Jill Kossoris - The Shivvers

Named “Milwaukee’s Best Band” by the Milwaukee Journal in 1982, The Shivvers remain one of the city’s most cherished rock and roll groups. Often described as cult figures, the power pop five-piece never achieved commercial acclaim like some of their contemporaries. 

The roots of the band lie in In a Hot Coma, one of a series of local bands pairing bassist Scott Krueger, drummer Jim Richardson and singer/songwriter Jill Kossoris, also played keyboards with the group in its final months. After In a Hot Coma split in 1978, Krueger formed the Orbits while Richardson signed on with local punk unit the Lubricants -- meanwhile, Kossoris teamed with guitarist Mike Pyle to form the Shivvers, and when their respective bands dissolved, Krueger and Richardson joined the lineup as well. Guitarist Jim Eannelli completed the Shivvers' roster, which honed a repertoire of pop classics both familiar and obscure -- Kossoris' originals rounded out the set list, and the group soon entered the studio to record her "Teen Line," issued on the Fliptop label in 1980.

 In addition to gigs in support of the Romantics and Iggy Pop, the Shivvers earned the endorsement of one of their heroes, ex-Raspberries frontman Eric Carmen, who even expressed his desire to produce their planned LP. After Eannelli resigned, former Orbits guitarist Breck Burns signed on in time for readers of the Milwaukee Journal to name the Shivvers' the city's best band of 1982 -- at this point the group began mulling a move to a larger market like New York or Los Angeles, ultimately settling on Boston instead. After a handful of final hometown gigs, Pyle and Richardson packed up and relocated, but Kossoris began suffering health issues, and after Krueger opted to enlist with L.A. combo the Wigs, the Shivvers disbanded.  

 Kossoris, Krueger, Richardson and Burns reunited in 1989 to record one more single, "Remember Tonight" -- not long after the session, Burns was diagnosed with leukemia, and the disease claimed his life in 1993. Kossoris later relocated to Nashville, working as a songwriter and in 2001 issuing a solo LP, Invisible.

Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch, June 2, 1959) is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career was spawned by the New York no wave scene. Her work typically features provocative and confrontational noise music delivery, and has maintained an anti-commercial ethic operating independently of major labels and distributors.

After befriending Alan Vega and Martin Rev at Max's Kansas City, she founded the short-lived but influential no wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, with James Chance. Both Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and the Contortions, Chance's subsequent band, played on the no wave compilation No New York, produced by Brian Eno. Lunch later appeared on two songs on James White and the Blacks album, Off-White.  

Lunch's solo career featured collaborations with musicians such as J. G. Thirlwell, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Nick Cave, Marc Almond, Billy Ver Planck, Steven Severin, Robert Quine, Sadie Mae, Rowland S. Howard, Michael Gira, the Birthday Party, No Trend, Sort Sol, Einstürzende Neubauten, Sonic Youth, Oxbow, Die Haut, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Black Sun Productions, and French band Sibyl Vane, who put one of her poems to music. 

In the mid-1980s, she formed her own recording and publishing company called "Widowspeak Productions" (also known as just "Widowspeak"), on which she continues to release her own material, from music to spoken word. Two albums published by Lunch's label were released in 2013: Collision Course & Trust The Witch, by Big Sexy Noise (released on Cherry Red), and Retrovirus (released on Interbang Records); both albums are by Lunch's musical projects.

Lunch released her studio album Smoke in the Shadows in November 2004, through Atavistic Records and Breakin Beats, after a six-year break from music. Nels Cline, the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco, was featured on the album. Smoke in the Shadows was met with positive reviews by Allmusic, PopMatters, and Tiny Mix Tapes. In 2009 Lunch formed the band Big Sexy Noise. The group features Lunch on vocals, James Johnston (guitars), Terry Edwards (organ, saxophone), and Ian White (drums). Johnston, White and Edwards are members of the British band Gallon Drunk. A six-track eponymous EP was released on June 1, 2009, through Sartorial Records, and included a cover of Lou Reed's song "Kill Your Sons," as well as "The Gospel Singer", a song co-written with Gordon. The debut, self-titled album, Big Sexy Noise, was released in 2010, followed by Trust The Witch in 2011. For both albums, Lunch and her band completed tours throughout Europe.

