Tuckey and keyboardist Chris Andrews. She was pregnant during its recording with her daughter Laura. Suzi didn’t go back into the studio to put down another original album for nearly a decade.
Motherhood didn’t slow Suzi down. With baby in tow she toured to Australia again in 1983. Another child, Richard, was born the next year. Suzi simply took her brood on the road, juggling her multiple roles of mother, wife and rock star with her usual pragmatism.
Celebrity status saw Suzi invited to appear on various British TV shows in the early 1980s, including Television Scrabble—scrabble is one of her favourite games. The opportunity to combine two things she loved, singing and acting, came in 1986. At the suggestion of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Suzi took the lead role in the musical Annie Get Your Gun to critical acclaim. The show ran for two years in London’s West was touring the perestroika-era Soviet Union, where she played to over half a million people over a six-week tour in 1989.
Her performance in Annie Get Your Gun opened the sluice gates to acting opportunities in Britain. She had her own midday chat show Gas Street in 1988, and played cameos as Suzi Quatro the rock star on television in Minder and Absolutely Fabulous. ‘Suzi Quatro really is a character,’ she has said. She is more a jeans and jumper kind of girl at home.
at the suggestion of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Suzi took the lead role in the musical Annie Get Your Gun to critical acclaim
After clocking up more television successes, Suzi took time out to work on a pet project she’d been carrying around in her head for years. In 1991 Tallulah Who?, a musical written by Suzi with composer/lyricist Shirlie Roden, opened at the Queen’s Theatre, East London. It was based on the life of Hollywood actress Tallulah Bankhead, a scandalous character whose bisexuality and drug abuse shocked Americans in the 1920s. Suzi played the role to rave reviews.
Signed to a new label, Suzi put out a new studio album in 1991, Oh Suzi Q. Bolland & Bolland was run by the Dutch pop music brothers Rob and Ferdy Bolland, who had enjoyed success as performers and also as producers of bands like Status Quo. Suzi and Tuckey were the only two left from the original band line-up and session musicians were used for the recording.
After fourteen years Suzi ended her marriage in 1992, a decision she said was the bravest thing she’s ever done. She put the marriage’s failure down to the fact that she and Tuckey had been drawing apart musically for some time. The same year her mother and mother-in-law died. Wanting to share what she had learned of the grieving process, she teamed with Shirlie Roden to produce a self-help album, Free the Butterfly. Subsequently Suzi was involved in the Festival of the Mind, Body and Spirit in Britain and Australia.
After a whirlwind romance, Suzi popped the question to Rainer Haas, a German concert promoter. They married in Las Vegas in 1993 and now split their time between homes in Essex and Hamburg.
In the mid-1990s Suzi produced What Goes Around: The Latest and Greatest, mostly a revamp of old hits designed to attract a new generation of rock’n’roll fans. The album went gold. It was followed in 1998 by Unreleased Emotions, a collection of unreleased songs that Suzi had written and recorded in 1982 when she was pregnant with Laura. As the decade came to a close, she hosted a phenomenally successful BBC radio series, Rockin’ With Suzi Q, which ran for multiple seasons and led to a 2006 nomination in the Sony Radio Academy Awards.
When she turned fifty in 2000, Suzi celebrated in Berlin in front of more than 22,000 fans. She toasted the audience with champagne and was presented with a massive birthday cake on stage.
In 2004 Suzi appeared in Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways, a documentary produced by former Runaway bass player Vicki Tischler Blue. In Edgeplay Suzi recalled touring to LA in the early 1970s and day after day seeing Joan Jett in the foyer of her hotel, a silent Suzi clone, flattering and somewhat un-nerving at the same time. The next year Joan was wielding her own bass guitar with the Runaways. Back to the Drive, Suzi’s first original studio album in fifteen years, was released in 2006.
