Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the RunawaysQueens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways by McDonnell Evel

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A quick moving read that delved way past where The Runaways movie went. Evelyn McDonnell turned her Master’s program thesis on Sandy West into this tome on the history and fallout of the Runaways. In various turns, she protects the members of the band and then turns an scathing light on some of their heinous actions.

I learned quite a few new things, especially about the people who were associated with the band but that other documentaries, news stories or fictionalized films left out. I also learned about the many bassists that the Runaways burned through. As an amateur bassist myself, I was glad to finally hear a little bit besides just the singer and the guitarist(s). Drummers and their fans need not worry with the Runaways, as Sandy West was a formidable drummer, personality and founder of the band.

McDonnell tears apart the music industry for their sexism, money first, and predominantly US-focused metrics for success. Music journalists, other bands, record companies and even recording engineers are pretty damn misogynistic and narcissistic creatures! McDonnell quotes from a review of a Runaways show in Newcastle (UK) in 1977:

Sutcliffe had an interesting psychoanalytic reading of the verbal attacks. "Heavy music pulls blokes," he wrote. "When the musicians are, as usual, male, they are a macho mirror to their fans who worship them like a corporate Narcissus ogling himself. But when the musicians are female, it's no mirror, it's the real thing, the challenge of a relationship rather than a solo jerk-off–so the Runaways don't get any shadow boxing, they are in for the championship every time they go on stage."
On the down side, the author seems to be part academic and part starstruck fan. She makes an incisive point, then mocks the very next thing she talks about with an air of fan arrogance. It's hard to take the work seriously as a whole. Maybe that's why we're reading "Queens of Noise" instead of the thesis "Wild thing: how Sandy West was lost, the true story of a teenage runaway rock'n'roll outlaw". She also seems to say X is true, Y is not, and then turns around a few sections later professing the opposite. Such a strategy works in context, but yet again, on the whole, it detracts from the work.

This is a good read, especially if you’re interested in the Runaways, the music industry and some flashes of growing up in the 1970s.