 

Lunch released the album Retrovirus (also the name of the band Lunch plays with) in 2013 on Interbang Records and ugEXPLODE (the vast majority of the album tracks are published by Widowspeak). Together with band members Weasel Walter, Algis Kizys, and Bob Bert, Lunch performed a show following the album's release at the Bowery Electric venue in New York City, US, in May 2013 and they are still performing nowadays

Fay Fife

Fay Fife is a singer, songwriter and performer. She is a leading creative force with legendary Scottish punk band The Rezillos and post punk band The Revillos. She is acknowledged as one of Scotland’s foremost musical figures.

 Although emerging at the same time as other bands in the punk rock movement, the Rezillos did not share the nihilism or social commentary of their contemporaries, but instead took a more light-hearted approach to their songs, preferring to describe themselves at the time as "a new wave beat group". Their songs are heavily influenced by 1950s rock and roll, 1960s English beat music and garage rock, early 1970s glam rock, and recurring lyrical themes of science fiction and B movies; their influences mirrored those of US bands the Cramps, the B-52s, and X, who were starting out at the same time. Having spent several months practising, the group's debut live performance was at Teviot Row House, the students' union building of the University of Edinburgh, on 5 November 1976, playing a set composed entirely of cover versions of 1950s and '60s classics. The set included "I Like It" and "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonite", which would both appear on the band's debut album, and concluded with "I Wanna Be Your Man", which later became the B-side of their debut single. The band were an instant hit and began to grow rapidly in popularity as they gigged constantly: Callis estimated that the Rezillos played around 200 gigs in 1977.

During the first half of 1977 Fife moved to being the group's frontwoman alongside Reynolds. In June the band recorded their début single, "Can't Stand My Baby" (with "I Wanna Be Your Man" on the B-side), at Barclay Towers and was released in August on Sensible Records, an independent Edinburgh label run by Island Records local representative Lenny Love, and attracted radio airplay and attention from several major labels, including Sire Records who sent a telegram to Love three weeks after the release of "Can't Stand My Baby" asking for more information about the band. 

At Sire's suggestion the band recorded their début album Can't Stand the Rezillos in February 1978 at the newly built Power Station studio in New York City. The album featured re-recorded versions of "Can't Stand My Baby", "(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures" and "Flying Saucer Attack". A third single was released to coincide with the album, a re-recorded version of the album track "Top of the Pops" with Templar on bass, as opposed to the album version which featured Mysterious. Can't Stand the Rezillos was released in July 1978 and reached number 16 in the UK Albums Chart. The single "Top of the Pops" also made the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 17, and ironically earned the group an appearance on the British television programme of the same name implicitly criticised in the song's lyrics. 

In October 1978 the group recorded a new single, "Destination Venus", with producer Martin Rushent at The Manor, for release the following month. By now there were growing tensions within the band about the group's future direction and with what they felt was poor treatment from their label. Matters came to a head in November 1978, when after just five dates into a lengthy UK tour with The Undertones as support band, vocalist Fife developed scarring of the vocal cords, resulting in the postponement of the rest of the tour. During the hiatus Fife recalled that Callis had told her and Reynolds that "the other three in the band wanted to toe the line more because of pressure from our manager, who was finding the job really difficult, and he was getting pressure from the record company to make us act as though we liked them".  Reynolds and Fife refused to agree to this, and unable to reach a consensus, on 22 November 1978 the Rezillos made the decision to split up. They did, however, reunite to play the last scheduled date of the aborted tour at the Glasgow Apollo on 23 December 1978, as a farewell concert. 

By the early 80’s The Revillos formed and headed in a post punk Art – Pop direction. They released a series of albums and singles beginning with the Virgin/DinDisk album release Rev Up and the girl group influenced Where’s the Boy for me? The Revillos toured widely in the UK, USA, Europe and Japan. In 1994, The Revillos regrouped; touring and releasing singles in Japan to critical acclaim. Several Revillos songs have been covered, achieving chart and cult success in Europe. Fay has written and produced music for film alongside Revillos guitarist Kid Krupa. 