Suzi Q is a bit like Peter Pan. She’s still thrashing about the stage, with a bass guitar, inciting the audience to rock out
In 2009 Suzi was back in the studio with producer Mike Chapman working on a new album slated for release the following year. The same year she also toured Australia and New Zealand and was a guest host on Australian Idol. Then in 2010 she was on the road again, performing limited dates in Germany, Britain, Norway and Denmark before making the finishing touches to her latest studio effort.
Suzi Q is a bit like Peter Pan, the wand of time seemingly passing her over. Now in her sixties she is still thrashing about the stage, wielding a bass guitar that has always looked too big for her, as she continues to incite the audience to rock out, no matter what their age.
JOAN JETT
the Prodigal Daughter
The road to that number one hit—the success of which Joan has ridden ever since—was bumpy and full of the drama one would expect from a heavy-duty rock chick.
In the 1970s there were the manic highs of being rhythm guitarist, and later lead singer, of the Runaways, the first-ever manufactured girl group (we’re not talking Spice Girls here), and then the sinking lows of the early 1980s when no one wanted to know about her. Joan was turned down by twenty-three record labels after the Runaways folded. There was no interest in this butch tomboy in the baseball cap who some in the industry asserted couldn’t sing anyway.
Joan Marie Larkin was born in 1960 in Philadelphia. When she was about twelve the family moved to Los Angeles, to the San Fernando Valley. She got her first electric guitar at the age of thirteen, a Christmas present from her folks. Joan instantly became a songwriter and obsessive about music.
Her first guitar lesson was a bittersweet experience—the male teacher didn’t think playing rock’n’roll was the right thing for a young lady. Instead he taught her ‘On Top of Old Smokey’. It was her first and last lesson. She taught herself out of a ‘how to play’ book. Under the influence of the glamrock bands like Gary Glitter and the New York Dolls and rock legends Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Stones, Iggy Pop and Hendrix, she put all her energy into music.
no one had ever put teenage girls together in a rock band—the titillation factor alone would draw attention
Her parents divorced not long after the move to Cailfornia and she took her mother’s maiden name, Jett. The fifteen-year-old Joan began jamming with drummer Sandy West who lived in Huntington Beach, about an hour’s drive south of LA. The girls knew few songs, but were filled with teenage determination to play rock’n’roll. They hooked up with songwriter Kari Krome, another teenager, who led them to LA record producer Kim Fowley.
Fowley had been around the music scene since the early 1960s—he’d been a songwriter and producer for bubblegum pop bands like the Murmaids—and knew a good thing when he saw it. The Runaways was born. Fowley was more interested in the band as a social musical experiment. No one had ever put teenage girls together in a rock band—he was sure the titillation factor alone would draw attention.
The first Runaways line-up featured Michael (Micki) Steele, who would later turn up in the Bangles, on vocals together with Joan and West. But
Fowley thought Steele was too old and she didn’t last long in the role of lead singer. At the audition they played the one song they all knew, Kiss’s ‘Strutter’, and by all accounts it was a woeful experience. Lita Ford came in on lead guitar and Jackie Fox was recruited on bass. The finishing touch to the line-up was Cherie Currie. A blonde bombshell, Cherie wore corset and suspenders, an outfit that screamed underage sex.
As all teenagers do, the girls thought they were tough and knew everything. In fact they were incredibly young, naïve and ill-prepared to cope with their rapid rise to fame. Signed to Mercury Records in 1976, their first single, ‘Cherry Bomb’, a song written on the spot by Joan and Fowley for Currie at her audition, threw them into the limelight. Promoted as jailbait rockers, every sleazebag on the planet came out to see the girls shake their stuff.
When their self-titled debut album was released later that year, they took off across the country playing clubs, including CBGB in New York where new wave punk groups like the Ramones and Blondie had got their start. They also supported Tom Petty and headlined shows in Scotland and England, where they played to testosterone-fuelled audiences. In Glasgow ‘it took fire hoses’ to force the mob away from the Runaways’ cars. Their fans also made an assault on the hotel where the girls were staying.
