The RunawaysAtlantic ****
Used, abused and eaten up by an industry that loved (and still loves) fresh meat, US teenage girlband The Runaways had one moment of glory in the heady days of punk: Cherry Bomb.
That song nestles alongside David Bowie's Rebel Rebel,Suzi Quatro's The Wild One, the Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog, and Sex Pistols's Pretty Vacant. The odd one out is Quatro, whose feisty stance might have influenced young girls to wear leather jackets, but whose regular presence on 1970s kids' TV programmes tied her firmly to pop, not rock.
This was the main problem with The Runaways, who were pitched as punk but never had the kudos of other female acts such as The Slits. Yet, if nothing else, this soundtrack highlights the bridging of the gap between pop and punk, the small, important step from Quatro to Joan Jett, and the sound of hundreds of angsty teenagers – referenced in Rebel Rebel– getting their mothers in a whirl. See therunawayssoundtrack.com
Download track: Cherry Bomb