During the 90’s Fay took a break from music but returned in 2001 when The Rezillos reformed to play at Edinburgh's Hogmanay. Since then The Rezillos have toured widely: including several tours of USA, UK & Europe. The Rezillos were awarded The Scottish Music Awards - The Tartan Clefs, The Reo Stakis Foundation Legends Award in 2011.

Mo-dettes

Mo-dettes was an all-female post-punk band, formed in 1979 by guitarist Kate Korris, an original member of The Slits and brief member of The Raincoats, and bassist Jane Crockford, former member of Bank of Dresden. Ramona Carlier (vocals) - previously of Kleenex - and June Miles-Kingston (drums) completed the line-up.

Mo-dettes' best-known song is "White Mice", written by Jane Crockford, which was self-released as their first single in mid-1979 on Mode records, with "Masochistic Opposite" on the B-side. The single was distributed by Rough Trade and was a hit on the indie charts. Mo-dettes got further exposure on BBC Radio 1, DJ John Peel's show on 28 January 1980, broadcasting versions of "Norman (He's No Rebel)", "Dark Park Creeping", "Kray Twins" and "Bitter Truth". Further sessions followed on 26 August 1980 and 11 July 1981.  

The band signed to Decca Records subsidiary Deram and released one album, The Story So Far, (Deram Records SML-1120) November 1980. The album chiefly consisted of pop-punk originals, as well as covers of The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" and Édith Piaf's "Milord". Also in 1981, billed as Bomberettes, they provided backing vocals on the track "Fighter Pilot" on John Cale's album Honi Soit. The band had a minor hit with "Paint It Black", just missing the Top 40.






The band's final record was "Tonight", released in June 1981 and a minor hit. Two months later, at the request of Decca Records, who wanted to hear a fuller sound, Mo-dettes asked guitarist Melissa Ritter to join. She played her first show as a Mo-dette just four days after joining the band. In February 1982, Ramona left and June sang for a couple of months. In May 1982, Sue Slack replaced Ramona on vocals, before Mo-dettes disbanded permanently on 11 November 1982. 

Kira Roessler

Kira Roessler (born June 12, 1962) is an American musician, singer, and Oscar and Emmy Award-winning dialogue editor. She is best known as the second bassist in the influential hardcore punk band Black Flag. 

Roessler began studying piano when she was six but quit at age eleven. At fourteen she picked up the bass guitar and committed to learning the instrument. Her first band was called Waxx and she played her first gig at age sixteen at Whiskey A Go-Go. Other early bands were Sexsick, The Visitors, and The Monsters. She then joined with a post-Germs Pat Smear to form Twisted Roots.

Members of Black Flag heard her playing while she was sitting in with L.A. punk group DC3. This led to her being asked to join Black Flag to replace founding member Chuck Dukowski. She became Black Flag's first and only female member. Roessler was majoring in applied engineering at UCLA, and Black Flag's subsequent tours were worked around her school schedule, which was a condition for her to join the band. Her bass playing was featured on five of Black Flag's studio albums. She remained in the band until completing touring behind their album In My Head in the autumn of 1985, then graduated from UCLA in 1986. 

After Black Flag, she formed the two-bass duo Dos with Mike Watt. Dos' most recent album was released in 2011. She wrote or co-wrote songs for what would be the Minutemen's final album, 3-Way Tie, and contributed lyrics to Watt's post-Minutemen band Firehose. She later contributed artwork to Watt's first solo album, Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. She appeared on the Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three tribute album in 2003 along with other musical artists, including other Black Flag veterans. In December 2018, Roessler joined with Devin Hoff to form the two bass band AwkWard and released their first album In Progress.

Roessler now works as a dialogue editor on theatrical films in Los Angeles, sometimes credited under her full name, sometimes simply as kira. She was involved in the sound editing team that won a 2016 Oscar for Mad Max: Fury Road. 

 

Nina Hagen

Catharina "Nina" Hagen (born 11 March 1955) is a German singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her theatrical vocals and rose to prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Nina Hagen was born in East Berlin and at age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine. 