While in Britain, the Runaways hung out with punk gods the Sex Pistols and the Damned. There were rumours that Joan and Rat Scabies, the Damned’s drummer, were an item, a suggestion that Joan strongly refuted. Her association with the Pistols though would come in handy in the future.
The Runaways exposed Joan to all the good and bad things that rock’n’roll can offer—five teenagers with no experience of touring, the loneliness of being on the road with virtual strangers, and the constant verbal abuse from Fowley, who prefaced each barrage he delivered with ‘hey, dog shit’ or ‘you, dog piss’ or ‘dog c–t’. The Runaways quickly deteriorated into a mire of sex, drugs, alcohol and misery.
The music press didn’t help their self-esteem, labelling them tough-talking sluts or dykes, focusing on their behaviour—drinking, smoking, drug-taking and swearing—and treating their music as a footnote. Joan has said that if the Runaways had been blokes, the media wouldn’t have taken the same tack. But it wasn’t only the press who wore the girls down. The bands they toured with treated them with little respect, as did the crews.
Unable to cope with the constant prying into their lives and the aggression that surrounded them, the band members descended into a drug-hazed hell. When Joan claimed she was ‘the Keith Richards of the group’ perhaps she wasn’t just alluding to her stage presence and hard rock attitude. Her substance abuse was paralleling the rise in popularity of the band. She was playing hard in every sense of the word.
Fowley manipulated the band, controlling their money and dishing out paltry sums as though he were their father giving them pocket money. But he was anything but a father figure, allowing the girls to run amok emotionally and physically. He and co-manager Scott Anderson constantly stirred the pot, keeping the band in a permanent state of jealousy, insecurity and virtual poverty. They didn’t only abuse their roles as managers, but also as adults in charge of teenagers. Fox was reportedly the only band member not to have slept with Anderson.
promoted as jailbait rockers, every sleazebag on the planet came out to see the Runaways shake their stuff
In 1977 the Runaways undertook a sell-out tour of Japan, their biggest fan base, and where Joan is still hailed as a superstar. On that tour Fox tried to commit suicide. After she was sent home alone, Joan picked up on bass and the girls went back to business as usual. On the tour they recorded Live in Japan, which was released later that year.
Back in LA Vicki Blue (now Vicky Tischler Blue) filled the breach as bass player. It would only take her a few days to realise she had stepped into a nightmare.
Recording the band’s next album, 1977’s Queens of Noise, Currie missed a couple of days in the studio recovering from an abortion. Joan took over on lead vocals and sang the album’s title track, a song Currie had brought to the band. That one act caused the existing animosity between the two to reach a crescendo. Currie quit on the spot. She thought she was a ‘goddamn queen’, Joan said, and wanted the Runaways ‘to be Cherie Currie and her back-up band’. Joan became lead singer.
the press labelled them tough-talking sluts or dykes, focusing on their behaviour and treating their music as a footnote
The unraveling of the Runaways continued at a rapid pace. In 1978 Fowley produced the third album, Waitin’ for the Night, but it didn’t rate on the charts and many suspected it was because fans didn’t like Joan’s voice as much as they had Currie’s. Whatever, it was a voice destined to become one of the most recognised in rock’n’roll—harsh, gravely and drawn from deep in her gut. Joan was born to roar.
Shortly after the release of the album, Fowley left and the band was taken on by Toby Mamis, Blondie’s manager. But even Mamis had trouble convincing the record companies that Joan was a worthwhile substitute for Currie. They wanted a sexy blonde not a butch tomboy.
The band went back into the studio to record what was their final album, And Now ... the Runaways. Joan clashed head on with producer John Alcock, who didn’t particularly like her or her choice of music. Alcock was keen to see the girls play heavier rock, not the glam-rock that appealed to Joan. West and Ford sided with him. Vicki Blue quit, citing her inability to work with Alcock. The hostilities within the band were fuelled by escalating drug and alcohol abuse. When the band finally broke up, Joan was devastated. It was 1979.
