ENCORE

MARCH 1978

PHILADELPHIA

JOAN JETT LEAVES HER MARK

Legendary L. A. girl rawkers the Runaways were on tour with the Damned in 1978 when they appeared at a record signing in Pennsylvania. There, 19-year-old singer-guitarist Joan Jett gave the time-honored tradition of autographing fan cleavage an appropriately wiseass twist.

Scott Weiner (photographer) I had just started my career two years earlier, and I believe the record store was called Plastic Fantastic, on the main line in Philly. That place kinda catered to the punk-type fans.

Joan Jett We signed more guys’ chests than you’d expect—it was totally a flipping of the roles. We

were big fans of Led Zeppelin— Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were the ultimate sex symbols, and we wanted to do our own version of that. If guys were allowed to use their sexuality, why weren’t we? We were trying to be provocative while also getting cut down for being too sexual. But people didn’t take us seriously as a real rock band— we were just dismissed because we were girls. I do remember Rat Scabies, the Damned’s drummer, always coming on to everybody, and our drummer, Sandy—that’s her in the background in the photo— almost kicking the shit out of him. She was a happy-go-lucky person, but if you ever saw her arms, you didn’t want to fuck with her.

Weiner Joan had a tough persona, so I guess this was part of it. I must have photographed her 20 times after this—the Runaways were so ahead of their time.

Jett It was such a struggle for us to get any sort of positive feedback from anyone but the fans. Overseas, we were a different story; we had more support there. I loved the Runaways with all my heart and soul—I believed in it, I think, more than anything I’ve ever believed in. When I look back at bits of video and think about what the rock scene was like then and the lack of any today, the Runaways would flip people out. They did then, and they would now.

88 MARCH 2009 / SAVE LIVES WI TH SPIN.COM

photograph by SCott WEINEr/rEtNa