In East Germany, she performed with the band Automobil, becoming one of the country's best-known young stars. Her most famous song from the early part of her career was "Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen" (You Forgot the Colour Film)", a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state," in 1974. Her musical career in the DDR was cut short, when she and her mother left the country in 1976, following the expulsion of her stepfather. 

In 1976 she settled in Hamburg, where she was signed to a CBS-affiliated record label. Her label advised her to acclimatise herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits and the Sex Pistols. Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, Nina Hagen Band, which included the single "TV-Glotzer" (a cover of "White Punks on Dope" by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and "Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo", about West Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of "Rangehn" ("Go for It"), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music.

The debut album gained significant attention throughout Germany and abroad for Hagen's theatrical vocals which drew heavily from her operatic training, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. However, relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour, and Hagen decided to leave the band in 1979, though she was still under contract to produce a second album. This LP, Unbehagen (which in German also means "discomfort" or "unease"), was eventually produced with the band recording their tracks in Berlin and Hagen recording the vocals in Los Angeles. It included the single "African Reggae" and "Wir Leben Immer... Noch", a German language cover of Lene Lovich's "Lucky Number".

Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She became infamous for an appearance on an Austrian evening talk show called Club 2, on 9 August 1979, on the topic of youth culture, when she demonstrated various female masturbation positions and became embroiled in a heated argument with other panelists, in particular, writer and journalist Humbert Fink. The talk show host, Dieter Seefranz, had to step down following this controversy.

In 1983, she released the album Angstlos and a minor European tour. The English version, Fearless, generated two major club hits in America, "Zarah" (a cover of the Zarah Leander (No. 45 USA) song "Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen") and the disco/punk/opera song, "New York New York" (No. 9 USA). During 1984 Hagen spent a lot of time in London. Her 1985 album In Ekstase fared less well, but did generate club hits with "Universal Radio" (No. 39 USA) and a cover of "Spirit in the Sky" and also featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Paul Anka's "My Way", which had been one of her signature live tunes in previous years.

In 1989, she was offered a record deal from Mercury Records. She released three albums on the label: Nina Hagen (1989), Street (1991), and Revolution Ballroom (1993). However, none of the albums achieved notable commercial success. Hagen made her musical comeback with the release of her album Return of the Mother (2000).

Besides her musical career, Hagen is also a voice-over actress. She wrote three autobiographies: Ich bin ein Berliner (1988), Nina Hagen: That's Why the Lady Is a Punk (2003), and Bekenntnisse (2010). She is also noted for her human and animal rights activism. 

Ana Curra

Ana Isabel Fernández, known artistically as Ana Curra and Ana Pegamoide (El Escorial, Madrid, 29 December 1958), is a Spanish keyboard player, singer and composer. In the 80's she was part of the "movida" in Madrid and some media have called her the queen of punk in Spain. She formed part of Alaska and the Pegamoides (1979-1982), Parálisis Permanente (1982-1983) and Los Seres Vacíos (1982-1984). She participated in the creation of Tres Cipreses (1982), the first independent music label in Spain.

Her mother, who had studied piano, brought her closer to classical music since she was a child. At the same time as she was going to school, she was taking piano lessons at the conservatoire. She was introduced to pop music by her brothers, one of whom was a big fan of Bob Dylan, the other of The Velvet Underground and the music of the 1950s. The first concert they took her to was Wilko Johnson's group, Dr. Feelgood. Then she became interested in Iggy Pop and Johnny Thunders. At the age of 17 she moved to Madrid to study pharmacy, during which time she already had seven years of piano lessons. There she connected with some members of the incipient "movida madrileña", of which she would become one of the referents. 

She had just arrived in Madrid when through her brothers she connected in 1979 with the components of Kaka de Luxe and with Alaska, which was starting the group Alaska and the Pegamoides together with Carlos Berlanga, Nacho Canut and Eduardo Benavente. She joined the line-up, handled the keyboards and drum machine and recorded the entire discography. One of her contributions to the group is the second voice of the single La línea se cortó. The affinity between Ana and Alaska was such that they began to compose songs together, such as "Estrategia militar", "Redrum" or "Quiero ser santa" in the final stage of Pegamoides.

