Micki Steele, Sandy West, and Joan Jett in the original lineup of the Runaways
At their inception, the Runaways were a trio of raw sound and teenage ambition. But Micki Steele, their original bassist and lead singer, was quickly pushed out of the band. Almost 10 years later, she found a home in the Bangles, a band that gave her more commercial success and creative satisfaction than the Runaways ever could. But what happened between leaving the Runaways and joining the Bangles?
SOURCES
This season of Bad Reputation would not be possible without the work of journalist Evelyn McDonnell and her book Queens of Noise. If you are looking to learn more about the Runaways, this is a must.
Other sources for this episode include:
Living Like a Runaway by Lita Ford
We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen
Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash by Brendan Mullen, Don Bolles, and Adam Parfrey
VH1’s Behind the Music - The Bangles
“Sweetheart of the Sun & Modern Art: Chatting with the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs and and Matthew Sweet” by Mike Ragogna
“With a Little Help From Friend Prince, The Bangles Have Become Queens of Post-Psychedelic Pop” by Michelle Green
“Origins of the Bangles” by Kelly McCartney
“It’s Time to Recognize the Ronettes as Rock and Roll Pioneers” by Hilarie Asheton
Various interviews on Micki-Steele.net
This episode also relied on some articles accessed through paid databases.
I read, watch, and conduct as many interviews as possible to make Bad Reputation, but this is a self-funded passion project. Only a fraction of the interviews I find or conduct appear in episodes, but all voice-acted parts are dramatizations of real quotes or interactions described in interviews.
If you have a question about where a specific piece of information came from or would like to provide a source for correcting something, please reach out.
Susanna Hoff’s flyer for attracting soon-to-be Bangles members
CREDITS
Culture doesn't exist in a vacuum, and my voice actors are among the people whose ideas, influence, and encouragement shape my work. If you like this podcast, you will probably like many of their projects, too.
Clementine Wink (Susanna Hoffs) plays in the band Civic Center.
Eli Harvey (Sandy West) is a writer and comedian.
Josh Watkins (Phast Phreddie Patterson) is a writer.
J.R. Nelson (heckler) is a music critic.
Scott Plant (Kim Fowley) plays in the band Droids Blood.
KT Hawbaker (Michael Steele) is a culture writer. They also worked as developmental editor on this episode.
Bad Reputation's logo photo is by photographer Martin Sorrondeguy aka Martin Crudo. You may know him from Limp Wrist or Los Crudos, though he has played — and continues playing — in many bands.
MUSIC
All music that appeared in this episode is from a royalty-free music library or the Creative Commons, with the exception of the outro, which is “Wavelengths” by Death Valley.
I used two clips from audio interviews with Michael Steele: one from an interview on BBC6 in 2003 and the other from the Bangles episode of VH1’s Behind the Music.