LOS ANGELES (Universal Music) - The seminal '70s all-girl band The
Runaways has inspired and influenced young female rockers for decades, including the riot grrrl punk movement. Now the feature-length documentary film EDGEPLAY chronicles the band's rise and fall, and MUSIC FROM AND INSPIRED BY EDGEPLAY - A FILM ABOUT THE RUNAWAYS (Hip-O/UMe), released June 29, 2004, recalls its music. Currently on the film festival circuit, the hilarious, honest and horrifying EDGEPLAY will premiere in selected cities this September.
Compiled by two ex-Runaways, the film's writer-director-producer Victory Tischler-Blue (aka Vicki Blue) and Jacqueline Fuchs (aka Jackie Fox), MUSIC FROM AND INSPIRED BY EDGEPLAY - A FILM ABOUT THE RUNAWAYS features musical highlights from the film, from classic studio recordings and live Runaways performances to songs both new and old by alumnae Lita Ford as well as pioneering girl rocker Suzi Quatro. The new and unreleased songs are "Back To The Drive" and "Kids Of Tragedy" by Quatro and "Black Leather Heart" and a demo version of "War Of The Angels" by Ford.
The album's vintage Runaways tracks are the rebel-girl manifesto "Cherry Bomb," "Hollywood," "School Days," "Wasted," "Waitin' For The Night" and "Dead End Justice." Heard too are the group's concert recordings of "Secrets" and "Rock 'N' Roll." Also appearing on the album are back-in-the-day performances by Quatro of "Glycerine Queen" and by Ford of "Stiletto."
Created by controversial manager Kim Fowley, The Runaways of teenagers Ford, Fox, Cherie Currie, Joan Jett, and Sandy West released their self-titled debut album on Mercury in 1976. Girls playing their own instruments - loud and hard - and singing about sex, stimulants and the street, was revolutionary.
A second album, QUEENS OF NOISE, followed the next year and a tour of Japan, where "Cherry Bomb" hit No 1, was a major success. But the group came apart as relationships soured, substance abuse grew and management became problematic. Fox and Currie soon exited and Blue joined, but two more studio albums failed to hit.
The Runaways finally disbanded in 1979.
Both Ford and Jett went on to enjoy successful solo careers, and individually inspired a generation of female rockers. As for the brief run of The Runaways, their story has become a cautionary tale.
But their raw, feisty recordings - many of them heard in EDGEPLAY, the first film to document their journey - have become both part of rock history and indispensable to the history of women in rock.