In 1982 Ana Curra joined the band Parálisis Permanente, which she had created in parallel in 1981 together with Eduardo Benavente. They barely  gave concerts, some six before the accident that cost Eduardo Benavente his life. They released a sole album, "El acto" (Tres Cipreses, 1982), of which Ana Curra composed half of the songs. Her latest single, "Nacidos para dominar" (Tres Cipreses 1983), is also her work. It was released shortly after Benavente's death in a traffic accident. At this time also she participated in the creation of Spain's first independent label, Tres Cipreses, in which she and Eduardo Benavente took care of the artistic part (82-83).

Parallel to Parálisis Permanente, Ana and Eduardo Benavente formed Los Seres Vacíos, the name with which she recorded her first maxisingle as a solo voice in 1982, "Los celos se apoderan de mí" (Tres Cipreses). After Benavente's death, Ana Curra edited two more maxisingles with Seres Vacíos: "Luna nueva" (Tres Cipreses, 1983) and "Recuerda" (Tres Cipreses, 1984). The lack of commercial results led to a stage of reflection. In 1983 she made several collaborations, such as Negros S.A. with Alaska and Los Nikis, which released a single maxisingle with two songs: Sabana, sabana and Dr. Livngstone, I suppose.  In 1984 she finished her piano studies and obtained a place at the Escorial Conservatory.




At the end of 2011 she carried out a new project called Ana Curra presenta "El acto", accompanied by José Battaglio (guitar), César Scappa (guitar), Manolo UVI (bass) and Rafa Le Doc (drums). The intention was to give a concert on March 9, 2012 interpreting the repertoire of Parálisis Permanente, an outstanding account of Ana since Eduardo's death and as a tribute to him and Toti. Rafa Balmaseda also went on stage. In addition, as a presentation, they release a double single with 4 songs re-recorded in the studio.

Vulpes

Vulpes or Vulpess  was a punk rock group from Bilbao (Vizcaya, Basque Country) formed during the summer of 1982 in the Irala neighbourhood. Formed by the sisters Loles and Lupe Vázquez, daughters of trade unionists, Las Vulpes have frequently been associated with Barakaldo, because they were a typical musical product of the Left Bank of the Ría. In other words, they were a consequence of its state of mind, its tension and its landscape. The postcard was unsaleable: unemployment was becoming more and more entrenched in an industrial environment devastated by reconversion; union houses were functioning as incubators for workers' struggle; violence had become a daily and multiform phenomenon. In neighbouring Santurtzi, the punk trio Eskorbuto, the most famous local anti-heroes, were beginning to forge their myth: in a few years they were to become one of the many Basque gangs decimated by the incipient discovery of heroin.



Like many other young girls, Loles and Lupe woke up every morning thinking about how to get out of that quagmire. By the middle of the day, however, the mood had already been defeated: stationed in any square with their friends, swallowing hot beer together, the short-term mission was to exhaust the day in the least depressing way possible. And then came the music: a little as an escape valve and a little as a way to mold anger or boredom, which is how music always comes in these cases. Because on the Left Bank rock'n'roll was first and foremost a desperate measure, a vital necessity.

Its members, aged between 17 and 21, were Loles Vázquez "Anarkoma Zorrita" (guitar), Mamen Rodrigo "Evelyn Zorrita" (vocals), Begoña Astigarraga "Ruth Zorrita" (bass) and Lupe Vázquez "Pigüy Zorrita" (drums, deceased in 1993).

They became famous on April 23, 1983 for appearing interpreting the song "Me gusta ser una zorra" in the TVE program Caja de ritmos, directed by Carlos Tena, which served as a showcase for the current music of the moment and was broadcasted during prime time. After the controversy they dissolved, only releasing the already mentioned single.

On November 29, 2003, and as a tribute to Lupe, who died in 1993, they began to give new concerts, some of them with notable public attendance. In 2005, they entered the studio to record the album they could not do at the time. For this they had the help of Joaquín "Killer" González on guitar. It was published the following year under the title Me gusta ser. In 2012 the live album Barbarela 83 was released.

