20th July 2010.
Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch…Cherry Bomb! It happens rarely but watching THE RUNAWAYS, the latest sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll bio-pic, I found myself drifting away from the, frankly, rags-to-bitches clichés and being transported back to the times I spent with the actual people being depicted on-screen. In case you didn’t know, my pre horror critic life was a pretty rock starry one. For some reason I always seemed to be in the right pop culture place at exactly the right historical time. From the rise of David Bowie (I was involved in his company Mainman), being one of the first people in the world to hear ‘You’re So Vain’ as played to me in demo disc form by Carly Simon and shagging one of John Lennon’s backing band Elephant’s Memory to being taken along by the Warhol brigade to Blondie’s first ever gig at CBGBs in New York, going on tour with the Sadistic Mika Band (with one Ryuichi Sakamoto) and my much reported on Sex Pistols attachments, I’ve said ‘I’m with the band’ more times than I’ve been backstage at Queen, ABBA, Duran Duran and Take That gigs. Then when the whole rock video industry was virtually invented by my great friend Russell Mulcahy in the late 70s, my high echelon groupie career started all over again and I careened through another decade signposted by Visage, Ultravox, Bonnie Tyler, Billy Idol and Elton John.
I digress, I wanted to see Floria Sigismondi’s THE RUNAWAYS mainly because my fave actress of the moment Kristin Stewart plays Joan Jett in what is basically the Cherie Currie story based on the latter lead singer’s autobiography ‘Neon Angel’. In the entertaining, if formula, traipse through the usual fame whore trappings (and how fantastic is Dakota Fanning as jailbait Currie!) Michael Shannon plays Kim Fowley, the bands outré creator/producer. Shannon (who was great in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD) essays Fowley as a greasy, lizard-like narcissist with a constant sneer across his chops. Now that might be solely the view of writer Sigismondi - who has directed music videos for the White Stripes and Marilyn Manson – coloured by Joan Jett’s clearer recollections as she executive produced the movie. Yet that goes completely against my remembrance of the real Fowley who I came across both in LA and London and really liked. Especially when post Runaways he produced an album for Eurovision Song Contest winner Vicky Leandros (Luxembourg’s ‘Apres Toi’ 1972 in case you’re interested). And I met Joan Jett too when with The Blackhearts she scored that massive ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ chart-topper in 1982. Kristen Stewart certainly captures her look and attitude it must be said.
I was going to say more but then I read this Salon.com review of THE RUNAWAYS that states, “But even though there's always some rock 'n' roll wanker - usually a guy - on hand to volunteer, ‘I was on the scene, and that's not how it went down’, the best rock 'n' roll movies are less about strict authenticity than about capturing a vibe”. Fair enough, so I’ll shut my mouth. Just long enough to record the fact that I also met Edie Sedgwick (just) and she was nothing like how Sienna Miller portrayed her in FACTORY GIRL, Tina Turner who I could never see as a WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT victim in any shape, size or form, Sid Vicious whom Gary Oldman vaguely captured in SID AND NANCY and Chloe Webb who poorly caricatured Nancy in the same film. I’m sure there will be more bio-pics in the future about more people I’ve spent time with. Does it matter that they rarely paint the real truth? These days with mostly made up celebrity gossip a major industry, film can portray anyone in whatever way they want and who’ll know? Only people like me, a wanker who was on the scene and knows how it really went down! Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch…Cheesy Bomb!
Until next time.
Alan Jones.
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