Her bitterness about the break-up ran deep. She was the only band member not to participate in the documentary Edgeplay: A Film about the Runaways, released in 2004, and withheld permission for the use of footage and the inclusion on the soundtrack of songs on which she held copyright. The story goes that Joan and her management didn’t think the film featured her prominently enough, but her absence made a stronger statement.
Life after the Runaways was hard. Joan had no band and no recording contract. Refusing to be relegated to the rock’n’roll graveyard, she tried her hand at producing, working on (G.I), which turned out to be the only album of LA punk band the Germs. Released in 1979, it was widely regarded as one of the most impressive American hardcore punk rock albums.
Later that year Joan headed to London, where she put down a couple of demo tracks with ex-Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook. ‘I Love Rock’n’Roll’ was released along with ‘You Don’t Own Me’ and ‘Don’t Abuse Me’ as a single package in Holland.
Joan returned to LA in 1979 to complete filming and record the soundtrack for a movie loosely based on the Runaways, We’re All Crazy Now. Joan was the only one to play herself—actors were brought in to play the other band members. The movie wasn’t released as originally intended, but in 1984 part of the footage featuring Joan was used in Dubeat-E-O.
Joan took over on lead vocals and sang the album’s title track. That caused the existing animosity to reach a crescendo. Currie quit on the spot
On the surface doing the film might not have seemed a terrific career move. But it turned out to be a godsend, putting her in touch with songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna who would become her business partner, mentor and friend. Laguna, who had been keyboard player and back-up singer with Tommy James and the Shondels, had produced a number of bands on the Who’s label in London. Hired to finish off the soundtrack on which Joan would sing and play guitar, Laguna expected a ‘little girl in a baseball cap’. But, he said, ‘she played ... better than anyone on the tape.’
Soon Laguna and Joan were heading to London, where the Who let them use a studio gratis to put down tracks for Joan’s first solo album. Laguna called in favours left, right and centre. Ritchie Cordell stepped in as co-producer. An impressive line-up of punk-rock musicians, including the Ramones’ Marky and Dee Dee, Paul Cook and Steve Jones of the Pist
ols, and Clem Burke and Frank Infante from Blondie also pitched in.
Recording completed, Joan headed back to the US, to New York, and set about trying to get a record deal. She sent demo tapes to every label in the country. Turned down consistently by the majors and independents, Joan and Laguna pooled their resources, started Blackheart Records and pressed copies of the record, which they sold at gigs out of the trunk of Laguna’s 1976 Cadillac Coup De Ville. Laguna enlisted industry heavyweights—Steve Leber, whose management company looked after Aerosmith and Kiss, came on board—but even with that kind of support behind her, Joan still couldn’t get signed.
Undeterred, in 1980 Joan put together the Blackhearts, comprising Ricky Byrd on guitar, Gary Ryan on bass, and Lee Crystal on drums—all three coming from an ad Laguna placed in the music press. Joan and the boys hit the road, touring for the best part of twelve months and playing wherever they could get a spot.
The breakthrough was a performance at the Ritz in New York filmed as part of the documentary Urgh-A Rock War, which featured the Police, Toyah Wilcox, Wall of Voodoo and a host of other bands filmed at various venues. It got Joan on to the music industry’s radar. Finally in 1981 independent label Boardwalk Records re-released Joan’s debut album as Bad Reputation. It didn’t do any great shakes, but the title song is still played today and was included in the animated film Shrek.
A second album followed quickly in February 1982. The album’s title song ‘I Love Rock’n’Roll’ is now part of rock history. A cover of a B-side single by British band the Arrows, it held the number one position on the US charts for eight weeks and catapulted Joan into the rock’n’roll stratosphere. The album, produced by Laguna and Cordell, featured a number of original tracks written by Joan and Laguna as well as covers of Dave Clark Five’s ‘Bits and Pieces’ and Eddie Cochrane’s ‘Summertime Blues’. It became Joan’s highest charting album, reaching second spot.
Rock Chicks Page 7