Joan Jett

Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin, September 22, 1958) is an American rock singer, songwriter, composer, musician, record producer and occasional actress. Jett is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and for earlier founding and performing with the Runaways.

 Jett got her first guitar at the age of 14. She took some guitar lessons, but soon quit because the instructor kept trying to teach her folk songs. Her family then moved to West Covina, California, in Los Angeles County, providing Jett the opportunity to pursue her musical endeavors. Shortly after the move, her parents divorced and she changed her name to Joan Jett, taking her mother's maiden name as her professional and legal name. In Los Angeles, Jett's favorite night spot was Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a venue that provided the glam rock style she loved. 

ett became a founding member of the Runaways, alongside drummer Sandy West. Jackie Fox, Lita Ford and Cherie Currie soon joined up to complete the band, creating the classic lineup. While Currie initially fronted the band, Jett shared some lead vocals, played rhythm guitar and wrote or co-wrote a lot of the band's material along with Ford, West and Currie. The band recorded five albums, with Live In Japan becoming one of the biggest-selling imports in US and UK history. The band toured around the world and became an opening act for Cheap Trick, Ramones, Van Halen and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They found success abroad, especially in Japan. While touring England with the Runaways in 1976, Jett first heard the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" when she saw Arrows perform it on their weekly UK television series Arrows. While the Runaways were popular in Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada and South America, they could not garner the same level of success in the US. After Currie left the band, the band released two more albums with Jett handling the lead vocals: Waitin' for the Night and And Now... The Runaways. Altogether, they produced five albums from 1975 until they disbanded in the spring of 1979.Soon  afterward, Jett produced the Germs' only album, (GI).

In 1979, Jett was in England pursuing a solo career. She recorded three songs there with the Sex Pistols' Paul Cook and Steve Jones, one of which was an early version of Arrows' "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". This version appears on the 1993 compilation album Flashback. Later that year, she returned to Los Angeles, where she began fulfilling an obligation of the Runaways to complete a film which was loosely based on the band's career entitled We're All Crazee Now! Three actresses stood in for the departed band members, including Rainbeaux Smith, who was also a rock drummer. While working on the project, Jett met songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, who was hired by Toby Mamis to help Jett with writing some tracks for the film. They became friends and decided to work together. They entered the Who's Ramport Studios and Jett's self-titled solo debut was released by Ariola Records in Europe on May 17, 1980. In the US, after the album was rejected by 23 major labels, Jett and Laguna released it independently on their new Blackheart Records label. 

With Laguna's assistance, Jett formed the Blackhearts.  John Doe of X sat in on bass for the auditions held at S.I.R. studios in Los Angeles. He mentioned a local bass player, Gary Ryan, who had recently been crashing on his couch. Ryan was born Gary Moss, and adopted his stage name upon joining the Blackhearts in 1979, in part to cover for the fact that he was only 15 at the time. Ryan was part of the Los Angeles punk scene and had played bass with local artists Top Jimmy and Rik L. Rik. He had been a fan of the Runaways and Jett for years. Jett recognized him at the audition and he was in. Ryan in turn recommended guitarist Eric Ambel, who was also at the time part of Rik L. Rik. The final addition to the original Blackhearts was drummer Danny "Furious" O'Brien, formerly of the San Francisco band the Avengers. This lineup played several gigs at the Golden Bear, in Huntington Beach, California and the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood before embarking on their first European tour, which consisted of an extensive tour of the Netherlands and a few key shows in England, including the Marquee in London.

Laguna fired O'Brien at the end of the tour, and upon returning to the States, Jett, Ryan, and Ambel moved to Long Beach, New York. Auditions were set up and Lee Crystal, formerly of the Boyfriends and Sylvain Sylvain, became the new drummer. The band then toured throughout the US, slowly building a fan base but struggling to remain financially afloat. Throughout 1980, the band was able to keep touring solely due to Laguna drawing on advances from outside projects. Jett and Laguna used their personal savings to press copies of the Joan Jett album and set up their own system of distribution, sometimes selling the albums out of the trunk of Laguna's Cadillac at the end of each concert. Laguna was unable to keep up with demand for the album. Eventually, old friend and founder of Casablanca Records, Neil Bogart, made a joint venture with Laguna and signed Jett to his new label, Boardwalk Records and re-released the Joan Jett album as Bad Reputation.

