|
All news is attributed to the source from which it was received so that readers may judge the validity of the statements for themselves.
Have Joan Jett news to report? Email us at jettfc@aol.com, and please include the source of the information so it can be validated.
JOAN JETT propels a record, rockin' year for Marin County Fair
from: marinij.com
Article and photo by James Cacciatore
JOAN JETT ARRIVED backstage at the Marin County Fair on Monday night in a caravan of golf carts carrying her tattooed, spike-haired band, the BLACKHEARTS, and her 94-year-old uncle, Al. As she stepped off her cart, she led the elderly gentleman by the hand as she hustled past a gaggle of guests and disappeared into her dressing tent.
Uncle Al helped raise Jett's mother, I was told, and this was Joan's way of putting a little rock 'n' roll excitement into the old man's life. The scene seemed to encapsulate the two sides of her persona: the sweet, caring rock idol with a heartwarming smile that only a select few get to see, and the badassed chick who wrote the jail-bait anthem "Cherry Bomb," her first hit, when she was a 16-year-old co-founder of the all-girl punk rock band the RUNAWAYS.
A lot has happened for the 53-year-old female rock trailblazer since she first performed at the fair six years ago, when she was launching a comeback with "SINNER," her first album of new songs in a dozen years.
With the success of the 2010 movie "The RUNAWAYS," a gritty biopic that explores the friendship between Jett, played by "Twilight's" Kristen Stewart, and the RUNAWAYS' lead singer, Cherie Currie, played by Dakota Fanning, she suddenly find herself an alternative rock icon, revered by a whole new generation. She was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but was bypassed this year.
"It doesn't hurt that she got adopted by all these young bands," her longtime manager and musical collaborator, KENNY LAGUNA, told me as Jett patiently posed for photos with VIPs during a backstage meet-and-greet. "At some point, if you're around long enough, you become Eddie Fisher."
Smartly, in the Internet age, Jett invited a contingent of 20-something social media types to be her guests. While clearly thrilled, all of them didn't seem to fully grasp the significance of the audience she had granted them.
"I just heard about her yesterday," one guy confessed to another as they rushed over to meet her.
The whole scene was much more regimented and controlled, much more big time rock 'n' roll, than the first time she was here, when I interviewed her before the show as we strolled along the lagoon at the Marin Civic Center, admiring the ducks. This time, her third appearance (she was last here in 2008), there were no preshow interviews (ostensibly to save her voice) and twice as many hangers-on, none of them of the webbed-foot variety.
As her star has risen, so have the fees she's able to charge. Fair honcho Jim Farley said she was paid $27,500 in 2006, but she commanded almost twice that, $50,000, this year.
No one can accuse her of not earning her money. She and her six-piece, New York City-based band turned in a tick-tight, 75-minute set that featured her hits "Do You Want to Touch Me," "Crimson and Clover," "I Hate Myself for Loving You," "Cherie Bomb," her chart-topping 1982 cover of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" and a bunch of newer songs, like "Reality Mentality" and "Hard to Grow Up."
Tiny and boyish with kohl-lined eyes and short, jet black hair, she experienced a slight wardrobe malfunction when a part of her shiny black pants and low-cut top came loose at one point.
"You're making me lose my clothes," she told the crowd before launching into her hit "Bad Reputation." "They're falling off."
Jett's show drew the third biggest crowd of the fair, behind the Temptations, who had the benefit of performing on the Fourth of July, and, to my surprise, the reggae band Steel Pulse, the No. 1 attraction.
After estranged Allman Brothers guitar-slinger Dickey Betts opened the fair last Friday night with his band, Great Southern, he slipped over to Phil Lesh's Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, sitting in with the Lesh and Bob Weir's Grateful Dead spinoff band, Furthur, on several tunes, including his Allman Brothers classic "Blue Sky."
Los Lobos, the veteran rockers from East L.A., were sleepwalking through their Sunday night fair set until they invited Fairfax guitarist Barry Sless (Moonalice, the David Nelson Band) to join them onstage, waking them and everyone else up with some lead guitar fireworks on the Grateful Dead classics "Bertha" and "West L.A. Fadeaway."
On the Fourth of July, 1,000 tech savvy fairgoers took advantage of the fair's new paperless ticketing system, buying their tickets at the gate with their smartphones and waltzing past the long lines backed up at all nine ticket windows.
This year's attendance, about 122,000 over five days, was up 12 percent over last year and, when all is said and done, may be an all-time record, surpassing the huge Lucasfilm-themed fair in 1988.
In any case, as a tired but happy Jim Farley put it: "It was a rockin' year." |
| |
This Week:
No shows scheduled this week.
Click on the LIVE DATES link for upcoming shows |
Item Of The Month:
|
