THE RUNAWAYS : Mercury Albums Anthology

Jun 20 2010 by Paul Cole, Sunday Mercury

THE RUNAWAYS The Mercury Albums Anthology (Universal)

BACK in 1976, five teenage girls from LA, calling themselves The Runaways, and their svengali-like record producer Kim Fowley, secured a record deal with Mercury Records.

Over the next three years they released three studio albums (The Runaways, Queens Of Noise and Waiting For The Night ) and one live album (Live In Japan). All 42 songs from those albums are now contained on two CDs in this beautifully packaged collection.

Although The Runaways didn’t achieve very much commercial success in their brief and tempestuous career (except in Japan), they were hugely influential to many of the all-girl bands that would follow.

They soon established a sassy, sexy image and wrote and recorded provocative songs like Cherry Bomb, Getting Hot, Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin, Born To Be Bad and I Love Playing With Fire.

It’s interesting to see what’s happened to those wild young ladies over the years.

Singer Joan Jett went on to form a new band and topped the American charts in 1982 with the anthemic I Love Rock ’n’ Roll, and still tours to this day as Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Lead guitarist Lita Ford went down the heavy metal road and I remember her supporting Black Sabbath on some American shows, when I toured with them in 1983 and 1984.

Bass player Jackie Fox headed in a completely different direction, graduating from Harvard and becoming a lawyer. Pianist Cherie Currie released a couple of albums before launching an acting career.

Drummer Sandy West played with several other rock bands, but sadly died from a brain tumour in 2004.