A spring 1981 concert at the Palladium in New York City proved to be a turning point. After a year of touring and recording, the Blackhearts recorded a new album entitled I Love Rock 'n Roll for the label. Ambel was replaced by local guitarist Ricky Byrd during the recording. The first single from the album was a cover of the title track, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", originally written and recorded by Arrows, which in the first half of 1982 was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row. It is Billboards No. 56 song of all time and has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.





Jett released Album (1983) and Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (1984). A string of Top 40 hits followed, as well as sellout tours with the Police, Queen, and Aerosmith, among others. She was among the first English-speaking rock acts to appear in Panama and the Dominican Republic. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts became the first rock band to perform a series of shows at the Lunt–Fontanne Theatre on Broadway, breaking the record at the time for the fastest ticket sell-out. Her next release, Up Your Alley, went multi-platinum. This album contains the single "I Hate Myself for Loving You", which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and had been used as the theme song for Sunday Night Football NFL games in America (with altered lyrics, by two singers) during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. This was followed by The Hit List, which was an album consisting of cover songs. During this time, Jett co-wrote the song "House of Fire", which appeared on Alice Cooper's 1989 album Trash.

Her 1991 release Notorious, which featured the Replacements' Paul Westerberg and former Billy Idol bass player Phil Feit, was the last with Sony/CBS as Jett switched to Warner Bros. A CD single of "Let's Do It" featuring Jett and Westerberg was also released during this time, and appeared in the song credits for the movie Tank Girl. In 1993, Jett and Laguna released Flashback, a compilation of various songs on their own Blackheart Records. The press touted Jett as the "Godmother of Punk" and the "Original Riot Grrrl". In 1994, the Blackhearts released the well-received Pure and Simple, which featured tracks written with Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland, L7's Donita Sparks and Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna. Jett has also been described as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll.

Poison Ivy

Kristy Marlana Wallace (born February 20, 1953), known as Poison Ivy or Poison Ivy Rorschach, is a guitarist, songwriter, arranger, producer, and occasional vocalist who co-founded the American band The Cramps.

In 1972, while attending Sacramento State College, Wallace met future Cramps singer Lux Interior. In 1974, they moved first to Lux Interior's hometown of Akron, Ohio, and then to New York City. In 1976, as part of the emerging punk rock scene, they began performing as the Cramps. Their music is mostly in rockabilly form, played at varying tempos, with a minimal drumkit. An integral part of the early Cramps sound was dual guitars, without a bassist. The focus of their songs' lyrical content and their image was camp humor, sexual double-entendre, and retro horror/sci-fi b-movie iconography. Their sound was heavily influenced by early rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll like Link Wray and Hasil Adkins, 1960s surf music acts such as The Ventures and Dick Dale, 1960s garage rock artists like The Standells, The Trashmen, and The Sonics, as well as the post-glam/early punk scene from which they emerged, as well as citing Ricky Nelson as being an influence during numerous interviews. They also were influenced to a degree by the Ramones and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who were an influence for their style of theatrical horror-blues. In turn, The Cramps have influenced countless subsequent bands in the garage, punk and revival rockabilly styles, and helped create the psychobilly genre. "Psychobilly" was a term coined by The Cramps, although Lux Interior maintained that the term did not describe their own style.




The lineup in 1976 was Poison Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior, Bryan Gregory (guitar), and his sister Pam "Balam" Gregory (drums). In a short period of time, the Cramps changed drummers twice; Miriam Linna (later of Nervus Rex, The Zantees, and The A-Bones and co-owner of Norton Records) replaced Pam Balam, and Nick Knox (formerly with the Electric Eels) replaced Linna in September 1977. In the late 1970s, the Cramps briefly shared a rehearsal space with The Fleshtones, and performed regularly in New York at clubs such as CBGB and Max's Kansas City, releasing two independent singles produced by Alex Chilton at Ardent Studios in Memphis in 1977 before being signed by Miles Copeland III to the young I.R.S. Records label. Their first tour of Great Britain was as supporting act to The Police on that band's first UK tour promoting Outlandos d'Amour.

In June 1978, they gave a landmark free concert for patients at the California State Mental Hospital in Napa, recorded on a Sony Portapak video camera by the San Francisco collective Target Video and later released as Live at Napa State Mental Hospital. Once back to the east coast, they played the revamped 1940s swing club "The Meadowbrook" in New Jersey, which had a huge stage and dance floor. The Cramps were the featured act, with opening set by Nozon and The Smiths. Next they recorded two singles in New York City, which were later re-released on their 1979 Gravest Hits EP, before Chilton brought them back that year to Memphis to record their first full-length album, Songs The Lord Taught Us, at Phillips Recording, operated by former Sun Records label owner Sam Phillips.

The Cramps relocated to Los Angeles in 1980 and hired guitarist Kid Congo Powers of The Gun Club. While recording their second LP, ''Psychedelic Jungle'', the band and Miles Copeland began to dispute royalties and creative rights. The ensuing court case prevented them from releasing anything until 1983, when they recorded Smell of Female live at New York's Peppermint Lounge; Kid Congo Powers subsequently departed. Mike Metoff of The Pagans (cousin of Nick Knox) was the final second guitarist – albeit only live – of the Cramps' pre-bass era. He accompanied them on an extensive European tour in 1984 (that had been cancelled twice because they could not find a suitable guitarist) which included four sold out nights at the Hammersmith Palais. They also recorded performances of "Thee Most Exalted Potentate of Love" and "You Got Good Taste" which were broadcast on 'The Midsummer Night's Tube 1984.' Smell of Female peaked at No. 74 in the UK Albums Chart.

In 1985 the Cramps recorded a one-off track for the horror movie The Return of the Living Dead called "Surfin' Dead", on which Ivy played bass as well as guitar. With the release of 1986's A Date With Elvis, the Cramps permanently added a bass guitar to the mix, but had trouble finding a suitable player, so Ivy temporarily filled in as the band's bassist. Fur (Jennifer Dixon) joined them on the world tour to promote the album. Their popularity in the UK was at its peak as evidenced by the six nights at Hammersmith in London, three at the Odeon (as well as many other sell out dates throughout the UK) and then three at the Palais when they returned from the continent. Each night of the tour opened with the band coming on one at a time each: Knox, Fur, Ivy and then Lux before launching into their take on Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel". The album featured what was to become a predominating theme of their work from here on: a move away from the B-movie horror focus to an increased emphasis on sexual double entendre. The album met with differing fates on either side of the Atlantic: in Europe, it sold over 250,000 copies, while in the U.S. the band had difficulty finding a record company prepared to release it until 1990. It also included their first UK Singles Chart hit: "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?"

It was not until 1986 that the Cramps found a suitable permanent bass player: Candy del Mar (of Satan's Cheerleaders), who made her recorded debut on the raw live album RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandxxx, which was followed by the studio album Stay Sick in 1990. It spent one week at No. 62 in the UK Albums Chart in February 1990. Knox left the band in 1991. The Cramps hit the Top 40 in the UK for the first and only time with "Bikini Girls with Machine Guns"; Ivy posed as such both on the cover of the single and in the promotional video for the song.





The Cramps went on to record more albums and singles through the 1990s and 2000s, for various labels.  In honor of the excess of The Cramps, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has on display a shattered bass drum head that Lux's head went through during a live show. On January 10, 2001, Bryan Gregory died at Anaheim Memorial Medical Center of complications following a heart attack. He was 49. In 2002, The Cramps released their final album, Fiends of Dope Island, on their own label, Vengeance Records. They played their final shows in Europe in the summer of 2006 and their very last live show was 4 November 2006 at the Marquee Theater in Tempe, Arizona. On February 4, 2009, Lux Interior died at the Glendale Memorial Hospital after suffering an aortic dissection which, contrary to initial reports about a pre-existing condition, was "sudden, shocking and unexpected".